Japan's mobile game installs and spending rose in Q1 2024
Video games continue to dominate all consumer spending on mobile, accounting for eight out of ten highest grossing apps
Japan's mobile market is showing signs of growth after a slight decline in 2023, with games enjoying a stronger performance than the wider apps market.
A new report by Adjust, in collaboration with Sensor Tower, shows that while the number of app installs in Japan was down by just 1% year-on-year in 2023, Q1 2024 showed a 3% increase when compared to Q4 2023.
Similarly, consumer spending remained largely flat last year when you account for the fluctuations in the Japanese yen's value. But Q1 2024 is already showing a 3.5% increase in spending compared to Q4 2023.
Looking at games specifically, Q1 installs grew by 18% compared to the previous quarter, while spending rose by 2.23%.
Japanese smartphone users are also playing more, with the average session for mobile gaming rising from 26.37 minutes back in 2022 to 27.37 minutes in Q1 2024.
When it comes to the most downloaded apps, only two games can be found in the Top Ten: Hortor Games' management title Fatgoose Gym at No.5, and Joy Nice Games' RPG Legend of Mushroom.
However, when it comes to consumer spending, video games dominate the top ten with eight titles. The highest grossing is Monster Strike at No.2, beaten only by digital comics app Piccoma.
Other high-grossing games include Uma Musume Pretty Derby, Fate/Grand Order, Professional Baseball Spirits A, Dragon Ball Z Dokkn Battle, Puzzle & Dragons, Dragon Quest Walk and Honkai Star Rail. The vast majority of these are developed in Japan.
Total mobile consumer spending in 2023 reached $17.9 billion, putting Japan in third behind China and the US.
The report also offered insight into the Japanese mobile audience, with 73% of the population regularly using a smartphone.
The gaming audience is 63.6% male, although the gender distribution varies in different genres; for example, 58.9% of arcade game users are women.
More than a third (35.5%) of players are aged between 25 and 34, which is both the biggest group and the segment with the highest engagement across most genres.
There's also a relatively even split between the operating systems, with 55% of players on iOS and 45% on Android.
You can see the most downloaded and the highest-grossing games below:
