Decrease in PC Gaming Participants in Japan: Despite a Threefold Expansion in Market Size, a Recent Report Reveals a Shortfall of 3 Million Players
In the realm of gaming, Japan has long been a powerhouse. However, recent reports suggest a significant shift in the landscape, with PC gaming taking a backseat to mobile and console platforms.
The GTX 970 and 1060 graphics cards, released in 2015 and 2016 respectively, are still capable of running a host of games in 2025, defying the notion that older hardware becomes obsolete. Yet, the number of PC gamers in Japan has seen a decrease of nearly 3 million from 2015 to 2024, according to the 2025 Famitsu Game Hakusho report.
This decline coincides with a sharp rise in mobile gaming users and a moderate increase in console gamers. Mobile gaming, with its user base of 42.77 million, has seen explosive growth over the past decade, substantially reducing the relative PC gamer base. The console market, with 29.51 million users, has also experienced growth.
Several factors contribute to this discrepancy. Firstly, Japanese gamers are increasingly favoring mobile gaming and consoles over PC gaming. The market size in economic terms (software and hardware sales, subscriptions, in-game purchases) has grown significantly, but this does not necessarily mean more PC gamers. Price increases across consoles, peripherals, subscriptions, and in-game items have expanded market revenues even as the PC player population shrank.
Another factor is the preference for multiple platform use. Many gamers use multiple platforms, so total gaming population numbers overlap; despite revenue growth, the distinct PC-only gamer subset can decline as players migrate or diversify their platform choices.
There's reason to doubt that three million hardcore Japanese PC gamers abandoned the hobby in the past ten years. PC Gamer senior editor Wes Fenlon has pointed out that people who had a gaming PC in 2019 may still be using it in 2025. However, the increasing prices of pre-built PCs in Japan, with graphics cards prices more than tripling since 2019, might be a deterrent for some potential PC gamers.
The decline in popularity of cheap and free browser games, a staple of the early 2000s, may also contribute to the market/population discrepancy, but hard data is not available to support this.
Despite these changes, the gaming market in Japan continues to grow, with the 2025 Famitsu Game Hakusho public preview reporting a rise in game market prices. Ted Litchfield, a PC Gamer team member, remains a staunch advocate for PC gaming, with a particular fondness for CRPGs and CRPG-adjacent games. He has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting.
As we move forward, it will be interesting to see how the gaming landscape continues to evolve in Japan and beyond.
- In light of the rising popularity of mobile gaming and consoles, examples of gadgets such as gaming cards might still be found among Japanese gamers, but their overall preference seems to be shifting away from PC gaming.
- As technology advances, old hardware like the GTX 970 and 1060 graphics cards can still run games in 2025, yet the decrease in PC gamers in Japan points towards a trend favouring other platforms like mobile and consoles.
- The decline in PC gaming among Japanese gamers, accompanied by a growing market and rise in game prices, may suggest a shift in focus towards gaming on multiple platforms, including mobile devices and consoles, rather than just PCs.
