A 2025 survey was released which said nearly 20% of Japanese twenty-year-olds people struggling to pay their living expenses during the spending, including one in game purchases for their Gacha-type video game.
Gacha Games have experienced a sharp rise in popularity over the years, thanks in no small part to blockbuster titles like Genshin Impact.
These games, like Gashapon Capsule machines they are named after, which allow players to pay for the chance they get for a certain thing within the game, which can be a character skin or even a cosmetic.
Gacha games are completely random, and there are some players who will spend a large amount of cash to get the character they want and can’t live without them.
Gacha Games are addictive, player struggle to pay their living expenses.
The Gacha game craze has been going up, so in a survey which was taken by Japan SMBC Consumer Finance Corporation, they found that nearly 20% of Japanese people who are in their twenties are struggling to pay their necessities like rent, just due to their major spending on expensive Gacha games.
The survey discovered that 18.8% of participants also admitted that once they had spent so much money on in-game purchases that they could not cover their living expenses, and while 23.9% said they are regretting for spending money on in-game purchases.
SMBC survey determined that the number of player who spend money on microtransactions and Gacha games rose from 5.8% in 2024 to 21.6% in 2025.
Well, more people are spending money on in-game purchases, but the overall amount they have been paying has decreased. In 2024, Japanese People in their twenties spent an average of 5,138 yen($35.85 USD) per month on just microtransactions, while in 2025,thiss number decreased to 4,247 yen($29.63 USD) monthly.
We can say that microtransactions have become an increasingly hot topic within the gaming community, as players call it a predatory practice from the big-time developers. Well, now the government is also getting involved in this conversation, with the European Union introducing legislation requiring games to include the real-world cost of in-game items alongside the digital currency.
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