The gaming industry is always looking out for the next big thing, especially now that the PvP battle royal trend is fading. Turns out, maybe publishers and developers needn’t look too hard because one Japanese studio has unexpectedly hit it big with Fuga: Melodies of Steel, crediting their success to the large (but perhaps silent) population of furries in the US.
To put things into perspective, Fuga from studio CyberConnect 2 is a tactical RPG featuring anthropomorphic animals as the characters, aka furry characters. That essentially makes Fuga: Melodies of Steel a furry game. Hence, Fuga‘s developer studio CEO, Hiroshi Matsuyama, sat down with Automaton Media to discuss their success with catering to the furry gamer population, especially now that they’re poised to release Fuga: Melodies of Steel 3 on May 29.
In the interview, Matsuyama stated that the very first Fuga game, released back in 2021, was nearing its 500,000 sales milestone, which is pretty significant for such a niche JRPG. Matsuyama then revealed that the strongest sales actually came from the US, not Japan, though sales were also strong in the game’s home region. China and France also trailed closely.
“Sales are by far the strongest in the US. Following in order are Japan, China and France. As for platforms, Steam accounts for about 40% of sales and Switch for about 30%, so those two alone make up over 70% of our total sales.
That is, of course, a big part of it – there are many furry lovers in the US. But most of all, the US simply has a huge gaming population. Our other titles, like the Naruto: Ultimate Ninja series, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles and the .hack series have also seen the biggest success in the North American market. The US is truly a powerhouse in this sense,” reveals Hiroshi Matsuyama in the interview with Automaton Media.
It’s worth noting that China actually has a bigger gaming population than the US (more than triple, for a rough estimate). Hence, it’s fair to assume that the furry lover population in the US isn’t simply due to its large gaming population. Pound for pound, there simply could be more Furries in the US than in any other gaming population. Ya’ll love animals, huh?
Fuga: Melodies of Steel‘s continued success even in such a small niche could prove to be a good trend to chase for many developers, especially with the consistent passion of the furry community.
You Know What Else Furries Loved? Palword & Pokémon
Oh, but Fuga‘s success is but a small sample size to prove the popularity of games that cater to furries (or even closet furries). There are no accurate numbers, but part of Palworld’s landslide success is due to the apparently large and vocal furry fandom community. Of course, it’s no secret that there’s a huge overlap between Palworld players and Pokémon fans. I’d wager the overlap is looking more like a circle and not a Venn diagram anymore.
A good proof of this is how Palworld developer, Pocketpair, notably announced a dating sim “update” to Palworld as an April Fools joke back in 2024, and this opened a floodgate that they couldn’t close. It was a joke, but due to the hopeful furry fandom reaction, Palworld devs are now considering adding an actual dating sim to the game. Looks like the audience is already there, all gaming studios have to do is cater to the furry lovers in the US and globally.
