| Sephiran said: But using the perspective you are using. The console market is declining everywhere, given that current gen consoles will not sell near the amount the Wii, Xbox 360, DS, PSP and PS3 generation did. So yes one could say the Japanese console market is declining, just as it is declining on every country on earth by that same metric. That doesn't say anything specific regarding the Japanese console market though, like that user was trying to frame it towards. |
In revenue for consoles the global market has been about the same, even registered a record revenue in 2021 with 33 billion. But in Japan the peak was 2006 to 2009, and the decline (in revenue, not unit sales) only started to be reversed when Switch was released in 2017
According to Famitsu looks like the growth after 2017 was driven to services, subscriptions and MTX, you can check this thread here
There are some questions to adressed:
- On software side they are merging PC software sales and console software sales, we do not have a breakdown. But reports indicate a significant increase in PC gamers, reaching 16 million in 2021. So the increase in software sales are 99% sure due to PC gaming getting stronger
- With Switch 1 approaching their end of life, the console revenue declined 30% in 2024, and we don't know if Switch 2 will sell enough to offset the impact of aging Switch 1
- The increase in revenue from 2021 to 2024 seems to be partially driven by inflaction prices. In Japan prices were mostly static for the last 20 years, but now services and software are finally increasing in prices and this leads to
My conclusion is Japan is not a dying market, but the console market is stagnant while the PC market is booming, plus the focus is shifting from unit sales to services/subscriptions. It needs to be see how this consumer behavior will affect Switch 2 games, because Nintendo revenues come mostly from physical games and don't invest as much in live services
