Puzzle & Dragons Now At 17 Million Registered Users In Japan, But Growth Has Slowed Down

Dr. Serkan Toto is a gaming expert and independent consultant based in Tokyo. You can follow him on Twitter and his blog. This article is republished with his permission.

Japan’s top smartphone game Puzzle and Dragons has arrived at 17 million users on July 22, maker GungHo (3765.OS) has announced.

The number only includes Japanese users across the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Kindle.

Just like earlier this month, when Puzzle and Dragons hit 16 million players, the number of downloads in North America was not disclosed. The game is also out in Korea, where it’s doing really well.

But there is one difference: this is the first time since October 2012 (when TV advertising for the title started) that it took Puzzle and Dragons more than 21 days to grow by a million users – 23 days, to be precise. So its growth seems to have slowed.

Nonetheless, the success of this RPG/puzzle hybrid game has propelled GungHo to a market cap that makes it worth more than Nintendo.

Here’s a handy chart which shows how Puzzle and Dragons has done after its initial launch on February 20, 2012 on iOS in Japan:

(Editing by Steven Millward)