Nexon Turns the 1.3-Billion-View Web Novel 'Overgeared' into an MMORPG amid a July New-Title Rush
Key Takeaways
- · 넥슨은 2026년 7월 28일 신작 MMORPG '프로젝트T'의 정식 명칭을 '템빨: 오버기어드'로 확정하고 티저 사이트를 공개했으며, 연내 국내·글로벌 출시 예정입니다.
- · 같은 날 '더 파이널스' 글로벌 이스포츠 APAC 리그에서 한국팀 하이부가 2연속 우승했고, 7월 한 달 동안 FSL 서머 개막·마기 모바일 대만 출시·도쿄게임쇼 출품 발표가 이어졌습니다.
- · Dhesy 데이터 기준 최근 90일 넥슨의 유튜브 광고 영상은 479편, 참여 크리에이터는 115명이며, 상위 10채널 중 9개가 구독자 3만 2천 이하 게임 공략 채널입니다.
- · 최근 180일 최고 조회 협찬 영상은 구독자 1만 2천 채널 황산갈매기의 마비노기 모바일 시즌2 쇼츠로 645만 뷰, 구독자 수의 약 540배에 이르는 도달입니다.
- · 연내 '템빨: 오버기어드' 출시 시점에는 공략 채널 물량 구조가 재가동될 가능성이 높고, 9월 도쿄게임쇼와 마비노기 모바일 일본 빌드가 다음 관찰 포인트입니다.
On July 28, Nexon confirmed the official title of its new MMORPG as 'Overgeared' (Korean title: Tembbal: Overgeared) and opened a teaser site. Multiple Korean outlets including Yonhap News and News1 reported the announcement the same day. The source web novel 'Overgeared' has recorded more than 1.3 billion cumulative views in Korea. On the very same day, the Korean team HIBOO won the APAC league of 'THE FINALS', the FPS developed by Nexon's subsidiary Embark Studios.
A new-title announcement and an esports title landing on the same date is close to coincidence, but if you unfold Nexon's July calendar, days like this kept coming. This article follows what those announcements look like on YouTube, tracing the sponsorship data.
Two Stories on July 28: A Title Confirmed and a Back-to-Back APAC Win
On July 28, Nexon confirmed 'Overgeared' as the official name of 'Project T', the new MMORPG in development at Gray Games, and unveiled its brand identity and teaser site. The release targets both Korea and global markets within the year. The same day brought reports that the Korean team HIBOO had secured back-to-back wins in the APAC league of the 'Grand Major Online Series', the global esports competition for 'THE FINALS'.
The finals were held on July 25. According to Newsis, the competition runs four cycles a year, and the points from each cycle decide which teams advance to the year-end 'TGM Grand Final 2026'. HIBOO's repeat win was also covered by ZDNet Korea the same day.
Two pieces of game-company news overlapping in one day is not rare in itself. What stands out is that the two stories differ in kind. One is the name of a game that has not shipped yet; the other is a league result for a game already in service. A new-title pipeline and a live-service campaign hit the news cycle on the same day, and in Nexon's July calendar this scene sits near the last line.
How a 1.3-Billion-View Web Novel Became an MMORPG
'Overgeared' is an MMORPG built on the universe of the web novel and webtoon of the same name, which has recorded more than 1.3 billion cumulative views in Korea. Nexon publishes the game and Gray Games (CEO Choi Byung-chun) develops it; according to Maeil Business Newspaper, the partnership between the two companies dates back to 2024.
The title is also the design. True to the Korean name 'Tembbal' - slang for relying on your gear - the game puts equipment at the center of character growth. Games based on web novels carry a built-in calculation: the original readership becomes the initial user pool, and the 1.3 billion figure gives a sense of that pool's size. It is why the coverage of the announcement led with that number almost uniformly.
The only disclosed timing is a release within the year. Two questions remain: how the IP translates into actual gameplay, and which YouTube channels will show it first as launch approaches.
