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Japanese mobile revenue up 35% year over year, mobile is 85% of Japanese game revenue

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
We got a new report from App Annie about Japanese mobile game revenue, and boy are things going well.

There's a bunch of extra images about what people are downloading at the link if you're curious about that versus just revenue and engagement numbers.

To note, AppAnnie tracks years from July to June instead of calendar years for the purposes of these charts.

https://www.appannie.com/en/insights/mobile-gaming/inside-japans-lucrative-mobile-games-market/

AppAnnie said:
Japan presents a compelling and growing opportunity for publishers of mobile games. Mobile gaming revenue in Japan grew approximately 35% year over year in the 12 months ending June 2017, surpassing that in the US for three years in a row.

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Click to expand...
 
C

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
Gotta establish the gambling addiction as early as possible.
 
P

PantsuJo

Member
Busaiku said:
Why has mobile gaming not taken off at all in Europe?
Click to expand...
Because we like real games. /s

Seriously, I can talk for my country (Italy): there is no real handheld/mobile culture here.

So few people plays on smartphone... And plays handheld as well, I'd say.
 
K

Kouriozan

Member
Busaiku said:
Why has mobile gaming not taken off at all in Europe?
Click to expand...
Lack of translations maybe? Everything is in Englosh plus we had to wait ages for stuff like Monster Strike and then they just stop the service.
Edit : nevermind, Monster Strike was never available in Europe.
 
D

DMiz

Member
This remains no surprise.

In a nation where working until you collapse is something that you bat an eye at (especially across several industries), where you sit on cramped trains and have limited personal time for yourself, games that let you play for pockets of time and are always on your person are going to remain the most popular format.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Koozek said:
As long as they sell in the West, who cares about Japan, see NieR: Automata, P5, Nioh etc. Times are changing, studios adapt.
Click to expand...

Yeah, major Japanese publishers generally focus on mobile for domestic and overseas for consoles/PC these days.

That said, they've expanded their mobile offerings to other regions as well since overseas locations are starting to pick them up a lot.
 
C

cw_sasuke

If all DLC came tied to $13 figurines, I'd consider all DLC to be free
nicoga3000 said:
I can't believe Monster Strike is still doing well. Makes me so sad how bad they fucked that game in the US.
Click to expand...

Game could have been big globally ..but they were just too greedy with the US release and didnt even try in europe.
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
I suspect Europe has a user conversion issue (getting players to pay money) as opposed to a usage issue given the amount of companies that make mobile games there.

I wouldn't be surprised if most revenue there was advertising driven casual games (which are less lucrative than midcore games, but can still pay the bills).
 
Z

zelas

Member
It'll be interesting to see these numbers next year in comparison to traditional revenue. With the Switch putting up less than 3DS numbers, and everything else flat or worse, I wonder if traditional revenue will continue to shrink under mobile or if the traditional japanese market will pull out of the "lowest in 26+ years" spiral and lead to mobile revenue finally reaching a lasting peak for the first time in forever. They have got to run out of people to monetize sooner or later. Has average spend per user been trending up as well?
 
N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
zelas said:
It'll be interesting to see these numbers next year in comparison to traditional revenue. With the Switch putting up less than 3DS numbers, and everything else flat or worse, I wonder if traditional revenue will continue to shrink under mobile or if the traditional japanese market will pull out of the "lowest in 26+ years" spiral and lead to mobile revenue finally reaching a lasting peak for the first time in forever. They have got to run out of people to monetize sooner or later. Has average spend per user been trending up as well?
Click to expand...

As for that 26+ year note, I should note that this is comparing mobile game revenue to console/PC/browser game revenue, whereas normally we compare mobile game revenue to combined console game + console hardware revenue (so the ratio is normally 75:25 instead of 85:15), so that might change even if the software situation doesn't just due to the Switch costing a lot of money.
 
N

Ninja Dom

Member
GasProblem said:
Don't know really. Don't think I've ever seen someone playing a mobile game in the train/bus/tram.
Click to expand...

In London there are casual players of mobile games all the time. I see tons of people on public transport playing simple puzzle games. No internet connection required.
 
P

Phoenix944

Member
I don't really understand this DBZ game success. I found it really dull to play, maybe I missed what makes the game good? I don't really know...
 
P

PantsuJo

Member
Ninja Dom said:
In London there are casual players of mobile games all the time. I see tons of people on public transport playing simple puzzle games. No internet connection required.
Click to expand...
My friend live in Manchester and he said me the same thing.

mobile/handheld culture is strong on UK, if I understand correctly.
 
H

Human Trashcan

Banned
Phoenix944 said:
I don't really understand this DBZ game success. I found it really dull to play, maybe I missed what makes the game good? I don't really know...
Click to expand...

No, you didn't. It exists as a fanservice product, and it's surprisingly good at being that despite how basic it is. As a game it's pretty lackluster.
 
P

Pachael

Member
Putting aside the categorization of the idol games as dating sims for a moment, I'm more surprised that that genre is toe-to-toe in revenue with the 'casual gaming' genre considering the big hitters like Candy Crush, Disney Tsum Tsum and primarily LINE games.

What else would qualify under the dating sims genre?
 
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