INTERNATIONAL_ According to a report From Newzoo, Japan’s game industry generated $22.1 billion in revenue in 2021.
In terms of revenue and players, the most popular gaming platform in Japan is mobile, followed by console and PC, according to this unit.
Top popular mobile games in Japan
The leading game genre in Japan is RPG, with free-to-play mobile RPGs like Fate/Grand Order and Genshin Impact keeping players engaged for a long time. Of the 1,141 respondents, more than half said their favorite game setting was fantasy. From here, it can be seen that the deep interest of game makers in the fantasy role-playing game genre.
Single Player is the most popular game mode in Japan, compared with the most popular game mode in 33 other markets surveyed in the shooter category.
Newzoo found that the top purpose of gaming in Tokyo, Japan is to relax and unwind, with 50% of those surveyed. However, this is lower than the national average of 63%.
The second reason for gaming is fill time, which at 49% is again below the global average of 55%. Both of these reasons are not typical for a market focused on mobile games like cherry blossom country.
Many people play games in Japan mainly because they like the game’s plot
However, the third most popular reason for many people to play the game, accounting for 45%, is to explore the game’s plot. This reason is higher than the global average of 38%, it is not surprising that the top genre in Japan is RPG so the plot element is extremely strong in the game.
The drivers for the lowest scores reflect that Japanese gamers are less interested in gaming to socialize, with only 13% saying this is the reason (compared to 25% globally). Lower popularity of competitive shooters in Japan, Apex Legends from Respawn Entertainment, according to reports.
In a related development, Newzoo announced its results that 95% of gamers in Africa use mobile as their platform of choice, with South Africa being the biggest spender on games.
