Abstract:
The Japanese game market is undergoing a huge change. For a long time, home consoles have occupied an absolute dominance in the Japanese market. Now this situation is being broken.
Recently, game analyst Serkan Toto released data: PC games will account for 12.5% of the overall Japanese game market in 2025, while in 2019, the proportion was only 5%. In just 6 years, the size of the PC sector has expanded 2.5 times.
The core trigger for this change was the long-term shortage of PS5 during the epidemic, making it difficult to obtain one. Japanese players who want to experience new high-definition games face two choices: continue to stick to the old PS4 console, or directly purchase a gaming PC as an alternative.
In addition, there are multiple boosting factors: "PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds" became popular in Japan in its early years. This game was initially only available on PC, allowing a large number of Japanese players to come into contact with the PC gaming ecosystem for the first time. A large number of Sony's first-party games have been ported to PC, reducing the reason why players must buy PS5.
The concept of Japanese game manufacturers has undergone a major change. In the past, Capcom, Sega and others generally regarded the PC as a platform for overseas foreign players and did not pay attention to local Japanese PC users. Nowadays, more and more Japanese masterpieces are simultaneously launched on the PC platform, further attracting local players to join the PC.
Analysts emphasized that this does not mean that the console is dead. Switch still has a strong base in Japan. However, PC has grown from a niche platform in the past to a platform that cannot be ignored in the Japanese game market.
The industry has also raised concerns: the users who switched to PC because they couldn't get a PS5 have already developed PC gaming habits. Even if there is sufficient supply of PS5 in the future, a large part of them will not return to the PlayStation console ecosystem.
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