CyberZ and Seed Planning, 2 Japanese research firms, issued a press release today covering the continuing rise of the Asian Smartphone Gaming Market.
2013 was a banner year across East Asia (Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong), with revenues exceeding ¥916bn ($8.9bn), almost double that of 2012. They also forecast that the 5 countries combined would exceed ¥1.2tn ($12.1bn) in 2014, and reach ¥2.2tn ($21.1bn) in 2017 (conversions to USD using today’s exchange rates).
Of the 5 countries included in the research, Japan represented almost 60% of the overall market, with Japanese smartphone gamers spending ¥547bn ($5.3bn) in 2013. Much of this was due to the mass switch over Japan is seeing from hi-spec feature phones to smartphones, and now approximately 50% of the 130m population own a smartphone.
Taiwan has seen the fastest increase, and now enjoys almost 100% penetration of smartphones amongst its 23m population.
This is great news for Western developers looking to bolster their revenue streams from beyond their home markets. If you’re considering Asia as a market and are looking for a reliable and proven partner to help your game succeed there, don’t hesitate to contact us.
(report source with content in Japanese: //cyber-z.co.jp/news/pressreleases/2014/0730_1659.html)
