PS5 and Xbox despised by Gen Z in Japan: It’s mostly played on mobile devices, according to a survey

According to a survey published some time ago by Shibuya109 Entertainment, but now recovered by the Western press, it seems that PS5 and Xbox Series members on traditional consoles and in particular are not very interested in Gen Z in Japan mobile games.

“Generation Z” means those born between 1995 and 2010, so a fairly young but not too young audience, which elsewhere constitutes an important part of the console’s standard user base, but evidently not in Japan.

According to research carried out by Shibuya109 and relating to 2023, 80% of members of Generation Z, who are currently between 15 and 24 years old, normally play video games, with 44.9% playing every day and spending an average of 100 minutes per day on these.

It is, therefore, a decidedly active audience on the gaming front, except that it does not seem to be interested in the traditional “high end” and home consoles, so to speak: essentially, PlayStation and Xbox are not among the preferred platforms, with only The Nintendo Switch should appear with a certain consistency, followed by the PC, but mobile platforms dominate everything.

Here are the survey results on which platform is most used for gaming by Gen Z in Japan:

• Mobile 94.7%
• Nintendo Switch 38.5%
• PC 33.2%
• Tablet (26.5%)
• PD (12.2%)

These are not percentages calculated globally, that is, their sum does not equate to 100%, as they result from possible multiple choices offered to users.

From what emerges, it seems that even the Nintendo DS, which has already been practically retired in 2023, is more popular than the PS5 and Xbox Series. According to some commentators, this can also be explained by the greater expense that these consoles require, but that would not explain the presence of the Nintendo Switch in such a high position compared to other consoles.

In any case, even those who are considered “hardcore gamers” among those who participated in the survey, or at least traditional gamers, seem to focus more on PC and Nintendo Switch than other platforms. It also appears that for members of Gen Z in Japan, free-to-play games and smaller-scale titles are significantly more popular than AAA console classics.

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