As cuts and closures batter the industry, Capcom posts its 7th consecutive year of record-high profits and says the 8th is just around the corner
It must be nice being Capcom. At a time when most of the games industry is in a historic bout of brutal layoffs, studio closures, and other assorted cost-cutting measures that mysteriously seem to never touch the C-suite, the Resident Evil and Street Fighter maker is raising salaries and, now, posting its seventh consecutive year of record profits and 11th consecutive year of operating profit growth.
In a Capcom press release earlier today, the company announced that its net sales in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 totalled 152,410 million yen, or around $979 million (£784 million, a 21% year-on-year increase. The company's myriad other income breakdowns—operating and ordinary income and "net income attributable to owners of the parent"—also saw double-digit percent increases.
What's responsible for all the moolah headed Capcom's way? The company attributes its results to its "core Digital Contents business," which is pretty much MBA-speak for games. The corporation sold more games in the last financial year than it's ever sold before: 45.89 million. In particular, Capcom calls out Street Fighter 6, "which leads [Capcom's] esports activities," and the release of Dragon's Dogma 2 as heavy hitters in its overall results.
Both of which, I'm led to believe, are very good games, but Capcom's given its biggest earner short shrift here: The real champion of its 2023/2024 financial year catalogue was none other than Leon S Kennedy. In a presentation released alongside its announcement, Capcom put out a chart of the financial year's top videogame sellers. Resident Evil 4 pipped Street Fighter 6 to the post with around 3.4 million sales in the financial year (making 7 million sales over its lifetime so far). SF6 fell just short of that, with 3.3 million sales.
Also, Monster Hunter: World continues chugging along as the world's 10th-or-so largest religion: It took up third place in the financial year with 2.8 million copies sold, making 25 million sales across its lifetime).
Finally, shout to Dragon's Dogma 2, the deeply idiosyncratic RPG that released with barely any time in the financial year left, and which has still managed to be Capcom's fourth biggest seller with 2.6 million copies sold. I guess those microtransactions didn't annoy people too much.
So, yes, Capcom's had its best year ever since last year, which was its best year ever since the year before that, and so on and so forth. The company forecasts that its next financial year—the one we're in now—will see it sell 50 million units. An interesting prediction, given that the company is kind of out of massively popular, universally beloved Resident Evils to remake. So, hey, let's meet back here this time next year to see if it made good on the promise.