Capcom Sees Impressive Sales Surge, With Ultra Street Fighter II Leading the Charge

Capcom continues to thrive in the gaming industry, fueled by its armada of game franchises. And while Monster Hunter World is a massive success in its own right, the company is doing quite well with its other products as well.

A new report at GamesIndustry.biz points out that the publisher had pretty good numbers for the final nine months of 2017. In that time, the company managed to see an increase in operating income, up to $64.5 million, or seven billion yen. That’s a 36.9 percent boost from the previous year, fueled by hit games like The Disney Afternoon Collection, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

That said, one particular title managed to stand out for the company – Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. Released back in April for the Nintendo Switch, the game was declared a “smash hit” by the publisher, even though specific sales stats about the game weren’t revealed. For that matter, the Japan-only release Monster Hunter XX also performed admirably, with a “strong” performance for that market. (Kinda makes you wonder if the game is worth a release here – obviously, it is. Come on, Capcom.)

The company did note that Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite did reach one million copies sold, which is great, but still “soft” compared to previous game sales. Still, the company is confident that it will continue going strong, perhaps with a second year of content that has yet to be revealed.

It also noted that digital sales are playing a big part in its profits, to the tune of about 40 percent. Full game downloads also saw a huge increase, going up 20 percent over the previous year.

Surprisingly enough, arcade games are still doing well, too. Net sales of games in arcades overseas have reached 7.6 billion yen (or $70.2 million), with an operating income of 815 million yen ($7.5 million). Obviously, Capcom’s U.S. arcade presence isn’t as big, but with the home market the way it is, it doesn’t necessarily need to be.

So what will 2018 bring? Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and Monster Hunter World are an excellent start, and Mega Man 11, Street Fighter Collection and other releases should keep things moving along. We’ll see how the company fares over the year.