Japanese Gaming Market Hit Record High in 2014
It’s never been a better time to be a Japanese gaming company – at least if you’re involved in mobile gaming. Japanese gaming magazine and sales tracker Famitsu has just released their annual report on the state of Japan’s gaming industry, publishing the numbers that show the industry’s total revenue for the year. Total industry sales in 2014 reached nearly 1.2 trillion yen, up 48 billion yen from 2013. This increase was driven entirely by mobile gaming revenue, while revenue from console based gaming in hit it’s lowest point in 24 years.
Total mobile revenue for 2014 hit 715.4 billion yen, while dedicated gaming consoles, including handhelds and software, topped out at 403.9 billion yen. Bringing up the rear was PC-based gaming revenue, at 73.2 billion yen, a decrease from previous years.
The Japanese have always been big mobile gamers, beginning with games downloaded onto feature phones in the early 2000’s. However, it was the smartphone boom nearly a decade later that thrust mobile gaming from a small slice of the gaming market to being it’s primary revenue generator. While traditional gaming revenues have fallen, in recent years the strength of the mobile market has been enough to offset the loss of revenue while still growing the market.
