Generally speaking, Japan has always been a tough nut to crack for Western mobile game developers: In my experience of over 15 years working in this business, only China is more difficult to enter.
But there is also a handful of European and American companies that are very successful in this country.
Needless to say, mobile gaming is very dynamic and things change quickly, but there is the following group of studios that was able to place games in the top 100 grossing in Japan.
The Top 9 Western Studios In Japan’s Mobile Gaming Market
The absolute No. 1 in that list is Playrix (HQ: Ireland) whose mega hits Gardenscapes, Homescapes, Fishdom, and Township currently chart in that top 100 ranking.
Playrix generates a few hundred million dollars in year in Japan in revenue, more than even many big local and publicly traded companies – and without a local subsidiary! I rarely say this, but this is a fantastic accomplishment.
One runner-up is Niantic (USA), which is not only still successful with Pokemon Go but also managed to turn Monster Hunter Now into a decent-sized, sustainable hit. Even Pikmin Bloom is making money in (admittedly Pikmin- and GPS game-crazy) Japan. Niantic’s performance is of course also based on the fact they use Japanese IP in these apps and that they opened a subsidiary in Tokyo as early as 2015.
Another very successful company is Dream Games (Türkiye) whose Royal Match is not only regularly among the top grossing apps on the planet but also steadily among the top 10 grossing games in Japan, at least around the time of writing. That is very, very hard – and Dream Games has no local office.
Activision (USA) is also big in Japan with Call Of Duty Mobile. The app has been an instant hit from launch, and it’s still among the top grossing titles on mobile today. The company used some Japan-focused collaborations to promote the game among local users.
Peak (Türkiye) managed to launch an early hit in Japan with Toon Blast and – what is even harder – managed to keep the puzzle game up in the grossing charts for a few years now. One factor here is that Peak is among the very few foreign companies in this list that advertised their game on national TV – without a local office.
King (UK) also advertised Candy Crush on TV in Japan, but that was way, way back in 2013. Candy Crush had a lot of ups and downs in the country since, but the app often sits among the top 100 grossing games. King has no office in Japan anymore.
Supercell (Finland) has certainly seen better days in Japan but generally, at least one of the company’s high quality titles is among the top 100 grossing games. Around the time of writing, these are Brawl Stars and Clash Royale – despite Supercell closing their Tokyo office years ago.
For a long time, Roblox (USA) had a hard time bringing their platform to Japan, but the company is certainly making progress now. Some local studios like Sega have started supplying games, and there are now even Roblox-only startup studios popping up in Japan. Operations in Tokyo are led by ex-Google and ex-Sony executive Junichiro Tsuji. As a result, Roblox is now becoming a solid entry in Japan’s top grossing charts, and I think the trend will only continue.
Merge Mansion, the 2020 debut of Metacore (Finland) never really set Japan on fire but has been a regular entry in the country’s top 100 grossing ranking for a few years now. The company has no local presence.
It must be noted that most of the European and American games mentioned above typically “just” move in the top 30 to top 100 grossing band.
In other words, it remains tough for a Western-made mobile game to open Japan’s real treasure trove, namely the top 10 – which roughly account for 30%+ of Japan’s overall mobile gaming revenue.
This is not impossible: Pokemon Go was such a top 10 game for years, and Royal Match currently has the biggest chance of becoming the next one.
