Capcom Says 80% Of All Of Its Sales Are Now Digital, And It's Growing

Resident Evil and Monster Hunter publisher Capcom has revealed that 80% of all its game sales are now digital, and that it is aiming to grow that figure to at least 90% soon.

Answering questions in its annual shareholder meeting, Capcom admitted that it did not expect the share of digital sales to grow so much in a year, stating that it anticipated the figure to be closer to 75%. Just last year, Capcom reported that digital sales made up only 53% of its total. This latest figure encapsulates sales between the beginning of April 2019 and end of March 2020.

As a result of the growth, Capcom is focusing even harder on digital distribution, aiming to reach a 90% digital share in the medium term.

"While it ultimately depends on how our customers behave going forward, for the time being we are promoting our digital strategy with an objective of 90%, since there are some customers who prefer to own discs," the company stated. "We aim to continue expanding our business performance by maximizing the benefits of digital sales, which include being able to provide our content both for longer periods of time and throughout the world."

Capcom attributes a lot of the growth to the sustained popularity of Monster Hunter World and the release of its expansion, Iceborne, last year. It did not comment as to whether the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact too, but rather that this growth in digital sales was expected eventually.

Sony announced an all-digital version of the PlayStation 5 during its latest stream for the console but haven't yet detailed how much cheaper it will be. Conversely, Microsoft is reportedly preparing a cheaper, less powerful Xbox with Xbox Lockhart, but it's unclear yet if it will also launch without a disc-drive to cut costs. Microsoft did launch a digital-only Xbox One S in 2019.