When the games came out, how many never left Japan, which genres ruled and who made them.
Games in the collection
1,733
Japan only
28%
Busiest year
2002
Publishers
179
A peak in 2002, a fast fade after 2005
The GBA launched in Japan in March 2001, and its first full year, 2002, brought 384 new games. After the Nintendo DS arrived in late 2004 the releases thinned out year by year — only 46 in 2007. Orange marks games that only ever came out in Japan: more than a third of every year from 2001 to 2004, then a steep drop after 2005 — Japanese publishers moved to the DS faster than the West did.
Released outside JapanJapan only
Counts games with a known release year; regional editions of the same game count once.
28% of the games never left Japan
Group every game by where it was released: worldwide launches are the minority, and Japan-exclusive games are the single largest group. Many reached the rest of the world only through fan translations.
By genre, platformers lead by a wide margin, followed by action and sports. RPGs come fourth in number, yet account for many of the system’s best-remembered games.
Who published, who built
The busiest publisher was not Nintendo but Konami, with THQ close behind. The studio chart is full of Western teams that specialised in handheld ports and licensed games.