The top three titles in annual sales of mobile games in Japan were static from 2017 to 2020: Monster Strike by Mixi, Puzzles and Dragons by Gungho, and Fate/Grand Order by Type-Moon. Monster Strike was first released in 2013, Puzzles and Dragons in 2012 and Fate/Grand Order in 2015.
The Nintendo Switch static console, which saw dynamic current value growth even in its fourth year in 2020, maintained this high level of sales, and even continued to see growth in 2021. Growth in 2020 was strongly supported by the console’s great fit with home seclusion, and the popularity of the software Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Despite seeing dynamic growth in 2021, PlayStation 5 could not grow as well as expected. Sales in 2021 did not reach the level forecast, not even reaching one million units in Japan.
Before Nintendo Switch, Nintendo used to have different hardware lines for static and hand-held consoles. For example, in static consoles, Super Famicom, known as Super NES in Western markets, was sold along with Gameboy, a hand-held console.
It may have been a little later than other developed countries, but the momentum of computer-based games is starting to return in Japan, with the rate of decline slowing and set to remain minimal in the forecast period. Gaming computers are seeing an increase in sales year over year, whilst platforms such as Steam to enjoy games on a computer, or YouTube to enjoy watching play-by-play videos by professional esports players, by famous people on TV or by pure YouTubers, have expanded.
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Video Games
This is the aggregation of video games hardware and video games software. Electronic/computerised educational toys such as Speak & Spell and LeapFrog are excluded from video games and included under pre-school. Video gaming population refers to the population that played a game at least once in the last 6 months on any covered platform. This includes players who have not spent any money on game purchases or in-game content purchases.
See All of Our DefinitionsThis report originates from Passport, our Video Games research and analysis database.
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