Kadokawa’s financial results for the first quarter of the fiscal year ending March 2026 reveal that overall revenue from its major video-streaming platform Niconico has been on a decline (source: Otaku Soken). The company attributes this primarily to a recent decrease in premium paid subscriptions, caused by credit card payments being suspended on the platform for months.
Although the most recent quarter saw subscriptions rebound slightly, with premium members growing by 5,000 to 994,000, this is still a far cry from past figures. Excluding the impact of the June 2024 Kadokawa cyberattack, which resulted in extraordinary losses for Niconico in the previous fiscal year, the company admits that membership numbers have remained below the one million mark for the second consecutive quarter, leading to an overall decline in revenue.
While the number has been slowly dwindling these past few years (2016-2017 saw premium members peaking at 2.5 million), Kadokawa attributes the more recent decline to the temporary suspension of international credit cards on Niconico. From May 2024 to February 2025, no credit cards except for JBC were available as payment options on the site, which Kadokawa thinks has driven some members away.
Niconico has since revised its Terms of Use and Action Guidelines, as well as effectively banned all adult content and reinstated the Visa-brand credit card payment option. Despite this move, the 9-month lull during which potential premium subscribers could not pay using their Visa credit cards might have done irreparable damage to the streaming service.
Niconico’s current plans are to continue to implement mechanisms that will sustainably produce exclusive creators on the platform and to create opportunities for these creators to be active globally. It also wants to maximize licensing revenue, specifically from original music made by Niconico creators.
