As of the time of writing, 19 of the European Union’s 27 member states are represented in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online World Rankings. (It’s easier to list the ones that aren’t represented so here we go; Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia) Some have come close, or are very close, to breaking into the top 1,000 TP ranked duelists but for the moment, 19 is what we have to play with.

An easy way to play with statistics is then simply to add up the current TP of these 19 member states are compare. So let’s do just that.

As of the June 28th rankings, a joint European Union representation would hold 1,957,498 TP, almost two million points total. This would place this hypothetical European Union representation second in the world rankings, behind Japan. Of course, this is no great surprise seeing as second is currently held by an EU member, Germany anyway.

Other interesting things to note; Germany would provide over 50% of a European Union’s TP alone, further showcasing a dominance which, as we’ve already discussed, owes a lot to Konami’s physical presence in the nation. While Germany does have the largest population of any EU state (80,000,000 or so), it is certainly not more than half of the EU’s entire population (just under 500,000,000).

Hwever, population distribution does play a role to a certain extent. The five largest EU member states (Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France and Spain) are also the five highest ranked EU nations in the game. After that, however, things become a lot more muddled (although it also true that many of the nations have similar population size, adding a certain level of randomness the lower you go), although it should come as little surprise that 64th placed Cyprus is the third smallest nation in the Union too.

Adding the 13 non-EU European nations in the world rankings would only increase this hypothetical groupings score by 109,513 to just over 2,000,000 TP (2,067,011 to be exact), a negligible influence at best.

The conclusion, therefore, is that rather than shake up the online game, a European Union representation would only serve to stagnate it by reducing the number of nations competing while also entrenching itself in second place far more firmly than Germany has at present and all without really competing against Japan, despite doubling its TP.

Whatever the pluses and minuses of the European Union as a supranational entity, it appears its impact and overall use in the world of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online would not be very helpful at all.

France’s 5th place debut in Season 1 seemed, at the time, to be an obvious and fair representation of the nations dueling ability and potential. Nestled behind the “big three” as well as Korea, it was only fitting that France and Great Britain would duke it out for the dubious title of “best of the rest.”

But when France was knocked from its 5th place roost in Season 3, it was a double shock. It was leapfrogged not only by Britain but by Italy as well. Since then France has remained 7th in the world. As Italy and Britain continued to rise, France finds itself trapped in a remarkably consistent and immutable partnership with 8th placed Spain.

Why is this so?

Much like the German question posed previously, it comes to anime. While France has a large anime market, it could not, in hindsight, be expected to compete with the English-speaking market dominated by the United States and Britain. Meanwhile, right around Season 3, in fact, 4Kids Entertainment massively ratcheted up its presence and advertising in Italy, which included the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

And so, France has suffered not so much from a lack of potential but from the timing of the realisation of another nations potential. However, Season 3 throws up another curious statistic. In that season France only earned 5,567 TP, an appalling amount even in those early days and less than any nation outside the top fourteen and less than even newcomer Hong Kong.

While the impact of this startling recession is now limited, due to the nature of the world rankings, as the starting point for France’s current position it lingers as an intriguing question.

Checking the tables at the time indicate that while the top French duelists of the time, CLARAMORGAN and cossafred740, maintained their status from Season 2, no other French duelist made it into the top 1,000 TP ranked duelists in Season 3. This vanishing act is certainly puzzling and leads one to believe that, for a short time, there was a great reduction of interest in the online game in France.

Now, Season 3 was a recovery season after a large recession in terms of global accumulated TP the previous season. This would suggest that France was one of the more sluggish nations when it came to recovering from that recession for whatever reason. Which pretty much concludes the mysteries behind France’s current position in the world rankings.

But what of the future? Season 9 saw France fall some 70,000 TP short of 6th place Korea, maintaining a relatively similar gap in Season 8. Meanwhile, the country also strengthened its own lead over 8th placed Spain, from 20,000 to 25,000 TP. Which, unfortunately, seems to suggest that the status quo is likely to remain so for France. And if Season 10 to date shows us anything its that the cracks dividing France from its immediate rivals above and below it, are potentially developing into chasms.

To pharaphrase King Louis XIV, this is the state of France today.

Ever since even the earliest days of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, Germany has been 2nd in these world rankings. Although some distance away from their immediate leaders, Japan, Germany is also only the second nation which regularly breaks 1,000,000 TP at the end of season tournament rankings (It has achieved this milestone every season since Season 4).

Germany is also one the very few nations that features prominently in Konami’s seasonal YOC Championships. Whereas Konami may try and stimulate their irregular Japan versus Korea series as the battle of titans in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, it is clear that if any nation can act as a counterbalance to Japan, it is Germany.

But why Germany? Why not France or Britain or Italy or Spain or any other large western European nation? For that, we need to look outside of the online game and into its forbearer, the Yu-Gi-Oh! animé.

Although today the United States is the second largest animé market after Japan itself, it is western continental Europe which was first to embrace anime culture outside of its homeland, particularly France and Germany. Yu-Gi-Oh! is (was) a manga whose popularity kick-started a Japanese anime, whose popularity kick-started a card game, whose popularity eventually led to this; Yu-Gi-Oh! Online.

The entire basis of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online lies on the popularity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and, to a wider extent, on the popularity of anime in general. The relatively recent emergence of the United States as a leading market to anime may actually have helped Germany’s abilities in terms of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online. As the English speaking anime market is diluted by more and more products, potential online duelists are lost to other interests whereas a German market not quite so under bombardment from constant new series will inevitably lead to a greater percentage of potential duelists sticking to their anime franchise of choice.

It is likely this large variety of choice that allows Germany to keep so far ahead of the United States as well as the United Kingdom. Its large population also serves to keep it ahead of other European nations which may potentially benefit from this situation, such as Italy, France and Spain.

But while this alone explains the number of duelists from European nations participating in Yu-Gi-Oh! Online, it does not fully explain Germany’s own dominance in the game.

This is partly explained by Konami’s own strong presence in the nation. Konami Digital Entertainment GmbH (formerly Konami of Europe) is based in the nation and it is the centre of Konami’s presence in Europe. The other two major offices are located in the United States and Japan, the three not-so-coincidentally forming the top three in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Online world rankings.

As the centre of the manufacture and distribution of the entire Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise, in all its forms, in Europe, Germany holds a rare advantage that combined with the wider trends of the international anime market gift it with the potential to rate so highly on the international scene.

With such corporate powers behind the (entirely unintended) backbone of their regional strength, Germany, as well as Japan and the United States, are here to stay as the ring leaders of Yu-Gi-Oh! Online as a world game.