Japan accounts for almost a quarter of global mobile spend from App Store and Google Play

Mobile analyst Sensor Tower has just published a report showing that Japan continues to spend huge amounts on mobile games. Looking at the year to date (and what a year it’s been for mobile revenue) Japan accounted for 22 per cent  of all global mobile game player spending from the App Store and Google Play.

That means the country is securely in the No.2 spot globally after the US in terms of total spending – Japan did hold the No.1 spot up until 2018. Although, it must be noted that spending in China (most notably) largely comes from non-platform stores, such as Tencent’s Myapp. China accounts for 18 per cent of revenues from iOS alone, with Android revenues undoubtedly moving it into the top spot. 

Based on the year-to-date figures, five of the world’s top 20 revenue-generating games publishers were from Japan. And since January 2014, Monster Strike from Mixi and Puzzle & Dragons from GungHo Online Entertainment have generated a combined $13.7 billion in revenues.

While so far in 2020, revenue for the top 10 Japanese games overseas has hit $814.5 million, accounting for 1.7% of global revenue outside of Japan. Although they remain far  more dominant in their home market.

Craig Chapple of Sensor Tower commented “Impressively, Japanese publishers continue to maintain a hold over the local app stores when it comes to player spending. Over the last five years, eight of the top ten revenue-generating mobile games in Japan were from Japanese publishers, with seven of those accumulating more than $1 billion in that time. Pokémon GO from Niantic was also a top 10 grosser, and while it was developed by a U.S. developer, the IP has its roots firmly in Japan.”