In 2023, Japan’s mobile app downloads reached 2.5 billion, and consumer spending hit $17.9 billion, making it the third-largest market worldwide. To thrive in this dynamic but ultra-competitive market, it's essential to find the right channel and media mix, remain ahead of changing data privacy frameworks and regulations, and adapt to shifting user behaviors and expectations. This report also outlines expert insights into the data needed to build an effective strategy in Japan, maximize engagement, and scale ROI in 2024 and beyond. To read the full report, please click the button below.

Local Titles Dominated Top 10 Consumer Spend

In Q1 2024, the top 10 gaming apps by downloads featured several overseas games, with puzzle games comprising half of the chart’s genres. However, established local titles dominated the top 10 by consumer spend ranking.

Gaming App Installs Rebound and Sessions Show Stability

In Q1 2024, gaming app installs saw an 18% increase, indicating a halt to the downturn trend. Meanwhile, gaming app sessions showed less volatility. Both installs and sessions exhibited healthy growth of 7% and 6% respectively, signalling an expanding gaming app market in Japan.

Puzzle Games Performed Well While Arcade Saw Substantial Growth

Arcade games experienced substantial 38% growth in both installs and sessions, while card games led in install growth with an impressive 40% increase and a 16% boost in sessions. Puzzle games accounted for the largest share of gaming installs at 16% and also ranked first in sessions with 23%.

Banking and Payment Apps on the Rise

Banking apps are experiencing a surge in use, with a 20% increase in installs and a 16% rise in sessions, demonstrating a wave of new users and heightened engagement. Payment apps also saw increases in both installs and sessions, dominating the Japanese mobile finance market with 75% of installs and 76% of sessions.

Platform Differences Across Finance App Subverticals

Overall, finance app installs and sessions are evenly distributed across platforms. Despite an equal install distribution between Android and iOS for payment apps, iOS has higher engagement with 54% of sessions. Banking apps also have higher installs and sessions on iOS. While stock trading and crypto apps are almost equally divided between Android and iOS, stock trading sessions lean towards iOS, whereas crypto sessions skew towards Android.

Japan’s E-commerce LTV Surpasses the United States

Consumer spending in e-commerce apps has shown a consistent upward trend, with a 28.4% year-over-year increase in Q1 2024. Japan’s LTV on day 0 hit $2.96, exceeding global and U.S. medians. This early lead spills over to week 0 and month 0, where it sits at $5.48 and $9.67 respectively, more than double the U.S. benchmark. These high numbers reveal the lucrative nature of Japan’s high-value e-commerce user base.

Strong Confidence in Japan’s E-commerce

E-commerce app marketers demonstrated more confidence with increased campaign spending and the number of paid channels. In Q1, the paid/organic ratio in Japan increased from 0.44 in 2023 to 0.56 in Q1 2024. Partners per app increased to 12.3, exceeding global and U.S. averages of 11.2 and 11.1 respectively.

Growing Connected TV

Japan is a leading connected TV market, with 71% of surveyed TV viewers in Japan watching ad-supported streaming services for over two hours daily. The Japanese CTV ad market is projected to reach 170 billion yen by 2025, and 66% of advertisers have already moved budgets from social media to CTV.