The popularity and success of Sucker Punch's Ghost of Yotei is leading to a tourism boom in real life. As gamers have sought to visit the real world version of the locale in Ghost of Yoteithe surrounding cities are seeking to capitalize on the newfound popularity.
Ghost of Yotei launched in 2025, bringing players back to Japan in the 1600s, as playable character Atsu seeks revenge. The game has seen tremendous success, going so far as to beat Ghost of Tsushimaselling 3.3 million units in just 32 days on the market.
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Ghost of Yotei Leads to Tourism Ventures
Now, seven towns near Mount Yotei are taking steps to help funnel tourist fans into their area by signing a partnership with an IP collab firm. In doing so, the towns will be able to sell merchandise based upon Ghost of Yotei. Rather than mass-produced merch that can be acquired online, though, these items will have a local twist, with items created by a craft shop that makes goods out of timber from trees grown in Hokkaido, where Ghost of Yotei is set. Niseko, one of the nearby towns, may also be opening tours for those who liked the game so that they can visit some of its locales in real life.
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Hokkaido and Mount Yotei are popular tourist spots to begin with, but the attention that Ghost of Yotei has brought to the area is pushing that further. The trend isn't the first time that this has happened with a Sucker Punch game, as the move to capitalize on tourism is following in the footsteps of what happened with Ghost of Tsushima's release. That game's popularity also led to more tourists visiting the region it was set in, Tsushima Island. The popularity of the game and fans' real appreciation for the region it was set in was so strong that it led to $260,000 being raised to rebuild a shrine on Tsushima.
Given the success of Ghost of Tsushimait seems that the developers had a hunch that this might happen. Sucker Punch's former studio lead, Brian Fleming, visited Tsushima while the studio was promoting the sequel. He visited the shrine in question, and expressed how happy and excited he was to see it. While he noted that the team did not anticipate that anything like that would happen after releasing Ghost of TsushimaFleming did suggest that such a thing might be possible with the sequel, saying “Will the same thing happen with Yotei? I'm not sure, but I'm excited…”
For now, it seems that the Ghost of Yotei adventure has come to a close. Sucker Punch tends to work on one game at a time, and no official announcements have been made regarding what its next project will be. Ghost of Yotei wrapped up its last major update back in March 2026 at the same time it released a new raid for the Ghost of Yotei: Legends multiplayer mode. Whether Sucker Punch produces another Ghost game or moves on to something else remains to be seen for now.
Source: VideoGamesChronicle
- Released
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October 2, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence, Language, Partial Nudity, Use of Alcohol
- Publisher(s)
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Sony Interactive Entertainment
