Japan’s mobile gaming market is showing an interesting trend: while fewer people are downloading new games, the Japanese players who do stick around are spending enough money to keep revenues stable. A new report from Sensor Tower, released September 10, looked at Japan’s mobile game market from August 2024 to July 2025. The data shows that mobile game downloads in Japan hit 628 million over the past year – a drop from the higher numbers seen during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

However, the money side tells a different story. Japanese mobile game revenue stayed strong at over $11 billion from in-app purchases, making Japan the second-highest earning mobile game market in the world, just behind China’s $11.5 billion.

The key factor keeping revenues up is what experts call average revenue per user or ARPU. Simply put, Japanese players are willing to spend much more money on mobile games than players in most other countries. This spending mainly goes toward gacha mechanics and other small purchases within games.

The numbers show just how much Japanese players are willing to spend compared to the rest of the world. More than 80% of Japanese mobile game downloads actually come from players in other countries, but nearly 70% of the revenue still comes from Japanese players themselves.

These findings match concerns that Japanese mobile game developers shared last month, when some compared their domestic market to a “sinking Titanic with only a few seats left afloat.” The problem is clear: while successful games can keep their existing players engaged and spending money long-term, it’s getting harder for new games to find their audience.

The current data suggests that while Japan’s mobile game market may be getting smaller in terms of new players, the dedication and spending power of existing players is keeping it profitable for now. Whether this trend can continue long-term remains to be seen as competition for new users becomes more difficult.