Japanese and South Korean gamers lean toward multiplatform as East Asia market struggles to grow past $30 billion

Lineage W (NCSoft)

Niko Parnters’ new Gamers Behavior and Market Insights report focuses on Japan and South Korea, complimenting the company’s East Asia Market Model report released in May. Below are the key takeaways:

• The East Asia games market is expected to generate $29.2 billion in revenue in 2024, down 2.9% from $30.1 billion last year;
• Analysts forecast that the market will be stagnant in the next five years, growing on a 0.4% CAGR to $30.8 billion in 2028;
• Mobile currently accounts for 68.7% of the market’s revenue, but more players are leaning towards using multiple platforms;
• 39% of all Japanese and 58% of all South Korean gamers are now playing on at least two platforms;
• The share of Japanese mobile gamers using other game platforms (primarily consoles) grew 30 percentage points year-over-year to 70%, while 90% of Korean PC gamers try other platforms (up 5 percentage points YoY);

“Some of this is due to availability of consoles in Japan after scarcity during the pandemic, and some of it is due to more games being developed for multi-platform use that drive engagement on consoles, mobile and PC,” Niko Partners CEO Lisa Hanson said. “What is notable is that gamers in East Asia demonstrate that cross-platform games lead to higher engagement.”

• More than half of the top 10% most played games in Japan and South Korea are available on at least two platforms;
• According to Niko Partners, the number of Japanese and South Korean gamers will grow from 97.1 million in 2024 to 100.3 million in 2028;
• Gamers in both countries cite genre familiarity and good storyline as the two most important drivers to try new games;
• Mobile will remain the number one platform by revenue, although it is expected to decline slightly from $20.6 billion in 2023 to $20.1 billion in 2028;
• The share of other platforms will increase, with PC and console revenue reaching $7 billion and $3.7 billion in 2028, respectively;
• In Japan, PC and console spending is expected to grow on a five-year CAGR of 8.8% and 2.5%, respectively, and the South Korean console market will grow on a 3.4% CAGR;
• Despite multiplatform being the source of growth for the East Asia market, Niko Parnters expects the annual ARPU (average revenue per user) to decline from $312.71 in 2023 to $307.04 in 2028.