Nexon's July Calendar: Mabinogi Mobile Goes to Taiwan, and a Tokyo Game Show Entry
The Overgeared announcement was not a one-off event but the tail end of a schedule that ran through July. Laying out this month's Nexon coverage by date makes the flow visible.
| Date (July 2026) | News | Confirmed figures |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 'FC Online' esports tournament '2026 FSL Summer' opens | Total prize pool 1 billion won, Google Play sponsorship |
| 8 | Tokyo Game Show 2026 entries announced | 'Project RX' and 'Mabinogi Mobile' |
| 20 | 'Mabinogi Mobile' Season 2 weekly metrics reported | Weekly playtime up 17.9% week-over-week |
| 24 | 'Mabinogi Mobile' launch in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau reported | Top of local app store charts right after launch |
| 25 | 'THE FINALS' APAC league finals | Korean team HIBOO wins back-to-back titles |
| 28 | 'Overgeared' title confirmed, teaser released | Source IP at 1.3 billion cumulative views, release within the year |
One month of coverage contains a new-title reveal, an overseas launch, an esports final, and a game show entry. Korean gaming blogs and communities bundle in the July 23 launch of the subculture game 'Higan: Eruthyll' and the recruitment for the 'Mabinogi Eternity' test, and describe Nexon's July as a new-title rush. The company is also known to be preparing twelve new titles across 2026 and 2027.
Among these, Mabinogi Mobile's overseas performance is the clue for reading the next quarter. According to GameVu, the Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau build, released under the name 'Mabinogi Mobile' (瑪奇), climbed to the top of local app store charts right after launch, and NBN TV reported that a Japan build is planned within the year. A game that lifted weekly playtime 17.9% week-over-week in Korea with its Season 2 'Light and Darkness' update is moving on to its next market.
A Channel With 12,000 Subscribers Posted a Short That Hit 6.45 Million Views
In Dhesy's data, the most-viewed Nexon-sponsored video of the last 180 days does not belong to a mega influencer. It is a Mabinogi Mobile Season 2 guide Short posted by Hwangsan Seagull, a channel with 12,000 subscribers, at 6.45 million views - a reach of roughly 540 times its subscriber count.
This scene is closer to a structure than an exception. Per Dhesy data (compiled July 29, 2026), Nexon ran 479 YouTube ad videos with 115 creators over the last 90 days; the cumulative totals are 576 videos and 155 creators. Shorts account for 160 of the 90-day videos, or 33%, and the top channels' Shorts are not clips cut from long-form videos but guide content produced natively as Shorts.
| Item | Figure (per Dhesy data) |
|---|---|
| Cumulative sponsored videos | 576 |
| Cumulative participating creators | 155 |
| Ad videos, last 90 days | 479 |
| Participating creators, last 90 days | 115 |
| Shorts / long-form, last 90 days | 160 (33%) / 319 (67%) |
| Top sponsored video, last 180 days | 6.45M views (Hwangsan Seagull, Short) |
Who receives the placements is the part outside this table. Nine of the top ten channels by ad videos in the last 90 days have 32,000 subscribers or fewer, and they are game guide channels. Center Road TV (201,000 subscribers) leads with 25 videos, Arianne (12,200) matches it at 25, Morning's Game Videos (12,900) follows with 24, and Isekai Gamgyul (1,850) has 22. Two channels with around 2,000 subscribers sit inside the top ten.
최근 90일 넥슨 광고 영상 상위 10채널 (Dhesy 수집 범위)
* Source: Dhesy
The top ten channels carried 206 videos combined, 43% of the 479 in the 90-day window. The remaining 273 videos are spread across 105 creators. Rather than concentrating on one large channel, the placements blanket the guide channels covering the same game.
Placements outside the gaming category run alongside. In Dhesy's top-view list for the last 180 days, a video from the football channel Shoot for Love (1.85 million subscribers) logged 610,000 views, a video from ootb STUDIO (1.84 million), maker of the 'Jeon-gwa-ting' series, logged 580,000, and a Baram 30th-anniversary Short from Woojunging (883,000) logged 440,000. While guide-channel volume holds existing players, a few large channels outside gaming bring in new viewers.
The arrangement differs by publisher. Compared with an analysis of four Korean game companies' YouTube sponsorship strategies, where Netmarble's top video came from mukbang content, Nexon's last 90 days lean toward loading volume onto guide channels.
