Everywhere I look at the moment, I see Umamusume: Pretty Derby. My favorite streamers are playing it, the ads are all over my Instagram feed, and it's topping the charts across Android, iOS, and Steam. I've known for a while that I would play Umamusume as soon as it released in the West, but I wasn't expecting this. Why is everyone so obsessed with the silly horse game?
If, somehow, you've never heard of Umamusume: Pretty Derby, it's an idol raising simulation game for mobile and PC in which you play as a trainer to 'Umamusume' - the reincarnated spirits of race horses that take the form of humanoid horse girls. If you're thinking to yourself, "That's a bit bizarre," that's exactly why I wasn't expecting this obscure gacha game to take off worldwide. To be honest, I also believe that Cygames, the series' creator and game developer, felt the same, as Umamusume: Pretty Derby launched in Japan four years before the company decided to bring the free mobile game to the rest of the world.
As I mentioned before, I've had my eye on this game for a while because I'm in the exact target demographic for it. I already love idols and idol games (yes, the Umamusume are idols as well as race horses), I've been meaning to watch the anime series for a while now, and, as a TCG collector and player, I own some of the Shadowverse cards already. It's not hard to market anthropomorphised horse girls to me, but this level of popularity is unprecedented. At the time of writing, Umamusume: Pretty Derby is the best-selling game on Steam, number one in both the free and grossing simulation game charts on Android, and in the top five on iOS.
I'd love to believe that the gaming world is suddenly really invested in animated horse girls, but it looks like comedy and irony play major roles in this game's rise to popularity. I surveyed a few players in my circles, and all three of them mentioned the influence of Gold Ship memes on their desire to download Umamusume. Her victory celebration sees her drop-kicking the trainer (you) out of nowhere, in reference to the real horse's "unpredictable temperament," and it is hilarious.
I've also seen a huge number of content creators getting involved in Umamusume, either through paid collaborations with Cygames or out of their own curiosity. One of my favorite YouTubers, Alpharad, started playing as a meme, but has now developed a genuine connection with his trainees like the rest of us. Cygames has done a wonderful job of making you care about your trainees through character interactions, side stories, and even scripted race losses that have brought many players to tears.
Despite all of this success, there are still plenty of neigh-sayers (get it?) online, mostly asking why these characters are horses. While my initial answer would be, "Why not?" it actually makes a lot of sense as a gameplay mechanic and in a cultural context. In football games, cricket games, and other sports titles, whether you're controlling the player or the manager, the most important characters are the athletes. According to Renee Geelen for The Thoroughbred Report, Japan's horse racing community treats the horses as "stars of the show," rather than the jockeys, so they deserve to be the focus of an equestrian sports game. Naturally, turning the horses into humans makes it much easier to relate to them emotionally.
One of my friends mentioned that it would be interesting to see how the game affects attitudes to horse racing and husbandry, especially as it has literally humanized the animals. Japanese people already have a very different relationship to horse racing than the British, seeing races as an accessible form of entertainment where you cheer for your favorite horse, rather than a high-class party with fancy outfits and drinking. As much as I love Umamusume, I still dislike horse racing as a sport and don't interact with it in real life, but it's clear that others feel differently, as Cygames has released a statement on what to do when visiting the Umamusume's namesakes at their stables.
Overall, Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a lighthearted, fun time that follows a lot of typical genre conventions for idol raising games. The only difference is that you're training horse girls, but in a gaming landscape filled with cat girls and characters like Zenless Zone Zero's Lycaon, it's really not that strange. Don't let stigma stop you from enjoying the silly horse game while it's still popular!