Puzzle & Dragons adding 1 million new Japanese players every few weeks
It just keeps on growing
The Japanese playerbase for Puzzle & Dragons has grown to 12 million, just fifteen days after it passed the 11 million player milestone.
GungHo Online hasn't revealed how many users the title has worldwide, but in Japan alone the game is consistently attracting one million new players every 2-3 weeks.
The developer has proven adept at monetising those users, too. In fact, many commentators believe Puzzle & Dragons is the most lucrative mobile game in the world right now.
Puzzling According to GungHo CEO Kazuki Morishita, the game's success "has a lot to do with luck."
SoftBank Mobile, however, clearly thinks there's more to it than that, as the Japanese telecoms firm is spending $265 million to acquire a majority share in the developer. Last month, GungHo Online reported that it had generated $106 million in sales. According to Tokyo-based mobile games consultant Dr Serkan Toto, Puzzle & Dragons likely accounts for between somewhere between 59 and 81 percent of that figure.
In other words, Toto believes that Puzzle & Dragons grossed between $62 million and $86 million in February 2013.
No. of Japanese players (millions) |
No. of days since last milestone |
|
20/2/2012 | 0 | N/A |
15/7/2012 | 1 | 146 |
17/10/2012 | 2 | 94 |
5/11/2012 | 3 | 19 |
22/11/2012 | 4 | 17 |
12/12/2012 | 5 | 20 |
31/12/2012 | 6 | 19 |
18/1/2013 | 7 | 18 |
30/1/2013 | 8 | 12 |
18/2/2013 | 9 | 19 |
9/3/2013 | 10 | 19 |
25/3/2013 | 11 | 16 |
9/4/2013 | 12 | 15 |
Chart showing the user growth of Puzzle & Dragons
[source: Serkan Toto]