Kodoani.com – Mobile data statistics company Sensor Tower announced the mobile game sales rankings in Japan for the first half of 2023. Monster Strike, with sales of $350 million, overtook Uma Musume Pretty Derby to take the No. 1 spot.
Compared to the second half of 2022, the revenue of Fate/Grand Order has improved and this still helps the game to be in the Top 3.
Honkai: Star Rail is the game with the most spectacular debut in the first half of 2023 in Japan when it is the game with the highest growth rate of revenue and downloads. Honkai: Star Rail also ranked 4th in the Top 10 mobile games with the most downloads in the first half of 2023, led by Blue Lock Project: World Champion.
The first half of 2023 seems to be a great time for gacha games as GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE also achieved impressive sales in Japan. NIKKE ranked 7th in the TOP 10 mobile games with the highest revenue and 2nd in the list of games with the strongest growth rate. It should be noted that the Japanese market contributes to 60% of NIKKE’s total sales.
Genshin Impact hasn’t lived up to its peak in Japan, especially since NIKKE had a pretty great first half of 2023 that has somewhat overwhelmed Genshin. However, Genshin Impact continues to appear in the TOP 10 in 8th place. There is still time for Genshin Impact to improve sales in Japan.
It seems that Japanese players are gradually tending to prefer foreign games, especially in the gacha game segment. The success of Honkai: Star Rail and GODDESS OF VICTORY: NIKKE in the first half of 2023 partly proves it. And if you pay attention on the sales growth rate chart, you can see the appearance of Blue Archive, another foreign gacha game that is also being successful in Japan.
The fact that publishers in China and Korea like Hoyoverse or Yostar have known how to capture the psychology of Japanese players has made them take a large part of Japanese players from domestic games. Of course, it’s still too early to say that foreign games can topple Japanese games right now, because games like Uma Musume: Pretty Derby and Fate/Grand Order are fiercely competitive, but they’re still there. always create a stable amount of revenue, sometimes even suddenly breaking up.
Theo: Kodoani.com
