Japan’s PC gaming inhabitants has decreased by 3 million prior to now decade, research recommend

Famitsu lately revealed a preview of the 2025 version of the Famitsu Game Hakusho – a yearly publication by Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories that compiles knowledge on the Japanese and world recreation business. The 2025 version signifies that Japan’s PC gaming inhabitants is smaller in the present day than it was ten years in the past, though the newest 12 months noticed a slight rebound. 

According to Famitsu Game Hakusho 2025, the Japanese recreation market grew by 3.4% between 2023 and 2024, reaching an estimated 2,396 billion yen (over $16 billion USD). The home gamer inhabitants (console, PC and cellular avid gamers aged between 5 and 59) counted an estimated 54.7 million folks – a slight lower in comparison with the earlier 12 months’s 55.5 million. 

A breakdown by platform exhibits that almost all of Japanese avid gamers had been cellular customers (42.77 million folks), adopted by console customers (29.51 million) and lastly, PC customers (14.52 million). These figures aren’t mutually unique, as many customers play on a couple of platform.

While the variety of lively PC avid gamers elevated barely in 2024 in comparison with the earlier 12 months’s 14.45 million, this stays nicely beneath figures from 2015. As annual figures from the Famitsu Game Hakusho 2015 point out, console and cellular avid gamers in Japan have elevated prior to now ten years (26.12 million → 29.51 million; 14.11 million → 42.77 million folks respectively), whereas PC avid gamers have decreased by 3 million (17.49 million →14.52 million). 

While there have been fluctuations in between, no 12 months succeeding 2015 noticed the PC inhabitants exceed 17.49 million once more (for the report, the determine in 2014 was even greater at 20.37 million). The causes for this long-term shift aren’t clear-cut. While PC gaming’s visibility in Japan has undoubtedly grown via the rise of Steam, different elements, corresponding to the recognition of cellular gaming, could also be influencing participant preferences. 

Hardware pricing might additionally play a job, although the timing doesn’t align completely with the decade-long decline. As reported by The Nikkei in June 2025, costs of pre-built desktop PCs in Japan have risen by 40% prior to now six years, whereas some particular person PC elements have greater than tripled in worth over the identical interval. 

Moreover, as reported by Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association (JEITA) introduced in January 2024 that the variety of home PC shipments all through 2023 was 6.667 million models, a 2.9% lower in comparison with the earlier 12 months. This was the third consecutive 12 months of declining PC gross sales, and the bottom determine since 2007 (when JEITA began recording knowledge). It is value noting that 2024 saw a spike in PC sales (8.3 million models), however JEITA considers this to be a results of corporations and authorities companies changing PCs forward of the scheduled finish of assist for Windows 10 this 12 months. On the opposite hand, the group predicted that, with elements rising extra refined, PC costs are unlikely to fall, which implies they are going to proceed to be way more inaccessible to Japanese avid gamers in comparison with modern-gen consoles.

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