The global market size of Capcom’s primary game business, along with the home video game software segment, is expected to continue to grow, surpassing $240 billion by 2027, approximately 1.2 times its size in 2022. Our company has achieved significant growth over the past 10 years, however, considering this outlook for the market environment, as well as the game player population, we have analyzed that there is still room to grow, and have set a mid-term management objective of delivering 10% or more operating income growth each fiscal year.
In recent years, we have successfully achieved eight consecutive years of growth in video game unit sales volume by leveraging the longer sales lives of high-quality titles in addition to expanding our sales areas. Through digital sales, not only have we been able to extend the lifecycle of our superior game content—which is underpinned by world-class development knowhow that has been cultivated over long years—but by leveraging PCs as a game platform, we have been able to sell our games in countries and regions where dedicated home video game consoles are not available. Altogether, there are more than 200 of these countries and regions, in which more than 300 of our game titles, including those from our back catalog, are being enjoyed globally at any given time. It was six years ago that we began in earnest to analyze our sales data, the backbone of this digital strategy, and going forward we look to develop a more refined understanding of customer behavior. Further, we are striving to enhance our global branding activities, working closely with our overseas subsidiaries in areas like North America, Europe and Asia to carry out digital promotions, including video streaming programs.
With this background, annual unit sales for our home video games have increased approximately 2.5 times over the past 10 years, growing from 16.7 million units in the fiscal year ended March 2013, to 41.7 million units in the fiscal year ended March 2023. In the fiscal year ending March 2024, we are forecasting our highest-ever annual unit sales of 45 million units, which will be driven by worldwide growth of catalog titles, primarily in digital format, in addition to new major titles such as Street Fighter 6. We also anticipate operating income of 56 billion yen, leading to our 11th consecutive year of operating income growth, as well as our 7th consecutive year of record profit at all levels, driven by digital sales in our Consumer sub-segment.
In terms of ongoing sustainable growth, we will continue to focus on increasing game software sales volume with the aim of achieving 100 million units in annual sales in the future. It is essential for us to further spread and increase penetration of our brands globally in order to make that growth more attainable. To that end, we will also focus on our Licensing, eSports, and Media businesses.
We will bolster activities in our Licensing business worldwide, such as with the creation of collaborative merchandise that coincides with new title launches, or in-game events. In our eSports Business, we are pursuing promotional measures while growing the fan base from a mid- to long-term perspective, aiming to further vitalize this market by expanding the regions in which we hold events with this new form of entertainment. In our Media business, we established a movie production subsidiary in the U.S.A. to more actively pursue global expansion. We intend to strengthen the link between our games and the Media business and are taking self-financing into consideration. Further, we are supporting the promotion of culture, science and technology through our participation in the upcoming Expo 2025, as well as with our sponsorships of the Japan Volleyball Association and soccer club Cerezo Osaka, and anticipate the associated effects of these to facilitate enhancement of our brands.
Further, with our Arcade Operations and Amusement Equipments businesses, we look to expand revenues while synergistically enhancing the value of our content. Our Arcade Operations business vitally acts as a direct customer touchpoint, and here we look to increase the profitability of each of our stores while pursuing new challenges such as opening larger-scale stores and trying a variety of formats. In Amusement Equipments, we will take advantage of new developments, such as Smart Pachislo, while capitalizing on the affinity between amusement machines and our game content.
Looking ahead, I believe that game content is one of the representative future industries of growth within Japan. With Capcom celebrating the 40th anniversary of its founding this year, I am committed to continuing to drive our business forward into the future in order to be a leading company in this growth industry. Further, it is my hope that we can contribute to building a sustainable society by working to create an environment in which our content can delight people; by delivering smiles and moving hearts around the world, and invigorating people to push forward in their daily lives, we aim to achieve our purpose of contributing to a richer society by providing superior game content.
We humbly ask our stakeholders for their further guidance and encouragement as we move forward.
June 2023
Haruhiro Tsujimoto
President and Chief Operating Officer (COO)