{"id":70797,"date":"2026-08-10T15:39:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T06:39:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=70797"},"modified":"2026-08-10T15:39:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T06:39:26","slug":"digimon-story-time-stranger-contributed-to-highest-ever-digimon-ip-annual-profits-surpassing-the-2000s-anime-according-to-bandai-namco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-contributed-to-highest-ever-digimon-ip-annual-profits-surpassing-the-2000s-anime-according-to-bandai-namco\/","title":{"rendered":"Digimon Story: Time Stranger contributed to highest ever Digimon IP annual profits, surpassing the 2000s anime, according to Bandai Namco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, Bandai Namco Entertainment released <strong>Digimon Story: Time Stranger<\/strong>, the Digimon Story series\u2019 first new standalone entry in almost a decade. The hype for the game was<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-pre-orders-exceed-bandai-namcos-expectations-physical-copies-to-be-scarce-at-launch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> strong even before launch<\/a>, and only two months after its release, it was announced that Time Stranger had sold over 1 million copies, becoming the series\u2019 fastest selling title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this week\u2019s interview with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.famitsu.com\/article\/202608\/83424\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Famitsu<\/a>, Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa reflected on the company\u2019s performance in the past year, which marked a big comeback for the Digimon franchise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Digimon Story Time Stranger | Story Trailer\" width=\"1160\" height=\"653\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/bFEu9XOLmg0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As she reveals, 2025 was the most lucrative year for the Digimon IP in terms of profits: \u201cThanks 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, it doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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\u2019s more, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-finally-releases-for-pc-in-japan-after-being-region-locked-for-almost-7-years\/\">D<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-cyber-sleuth-finally-releases-for-pc-in-japan-after-being-region-locked-for-almost-7-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">igimon Story: Cyber Sleuth also got a surprise Steam release in Japan last week<\/a>, after being region locked for almost 7 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That being said, Digimon\u2019s success likely isn\u2019t just limited to the domestic market. According to Udagawa, approximately 90% of Bandai Namco Entertainment\u2019s overall console game sales are attributed to the overseas market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Udagawa says that her personal goal for Bandai Namco Entertainment is to realize the three mid-to-long-term core strategies of \u201cpromoting our game portfolio, reinforcing development capabilities, and expanding and taking on new challenges with our IP-based businesses.\u201d While we don\u2019t 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<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/digimon-story-time-stranger-may-have-taken-8-years-to-make-but-the-team-is-now-gradually-expanding-in-scale-with-various-ideas-for-future-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> new series entry might be coming much sooner than we expect<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Digimon Story: Time Stranger&nbsp;is out now&nbsp;for&nbsp;PC (<a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/1984270\/_\/?utm_source=automaton-media.com_en&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=article-55526\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Steam<\/a>), PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bandai Namco Entertainment CEO Nao Udagawa reflects on the recent success of the Digimon IP. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":70798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","autoblue_publish_document":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-70797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - 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