¥493.7B Revenue. +33.9% Profit. iGaming Pivot Confirmed – Konami Marks Third Record Year Under Kimihiko Higashio
Konami Group reported full-year revenue of ¥493,677 million for the financial year ended 31 March 2026, up 17.1% year-on-year, with profit attributable to owners of the parent rising 33.9% to ¥100,013 million. The result marks a third consecutive record year for the Tokyo and London-listed group, with operating profit margin expanding to 27.5% and return on equity climbing to 19.1%.
Performance across the four reportable segments was sharply uneven, however, reflecting content-led strength in Digital Entertainment, tariff-driven pressure in Gaming and Systems, and the formal commercial elevation of iGaming as a new growth pillar.
Digital Entertainment delivers another record-breaking year
Digital Entertainment remained the group’s primary growth engine, with revenue rising 21.5% to ¥370,950 million and business profit climbing 37.5% to ¥136,006 million. The segment alone accounts for over 75% of group revenue and the overwhelming majority of group business profit before adjustments.
Performance was anchored by the launch of METAL GEAR SOLID Δ: SNAKE EATER, which crossed two million units in global shipments, alongside the release of SILENT HILL f, the first title in the horror series to be set in Japan. The eFootball series surpassed one billion cumulative downloads as of April 2026, while Yu-Gi-Oh! MASTER DUEL passed 90 million downloads during the year. Esports activity remained a structural revenue contributor, with the FIFAe World Cup 2025 in conjunction with FIFA and the Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2025 finals in Paris supporting continued engagement metrics.
Gaming and Systems profit halves on tariffs and cabinet transition
The segment most exposed to the casino and iGaming markets posted the weakest result in the group. Revenue rose just 1.0% to ¥43,077 million, while business profit fell 50.4% to ¥3,650 million.
Konami attributed the decline to two specific pressures: United States tariff measures and operator reluctance to commit to cabinet purchases ahead of the launch of Solstice 49C, the group’s first new core hardware model in approximately six years. Solstice 49C was voted Best New Core Cabinet at the Global Gaming Expo 2025 in October.
Performance across the wider product portfolio remained directionally positive. SYNKROS adoption expanded into casino facilities in California, New Mexico and cruise operators, while SYNK Vision, the player facial recognition solution, was extended from slot machines to table games. The Specialty Markets unit also secured fresh orders in the Illinois Video Lottery Terminal market.
Konami Online Interactive established as the third commercial pillar
The most strategically significant development of the year for the iGaming industry was Konami’s formal establishment of Konami Online Interactive as a new branded presence dedicated to the iGaming segment.
The brand positions iGaming as a third commercial pillar of the gaming business, sitting alongside land-based machines and the SYNKROS casino management system. The group has explicitly guided that it will accelerate the expansion of popular gaming content into iGaming through FY27, alongside parallel expansion of Video Lottery Terminal, Historical Horse Racing and Class II products in the Specialty Markets channel.
Arcade Game and Sports anchor diversified group performance
The Arcade Game segment recorded revenue of ¥26,353 million, up 9.6%, with business profit rising 4.8% to ¥6,779 million, supported by new releases including pop’n music High☆Cheers!! and the Demon Slayer-themed arcade title. The Sports segment posted revenue of ¥49,484 million, up 1.9%, but business profit climbed 52.9% to ¥3,411 million, lifted by 32 new Pilates Mirror studio openings and the expansion of outsourced school swimming instruction across Japan.
Capital position strengthens as dividend climbs
Group-level financial discipline continued to improve. Total assets rose to ¥748,765 million, while equity attributable to owners increased to ¥564,537 million. The equity ratio improved 2.9 percentage points to 75.4%, with cash and cash equivalents climbing to ¥327,564 million. Konami redeemed ¥20,000 million in current bonds during the period and lifted operating cash flow 18.4% to ¥135,664 million.
The full-year dividend was raised to ¥221.50 per share from ¥165.50 the previous year, in line with the group’s 30% consolidated payout policy. FY27 dividend guidance stands at ¥224.00 per share.
Outlook: iGaming and Solstice define the FY27 recovery thesis
Konami’s earnings quality going into FY27 is now structurally tied to two specific outcomes: the commercial ramp of the Solstice cabinet line in North America and Australia, and the speed at which its deep land-based content library can be migrated into regulated online markets through Konami Online Interactive.
Guidance for the year ending 31 March 2027 points to revenue of ¥505,000 million, business profit of ¥150,000 million and profit attributable to owners of ¥101,000 million. Implicit in those numbers is a sharp rebound in Gaming and Systems segment profit, a recovery thesis that now depends on iGaming execution as much as on cabinet replacement cycles. For operators tracking supplier strategy, Konami has confirmed in writing what the rest of the sector has been signalling for two years. Hardware cycles alone no longer protect supplier margins, and the contest has moved to the catalogue layer.
Source: KONAMI GROUP CORPORATION
