60 Million Downloads! Celebrating Mushroom Day with Funghi Gardening Kit

An annual festival where fans gather, known as “Crowdfunding.”

The main fan base of the app consists largely of women in their 30s and 40s, followed by men and women in their teens and 20s. While the initial boom has settled, there are still many dedicated fans today.

“Among users, some genuinely enjoy the game itself, but many continue playing because of their attachment to the characters,” explains Mr. Ban.

The crowdfunding initiative, which has been held annually since 2019, has become an annual festival for fans, showcasing significant enthusiasm and indicating that “Nameko” is truly loved.

“We are grateful that all the crowdfunding projects we’ve undertaken so far have been well received.

In addition to obtaining special Nameko merchandise, supporters can see the large number of contributors and the total amount raised on the crowdfunding platform, which helps them realize that there are many passionate fans like themselves.”

Two turning points triggered the formation of a fan community

“The first crowdfunding project we undertook was in 2019 for the paperback version of the four-panel comic ‘Nameyon.’ This book had previously been published by a publisher, but it had already gone out of print at that time. Many fans wanted a sequel, but it was challenging to publish it as a book again, so we decided to make it happen through crowdfunding.”

The project for reissuing the four-panel comic reached its goal of 3 million yen within just three hours of launch, ultimately gathering support from around 2,300 backers and raising a total of about 12 million yen. Following this success, the company decided to take on a second crowdfunding challenge.

“The first crowdfunding campaign had the clear goal of reissuing ‘Nameyon,’ but for the second one, we decided to proceed without a specific target.

However, when this discussion arose, the closure of our physical store, ‘Nameko Market Tokyo Main Store,’ where we sold character merchandise, had already been decided, so selling merchandise became an immediate decision. Still, I had concerns about turning the crowdfunding effort into just a merchandise sales venue, so we re-evaluated our objectives.”