During the first half of 2026, the Japanese market saw a notable 13 percent rise in the number of PC and PlayStation hardware units sold, reaching a total of 21 million devices. The surge was largely powered by the launch of Capcom’s latest flagship, Resident Evil Requiem, which emerged as the top‑selling title across both platforms. This insight comes from Sensor Tower’s most recent Japan Game Market Insights report, which focuses exclusively on data from Steam and PlayStation ecosystems.
According to the report, Capcom secured the position of leading PC and PlayStation publisher by volume of units sold, thanks primarily to the performance of Resident Evil Requiem. The game recorded an estimated 2.6 million copies sold in its first month on Steam, marking the strongest debut for any Resident Evil title on the platform.
Sensor Tower highlighted that this achievement underscores the growing relevance of Steam for premium Japanese games, offering developers immediate exposure to a worldwide audience while extending the franchise’s reach beyond its traditional console‑centric base. Beyond raw sales figures, the analysis points to impressive engagement metrics. Steam users who purchased Requiem logged an average of 25 hours of gameplay during the launch period, the highest playtime recorded for any recent entry in the series.
Sensor Tower attributed this deep engagement to a lengthy pre‑release marketing window: the game’s Steam store page went live 264 days before launch, giving ample time for community building, wish‑listing, and word‑of‑mouth promotion. The campaign resonated across a broad geographic spectrum, with strong participation from the United States, China, Japan, Europe, and additional markets, converting early anticipation into sustained in‑game activity. By July, Resident Evil Requiem had surpassed eight million units sold worldwide, bolstering Capcom’s quarterly financial results alongside the performance of Pragmata.
The company also reported continued sales momentum for its legacy titles Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 2, indicating that the franchise’s overall health remains robust. In contrast, the mobile segment painted a more mixed picture. In‑app purchase (IAP) revenue from mobile games fell 5.1 percent year‑on‑year to ¥1.56 trillion (approximately $10 billion), while total downloads declined 5.4 percent to 585 million.
Despite the dip, Japan retained its status as the second‑largest mobile gaming market in Asia. Sensor Tower’s data show that Japanese mobile gamers generate twice the IAP revenue of South Korean users and nearly four times that of Taiwanese players. Overall, domestic markets contributed 65 percent of global IAP revenue, with the remaining 35 percent coming from overseas.
Japanese publishers accounted for 28 percent of all mobile game downloads in the second quarter of 2026. Although this share has steadied since late 2026, it remains below the 32 percent share recorded a year earlier, reflecting the expanding influence of foreign publishers among Japanese players. Advertising spend on gaming also continued to climb, reaching $749.7 million and delivering 208 billion ad impressions in the first half of the year. This placed gaming as the third‑largest advertising category in Japan, trailing only behind e‑commerce and automotive sectors.
Within the mobile arena, Konami’s eFootball emerged as the top‑grossing title from January through July 2026, followed by Monster Strike, Last War: Survival, and Whiteout Survival. Sensor Tower credited eFootball’s success to Konami’s strategic timing, aligning new football‑themed content with heightened interest surrounding the World Cup, thereby maintaining momentum from April to July.
In the action‑RPG niche, Dragon Quest Smash/Grow led both IAP revenue and overall earnings during the same period. Genre‑level analysis revealed that role‑playing games (RPGs) dominated mobile IAP revenue, capturing 32.8 percent of total spend, while strategy games accounted for 23.8 percent.
Puzzle titles, however, drove the highest proportion of downloads, representing 37.8 percent of all mobile game installs. Overall, the data illustrate a divergent landscape: while PC and console sales in Japan are buoyed by high‑profile releases like Resident Evil Requiem and benefit from the expanding role of global platforms such as Steam, the mobile sector faces modest declines in revenue and download volume, even as it remains a crucial component of the nation’s broader gaming ecosystem.
The findings suggest that publishers who can effectively blend strong launch campaigns, cross‑regional appeal, and sustained post‑release support will continue to thrive across both traditional and emerging gaming channels.