After watching VCJ and conversations concerning imports, I've got curious about the differences between Korean and Japanese gaming culture. So I dug up some data to compare the PC-gaming related statistics of both countries. The sources I've used are from Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan, Statistics Korea, JEITA, Famitsu gaming white paper, Korea Creative Content Agency gaming white paper, etc. Basically, only reliable sources.
First off, one data that might surprise you is that the difference in PC ownership of individual households between South Korea and Japan isn’t that big. From 2010 to 2023, the year with the biggest difference was 2012, when 75,8% of Japanese households owned a PC, whereas it was 82,3% of the households in Korea. The gap quickly narrowed after that. This was likely influenced by the fact that the smartphones became mainstream much faster in Korea than in Japan. There were also years like 2013 and 2018, when there were more Japanese households that owned a PC than Korean ones. Of course, these statistics should be considered with standard deviation in mind, but it tells you the general picture
So, if there ain't much difference in terms of amount of households that owns a PC, where does the difference arise? The issue lies in the PC ownership by generation. When it comes to Japanese Gen Z, only 27,8% owns a PC, and even if we only count male population, who in general tend to play games more, the number only slightly goes up to 31,8%. Furthermore, Gen Alpha are exposed to smartphones even faster than the previous generations, so naturally, it should be expected that when they enter their 20s, their PC ownership rate will be even lower than that of Gen Z.
On the other hand, younger generation of Korea has a much better accessibility to PC. The PC ownership rate for those under 20 is 90,4%, followed by 81,1% for those in their 20s and 74,6% for those in their 30s. This is a huge contrast to Japan, and if you consider the PC bang culture in Korea, younger generation's accessibility to PC between the two countries is basically incomparable. Add to that, from my personal experience, Japanese parents are very hesitant towards letting their kids use a PC, let alone buy one, before they are at least in highschool. I've not met a single Japanese who's got into PC gaming before becoming entering middle school, unless they have a older sibling that already played PC games. Most of the times, if you let your kids play video games, it's a Nintendo game.
However, there's also a notable change in Japanese market trend; PC gaming market in Japan is growing in rapid pace. Even though the PC market was shrinking by almost 5% year-on-year in terms of amount of units sold until 2023, sales revenue increased by more than 11%. This indicates that the prices of individual components or devices have risen very quickly, meaning that more people are buying PCs with higher performance for gaming rather than for office use. Of course, not all high-performance PC buyers are gamers (eg: workstation), but I think it's safe to assume that most of them are. There's also the issue of inflation and very weak Yen from 2022 onwards, but the revenue growth was even faster than the falling Yen, and most importantly, the increase in shipment value and PC game sales coincided, so I think it's correct to assume that this indicates that the PC gaming market is growing. This is a notable change, since it denotes that PC gaming is slowly, but very surely becoming mainstream. PC used to be seen as a tool for work, not entertainment in Japan, especially not a mean to play a video game. I also personally have felt this sentiment during the last 6~7 years, and especially after COVID. PC demand has continued to increase this year, with laptops at the center of it, and gaming laptops likely having a significant share.
Now to the actual PC gaming market statistics. According to the Famitsu Gaming White Paper 2024, the share of PC gaming users in Japan in 2023 was about 26% of the entire gaming population, which is a 1:2 ratio compared to home console gaming users (this obviously includes those users who play both on PC and consoles for both numbers). In terms of market size, the revenue from the PC gaming market accounted for 13,7% of the entire gaming market, roughly 235,8 billion Yen (about 1,5 billion USD). In comparison, according to the Korea Creative Content Agency 2023 Gaming White Paper, the share of PC gamers in South Korea's total gaming population was 61%, with a revenue of around 3,7 trillion Korean won (about 2,5 billion USD). 26% compared to 61% seems like a huge difference, but if we account for the difference in population between the two countries, the total PC gaming population actually only differs by around 100.000, which is way less than one might assume.
This suggests two very important things: first, Japanese PC gaming users spend relatively little on games, meaning that the share of younger PC gamers is probably higher than that of Korea, and F2P games are more popular. In Korea, the high-spending whales in MMOs like Lineage makes a huge difference and skews the overall market data, so this is expected. Japan doesn't have whales in the PC gaming market the way they do in the mobile live-service sector; those who play FGO, Uma Musume, BA, Gakumasu and Nikke, and cross-play titles like Genshin, Arknights, Honkai; most, if not all, Japanese gaming whales are playing mobile live-service games. Second, it seems almost certain that Japan will soon surpass South Korea in terms of total PC gaming population and market size in the near future, should the trend continue.
Summary :
- Over the past decade, the overall household PC ownership rate between South Korea and Japan hasn't been that different.
- However, the PC ownership rate among younger generations in Japan is pretty low.
- Japan's PC gaming market, which was previously small, has grown significantly since the COVID and is continuing to grow substantially. Both markets for PC game software and gaming PCs are rapidly increasing in size.
- South Korea's gaming market shrank significantly in 2023, but the console and PC gaming markets didn't shrink much; most of the market downturn was that of the mobile gaming market.
- South Korea has a significantly higher share of PC gamers among the total gaming population, as well as a larger share of the total gaming market revenue from PC games.
- However, when comparing the sample size of both countries and calculate based on the total population and gaming population, the actual number of PC gamers in Japan and South Korea is very similar, with a difference of only about 100.000 people.
- Considering the rate of growth of PC gaming Japan, and Korea's lower birth rate, it seems likely that Japan will surpass South Korea in the number of PC gaming users in the near future.
- However, I can't say for sure if the growth of overall PC gaming industry will necessarily lead to Japan catching up to other regions in the pro-scene. The biggest obstacle on that front is the age at which Japanese kids get to play PC games. This tends to be much later than the likes of Korean, Chinese and European kids, who gets to play video games on PC starting from primary school, and in some cases, even before that.
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