Last year, Bandai Namco Entertainment released Digimon Story: Time Stranger, the Digimon Story series’ first new standalone entry in almost a decade. The hype for the game was strong even before launch, and only two months after its release, it was announced that Time Stranger had sold over 1 million copies, becoming the series’ fastest selling title.
In this week’s interview with Famitsu, Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa reflected on the company’s performance in the past year, which marked a big comeback for the Digimon franchise.
As she reveals, 2025 was the most lucrative year for the Digimon IP in terms of profits: “Thanks to the combined success of the digital game and the card game, the Digimon IP has recorded highest ever profits for the Bandai Namco Group, surpassing the profits of the 2000 anime.”
However, it doesn’t seem like the Digimon IP is going to be losing steam any time soon, as Time Stranger is scheduled to get a major DLC in 2027, right after this year’s Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 port release. Riding on the momentum, Bandai Namco Entertainment also dropped the Digimon Up RPG for mobile in July. What’s more, Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth also got a surprise Steam release in Japan last week, after being region locked for almost 7 years.
That being said, Digimon’s success likely isn’t just limited to the domestic market. According to Udagawa, approximately 90% of Bandai Namco Entertainment’s overall console game sales are attributed to the overseas market.
Udagawa says that her personal goal for Bandai Namco Entertainment is to realize the three mid-to-long-term core strategies of “promoting our game portfolio, reinforcing development capabilities, and expanding and taking on new challenges with our IP-based businesses.” While we don’t know how the Digimon franchise will fit into this plan going forward, back in January this year, the Digimon Story development team hinted that a new series entry might be coming much sooner than we expect.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger is out now for PC (Steam), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2.
