{"id":65031,"date":"2026-04-10T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=65031"},"modified":"2026-04-10T15:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T06:03:11","slug":"japans-content-market-reached-a-record-high-in-2025-domestically-with-console-game-market-rebounding-after-2024-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japans-content-market-reached-a-record-high-in-2025-domestically-with-console-game-market-rebounding-after-2024-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s content market reached a record high in 2025 domestically, with\u00a0console\u00a0game\u00a0market\u00a0rebounding after 2024 decline\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>According to research published by Human Media&nbsp;on April 9&nbsp;(reported by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/gamebiz.jp\/news\/424075\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">GameBiz<\/a>), Japan\u2019s domestic content market reached a record high in&nbsp;2025, valued at&nbsp;approximately&nbsp;15.86&nbsp;trillion yen&nbsp;(over $99.7 billion USD). This is a 4% increase from the previous year, making 2025 the sixth consecutive year of growth since 2020.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking at individual industries, online content (such as video and music streaming) and online advertising saw the biggest growth, with their joint value exceeding half of the\u00a0domestic\u00a0market.\u00a0Japan\u2019s\u00a0console game market\u00a0(physical software),\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/japan-console-market-2024-shrunk-by-over-30-percent-bringing-an-end-to-4-consecutive-years-of-growth\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">which\u00a0declined\u00a0in 2024<\/a>,\u00a0saw a return to an upward trend, accounting for 17% of the content market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u00a0A\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/0115765.com\/archives\/167871\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">January report<\/a>\u00a0from Kadokawa Game Linkage estimated that\u00a0the domestic console game market\u00a0(software <em>and<\/em> hardware) grew 138.8% year-on-year\u00a0in 2025, reaching 418.13 billion yen. Since these figures are based on physical game sales and hardware sales (excluding\u00a0digital sales,\u00a0DLC\u00a0and in-game purchases), the actual market value was\u00a0likely larger.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The growth of the console market is, of course, attributed to the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, which sold 3.784 million units in Japan&nbsp;between its June launch and the&nbsp;end of 2025,&nbsp;while the original&nbsp;Switch sold an&nbsp;additional&nbsp;1.52 million units. The best-selling physical&nbsp;games&nbsp;in Japan&nbsp;were Mario Kart World at 2.668 million units and Pok\u00e9mon Legends: Z-A, a&nbsp;2.534 million units.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Related:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/the-switch-2s-cheaper-japan-only-model-may-be-generating-loss-of-160-per-unit-for-nintendo-japanese-analyst-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>The&nbsp;Switch 2\u2019s&nbsp;cheaper, Japan-only model&nbsp;may be&nbsp;generating&nbsp;loss&nbsp;of $160 per unit&nbsp;for Nintendo,&nbsp;Japanese analyst&nbsp;says<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/news\/is-japans-console-and-mobile-game-market-shrinking-in-favor-of-pc-games\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Are Japan\u2019s console and mobile game markets shrinking in favor of PC games? Developers discuss<\/strong><\/a><strong><\/strong>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to research by Human Media, the domestic Japanese content market was worth\u00a015.86\u00a0trillion yen in 2025, growing by 4% compared to 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":55,"featured_media":65034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-65031","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>Japan\u2019s content market reached a record high in 2025 domestically, with\u00a0console\u00a0game\u00a0market\u00a0rebounding after 2024 decline\u00a0 - AUTOMATON WEST<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to research by Human Media, the domestic Japanese content market was worth\u00a015.86\u00a0trillion yen in 2025, growing by 4% compared to 2024.\" \/>\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\/japans-content-market-reached-a-record-high-in-2025-domestically-with-console-game-market-rebounding-after-2024-decline\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Japan\u2019s content market reached a record high in 2025 domestically, with\u00a0console\u00a0game\u00a0market\u00a0rebounding after 2024 decline\u00a0 - 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Currently devoted to growing Automaton West to the size of its Japanese sister-site, while making sure to keep news concise and developer stories deep and stimulating.","url":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/author\/amber-vjestica\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65031","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\/55"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65031"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65036,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65031\/revisions\/65036"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}