Japan’s top smartphone game Puzzle & Dragons has finally reached the 30 million download mark in Japan, maker GungHo Online Entertainment (3765) said today.
Puzzle & Dragons was released on the Japanese App Store on February 20, 2012. Versions for Android and Amazon Kindle were added later.
GungHo decided to “re-launch” the Japanese version of Puzzle & Dragons on July 29 and added a new game, Puzzle & Dragons W, to the original app (the company calls this “one app, two games” concept).
The 29 million mark was reached 38 days ago: so the days the game was able to add a million downloads in three weeks or much less are definitely over, but the new milestone is a fantastic accomplishment in any case.
(It must be noted in this context that Japan has just over 100 million mobile subscribers and that smartphone penetration is estimated to stand at roughly 60-70%.)
The only smartphone game in Japan that comes close to Puzzle & Dragons’ number is Quiz RPG from Colopl (3668). That app has passed the 28 million download mark on July 18.
Outside Japan, GungHo says that Puzzle & Dragons reached:
- 1 million downloads in Hong Kong and Taiwan (combined)
- 2 million downloads in South Korea
- 4 million downloads in the US and Canada (combined)
As a side note, Puzzle & Dragons is still not available in languages like Spanish, German, or Chinese. It may be hard to believe, but the version that’s offered in Chinese-speaking countries right now has Japanese texts.
