Naturally there’s a drop in profit in a year where they don’t release a heavy hitter like Elden Ring. And the numbers don’t include the sales of the expansion.
The article notes it later on but this is for a period before SOTE launched. It makes perfect sense that they generate less profit in between the year Elden Ring launched and the year the expansion launched. Fires of Rubicon came out during this time period but that's a more niche game compared to their flagship series.