FSL Summer's 1-Billion-Won Prize Pool and the Google Play Sponsorship
Sponsored placements are not the whole of Nexon's YouTube playbook. On July 5, Nexon opened '2026 FSL Summer', the Korean esports tournament for 'FC Online'. The total prize pool is 1 billion won, and Google Play joined as this year's sponsor. According to Yonhap News, the two companies are cooperating across marketing and promotion.
Matches stream live on the official FC Online esports YouTube channel along with CHZZK and SOOP, and viewers receive Nexon Cash through a 'Drops event'. The design ties the act of watching to rewards, driving traffic to the broadcast channels.
The 'Grand Major Online Series' for 'THE FINALS' sits on the same line. HIBOO's back-to-back APAC wins become content for the live game, and the league functions as a long campaign running to the year-end TGM Grand Final 2026. If sponsored videos cover what is inside the game, esports broadcasts are another axis of a game company's channel operations.
What YouTube Will Show First When 'Overgeared' Launches This Year
Blanketing micro guide channels is not a cure-all. Guide videos surface in searches by people already playing the game, so they are strong at reaching inside the existing community but weak at pulling in viewers who do not know the game. Large channels outside gaming, like Shoot for Love and ootb STUDIO, are the complement that fills that gap. Across the Shorts sponsorship market as a whole, one tally found mid-tier channels with 100,000 to 500,000 subscribers to be the largest group, which makes Nexon's 90 days, concentrated on channels in the 10,000-subscriber range, an outlier against the market average as well.
It also bears noting that Dhesy's data covers only the sponsorships within its collection scope. The numbers in this article are best read as a lower bound on the full campaign scale.
On that premise, the outlook runs as follows. When 'Overgeared' launches within the year, the guide-channel volume structure proven on Mabinogi Mobile is likely to be reactivated - an MMORPG centered on gear farming is a genre with heavy guide demand. Two scenes to watch before then: the 'Project RX' and 'Mabinogi Mobile' showings at Tokyo Game Show 2026 in September, and the Mabinogi Mobile Japan build slated within the year.
Frequently Asked Questions
What kind of game is Overgeared
It is an MMORPG based on 'Overgeared', the web novel and webtoon with more than 1.3 billion cumulative views in Korea. Gray Games develops it, Nexon publishes it, and true to the name, the design puts equipment at the center of growth. The official title and teaser site were revealed on July 28, 2026.
When does Overgeared launch
No specific date has been disclosed. In the July 28 announcement, Nexon said the game is slated for release in Korea and globally within the year. With the teaser site open, follow-up information is expected to arrive in stages.
Where has Mabinogi Mobile launched overseas
It launched in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau under the name 'Mabinogi Mobile' (瑪奇) and climbed to the top of local app store charts right after launch. A Japan build is also planned within the year. In Korea, according to a BetaNews tally, weekly playtime rose 17.9% week-over-week after the Season 2 'Light and Darkness' update.
Which Korean team won THE FINALS APAC league
HIBOO. The team took back-to-back titles in the APAC league of the 'Grand Major Online Series', the global esports competition for 'THE FINALS', with the finals held on July 25, 2026. The competition's four yearly cycles award points that decide entry to the year-end 'TGM Grand Final 2026'.
Methodology: Based on Dhesy platform data covering 6,904 brands and 796,923 collaborations. Nexon sponsorship figures are as compiled on July 29, 2026 (KST): 576 cumulative sponsored videos with 155 creators, and 479 ad videos with 115 creators over the last 90 days. Shorts versus long-form follows Dhesy's stored format field; no duration heuristics were used. The top-view video (6.45M) and out-of-category view counts are based on sponsored videos from the last 180 days. All sponsorship counts and views are limited to Dhesy's collection scope and may differ from full campaign scale. Facts on new titles, esports, and overseas launches are drawn from press coverage between June 29 and July 28, 2026. Analysis period: 2026-04-30 to 2026-07-29 (KST, 90-day basis). Data source: Dhesy Last updated: 2026-07-29