Square Enix has reported a decline in revenues over the last nine months, totaling $1.6 billion

As of the end of December 2024, Square Enix has disclosed a decline in its financial results over the previous nine months. The decrease in net sales has been linked to the underperformance of existing titles in their mobile and PC browser segments.

The company's Digital Entertainments revenue also dipped, influenced by new releases not matching the sales of last year's major titles, including Final Fantasy 16 and Dragon Quest: The Dark Prince.

The numbers:

• Net sales: ¥248.5 billion ($1.6 billion), reflecting a 3.5% decrease from the previous year
• Profit: ¥24.7 billion ($161.9 million), a decline of 7.7% year-on-year
• Digital entertainment net sales: ¥160.3 billion ($1.05 billion), down by 10.7% compared to the previous year

The highlights:

Despite the overall decline in the Digital Entertainment division's sales, the HD games section experienced a 70.3% surge in operating profit, reaching ¥4.6 billion ($30.2 million). This improvement is credited to reduced development cost amortization, lower advertising expenses, and unexpectedly strong sales of Dragon Quest 3 HD-2D, which debuted in November 2024.

The company also reported a 26.4% boost in net sales for its MMO division, totaling ¥44 billion ($288.6 million), following the July 2024 release of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail.

Conversely, the mobile and PC browser segment witnessed a sharp decline in operating profit by 58.5% to ¥5.6 billion ($36.7 million). This was partly due to weaker performance from existing games, previous year royalty income, and a write-down in content production accounts, although the puzzle RPG Emberstoria launched in November 2024.

Looking forward, Square Enix has maintained its financial forecasts for the fiscal year, as outlined in their FY24 results announcement from last May.