Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel is a digital card collectible game in a series of Trading Card games that are free-to-play, developed and published by Japanese entertainment conglomerate and video game company Konami. Available on a wide array of platforms, the game is popular amongst players as indicated by the size of its franchise, being downloaded over 10 million times.
While Konami has dabbled in a variety of projects, releasing games from the Metal Gear Solid and Hideo Kojima’s Silent Hill franchises—but eventually canceling the Silent Hills project and digitally delisting Metal Gear games, and even taking a stab at the NFT market—the most profitable year for them so far has been the year of 2022, owing to the widespread popularity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! Games. The games from the entire franchise have been downloaded over 30 million times as of April 2022.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel Earns 2.3 Billion USD for Konami
The company’s full-year financial results have been revealed from the latest reports of their financial highlights for the fiscal year 2022, and revenue and profits have never been higher. Revenue has risen by nearly 10 percent from 2021, raking in 299.5 billion yen, which is about $2.3 billion in USD, and profits have increased by a whopping 25.2 percent—to 80.3 billion yen.
The most profitable year ever for Konami comes from the majority of its revenue—about 215 billion yen—being from the category of “digital entertainment”, which refers to its massive video game department. While Konami owns pachinko machines and casinos, those are categorized as “amusement” or “gaming and systems” and do not fall under this purview. Together, they have made about one-sixth of the revenue of Konami’s digital entertainment.
Konami Credits Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel for Success
Trading Games have grown in popularity owing to the pandemic situation, which has led to these genres of video games is explored, much like the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Another board game Momotaro Dentetsu, has also played a game in bringing the revenue in, beating out some tough competitors such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on the Nintendo Switch platform.
The game’s pay-to-play structure has probably contributed to this growth, with in-game currency being offered for purchase in the game shop, and Konami dishing 1,000 free gems in celebration of the 30 million download milestone, 10 million of which came within the first month of launch.
