Yo-kai Watch (Japanese: 妖怪ウォッチ, Yōkai Wotchi) is a Japanese mixed-media franchise of Japanese role-playing video games and toys, created and developed by Level-5. The first game in the series was released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013. Three main sequels and several spinoffs, on both Nintendo and mobile platforms, have been released. In December 2019, they expanded to PlayStation with the release of Yo-kai Watch 4++.
Six manga adaptations have also been produced; one, a series that began serialization in Shogakukan's CoroCoro Comic from December 2012 to December 2022, became an award winner. An anime television series produced by OLM, Inc. began airing in Japan from January 2014 and was a ratings success, boosting the franchise in popularity, and began airing in North America from September 2015. An animated film was released in December 2014; with three more films being produced. As of 2022, the game series had sold over 17 million copies worldwide.The Yo-kai Watch toys are made in Japan by Bandai. Hasbro made the toys for Yo-kai Watch in North America, Europe and Latin America. This is the first Japanese Bandai franchise to be licensed outside Asia by Hasbro before Power Rangers in 2019.
Despite not meeting Level-5's expectations in the United States, the franchise still enjoyed a successful U.S. launch, with the original 3DS game selling 400,000 units, as well as toys and an airing of the TV series on Disney XD in the United States on September 5, 2015. However, interest in the Yo-kai Watch franchise steadily declined, and Hasbro's Yo-kai Watch toy line was discontinued in the United States in 2017 and in Europe and Latin America in 2018.
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