During 2025, 10.5% of Japanese people in their 20s experienced spending so much money on in-game items and gacha pulls they ended up facing financial hardship. While this may sound alarming, it’s actually better than last year, when this figure was at 18.8%. This data comes from an annual survey conducted by Japanese financing giant SMBC. With a sample of 1,000 Japanese men and women aged 20 to 29, the study examines the financial awareness and spending habits of young adults, with a good chunk of the statistics focusing on gaming and microtransactions.
In the past year, 19.2% of Japanese people in their 20s made in-game purchases (such as gacha, items etc.), with the average monthly sum being 5,080 yen per month, or about $32 USD (it is important to note though, that gacha game players are often quite polarized between big and conservative spenders). Interestingly, this means that compared to 2024, the percentage of young adults spending money on microtransactions has decreased overall (by 2.4%), while the average monthly sum has risen by about $5 USD.
As for the darker side of things, 18.8% of respondents regretted spending money on in-game purchases, and, like previously mentioned, 10.5% experienced financial hardship due to overspending on microtransactions. These statistics don’t come as a huge surprise given that the Japanese mobile game market is known for having “exceptionally high” ARPU (average revenue per user).
A 2025 analysis by Sensor Tower noted that despite the domestic market for mobile games shrinking in the past couple of years (when it comes to new player acquisition), the average spending per user has been high enough to offset the shrinkage. While 80% of downloads of Japanese mobile games comes from overseas, nearly 70% of revenue still comes from Japanese players. Not only that, but some gacha games developed overseas have found the biggest financial success among Japanese players. For example, by March 2025, 58% of The Goddess of Victory: NIKKE’s lifetime mobile revenue came from Japan.
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Fate/Grand Order’s average revenue per player is incomparable to other Japanese gacha, data shows
