The annual total revenue of the App Store and Google Play from games in Japan is significantly more than in the United States, despite the fact that America is ahead in downloads.
About this in your report “Understanding the mobile games market in Japan,” said App Annie, an analytical company.
The fact that Japan earns more is no secret to anyone for a long time, as is the answer to the question of what exactly. But the App Annie report is a good reason to return to this topic.
So, in 2015, the number of completed downloads of mobile games in the United States turned out to be 5 times more than in Japan.
Despite this, the Japanese spent significantly more last year than the Americans. And their expenses, despite the decrease in the number of downloads, continue to grow.
The revenues of the Japanese mobile games market for 2015 were 25% more than those for 2014.
The distribution of income in the Japanese market is slightly different than in the American one. The top ten projects of the box office gaming top account for about 50%. In the US, money is more dispersed between projects.
A distinctive feature of the Japanese market is that games from Google Play in the Land of the Rising Sun are monetized as well as games from the App Store.
Another important feature of the market is that users are much more involved in products. If in the USA the average number of sessions per user is around 25-30, then in Japan it is more than 100. The Japanese also spend a lot more time playing games.
90% of the money in Japan is earned by Japanese companies. For comparison, in the USA, only half of the cash register accounts for local companies.
In the Japanese box office Top 200, role-playing and casual games prevail. This was true both in 2014 and in 2015. Strategies are in third place with a very large gap.
The situation is the same for downloads. Therefore, it makes no sense to be surprised that 70% of income is accounted for by role-playing games in Japan.
Source: App Annie