Newzoo: Japan's gaming market will earn $22.1 billion by the end of the year
The Japanese gaming market is the third largest in the world. In a recent report, the analytical company Newzoo told how many gamers there are in the country now, which games they prefer and how much they will spend on them in 2021.
Final Fantasy VII RemakeKey data:
- There are 75.6 million gamers in Japan. According to Newzoo’s forecast, by the end of the year they will spend $22.1 billion on video games. Analysts did not compare this amount with last year, so the dynamics of the market is unknown. But note that in 2019, Japanese gamers spent about $19.2 billion – 13% less than now;
- mobile is the largest platform in the country, both in terms of revenue and the number of players. It is followed by consoles and PCs;
- As for consoles, the Nintendo Switch has become the undisputed leader here. As of November 21, over 22 million Switch devices have been sold in Japan. This is about a fifth of the sold copies of the Nintendo console worldwide;
- such a warm attitude to Switch has influenced the genres that the Japanese prefer. For example, local console gamers are less likely to play shooters than residents of other countries. In Japan, over the past six months, only 23% of console players have played shooters (in the world, this figure is 31%). According to analysts, the fact is that there are much fewer well-known titles in this genre on Switch than on PlayStation and Xbox;
The most popular genres on consoles over the past six monthsmost of all, the Japanese love RPG.
- This genre is leading on all platforms. On consoles, 46% of players choose it, on mobile — 36% of players, on PC — 32% of players;
- sympathy for RPG partly has historical roots. Recall that such cult franchises as Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest and Pokémon originated in Japan;
- simulators are also included in the top 3 most popular genres for all platforms;
Top 3 genres by the number of players on different platformsmost Japanese call fantasy the most interesting setting.
- Nevertheless, 25% of local gamers in general do not care in which setting the game will be;
- also, 37% of gamers do not care much about the artistic style of titles. But 38% of Japanese are still more likely to choose an anime game;
- In Japan, single-player mode is in much greater demand than multiplayer. This is again true for all platforms. On consoles and PCs, 45% of gamers play multiplayer projects from time to time, on mobile their share is less — 31%. At the same time, 74% of mobile gamers, 70% of console players and 65% of PC gamers play single-player titles;
The share of users in single-player and multiplayer games on different platformsHowever, individual multiplayer projects are still very popular in Japan.
- For example, Apex Legends. This game regularly ranks first in MAU in Japanese ratings for PlayStation, Xbox and Steam;
- analysts also suggest that in the future, the popularity of multiplayer in the country may grow. This is due to the growing interest of the Japanese in Xbox, where there are quite a lot of such games;
- half of the Japanese play to relax (for comparison, the share of such players in the world is 63%). Another popular reason is to kill time (49% in Japan versus 55% in the world). Completing the top three reasons is the desire to immerse yourself in the plot (45% in Japan versus 38% in the world).
