The East Asian gaming market generated $30.1 billion in 2023 and is expected to decline by 2.9% in 2024 to $29.2 billion, according to a new report from Niko Partners.
The East Asia Gaming Market Model Report covers Japan and Korea, markets that also saw a slight increase in their player numbers in 2023, to 96.3 million players.
The mobile segment was the largest, accounting for 68.4% of revenue in the region.
The market research firm also released its East Asia Gamers Behaviour and Market Insights report for July 2024, which found that 97 million gamers in Japan and Korea play on more than one platform.
More than 70% of Japanese mobile gamers and 90% of South Korean PC gamers play on multiple platforms. Overall, 39% of all Japanese gamers and 58% of all Korean gamers play on at least two platforms.
The research also found that over 31% of Japanese gamers and 40% of Korean gamers watch live streams of games, with YouTube being the most popular platform, followed by local platforms such as SOOP (AfreecaTV) in Korea and NicoNico in Japan.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in the number of gamers reporting they play on more than one platform over the past year,” said Lisa Hanson, CEO of Niko Partners. “Part of this is due to console availability in Japan after shortages during the pandemic, and part of this is due to more games being developed for multi-platform use driving engagement across consoles, mobile and PC.”
“Most notably, East Asian players demonstrate that cross-platform gaming drives higher engagement.”