Japanese NSFW visual novel game breaks barriers for genre with 500,000 global sales 

Japanese developer Yuzusoft announced on February 19 that its bishōjo visual novel game Senren*Banka has sold over half a million copies worldwide. The award-winning game has received many positive reviews, setting a benchmark for future romance visual novels containing adult content. The censored version of the game is available on PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch. A free DLC that unlocks an unrated PC version can be downloaded on GOG. 

Senren*Banka is set in an idyllic village untouched by modernization. It boasts a traditional Japanese-style landscape and a hot spring resort. The town shrine’s top attraction is the Murasamemaru- a legendary sword stuck in a rock. The everyday guy protagonist Arichi Masaomi manages to get the sword out of the rock. He is now the Chosen One and must marry Tomotake Yoshino, the village’s shrine maiden. Along the way, he also gets to know three other girls in the village- each with their own branching storylines. In tackling the village’s mysterious curse, the player can choose which of the 4 girls to focus on, giving the game replayability as it is impossible to get the full story in one playthrough.  

Senren*Banka was originally released as an 18+ rated game in July 2016 for Windows to celebrate Yuzusoft’s 10^th anniversary. A censored version was later released for Steam in February 2020. The game’s sales subsequently surpassed 100,000 as of December 27, 2020. Senren*Banka’s censored release then came to the Nintendo Switch in May 2022. In October 2023, it was announced that sales for all versions of the game had surpassed 400,000 (Related article). This means that it achieved another 100,000 sales in just 4 months to reach the 500,000 mark in February 2024. 

The game’s multiple awards and consistently high positive reception have no doubt contributed to its commercial success. It has won awards in Japan for its art, characters and music. In 2016, it was a runner-up for the Moe Game Awards, and first in the overall ranking for Getchu’s Bishōjo Game Awards. At the time of writing, it has an Overwhelmingly Positive review score on Steam, with a staggering 99% of the 17,661 reviews being positive. Reviewers have praised the game’s unique storyline and characters.

Although the game was released on Steam several years ago, its popularity seems to be increasing recently. In the last quarter of 2023, Senren*Banka had a steady concurrent player base of around 1000. The number of players has continued to increase in 2024, going from around 1450 in January to a peak of 3,013 concurrent players on February 22, likely influenced by the mid-February sale (Source: SteamDB). 

Senren*Banka’s continued acquisition of new players explains how it was able to hit the half a million sales mark in February. Its popularity shows no signs of slowing down yet. 

Senren*Banka is available on PC (Steam/GOG) and Nintendo Switch. Free DLC that unlocks an unrated version can be downloaded on GOG. Its 43% off sales price ends on GOG today. 

Written by. Verity Townsend based on the original Japanese article (original article’s publication date: 2024-02-21 09:11 JST)