{"id":37201,"date":"2024-09-18T16:35:36","date_gmt":"2024-09-18T07:35:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=37201"},"modified":"2024-09-18T16:35:38","modified_gmt":"2024-09-18T07:35:38","slug":"blue-archive-earns-over-70-percent-of-its-revenue-from-japan-but-whos-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-earns-over-70-percent-of-its-revenue-from-japan-but-whos-playing\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Archive earns over 70% of its revenue from Japan, but who&#8217;s playing?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Nexon Games\u2019 <strong>Blue Archive <\/strong>may have released in Japan over 3 and a half years ago, but it still retains a loyal following. According to a report by <a href=\"https:\/\/sensortower.com\/ja\/blog\/blue-archive-three-and-half-anniversary\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sensor Tower<\/a> published on September 17, 2024, the South Korean mobile game\u2019s biggest market by a long shot is Japan, both in terms of active players and revenue.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Nexon Games\u2019 Blue Archive is a free-to-play visual novel meets RPG with gacha elements. It was first released in Japan back in February 2021, with a global release later in the same year. The player becomes a Sensei tasked with helping the academic city state of Kivotos avoid all manner of threats. To do this, you must assemble and mobilize units of six students. The characters are drawn in a cute, appealing anime style, however a lot of the game\u2019s enduring appeal is the students\u2019 different personalities and Blue Archives\u2019 complex lore and detailed story.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"688\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-001.jpg\" alt=\"Blue Archive download and revenue share by market pie charts Sensor Tower\" class=\"wp-image-37203\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-001.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-001-380x218.jpg 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-001-768x440.jpg 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Blue Archive&#8217;s market share. The piechart on the left shows the percentage of downloads by country and the chart on the right shows revenue share. Japan is indicated in green.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-palette-color-10-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e0216667a4f20e9643e68ab1c90509e7\" style=\"font-size:1px\">.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Sensor Tower\u2019s report on Blue Archive spanned from its February 4, 2021 release date in Japan up to August 3, 2024. It shows that Japan accounts for 34% of all Blue Archive downloads, and 72% of total revenue- making it the game\u2019s largest market in the world. The average amount each downloader in Japan spent was over $45 USD. Although the high number of players in Japan is enough to make the country Blue Archive\u2019s top earning market, South Korean and American players tended to spend more in-game. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, who is dropping money on Blue Archive in Japan? As of Q2 of 2024, the game\u2019s playerbase in the country is 90% male. Those aged 25 to 34 make up the largest percentage of Blue Archive players, closely followed by those in the 18 to 24 bracket. The game has a high user retention rate and the number of active monthly users in Japan has continued on a steady upward trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"689\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" src=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-002.png\" alt=\"Blue Archive player demographics in Japan Sensor Tower\" class=\"wp-image-37208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-002.png 1200w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-002-380x218.png 380w, https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-002-768x441.png 768w\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Blue Archive&#8217;s playerbase in Japan. The bar graph on the left shows the percentage of male (blue) and female (pink) players, while the graph on the right shows the percentage of players by age group.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The study also found that Blue Archive players were also likely to be into other games that prominently feature female characters and rich stories, including <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/20231214-24443\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Goddess of Victory: Nikke<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/bandai-namco-blends-slay-the-spire-like-gameplay-into-latest-idol-raising-sim\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gakuen Idolmaster<\/a> and Arknights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As a side note, Blue Archive has been getting a lot of attention lately due to <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-developers-new-title-project-kv-gets-cancelled\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a very similar (now cancelled) game project<\/a> launched by its former devs. <a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-devs-controversial-project-kv-gets-replaced-by-new-project-vk-right-after-its-cancellation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">In a plot twist, a completely different game is now being developed under a parody of the project&#8217;s title<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over three years on and Japan is still the South Korean VN\/RPG Blue Archive\u2019s biggest market, according to a detailed study.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":37202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-37201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Blue Archive earns over 70% of its revenue from Japan, but who&#039;s playing?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over three years on and Japan is still the South Korean VN\/RPG Blue Archive\u2019s biggest market, according to a detailed study.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-earns-over-70-percent-of-its-revenue-from-japan-but-whos-playing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Blue Archive earns over 70% of its revenue from Japan, but who&#039;s playing?\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over three years on and Japan is still the South Korean VN\/RPG Blue Archive\u2019s biggest market, according to a detailed study.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/blue-archive-earns-over-70-percent-of-its-revenue-from-japan-but-whos-playing\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"AUTOMATON WEST\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-18T07:35:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-18T07:35:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/20240918-37201-header.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"899\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@AUTOMATON_ENG\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Verity Townsend\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Blue Archive earns over 70% of its revenue from Japan, but who's playing?\u00a0 - 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She has a soft spot for old-school Sierra adventure games and Final Fantasy VIII (yes, 8!). Can often be found hunting down weird forgotten games and finding out everything about them. Frequently muses about characters and lines from Metal Gear Solid and Disco Elysium. Aims to keep Automaton fresh and interesting with a wide variety of articles.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/verity-townsend\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37201"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37216,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37201\/revisions\/37216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}