Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel boosted Konami to its most worthwhile yr ever
On: May 12, 2022
Image through Konami
Between canceling Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hills undertaking some years in the past, digitally delisting Metal Gear video games, and taking a stab on the NFT market, Konami is just not in a positive place in lots of players’ minds. Despite that, the corporate has managed to attain its most worthwhile yr up to now in fiscal yr 2022.
According to the monetary highlights from its newest report, Konami introduced in ¥299.5 billion, which equates to roughly $2.3 billion USD. Given the operating joke about Konami shifting to pachinko machines and casinos, you may credit score these merchandise as the rationale behind the document quantity. That’s not the case, nevertheless. The majority of that income — ¥215 billion — is categorized underneath “digital entertainment,” which is Konami’s online game division. Pachinko machines are categorised as “amusement,” and casinos are underneath the “gaming and systems” banner. Those made ¥19.5b and ¥25.6b, respectively. Even mixed, that’s lower than one-sixth of what Konami’s video video games introduced in.
Two huge titles appear to be the driving forces behind these document numbers. The first is the most recent Momotaro Dentetsu game, the latest entry in a long-running collection of multiplayer board video games about constructing trains and railways. The Japan-only game is massively well-liked, typically beating out the likes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by way of Nintendo Switch gross sales.
Worldwide, Konami’s spectacular numbers appear to owe so much to Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Master. Fiscal yr 2022 runs from July 1, 2021, by way of April 1, 2022, but Duel Master solely started rolling out in January of this yr. In the comparatively brief time since, the digital card game reached 30 million downloads, and 10 million of these got here inside the first month of launch. Konami gave gamers 1,000 free gems in celebration of the 30 million milestone, however the in-game foreign money can be obtainable for buy with actual cash within the game’s store. Clearly, many gamers have opened their wallets whereas taking part in.
