Japan’s game market grew steadily in 2023, with the PC game market expanding by 25%

On August 22, Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories released its comprehensive report on the Japanese game market in 2023 (as reported by Gamebiz). Sales of consoles and PC games in particular rose significantly, with overall active player numbers starting to recover from the previous year’s slight decline.

In 2023, sales of home consoles in Japan grew by 27.5% compared to the previous year. The report highlighted the PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch as the drivers of this increase. Despite being 7 years old and with a successor on the way, the Switch recently sold 2 million units in just 3 months, according to Nintendo’s Q1 financial results. PC game sales were also up, increasing by 24.9%.

Graph showing Japan's game market growth from 2004 to 2023 — Bar graph showing the growth of the game market in Japan between 2004 and 2023 in units of a hundred million yen. Blue: Online platforms, Green: Software for home usage (including online games), Pink: Home consoles. (image source: Gamebiz/Famitsu Game Hakusho 2024)

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With all these extra hardware purchases, it’s no surprise that the number of active gamers in Japan has also increased, rising by 2.8% to approx. 55.5 million people. This number includes console gamers, PC players and app game users. Notably, the number of app game users increased by 10% and console game users rose by 4% in 2023. The coronavirus pandemic set off a trend of people in many countries worldwide taking advantage of social distancing measures to focus on gaming and other entertainment. Japan was no exception, however, the gradual removal of social distancing advisories caused active gamer numbers to drop a little in 2022. However, it seems that these numbers have recovered somewhat in 2023.

Venn diagram showing the number of gamers in Japan in 2023 — *Venn diagram of active gamers in Japan in 2023. Overlaps indicate people who play games on multiple platforms. Pink: Home console users, Blue: PC game users, Green: App game users* (image source: Gamebiz/Famitsu Game Hakusho 2024).

In online gaming, Japan’s game app market declined for the third year in a row, dropping by 0.7% compared to 2022. With these slight year-on-year decreases, the app market appears to be flatlining. However, overall revenue from game content across online platforms has continued to grow year-on-year in 2023, with a 3.9% increase compared to the previous year.