Okay FINE I’ll Talk About Umamusume: Pretty Derby – The Anime Horse Girl Gacha Racing Game is now Available on PC and Mobile

Umamusume: Pretty Derby is a game about horse girl racing. Yes, you read that right, not horse racing, horse girl racing. And by horse girl, I for once don’t mean “passionate horse enthusiast of any gender”, but “girl with horse ears and tail, named after famous real life race horses”. 

The Uma Musume franchise has been around for several years and exists across manga, anime and video games. Most relevantly, Umamusume: Pretty Derby has been released internationally on Steam on June 25th 2025. 

Consequently, the questions of “is this a horse game?” and “will TMQ review it?” have been in the room, so let me take this opportunity to turn the several questions and requests I’ve received about this into Content™ and give you my actual thoughts on this game’s existence. 

The steam page contains a cinematic anime style opening, but not an actual gameplay trailer or even screenshots that show concrete features.

Much of the game’s action remains presented in vertical format, even in the PC version.

Is Umamusume a Horse Game? 

Yes. No. Maybe. I don’t know. Mechanically, probably yes. Spiritually? Your mileage may vary. It’s being discussed in the horse game communities, where I would consider it on-topic. Does it scratch any of my personal “I want good horse games” itches though? Absolutely not.

The Steam description of Umamusume: Pretty Derby tells us basically nothing about the actual gameplay, but from looking up some footage, you can expect a story, training, races, victory concerts and a whole lot of sparkle and shine on top of it all. The horse racing itself doesn’t give you direct control over the girls, but is based on tactics, preparation and care. The game is free to play and monetizes through a gacha system where you spend (earnable or buyable) premium currency for a chance of unlocking or upgrading more horse girls.

What it noticeably doesn’t have is the key things I look for in horse games, namely actual horses that look, move and behave like actual horses. As a result, my interest in actually giving it a try is very limited.

With over 2700 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews within just a few days, Umamusume: Pretty Derby is well set to become the most popular and most well reviewed “horse game” on Steam within weeks. (For comparison, Rival Stars Horse Racing has a bit over 4000 reviews, but it’s gathering them for five years) 

I do find that very funny. But I’m also salty as fuck about it. What do you mean we’re getting well made anime horse girl racing games while actually “serious” quality horse games are still few and far between? Can we get games with this production value and content breadth and built-in animated story sequences but with actual horses please? 

Behold: Silence Suzuka, an uma musume, literal translation “horse daughter”.

The real racehorse Silence Suzuka, note the hind leg colors matching the uma musume’s shoes.

I’ll admit, I’m not entirely uninterested in it. I can absolutely appreciate some of the fun details that fans have shared with me: like that some of the girls have differently colored socks or shoes to represent the leg markings of the horses that inspired them, or that the kanji for horse canonically has two “legs” instead of four in the world of Uma Musume. That’s fun, that’s obvious care being taken in a way I often miss in other games in our genre. I also welcome the opportunity that a game like this presents for players to discover their interest in equestrian games, if that interest has otherwise been dormant due to the lack of quality options. Oh and I think its hilarious that apparently (and somewhat atypically for its genre), developer Cygames avoids suggestive fan service and cracks down hard on lewd fan art, out of respect for the real race horses and their owners.

I will also add that the enthusiasm of TMQ community resident horse historian Noa Artemisia aka. The Pink Curator has rubbed off at least a little bit. Thanks to a recent exhibition on horses in Japanese culture that she helped curate, Artemisia has come into contact with some of Umamusume’s impact on its fans. She tells me:

I don't think Umamusume necessarily needs to be considered a 'horse game.' I've found it to be a gateway instead, not only to the genre, but the horse industry in general. Multitudes of fans from its native Japan who had never even seen a horse in person played the game and watched the anime, and became, inevitably, horse fans. They've raised impressive amounts of money for retired racehorses, and also have gotten into riding, or playing other, more mainline horse games.

I think that's what's made it so exciting and popular at our museum all the way in Lexington, Kentucky. A lot of people are confused at first, repeating the question of 'how are horses integrated into this?' But mostly, they're intrigued. Kids realize their popular interest of anime can combine with horses. Existing horse fans get excited by a new way for their interest to manifest. Looking at it too deeply can confuse even me, who hosts one of their collabs, so I just appreciate it for what it is: a heart-warming, fun, inviting game that can get people of all ages involved with the horse world, and, subsequently, its games-- and leave them wanting even more!

I do love that. But am I intrigued enough to invest the weeks of free time it generally takes me to write a thorough review? Not likely. It would be kind of hilarious to give this game the serious horse game treatment and animation critique, but I’ll get to that when I’m out of other relevant recent horse games to review or otherwise out of interesting, valuable TMQ work, which I don’t really see in the near future. 

Conclusion

So no, don’t expect a thorough review of Umamusume: Pretty Derby on this site any time soon. Not because I want to gatekeep what is or isn’t a horse game, but simply because my reviews take up a ton of time and I’d rather invest that into games with actual horses in them. You know, the four legged animal that I really like and whose movements I love to see done well in games.

That doesn’t mean that my personal lack of interest is representative of the horse game community as a whole though, so if you’re looking for fellow horse girl racing appreciators, the TMQ communities aren’t the worst place to find them. And if you’re undecided on what itches a game like this might scratch for you, you can always just give it a try for free on Steam, Android or iOS.