In 2021, "Horse Racing Lady" was a big hit in the Japanese mobile game market. Not only did it win the prize, but it also helped Cygames become the most profitable Japanese game publisher of the year.
However, in terms of the number of active users, "Horse Racing Lady" has no advantage over a number of Japanese mobile game "old drivers". LINE: Disney Go-to-See and Pokémon GO firmly occupy the top spot.
At the end of last year, Japanese market research firm Game Age (ゲームエイジ総研研) released a report on the "Ranking of Active Users of Japanese Mobile Games". Based on this data, we can have a clear understanding of the distribution of active users in the Japanese mobile game market.
【Data Summary】
Data on the active users of Japanese mobile games from January 1, 2021 to November 30, 2021
Refers to the maximum number of people who have launched the game in the above date range
■ The average person played mobile games for 453.5 hours, accounting for about 30% of the equipment startup time
From January to November 2021, the average running time of smartphone devices accumulated on the user side was 1563.4 hours per person (average 4.7 hours/person/day). Among them, the game users each 453.5 hours (1.4 hours / person a day average), equivalent to 30% of the equipment running time. That is to say, when users use smart mobile game devices, about 1/3 of the time is used to play games.
So the question is: in the large number of mobile games, which mobile game products do users choose to play?
■ "LINE: Disney Consumption" won the championship of active users for consecutive years, and its advantages are huge
"Horse Racing Lady" is a nail in the coffin, but the number of active users is nearly double that of LINE: Disney Elimination.
Since its launch in 2014, LINE: Disney's Consumer Watch has been the top spot in Japanese casual mobile games, both in the free list and the best-seller list. Backed by LINE's traffic, this product exceeded 10 million downloads in only 2 months after it was launched that year. Nearly 8 years have passed, and the competitiveness has declined slightly, but it can still play.
Game Age last ranked japanese mobile game active users in October 2020 (the statistics date is April to September 2020). According to the data, line: Disney consumers reached 7.21 million active users at that time. While the data suggests that the game's latest active users have slipped to 6.57 million, it is still well ahead of the second group.
Horse Racing Lady is the only new game on the Top10 list to launch in 2021, ranking 4th with 3.47 million active users. 9th Place", "Disney Twisted Wonderland" and 10th place "World Project Color Stage!" feat. Hatsune Mirai's two products also entered the Active Users Top 10 list for the first time.
■ Female players like "LINE: Disney Elimination" the most, and male players are more fraternal
Male and female users, preferences are different.
The high number of male players active is basically the best-selling mobile games in the Japanese market. For example, the top 6 "Monster Marbles", "Horse Racing Lady", "Zhilong Maze", "Pokémon GO", "LINE: Disney Elimination", "FGO" are all best-selling mobile games. The 7th-place "Soul of Professional Baseball A" is also a favorite sports theme for male players, and the 9th place "Dragon Ball Z Burst War" is also the same.
In terms of female players, the top few active users are mostly casual puzzle games. In addition to the "popular lover" Pokémon GO, 4 of the Top 10 products are elimination games. Line: Disney Consumer Watch has 4.448 million active users, far ahead. Overall ranked #9, Disney Twisted Wonderland also ranks 4th among women with more than 1.5 million active users.
(Ranking of active users of Japanese mobile games by age group)
Further subdivided, the characteristics of each age group are more distinct. For example, the younger the age (10 to 19 years old), the more they like the "idol faction"; the core player consumer group (20 to 39 years old) follows the trend of the Japanese mobile game market; the older (over 40 years old) the more they prefer casual games; Japan has a considerable group of players over 50 years old.
1、
Among the player groups, the 1st place "Monster Marbles" and the 2nd place "Zhilong Maze" are both Japanese national king road mobile games that have been popular with users for many years. And "World Plan Color Stage feat. Hatsune Mirai (3rd place) and BanG Dream! Girl Orchestra Party! (6th place) Such a music game can be ranked in the top ten, which shows the attractiveness of "idol pie" for young players.
2、
Among the player groups, the top four "Horse Racing Lady", "Fate/Grand Order", "Monster Marbles", and "Zhilong Maze" are the best-selling mobile games in Japan. Among them, "Horse Racing Lady" and "Fate/Grand Order", as well as the 7th place "Disney Twisted Wonderland", the 10th place from the Yoyo Network's "Sparrow Soul", are all games that focus on the appearance of male or female characters.
3、
From this player base, LINE: Disney Dead End began to establish its own active user advantage. Players in this age group are relatively widely involved, both like casual games and love national games, in addition to "Pokémon GO" and "Dragon Quest Walk" and other AR mobile games with IP are also fond of.
4、
The players are the core user group of LINE: Disney Consumer Watch, with more than 1.9 million. At the same time, it has some similarities, such as pokémon GO and Dragon Quest Walk in the Top 10 rankings. Another special product on the list is "Monster Watch PuniPuni", which can be inferred that this is the father taking his mobile phone to his children to play games.
5、
This group can't be ignored, and LINE: Disney Consumers still has more than 1.3 million active users. Elimination games and Pokémon GO occupy the top 8.
6、
The group is similar. In addition to playing elimination games, they also love Sudoku. It can be seen that in the past, influenced by magazines and books, these pleasures have continued into the era of smartphones today.