Japan’s games, puzzles market almost double in 2022

Driven by Pokemon, it recorded the fastest growth in Asia.

Japan’s games and puzzles market reached $1.6b in 2022, almost doubling compared with 2017 sales, driven by Pokemon games.

In a statement, Euromonitor International said Japan’s games and puzzles market sector posted the fastest growth in Asia, with a massive increase seen between 2020 to 2022 with a 20.2% compound annual growth during the period.

Euromonitor said the growth in Pokemon sales was driven not only by children but also by “kidults” that play trading card games “with a sense of nostalgia” as well as the Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet console games in 2022.

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“The long and continued popularity since 1996 is underpinning the boom in the last several years to involve not only kids but also adults,” said Research Analyst Taro Yamato. 

“It is becoming a popular strategy for players in the toys and games industry to involve adults in sales promotion so that the consumer base widens and more money is to be spent around the ecosystem,” he added.

Japan’s games and puzzles market surpassed China as the world’s second-largest market in 2021, a significant growth given that the Chinese market was 75% larger than Japan in 2017 with $1.4b.