Top 10 Yu-Gi-Oh launches
- [GB] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 4 (2000) - 1.228.599
- [GB] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (1998) - 683.948
- [GB] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters II (1999) - 401.533
- [GB] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters III (2000) - 327.686
- [GBA] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 5 (2001) - 221.654
- [PS1] Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories (1999) - 183.295
- [GBA] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 6 (2001) - 139.947
- [GBA] Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters 7 (2002) - 128.343
- [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel (2021) - 96.297
- [PS1] Yu-Gi-Oh! Monster Capsule (1998) - 80.259
Best results for a Yu-Gi-Oh launch since 2002.. still not great WoM so won't be another Momotaro situation.
I can see that at the end of the year Momotaro > Power Prokun Pocket R > Baseball Spirits > Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel > Girl's Side 4th Heart, with combined sales of over 2.5 million, last year they managed over 2.3 million sales and ended up the #1 third party publisher for 2020.
I guess they still have a chance if Power Prokun Pocket R is a break out hit or something, if it manages over 500K they might actually be the #1 third publisher two years in a row, although it will go down to the wire with Capcom hot on their heels. At the moment Konami is at 1.3 million & Momotaro is again showing great legs for them during Obon, giving them #2 place this week. They recently had another update for the game and will probably soon announce that they've been able to surpass 4 million shipped in Japan. This will put Momotaro on track to be their first 5 million seller in Japan joining Nintendo & Pokemon Co as the third publisher to achieve this feat on the Switch..
It's shaping up like another record year for Konami and it does seem they are launching more games now compared to the previous 5 years. The pandemic hitting their other divisions have definitely made them reinvest into gaming, this could revive other franchises on the Switch. It's still puzzling to me that PES/eFootball hasn't been brought over, and that they haven't done anything with Metal Gear on the system yet. So there is still more room for growth for them in the coming years on the Switch.
The main way they would increase output is via outsourcing since they don't have the necessary internal capacity to do make too many games on their own. Their gaming division hasn't grown substantially over the last 3 years. I can see them making acquisition or a merger with another Japanese or overseas publisher; so that's one possibility for them to grow their internal capacity in a short time. Still in terms of titles that will leave their mark it does seem that 2021 will be a new peak main due to the Momotaro train and their new software output.
Number of titles per year:
2015 - 3 [PS3/PS4] Winning Eleven 2016, [PS3/PS4/X1] Metal Gear Solid V, [PS3/PS4] Pro Baseball Spirits 2015
2016 - 4 [PS3/PS4] Winning Eleven EURO 2016, [PS3/PS4/PSV] Pro Baseball 2016, [PS3/PS4] Winning Eleven 2017, [3DS] Pro Baseball Heroes
2017 - 3 [NSW/PS4] Super Bomberman R, [3DS] 100% Pascal Sensei, [PS3/PS4] Winning Eleven 2018,
2018 - 4 [PS4] Metal Gear Survive, [PS4/PSV] Pro Baseball 2018, [PS4] Winning Eleven 2019, [PS4] Zone of the Enders
2019 - 3 [NSW] Pro Baseball, [PS4/PSV] Baseball Spirits 2019, [PS4] Winning Eleven 2020
2020 - 3 [PS4/NSW] Pro Baseball 2020, [PS4] efootball 2021 Season Update, [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu
2021 - 5 [NSW] Baseball Spirits 2021, [PS4/PS5] eFootball 2022(F2P), [NSW] Yu-Gi-Oh! Rush Duel, [NSW] Power Prokun Pocket R, [NSW] Girl’s Side 4th Heart
When we look at the breakdowns in terms of games that charted on Famitsu, we can see that Konami generally manages an average of 4 games for the past 6 years; with them pretty much transitioning to the Switch nearly completely after a few years of mostly supporting the PS4. Now their strategy seems fully aligned to the Switch and it has lead to growth and due to Switch entering software peak next year it's likely they could probably maintain it with another 2-3 strong titles next year.
Konami Switch/PS4 Top 10
- [NSW] Momotaro Dentetsu - 2.322.950
- [PS4] Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - 448.554
- [NSW] Pro Baseball 2020 - 297.187
- [NSW] Super Bomberman R3 - 275.029
- [PS4] Pro Baseball Spirits 2019 - 259.227
- [PS4] Pro Baseball 2018 - 255.850
- [NSW] Jikkyou Powerful Pro Baseball - 248.024
- [PS4] Pro Baseball 2016 - 208.867
- [PS4] Pro Baseball 2020 - 189.649
- [PS4] Winning Eleven 2019 - 182.539
TOTAL: 4.687.876
NSW TOTAL: 3.143.190 (68%)
PS4 TOTAL: 1.544.686 (32%)