So I found this nearly two-year article that I felt underlined some of the worries of the troubles overseas PAD is experiencing right now in 2015, especially with collabs.Other interesting information I gathered elsewhere and some musings:
*Some information below is assuming only people from their respective region have downloaded, and says absolutely nothing about the active userbase of each region. Y'all know this isn't the case, so use common sense to iron out the values.February 20, 2012 - Birth of JP PAD
November 8, 2012 - Birth of NA PAD
October 2013 - ~20m downloads for JP PAD, 1m+ downloads for NA PAD
May 2014 - 28m+ downloads for JP PAD, 4m+ downloads for NA PAD
August 2014 - 30m+ downloads for JP PAD, 4m+ downloads for NA PAD still
November 2014 - Advent of halved stamina timer for JP
December 2014 - Advent of halved stamina timer for NA
January 2015 - 32~33m downloads for JP PAD, 6m+ downloads for NA PAD
June 2015(Present Day) - 36m+ downloads for JP PAD, 7m+ downloads for NA PAD
Population of Japan as of now: 127.3 million people
% who've downloaded PAD ever:
28.28%Population of the United States as of now: 325 million people
% who've downloaded PAD ever:
2.15%This probably says a lot about the growth rate and popularity of PAD in each region, not even counting or guessing how many NA players have decided to download/defect to the JP client. On the other hand, I
have met and even friended some Japanese people who play on the NA client simply because all their friends are from America, but I will assume these numbers are much less, maybe even negligible compared to the former.
The memories of early-day horror stories still fresh in my mind thanks to the PAD veterans here, I think the NA client has come a pretty darn long way from where it started, but could the game be already starting to stagnate in the inhospitable land of the West? Are cultural differences and business costs going to stop PAD from becoming as big as GH hoped over here? Let's hope that's not the case, friends. These are just numbers, after all.