Puzzle & Dragons surpasses 2M downloads in North America as GungHo works to match Japanese success

One of Japan’s biggest games is trying to repeat its success in North America, and developer GungHo Online is pointing to signs that it’s growing, albeit slowly.

Puzzle & Dragons, a role-playing puzzle game for iOS and Android, has just hit 2 million total downloads in North America. This is a significant milestone, as GungHo hopes to find an audience in the West.

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That 2 million number, while large, doesn’t fully represent the game’s total player base. We’ve reached out to GungHo to determine Puzzle & Dragon’ daily and monthly active users in North America, and we’ll update this post with any new information.

In Japan, Puzzle & Dragons is a massive hit. People there have downloaded the title more than 23 million times to date. In its most recent fiscal quarter, GungHo generated more than $420 million in revenue last quarter, and that is primarily due to the phenomenal success of the RPG-puzzler.

Puzzle & Dragons is regularly No. 1 in Japan’s top-grossing mobile apps.  but it isn’t quite matching that performance in North America. Currently, GungHo’s hit is the 28th most-grossing game on iOS in North America, according to data-tracking firm App Annie. While it frequently jumps as high as the top 10, it is still behind titles like King’s Candy Crush Saga social-puzzler.

In an effort to increase its presence in the west, GungHo has partnered with Angry Birds developer Rovio and Clash of Clans studio SuperCell to do cross-over promotions with those games. GungHo even teamed up with Japanese investment company SoftBank to acquire a 51 percent stake in SuperCell to help further its North American efforts.

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