Disney has named Kingdom Hearts as one of nine billion-dollar franchises in its games portfolio, in a blog post published ahead of the company's D23 showcase. The post, “How Games Are Helping Shape Disney's Next Chapter,” says the Disney Games Group portfolio “spans nine billion-dollar franchises including Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Strike Force,” IGN reported. Sean Shoptaw, Disney's executive vice president of games and digital entertainment, put the same figure as “nine games that have grossed over $1 billion at retail.”
More than half of those franchises have arrived in the last 12 years. Disney said its games have driven an estimated $3.5 billion in consumer spend annually for the past four years, and crossed $4 billion in the past fiscal year. That total covers every game built on Disney intellectual property, Marvel and Star Wars titles included, rather than Kingdom Hearts alone.
The post is written for an investor audience, and PC Gamer characterised it as a combination victory lap and game plan, citing Disney's tightening relationship with Epic Games and the Fortnite Creative platform and Marvel Rivals' traction among Gen Z players. Disney-licensed games still in development include Insomniac's Marvel's Wolverine, the Iron Man game at EA's Motive and Quantic Dream's Star Wars Eclipse. Disney is also the rights holder behind Respawn's Star Wars Jedi 3, Creative Assembly's Alien: Isolation 2 and Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra.
Kingdom Hearts' place on the list is the surprise, given how few mainline entries have been released since the first game arrived in 2002 on PlayStation 2. The series has accumulated that billion across 15 mainline games over a quarter century, a solid chunk of them repackaged collections of earlier titles.
The disclosure landed ahead of the “DEEP DIVE into KINGDOM HEARTS” panel at D23, streaming on August 15 at 4.30pm PT / 7.30pm ET, or 12.30am UK time on August 16. Disney billed it as a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the games. The guests are Nana Gadd of Disney & Pixar Games, Tai Yasue of Square Enix, who is believed to be co-director of Kingdom Hearts 4, Haley Joel Osment, who voices Sora, David Gallagher, who voices Riku, and Renée Johnson, who performs the Disney character voices.
Kingdom Hearts 4 made a surprise appearance at the June 2026 Nintendo Direct with a first look at gameplay, years after the game was announced. Square Enix has confirmed a simultaneous launch on PC via the Epic Games Store and Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch 2. Its official description has Sora meeting new characters in the mysterious city of Quadratum.
