Mobile is king in Japan’s gaming market, there can be no doubt about that.
In terms of market size, mobile gaming has become about 3x bigger than console gaming in Japan over the last decade.
But what about Japan’s PC gaming market, long considered a niche?
Japan’s PC Game Market Is Becoming Bigger
For the longest time, the leading industry data providers in Japan either didn’t bother to release numbers on the size of the Japanese PC game market or buried them at the end of their reports somewhere.
This is now changing.
According to Japanese think tank KADOKAWA ASCII Research Laboratories, Japan’s overall gaming market was worth around 2 trillion yen in 2021 (console hardware and software, smartphone and PC games combined).
The sum currently translates to just US$13.7 billion – but note the yen has been falling drastically in 2021.
KADOKAWA ASCII says that Japan’s PC gaming market in particular was worth 131.3 billion yen (US$896 million) that year.
Now, what’s interesting is that the size of the PC gaming market in 2021 roughly doubled versus 2018 – so there is definitely significant growth here.
Gamers In Japan Are More Accepting Of The PC Than Ever
KADOKAWA ASCII also says there were 16 million PC game users in Japan in 2021 – among a total gamer base of 55.4 million people (Japan’s population was around 126 million last year).
Here, too, a comparison provides more context: in 2015, the same company identified just 11 million PC gamers in Japan – so the number grew a whopping 45% by 2021 (the total gamer population back then was just 45 million – so it grew by just 22%).
Going back to 2021, KADOKAWA ASCII says of those 16 million PC gamers in Japan, 4.5 million played exclusively on that platform (while the others also played on consoles or smartphones).
That number is up an incredible 100% up from 2.2 million PC-exclusive Japanese gamers in 2015.
Multiple Factors Behind The PC Gaming Boom In Japan
So what happened?
Japan actually has a rich history of early PC games that started on home-grown computers around the early 1980s.
It is correct that soon after, consoles and later smartphones took over, but PC gaming was really never dead in Japan and its niche character has always been a bit exaggerated in my view.
As just one example, DeNA (2432) was successful in scaling a PC-based social gaming platform in Japan to over 10 million users around 10 years ago.
The main factors behind the current boom are:
- Corona effects (enlarging the user base of gamers in Japan overall, with the tide also spilling over to the PC)
- The continued lack of availability of the PS5 in Japan, leading some hardcore users to turn to PCs to play high-fidelity games
- A growing acceptance of foreign and indie games, which are more accessible and often cheaper on Steam or the Epic store (PUBG was a particularly big driver for Japan’s PC gaming scene around 2017/2018)
- Improved local PC gaming platforms, i.e. that of DMM that wisely took PUBG to Japan early on (the game moved from DMM to Japan’s Steam store in 2021)
- Simply more availability of Japan-made PC games, driven by new insight of Japan’s studios such as Capcom (9697) that this platform can be actually very lucrative (Steam in particular is among the standard launch platforms for many Japanese studios nowadays, something very rare just a few years ago)
- Rare but existing home-grown PC-first hits like Final Fantasy 14 or Kantai Collection
- The rise of blockchain gaming in Japan (most such games are still computer-only, and Japan has a healthy community of blockchain enthusiasts)
- Steam has a drastically improved store front for the Japanese audience and expanded its presence (the first iterations several years ago were terrible and didn’t even offer prices in yen, for example – but the usability is now much better, physical Steam top-up cards are available everywhere in Japan etc.)
- Smartphone hits like Uma Musume from CyberAgent (4751), Memento Mori from Bank Of Innovation (4393) or Heaven Burns Red from GREE (3632) are increasingly present on the PC as well, in some cases on day one
- etc.
The list above is not complete, and I am fully aware not every point set the PC gaming market in Japan on fire by itself – but the individual factors combined certainly have been and still are self-reinforcing themselves over time.
I believe the trend to a bigger PC game industry in Japan will continue in the next several years.
For example, Valve says that Japan not only finally entered Steam’s top 10 country ranking but currently boasts one of the highest growth rates worldwide.
As another interesting factoid, 40 of the 60 games showcased by Japan’s big 6 video game studios at this year’s Tokyo Game Show were compatible with Steam – as opposed to just 38 for PS5 (according to a check by The Nikkei).
For foreign PC game makers specifically, there can be no doubt it has never been simpler to enter the Japanese market than today.
