The data was published by analyst Serkan Toto, who referred to the Kadokawa ASCII Research Laboratories report. As he writes, in 2021, the Japanese PC games market earned ¥131.3 billion, or about $896 million. This is twice as much as in 2018.
The audience of computer games has also grown well — from 11 million people in 2015 to 16 million people in 2021.
One of the drivers of market growth is the COVID—19 pandemic, which has caused people in general to pay more attention to games. The situation was also affected by the shortage of PS5 in the country, increased interest in indie games, blockchain projects and games from foreign developers, the emergence of more local PC games (including PC versions of popular mobile games) and the development of Steam in Japan.