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SEGA Says Fans Who Don’t Play Games Are Growing in Importance
Being a fan of a video game franchise no longer necessarily means actually playing it. That is becoming increasingly apparent to SEGA, with President and COO Shuji Utsumi saying the company has seen growing numbers of people becoming invested in its characters and worlds through YouTube, livestreams, merchandise and other forms of entertainment instead.
Speaking with The Nikkei, Utsumi explained that this behaviour is appearing across the company’s different properties, with Like a Dragon providing one of the clearest examples. Around 60–70% of customers buying Like a Dragon merchandise are women, Utsumi said. Many within that audience have become familiar with characters such as Kazuma Kiryu and Goro Majima through official YouTube content or popular streamers without ever personally playing the games.
SEGA Still Considers Non-Players to Be Gamers
Utsumi does not see those fans as somehow less legitimate. Even when someone has never touched the game itself, SEGA still considers them part of the wider gaming audience. More interestingly, Utsumi says the company has seen cases where these fans show higher engagement with an IP than people who actually play the games.
He did not explain exactly how the company measures that engagement, so it would be premature to assume this refers specifically to merchandise spending or any other single metric. What it does show is why SEGA is placing increasing emphasis on reaching audiences beyond the games themselves.
Someone who discovers Kiryu through a streamer, buys character merchandise and follows every new video may ultimately have a relationship with Like a Dragon that looks very different from someone who simply finishes the latest game.
Transmedia Is Becoming More Important
That shift feeds directly into the broader transmedia strategy. The company has already seen what can happen when one of its properties reaches beyond games through the success of the Sonic the Hedgehog films, while franchises such as Like a Dragon and Persona are increasingly being explored through other entertainment formats.
A live-action Persona series is reportedly in development at Netflix, with Christopher Monfette attached as showrunner and SEGA’s Toru Nakahara reportedly serving as executive producer. Neither company has formally announced the project yet. Meanwhile, SEGA and Atlus have plenty happening within games too, with Persona 6 now officially announced and Persona 4 Revival arriving on February 18, 2027.
For the company, though, the definition of a valuable fan is clearly becoming broader. You might finish every Like a Dragon game, watch someone else play the entire series or simply really like Majima enough to fill a shelf with merchandise, and SEGA appears increasingly happy to count all three.
