Konami just had a record profitable year, cites Yu-Gi-Oh for massive game sector gains

We also get a detailed breakdown of what this company actually does now

Konami just released its financial report for this past fiscal year, and the company is reporting record profits, providing an insight into just how the company conducts business in 2022. Apparently, the Konami Yu-Gi-Oh partnership is a huge part of this story.

Konami’s consolidated financial results show a clear increase from the prior fiscal year compared to the recent one (the 12-month period ending in March 2022). In fiscal year 2022, they have an operating profit of 74.4 billion yen, which is up from 36.6 billion yen in FY2021. Breaking this down, “digital entertainment” is responsible for 215 billion yen in revenue (before expenses), with amusement raking in 19.5 billion yen, gaming is responsible for 25.6 billion, and sports are 42 billion.

The publisher breaks down each portion, noting that “digital entertainment,” the most profitable sector, was driven by Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel, which “exceeded 30 million downloads” as of April of this year. Baseball partnerships and at least one other Yu-Gi-Oh game (Rush Duel) are also responsible for propping up the company. It’s wild that there’s a whole mobile microtransaction-driven Yu-Gi-Oh universe out there and Konami is the one that’s in control of it.

“Amusement” consists of their Bemani (DDR) arcade games (including cloud streaming pivoting), as well as quiz show partnerships, and of course, pachinko parlor operations. “Gaming and systems” mostly deals with traditional arcade cabinets, on top of the Synkros casino management system. As for sports, Konami was “appointed by the local governments of Yokohama, Fukuoka and Kyoto as the operator for the cities’ sports facilities” as of April of this year, among their other partnerships in the industry.

In terms of what they have planned for the rest of 2022, their “full slate” involves yet another Yu-Gi-Oh game (Cross Duel), as well as the game Shinepost (mobile), and the highly-anticipated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection, which yes, Konami is publishing.