The website-based gaming population in Japan increased over 28 percent in the last year, according to a study by comScore. The research company found that there were 16.5 million online gamers in Japan during July 2009, equivalent to nearly a quarter of Japan's online population.
"As a growing number of people turn to the Internet as an entertainment channel, many online gaming sites have seen their traffic levels swell to record numbers," said Maru Sato, managing director of comScore Japan. "Online gaming has not only captured a growing number of visitors, but also shows some of the highest levels of engagement on the Web with users averaging more than an hour on gaming sites in July."
Yahoo! Games was the leading gaming site with 4.8 million visitors, followed by Hangame.co.jp with 3 million visitors and Wazap.com with 2.5 million visitors.
