Report / Published 2026-10-30

Konami's game business profit climbs 75.1% to ¥107.5bn on Metal Gear and Silent Hill releases

Konami Digital Entertainment reports ¥243.5bn in sales and ¥107.5bn in operating profit for April to September 2026, and the group lifts its full-year operating profit forecast.

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THE SHORT VERSION

  • Konami Digital Entertainment recorded sales of 243.5 billion yen, up 44.3% year on year, and operating profit of 107.5 billion yen, up 75.1%, for April to September 2026.
  • Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, Silent Hill: Townfall, eBaseball: Pro Spirit 2026 and Suikoden Star Leap launched in the period, while eFootball received a major August update.
  • Konami Group revised its forecast for the year ending March 2027 and now expects operating profit to rise 39.3% and sales 18.1%, with no title-level breakdown published.

The numbers Konami put on the page

Konami Group reported consolidated results for the six months from April to September 2026 on October 29, and the video game division did most of the lifting. Konami Digital Entertainment, the group's core games business, recorded sales of 243.5 billion yen, up 44.3% year on year, and operating profit of 107.5 billion yen, up 75.1%. AUTOMATON converts those figures to roughly $1.5 billion and $681 million.

At group level the picture was broader and, by the company's account, record-setting. Revenue rose 37% year on year, while business profit, operating profit and net profit climbed 72.2%, 73.3% and 70.5% respectively. AUTOMATON reports that Konami described the interim period as setting highs across all profit metrics. The games division's 75.1% gain slightly outpaced the group's own operating profit growth of 73.3%, which is a useful pointer to where the improvement came from.

Four releases and one live service

Four launches did the scheduled work. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2, Silent Hill: Townfall, eBaseball: Pro Spirit 2026 and Suikoden Star Leap all shipped in the period, according to AUTOMATON, with Push Square naming the first three. That is a preservation collection, a new horror entry, a baseball simulation and a role-playing game, a spread that covers several audiences instead of betting the half-year on one blockbuster.

The live service side contributed without a new boxed release. eFootball received a major update in August, and AUTOMATON attributes its continued performance to that update along with special campaigns and in-game events. Push Square makes the point more bluntly: the publisher released games, and the financial numbers followed. For a company long associated with pachinko machines and sports clubs rather than software, a half-year carried by game releases is the story these results tell. A spread of genres also means the division was not leaning on a single release, although the results do not say how much each title contributed.

Why profit grew faster than sales

The gap between 44.3% sales growth and 75.1% profit growth is the most interesting figure in the release. When profit rises faster than revenue, the business is keeping more of each yen it takes in, which usually points to a richer mix of full-price releases, a lighter discounting cycle, or digital and live-service revenue arriving without matching costs. Konami did not publish enough detail to confirm which of those did the work. Investors tend to watch that gap more closely than the headline profit figure, because it shows whether growth is coming from volume or from retained margin.

A rough calculation from the disclosed numbers puts the division's operating margin at about 44%, against roughly 36% a year earlier. That is arithmetic on the reported figures rather than a company statement, and it assumes the year-on-year comparison is like for like. The direction is still notable on its own: operating profit per yen of sales rose sharply in the period, and that is the base the revised forecast below is built on.

What changed in the full-year forecast

Konami revised its forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027. The company now expects operating profit to rise 39.3% and sales to grow 18.1%, AUTOMATON reports, noting that the revision reflects strong performance across the group, including the arcade, gaming equipment and sports businesses as well as games. The forecast therefore covers more than the division that produced the headline number.

It is also worth reading as a statement about the second half. A full-year operating profit increase of 39.3% is smaller than the 73.3% the group has just posted for six months, which implies that Konami expects the pace to slow between October and March, or is conservatively assuming it will. Neither outlet reports the assumptions behind the figure, and the company has not published a title-by-title forecast.

What the results do not show

The omissions matter as much as the totals. There is no revenue by title, no unit sales, no split between physical and digital, and no breakdown of development or marketing costs. The dollar figures in coverage are conversions rather than company guidance, and they move with the exchange rate. A reader cannot tell from these numbers how much of the profit came from Metal Gear, how much from Silent Hill, or how much from eFootball's live operations.

The period is also a half-year, not a quarter. AUTOMATON describes the results as the second quarter of the fiscal year covering April to September, and some coverage refers to the previous quarter loosely. That distinction matters when comparing against quarterly reports from other publishers, because a six-month total will look larger on every line. The group percentages and the games division percentages also measure different scopes.

What to watch next

The next checkpoint is the full-year results through March 2027, where the forecast gets tested. Between now and then, the question is whether the releases that carried the first half keep selling and whether eFootball's update cycle holds attention. Neither report describes a second-half slate, so the release calendar is the variable readers will have to track elsewhere.

For the wider picture, the Phantom Blade Zero launch plan and the November PlayStation Plus lineup show how crowded the next few months are, while the Xbox Series supply constraint affects how many consoles those games can reach. Konami's results are a reminder that a publisher's numbers follow what it ships, not how loudly it announces it.

Sources & reporting limits

  1. Konami Digital Entertainment reports 75.1% rise in profit thanks to solid performance of flagship titles, full-year forecast revised to account for strong profit growth
  2. Konami Records Strong Profit Having Made Excellent Games Again
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