If you are like me, you have probably wondered why horse girls are suddenly everywhere. The Umamusume franchise has been around since 2018, so why is it just now getting popular in the US? It turns out the reason is quite simple. The game was finally released in the States after being available for years in Asia. That is right, we got the anime before we got the game it was supposed to be based on!
For those who do not know, Umamusume is a franchise based on anthropomorphic racehorses. Not just any racehorses, real-world racehorses! It is a gacha game where you train these horse girls to compete in races. The game came out on February 24, 2021, in Japan, but did not hit the US until June 26, 2025! This is why you have been seeing so much Umamusume lately.
As a side note, the anime did come out before the game. The game was supposed to come out in 2018, but it got delayed all the way into 2021! This might be why I was more familiar with the anime than the game. That also means that this is technically another franchise based on a gacha game … Capitalism ho!
So what do you think?