In what order do the Yakuza games go?
Release order and story order part ways at exactly one game: the prequel with the biggest reputation.
There are nine main entries if you count from the 2005 original to Infinite Wealth, plus remakes of the first three and a shelf of spin-offs. Played in release order the story simply moves forward, with one exception: Yakuza 0 (2015) jumps back to 1988, before everything. The list below is release order, Japanese dates first, because this series was Japanese-first for most of its life.
THE MAIN SERIES
Release order
Yakuza · 2005 · PS2
Ryū ga Gotoku in Japan. Japan: December 8, 2005. The West: September 2006, with a full English dub.
Yakuza 2 · 2006 · PS2
Japan: December 7, 2006. The West waited until September 2008 and got subtitles only, a pattern that held for a decade.
Yakuza 3 · 2009 · PS3
Japan: February 26, 2009. The West: March 2010, in the cut version that became a localization scandal.
Yakuza 4 · 2010 · PS3
Four playable men, one Kamurocho. Japan: March 18, 2010. The West: March 2011.
Yakuza 5 · 2012 · PS3
Five heroes, five cities, the biggest game of its era. The West: December 2015, digital only, after Sony stepped in.
Yakuza 0 · 2015 · PS3 / PS4
A prequel set in the bubble-era winter of 1988. Japan: March 12, 2015. The West: January 24, 2017, and everything changed.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life · 2016 · PS4
The Dragon Engine debut and the billed finale of Kiryu's saga. Japan: December 2016. The West: April 17, 2018.
Yakuza: Like a Dragon · 2020 · PS4
Ryū ga Gotoku 7 in Japan, where it launched January 16, 2020. A new hero and a turn-based system. The West: November 10, 2020.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth · 2024
Ryū ga Gotoku 8. The first simultaneous worldwide launch, January 26, 2024, and the fastest-selling week in series history.
THE SPIN-OFFS
Side stories and crossoversRyū ga Gotoku Kenzan! · 2008 · PS3
1605 Kyoto, the cast recast around Miyamoto Musashi. Japan only, then and now.
Kurohyō 1 and 2 · 2010 / 2012 · PSP
A younger, angrier parallel series. Japan only, but with its own TV dramas and manga.
Yakuza: Dead Souls · 2011 · PS3
Zombies in a quarantined Kamurocho. The West got it in March 2012; it is the series' low-water mark there.
Ryū ga Gotoku Ishin! · 2014 · PS3 / PS4
1860s Kyoto, the cast recast around Sakamoto Ryōma. A PS4 launch title in Japan; the West waited nine years for the remake.
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise · 2018
The studio's crossover: Kenshiro, rebuilt with Yakuza's systems. The West got this one the same year.
Judgment · 2018 / Lost Judgment · 2021
The detective branch, starring Takuya Kimura, which inherited the real-time brawling when the main series turned RPG.
Like a Dragon Gaiden · 2023
Kiryu under the codename Joryu, bridging Yakuza 6 and Infinite Wealth.
Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii · 2025
Majima, amnesiac, captaining a pirate ship out of Hawaii. The Mad Dog's first solo game.
THE STORY ORDER
If you want chronology instead1600s to 1860s
Kenzan! opens the fictional chronology in the Kyoto of Miyamoto Musashi; Ishin! follows in the Bakumatsu of Sakamoto Ryōma. Both are period pieces with the modern cast in historical roles.
1988 to 2012
Yakuza 0 (1988), then 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 in numbered order (2005-2012), with the Kurohyō games running parallel in 2010 and 2012 and Dead Souls off to the side as a non-canon 2011.
2016 to 2025
Yakuza 6 (2016), Judgment (2018), Like a Dragon and Gaiden (2019), Lost Judgment (2021), Infinite Wealth (2023), Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii (2024). The modern saga is one continuous decade of story.