Japan loves its mobile games. While nearly a third the population of the United States, the island nation spends almost three times as much on mobile games. In fact, Japan spends more than number two (China) and number three (The United States) combined.
This according to a recent report from App Annie — a mobile app analytics firm.
According to the report — which measures average revenue per user (ARPU) for iPhone games — Japan’s insatiable appetite for mobile games starts, and stops, with the role-playing game (RPG). Looking at the games that make up Japan’s top 30, 22 of them are RPGs. ‘Sengoku Enbu KINZA,’ ‘Fate/Grand Order’ and ‘The World of the Mystic Wiz’ made up the top three.
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China, on the other hand, prefers the massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), like ‘Westward Journey Online’ and ‘Fantasy Westward Journey,’ both MMORPG’s.
Mobile gamers from the US enjoy strategy games a great deal more than both Asian countries, but according to ARPU, RPGs are still where it’s at. The top average monthly ARPU in the US and UK is ‘Game of War — Fire Age’ a game that has attracted a great deal of attention due to its rather comprehensive monetization system. A player would have to spend over $100,000 to buy everything the game has to offer and the game features “highly engaging resource management mechanics” that keep them spending.
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