SEGA's F2P games are popular in Japan, but not really anywhere else

SEGA's latest Q3'22 financials show that its massive F2P games are mostly popular in Japan while other worldwide regions buy up full games.

SEGA makes quite a bit of revenue from F2P games like Phantasy Star Online 2 and its Hatsune Mike titles. Predictably enough, most of these earnings come from Japan as other regional worldwide markets like North America, Europe, and Asia predominately spend on full game sales.

According to data provided by SEGA, the company's F2P sector is incredibly healthy and typically comprises anywhere from 30% to sometimes 50% of its quarterly video games revenues. While its F2P offerings are immensely concentrated on the Japanese market, the company made $129 million from free-to-play in Q3, showing SEGA is mostly dominant in one specific region.

Other markets aren't very interested in SEGA's F2P titles. North America, Europe, and Asia combined only made 9% of quarter F2P games earnings, a trend that continues throughout the last three years. Typically these regions make up as low as 6% to as high as 17% of F2P revenues.

SEGA is making a stronger effort to turn this around. The company has emphasized focus on bringing more F2P titles to worldwide markets and creating what it calls Super Games, a new initiative that will expand online-driven live games across global regions.

Right now, though, pretty much only Japanese gamers are interested in SEGA's F2P titles.