The Like a Dragon series, known previously as the Yakuza series in the West or as Ryū ga Gotoku in Japan, had a spike in popularity last year thanks to the latest mainline release: Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. Western fans flocked to the previously little-known series, driving up demand and even creating enough support to justify a transmedia TV adaptation. Previously, we touched on the importance of Like a Dragon among Sega’s library of games, but with the release of the new spin-off title Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii we felt the series deserved a closer look.
In this article, we look at the debut performance of Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, and the mounting popularity of the series over the past several years.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii Sets Sail on Live Streaming
With so much pent-up hype, there was a lot expected from this new entry in the Like a Dragon series. In the end, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii pulled in an admirable 3.4M hours watched in its debut week with a peak viewership of 77K. While this is still a strong performance, it didn’t quite meet the performance of last year’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth with 5.6M hours watched in its debut week. Still though, given that the game is a spin-off title, this watch time is impressive and it’s backed up by positive reviews from critics and fans alike.
Looking at the top streamers reveals a clear trend. The most watched Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii streamer was Chinese-speaking streamer 餐餐自由配 (blusewilly_retry) with 193K hours watched. In fact, 8 of the top 10 streamers were from Asian countries, including VTuber Hakui Koyori from Japan on YouTube Gaming (168K hours watched) and 풍월량 (Poong Wol-ryang) from South Korea on Chzzk (156K hours watched). The only Western streamers among the top 10 were zackrawrr (123K) and Ray Narvaez Jr. (82K). It may be that the over-the-top premise of the spin-off title and lack of promotion in the West meant that not as many Western fans of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth came back to support this new title.
The Like a Dragon / Yakuza Series Has Consistent Viewership for Older Titles
One of the key strengths of the Like a Dragon / Yakuza series is the loyalty of its fans. Even throughout multiple genre changes from Action-adventure to RPG, players and viewers alike stick around and enjoy watching playthroughs of older games in the series. Since 2018, the Like a Dragon / Yakuza series has had an average quarterly viewership of 4.1M hours watched (or 3.3M hours watched if you exclude the large peaks in viewership for the releases of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth). This consistent viewership mainly comes from Yakuza 0 and Yakuza Kiwami (a remake of the original Yakuza game).
Although the original game was designed to appeal to fans of Japanese crime dramas, the series’ hyper-specific tone slowly won over Western players. Yakuza: Like a Dragon saw an explosion in popularity that led to the franchise’s current demand. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth continued to innovate by featuring contemporary influences like VTubers and exploring alternate genres with spin-offs. With one new game released every year since the series’ inception in 2006 (except 2021), this is an exciting time to be a Like a Dragon fan. Even better, Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii’s oddball premise shows how flexible the series can be while still retaining viewership.
Like a Dragon / Yakuza is One of Sega’s Big Hitters on Live Streaming
Sega has been having an incredible run lately, with some very strong performers on live streaming and equally well-reviewed games. Among even these titles though, Like a Dragon stood at the top last year with 15.7M hours watched in 2024. Even older titles in the series made their way up the leaderboard, with Yakuza 0 and Yakuza: Like a Dragon bringing in 4.6M and 4M hours watched, respectively. Like a Dragon / Yakuza has become a tentpole series for Sega, helping solidify the company’s reputation as a publisher of creative, well-designed games.
Looking at some of the other franchises represented here, Atlus’s JRPGs stand out in 2nd and 4th place: Remake Persona 3 Reload and new series Metaphor: ReFantazio with 11.4M and 9.9M hours watched in 2024, respectively. Keep in mind, of course, that these games both released last year, which no doubt elevated their watch times. Football Manager 24 also performed strongly with 9.9M hours watched, this title being helped by the unfortunate cancellation of Football Manager 25 due to Sega halting the game to maintain their commitment to quality. While that cancellation is heartbreaking, it further proves that Sega is pursuing quality over quantity, not satisfied with just cashing in on a series every year for the sake of it.
Like a Dragon / Yakuza had some Western success with Infinite Wealth, but the series still needs to find a core fan base there to expand out. Thankfully, there’s a great backlog of titles to draw on and a passionate core fanbase eager to share the games’ stories with other audiences. Partnering with key Western streamers with influencer marketing campaigns could propel this series to the forefront. Stream Hatchet will be waiting for the release of the next mainline title, expected to come out in 2026.
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