Yu-Gi-Oh! Online International

International news and rankings in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online

Pretender to the Throne

Posted on | August 6, 2009 | No Comments

unitedstatesOf all the nations in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, which can present the greatest challenge to Japanese dominance? The answer is likely the United States. YGO Online International tells us why the current perennial third place nation is the star of hope for a major shake up as well as why we shouldn’t get our hopes up.

At present, as it always has been, the United States lies third in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online world rankings. As of now, they have roughly half the accumulated TP of second placed Germany. Why then would I point to the United States as the one nation with the greatest potential to topple Japan from its lofty heights?

We must consider the following first and foremost. The countries most likely to approach the top of the world rankings must have sufficiently high populations. As only a small percentage of each nations citizens play the game, on average the higher a nations population the greater amount of duelists it has.

Out of the nations available to select in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, the United States has the second highest population, behind India. It is followed by Indonesia, Nigeria, Russia, Japan and then Germany.

Of course, if population was the only factor, India would be by far the greatest nation in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online but the second most populated country in the world has failed to make the world rankings as of yet. So obviously, there is more to the equation.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Online is a recreational game. As such, it is supported entirely by the spending of non-vital discretionary income, i.e. money we don’t really need. For that system to work, Yu-Gi-Oh! Online must be available in nations whose citizens, on average, have a high amount of this income. In 2009 what this means is nations with strong western-style economies in relation to other nations.

When we use that filter on the small population ranking I gave above you can likely tell the effect. Filtered, the ranking now reads; The United States, Japan, Germany. The next nations would be France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Korea and Spain. Do you notice it? With this filter of strong modernised economies applied to world population, the top eight nations are, not so coincidentally, the ‘G8′ of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online. Not in perfect order, of course, but there just the same.

To focus on the United States a little more strongly (after all, it is its cause we are championing in this article), let’s take a look at what the U.S. brings to the table over, say, Germany, at present.

The most obvious one is, of course, population as we’ve already covered. The second, naturally related, is that the United States is home to the second largest manga and anime market in the world after Japan itself. As explained in earlier articles, the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, as a whole, rests on the shoulders of the anime series. The vast majority of duelists, on or offline, start with an interest in the anime. With its large population and enormous anime market, the United States holds a rather obvious advantage.

As an English speaking nation, the U.S. also has the advantage of being targeted by Konami’s second largest language market (after Japanese). This gives it an enormous advantage over, say, India or even unrepresented China, as their languages remain relatively uncatered for. Naturally enough, the main seven languages of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online (English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish) are the de facto or de jure languages of the ‘G8′ of the game.

When all these are combined, you can see that at least in theory, the United States is the potential greatest challenger to Japanese dominance in the world game.

But of course, it isn’t. Not right now.

If all I have suggested above is accurate in any fashion, then why does the U.S. sit a distant third? My belief, as I touched on in an earlier article, is that the United States’ ever-growing anime market is as much a hindrance as it is an aid.

As the anime market in America continues to grow and more and more shows are purchased for dubbing and broadcast on children’s TV, the market is spread ever more thinly against an ever expanding variety of shows. While this could account for a lot of the current situation, another factor to this must be considered.

Bakugan.

While I’m sure hardcore  Yu-Gi-Oh! fans will wail at the comparison, Bakugan is very similar to Yu-Gi-Oh! in intent. It is a collecting based combative game, spurred on by an anime franchise. Differences, which work in Bakugan’s favour, is that Bakugan has miniature figures, appealing to every kid from 7-11, the core of any anime franchise, as well as the undeniable fact; Bakugan is fresher and it’s hitting America pretty hard.

Yu-Gi-Oh! is over ten years old as a franchise. It is simply harder to keep fresh and enticing to new emerging audiences. Especially with an ever growing amount of options in the second largest anime market in the world. Yu-Gi-Oh! Online finds itself a hard sell with all the games in town turning up.

And that’s why, as I stated at the beginning of this article, that the United States has the potential to be the one nation to challenge Japan. Even with all the conditions perfect, it may never happen. But right now, the conditions are far from perfect and there’s a real danger of the life of the game in the U.S. being choked out very slowly. Let’s hope it can rebound.

Category: Americas, United States

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  • News in Brief (August 16)

    • In and Out New Zealand plummet from 36th to 52nd as their lone representative drops out of the TP rankings. The once powerful Oceanic nation now looks a spent force in the online game.
    • Rise of Empire Great Britain (5th) is now only 3,271 TP behind 4th placed Italy. If Britain can overtake by season's end, it will mark the first time they've reached 4th since Season 7 around this time last year.
    • Seychelles Smashers The mercenaries of Seychelles continue their rise, reaching 12th this week, just 508 TP behind 11th placed Australia. The pressure is now on Australia to maintain their renaissance since Season 9.
    • Seventh Heaven The total accumulated TP spluttered across the 7 million mark this week with 7,252,670 TP being recorded. Accumulation rates have slowed dramatically and it is likely we will end the season with a TP recession.
    • Point Droppers United States (-3,698), Greece (-2,006), Gaza Strip (-4,098), Albania (-4,706) and New Zealand (-4,758) all dropped TP since last week.