Kingdom Hearts is a billion-dollar franchise Disney almost never made
Disney just named Kingdom Hearts among its nine billion-dollar gaming franchises. It’s a milestone for a series that only exists because Michael Eisner gave an offhand yes 25 years ago, a decision the former Disney CEO says he can’t even remember making.
Disney just called Kingdom Hearts a billion-dollar franchise. The wild part is that the whole thing traces back to a sentence a former Disney CEO doesn’t remember saying.
In a strategy piece this week, Disney Games listed Kingdom Hearts among nine franchises in its portfolio that have each crossed $1 billion, naming it alongside Marvel Strike Force as a marquee example. For the Square Enix-and-Disney crossover series, it’s the first time the company has publicly given it that particular badge.
But rewind 25 years, and this billion-dollar property was one shrug away from never happening.
What Disney actually said about Kingdom Hearts
Disney Games EVP Sean Shoptaw said the portfolio includes “nine games that have grossed over $1 billion at retail,” and pointed to Kingdom Hearts and Marvel Strike Force as examples. The phrasing is a little muddy, some read it as nine individual games, but in context Disney is describing billion-dollar franchises, and Kingdom Hearts is named as one of them.
Given the series has been releasing games for nearly 24 years across more than a dozen titles, it almost certainly crossed the billion-dollar line quietly years ago. So this is less breaking financial news and more Disney formally handing the franchise its flowers, conveniently timed to a Kingdom Hearts deep-dive panel at D23 and the fourth mainline game on the horizon.
Disney has officially confirmed: Kingdom Hearts is a billion-dollar brand, which makes how it got made even funnier.
Michael Eisner doesn’t remember greenlighting Kingdom Hearts
The man who approved Kingdom Hearts was then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner.
He doesn’t remember greenlighting it.
Game File reporter Stephen Totilo recently caught Eisner and asked whether he remembered saying yes to a game called Kingdom Hearts. Eisner said no. Totilo jogged him, reminding him it was pitched in Tokyo as Final Fantasy plus Disney characters. “Oh, I remember now,” Eisner said. Then, asked why he approved it, he couldn’t say.
So the origin of a billion-dollar franchise is a yes so casual the man who gave it forgot he had.
Kingdom Hearts was almost cancelled before it started
Here’s the part that makes and Eisner’s shrug a gesture that saved an iconic game from the trash.
The story, told years ago by former Disney executive Shuji Utsumi, is that Kingdom Hearts was already in development at Square before anyone senior at Disney had actually approved it. Square had only been dealing with Disney’s Japan office, and nobody there had run it up the ladder. Longtime Disney Japan staff reportedly told Utsumi to start preparing the cancellation.
Instead, Utsumi lined up support and got the project in front of Eisner and Bob Iger during a trip to Tokyo. Eisner, by Utsumi’s account, offered a bit of encouragement, something like “keep at it, and do it right.” The executives in the room took that as the greenlight, the roadblocks fell, and the game shipped on PS2 in 2002.
That’s it. That’s the billion-dollar decision. A vague word of encouragement in a room full of managers.
Why this matters now
With Disney announcing the franchise as being over $1 billion and Disney and Square Enix are running a Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts panel at D23 on August 15 it’s interesting.
Anyone can watch the Deep Dive into Kingdom Hearts panel because it will be streamed on YouTube.
Man fans are expecting news on Kingdom Hearts IV.
There’s also a collection of the Kingdom Hearts games hitting PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch 2 on October 8.
Rumors of a Kingdom Hearts crossover coming to Fortnite through Disney’s Epic partnership are also swirling and likely.
Disney is putting real weight behind Kingdom Hearts right as it heads into its next chapter, which is exactly when you’d want to remind everyone the series makes a billion dollars.
Twenty-five years ago, a franchise Disney now counts among its most valuable was one unenthusiastic shrug away from cancellation, saved by a CEO who can’t recall lifting a finger. Today it’s a billion-dollar brand getting its own D23 panel. Eisner may not remember the decision. Disney’s accountants definitely do.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
The Walt Disney Company (August 13, 2026), the games strategy piece naming Kingdom Hearts among nine billion-dollar franchises and the Shoptaw quote
Nintendo Life and GamesRadar (August 13, 2026), the billion-dollar-franchise framing, the wording nuance, and the D23 panel context
Push Square and ComicBasics (August 13, 2026), the “nine games versus nine franchises” quote ambiguity
Game File (July 2026), Stephen Totilo’s reporting on the Eisner exchange
Otocoto via Kingdom Hearts Insider (2020), Shuji Utsumi’s account of the near-cancellation and Eisner’s greenlight