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Square Enix’s net sales have fallen to a five-year low, down 9% year-over-year to ¥324.5 billion ($2.2bn).

This fiscal year – ended March 31st, 2025 – was Square Enix’s worst for net sales since the 2019 to 2020 period, when the company earned ¥260.5bn ($1.8bn).

Despite this, Square Enix recorded rises in operating income and profit over the past fiscal year. Operating income surged by almost 25% to ¥40.6bn ($280 million), while profit increased by 64% to ¥24.4bn ($168.4m).

“Intensified competition”

Square Enix’s digital entertainment business, mainly comprised of games, accounted for 64% of its total net sales at ¥206.5bn ($1.4bn) this past year. This marked a decline in net sales of almost 17% Y/Y, which Square partially blamed on “intensified competition” on mobile in Japan.

The company stated that players desire “even richer” game experiences and that “a familiar list of titles” continually dominates Japanese gamers’ time, “reducing the odds of new titles succeeding”.

Mobile games and PC browser games saw declining net sales and profits “despite” the release of Emberstoria, another Japan-only game contrary to Square’s global strategy.


However, even with falling net sales, Square Enix’s digital entertainment business overall became profitable this year due to lower development cost amortisation and advertising expenses.

The reboot plan: year one of three

The mixed results have come one year into Square’s “reboot” strategy, a three-year plan to lay the foundations for long-term growth by March 2027. Square Enix laid out its ambitions in May 2024, which included overcoming gaps in management structure, “insufficient” franchise-by-franchise portfolio management and more.

The plan was announced as rising net sales in 2023 to 2024 – up to ¥356.3bn ($2.5bn), contrasted by falling operating income, resulting in a year of “extraordinary losses“.

2024 to 2025 was largely the opposite, with net sales down but operating income and profit on the rise. Though ordinary income fell again by 1% to ¥40.9bn ($282.3m).

With two years to go in its reboot operation, Square Enix intends to enhance productivity in its digital entertainment segment, diversify earnings opportunities, roll out initiatives to create further foundational stability, and consider the balance between growth investments and shareholder return.



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