Future Card Buddyfight card game co-creator and Studio Iketti President Yoshimasa Ikeda revealed last week that the Japanese card game market achieved sales of 5.45 billion yen (about US$47 million) for September this year, an over 40% drop from September 2016's 9.34 billion yen (about US$81 million). Ikeda noted he received his information from research firm Media Create.

Ikeda attributed most of the loss to the Yu-Gi-Oh! card game's dropping in sales by 52% compared to sales in September 2016. Duel Masters similarly displayed a 32% drop in sales compared to sales in September 2016.

Yu-Gi-Oh! and Duel Masters are the #1 and #2 highest-selling card games in Japan for the past 17 years, but Ikeda noted that the distance between their gross sales have never been closer than this fiscal year, with Yu-Gi-Oh! grossing 10.4 billion yen (about US$91 million) from April to September this year, and Duel Masters grossing 9.1 billion yen (about US$79 million) over the same period.

Ikeda also named Cardfight!! Vanguard as the #3 highest selling card game for April to September 2017, with 2.4 billion yen (about US$21 million), Weiss Schwarz at #4 with 2.2 billion yen (about US$19 million), and Future Card Buddyfight at #5 with 2.1 billion yen (about US$).

[Via Nijipoi]