[Jotaku]

As stated in this page, anime games have long history from 1980's.
Comparing to the era long time ago, recently I felt like seeing less anime gamers in general comparing to long time ago, and there was actually a reason.


(anime games popularity since 2004-present)

Well, as this graph clearly shows, anime games perform worse than the era before 2010. It keep continually decreasing since that. There were a little increase around 2020, but I guess that is because of Genshin Impact. I am pretty sure if Genshin Impact loses its popularity, anime games will start to decrease again.

I would safely predict that there will be only hard otaku left at the end of anime gaming, or it already happened in every anime games except Genshin Impact.

Then what about anime?


(anime popularity since 2004-present)

Oppositely animes are doing great and gain lots of popularity after 2019. Strange, if animes are doing great, anime games should gain popularity as well but it is decreasing alone. This means that either people lost their interests in gaming, OR, anime game developers make poorer anime games. In order to determine which one is correct, we need to research on how gaming is doing as well.


(gaming popularity since 2004-present)

Well, this clearly shows that gaming gained more popularity. This it is very likely that anime game developers make poorer anime games.
Therefore, yeah sadly, anime games are dying. Thus, the community like us should give more effort and get united in order to help anime games.

Please feel free to leave your comments!

[RainVGC]

I believe Anime Games have become less popular because there is now a greater disparity in gameplay quality between mainstream games and anime-esque games. For games of the past, it was definitely idea>gameplay. Think of a lot of the old retro games, they were simple but original. Nowadays the technology has improved, the budgets have improved, and now the standard tends to be set at idea+gameplay. Genshin Impact has definitely temporarily bridged that disparity but it will only last for so long unless more stuff sprouts up following the recent success/popularity of Genshin.

Don't get me wrong, there are some games that aren't terrible like Sword Art Online, Code Vein ect. but I feel like they sit in that middle ground to that very few people will go out of their way to buy them unless they are already huge fans of the show or developers beforehand. So yeah I can totally understand why they may have been declining, especially when it's only a few games that have somewhat of a playerbase holding the whole genre up and even those lack an enjoyable postgame or replayability.

[Jotaku]

I believe Anime Games have become less popular because there is now a greater disparity in gameplay quality between mainstream games and anime-esque games. For games of the past, it was definitely idea>gameplay. Think of a lot of the old retro games, they were simple but original. Nowadays the technology has improved, the budgets have improved, and now the standard tends to be set at idea+gameplay. Genshin Impact has definitely temporarily bridged that disparity but it will only last for so long unless more stuff sprouts up following the recent success/popularity of Genshin.

Don't get me wrong, there are some games that aren't terrible like Sword Art Online, Code Vein ect. but I feel like they sit in that middle ground to that very few people will go out of their way to buy them unless they are already huge fans of the show or developers beforehand. So yeah I can totally understand why they may have been declining, especially when it's only a few games that have somewhat of a playerbase holding the whole genre up and even those lack an enjoyable postgame or replayability.

I think your opinion has very good details with main points on why they cannot perform comparing to old days. 

It sounds like for anime niche game companies it is hard to qualify your 2 points (idea & gameplay) due to the budget.

Usually manga came first then anime are made based on those successful mangas. Thus anime can easily grow. But anime games can't because of the reasons you said. 

I absolutely agree with you. 
Thanks for identifying current problems so clear and visible.