500 South Korean internet cafes close in a year

It has been revealed that more than 500 PC cafes (internet cafes) closed down in South Korea last year. According to the National Tax Service's National Tax Statistics Portal on the 10th, the number of internet cafes nationwide was
As of the end of last year, the number had fallen to 7,243, with 530 stores disappearing in just one year. Compared to 2017's total of 10,568 stores, the decline is significant.
Internet cafes, once bustling with young people in their teens and twenties, are now a rare sight.
According to the Korea Creative Content Agency's "Actual Situation of Game Users," the percentage of all game users who visit internet cafes at least once a week is expected to increase from 12.1% in 2023 to 2.3% in 2024.
The usage rate of internet cafes, which had been steadily increasing, from 10.8% in 2021, to 11.4% in 2022, and 12.1% in 2023, has begun to decline since last year.
Internet cafe owners say they have no customers at all and are finding it difficult to continue. These days, most Internet cafes are closed on weekday evenings and weekends.
The decline is due to the rise of mobile games on smartphones, a sharp decline in the use of internet cafes by young people, and rising fixed costs.
The main reason is that mobile games accounted for 64.4% of total sales (Game White Paper), while PC games accounted for 28.6%.
Games accounted for 86.8% of the total, while mobile games accounted for only 10.1%. As high-performance personal computers become more widely used, the need to go to internet cafes has decreased significantly.
Another factor is the lack of hit games to draw in users. The number of new game releases has decreased, and there are hardly any popular games for internet cafes.
An industry insider said, "The once-enthusiastic opening of internet cafes is now a thing of the past. Huge fixed electricity bills and the minimum wage are now
"As wages are rising, it's even tougher for internet cafes, where many employees work part-time."