Tekken 8 has reached an impressive milestone in less than a month after its launch. Bandai Namco’s title also joined other successful Japanese games launched since the beginning of 2024.
Bandai Namco’s financial results
On February 14, Bandai Namco released its financial report for the three quarters ended December 31, 2023. The company reached ¥772 billion ($5.14 billion) in net revenue, up 3.9% year-over-year, while its operating profit fell 26.3% year-over-year to ¥78.2 billion ($521 million).
During the nine-month period, Bandai Namco sold 29.1 million copies of video games, compared to 38.7 million in the same period last year. Overall, revenues of its Digital Business segment declined in both Network content (online games) and Home video games (multi-platform titles) categories — by 3.8% and 17.8% respectively.
As reported by Bloomberg’s Takashi Mochizuki, Bandai Namco also recorded impairment losses of ¥21 billion attributed to an “underperforming game” — most likely Blue Protocol, a free-to-play MMO action RPG launched in Japan last June.
Bernstein on Bandai Namco post earnings call report: results are overall disappointing mainly due to 21 billion yen impairment losses attributed to underperforming game, likely Blue Protocol. Tekken 8’s 2 million copies sold are “better than we’d hoped for at this point.”
— Takashi Mochizuki (@6d6f636869) February 14, 2024
Tekken 8 is another Japanese top seller this year
Tekken 8, the company’s new Q4 release, seems to be performing above expectations. It has already sold 2 million copies globally since its launch on January 25. Here is how its sales compare to rival fighting titles released over the past year:
- Street Fighter 6 — 1 million copies sold in three days (2.98 million copies, as of December 31);
- Mortal Kombat — ~3 million copies sold in less than two months.
Last month, Tekken 8 debuted at #1 on the UK Boxed Charts, with its physical sales more than doubling the launch of Street Fighter 6. The game also peaked at nearly 50k concurrent players on Steam, one of the best results among new releases this year.
When looking at successful game releases of 2024, Tekken 8 has now joined four other Japanese titles to sell at least 1 million units:
- Palworld (Pocketpair) — 1 million units sold in eight hours (the game has now sold over 12 million copies on Steam alone);
- Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio / Sega) — 1 million units in its first week (the fastest title in the series to cross this mark);
- Persona 3 Reload (Atlus / Sega) — 1 million units in its first week (the fastest Atlus title to reach this milestone);
- Granblue Fantasy: Relink (Cygames) — 1 million units in less than two weeks.
Tekken 7 remains the best-selling title in the series, with over 10 million units sold globally. The entire franchise is now approaching 60 million units in lifetime sales.