Honkai: Star Rail reportedly recorded over 200-million-dollar revenue growth in Japan in 2023

Sensor Tower Japan published an analysis of Japan’s mobile game market in 2023. According to the report, overseas publishers dominated the market in terms of annual revenue growth, and Chinese publisher miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail ranked first with their growth exceeding $200 million. 

The analysis report published by Sensor Tower Japan on January 10, 2024 provides interesting insights into Japan’s mobile game market for the period from January to December 2023. It seems that 2023 was a year of remarkable growth for foreign publishers in Japan, both in terms of downloads and revenue. 

The top four most downloaded mobile games of 2023 were all published by overseas companies, and while Japanese publishers such as KONAMI, Bandai Namco Entertainment and CyberAgent did dominate in terms of total revenue, the expansion of overseas publishers can be seen clearly in terms of revenue growth, especially in the case of publishers such as Tencent, miHoYo and Yostar. 

miHoYo’s Honkai: Star Rail ranked first in the “revenue growth by game” category, and was the only title that experienced revenue growth exceeding $200 million. Japan is one of the largest revenue generators for Honkai: Star Rail, and also has the highest average revenue per download at $60. 

South Korean title Goddess of Victory: Nikke came in second with a similarly significant revenue growth, and a total of six overseas titles made up the top ten ranking. Sensor Tower comments that there was a noticeable expansion of foreign publishers in in Japan in 2023 compared to the previous year.