Maimai (stylized in all lowercase) is an arcade rhythm game series developed and distributed by Sega, in which the player interacts with objects on a touchscreen and executes dance-like movements. The game supports both single player and multiplayer gameplay with up to 2 players per cab. The game is mainly available in Japan, with an English-language version available to overseas regions including Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States along with a simplified Chinese release for China.
The Pink Plus version of the game was location tested in the United States at Dave & Buster's in Irvine, California in December 2016, and was also tested at Round 1 in Puente Hills, California in January 2017.
In July 2019, Sega released Maimai DX (Deluxe), a reworked version of the game which featured new, second-generation cabinets. After the pre-DX 'classic' cabinets were taken offline in September 2019, many were shipped to Europe and North America, running the FiNALE version as imports. In the US, several of these cabinets were installed at Round 1 locations in 2021, while in Europe, arcades such as Arcade Club began to install them starting around 2020.
The international version of Maimai DX BUDDiES has undergone location tests in the United States, with appearances at Round 1 in Puente Hills, California (24 May to 14 July 2024), Dave & Buster's in Dallas, Texas (6 August to 24 November 2024), and Velocity Esports in Schaumburg, Illinois (20 December 2024 until the store's closure on 5 March 2025).
Following these tests, Sega showcased Maimai DX at Amusement Expo International 2025 in Las Vegas on March 19 and 20, acting as the game's official Western debut. From September that year, cabinets began officially shipping to Round 1 locations across the United States, starting in California. Cabinets have also been shipped to other American arcades, including Dave & BusterâÂÂs and Kiddleton locations.
The defining feature of Maimais arcade cabinet is its striking resemblance to a front-loading washing machine. Early advertisements and promotional materials contained different joke catchphrases, such as 'It's not a washing machine!' and 'No water.' At its first deployment test, Maimai had 'No washing' written on its cabinet. Early in development, the original concept was actually a music player instead of a rhythm game. Up to 2 players can play per cabinet, and up to 4 players can play together with more cabinets. The motherboard can be accessed using the back door on the right side. The original design was revealed to have been made in collaboration with Sharp in Sega's Maimai LIVE 2014 Washing Festival event.
To save their personal play data, players can use an 'Aime' IC card with the machine to log into their account. From 25 October 2018 onward, with the introduction of the Amusement IC standard, other IC cards from other developers such as 'e-Amusement' and 'BanaPassport' cards will also work with Maimai.
Using a computer or smartphone, a player can use MaimaiNET (now Maimai DX NET) to access detailed information on their account like scores and earned achievements as well as change their account name. It was possible to link a niconico account to upload a recording of the play from the camera built into the arcade machine. In July 2019, this integration was removed with the release of Maimai DX, and video recording was replaced with a static camera to save commemorative photos at the end of a game.
Since the cabinet uses only one computer for both players, if a player is already playing on a machine, the second player's input will not work at all until the end of the game. The background image during this time states "Please wait until the current game is finished!" alongside the music video of the currently playing song if there is any.
Various kinds of notes will appear at the centre and approach the outer rim of the circular touchscreen. The player must tap, hold or slide on the touchscreen or surrounding buttons in time with the music, depending on the type of note.
There are 5 types of input-timing judgements (ranging from least to most accurate to timing): 'Miss', 'Good', 'Great', 'Perfect' and 'Critical Perfect', as well as showing if they are 'Late' or 'Early'. In-game settings can be toggled to enable different displays to show the different types of judgements based on the player's preference.
The types of notes in the game include:
Like other touch-based rhythm games, such as Chunithm and Wacca, many players wear gloves during gameplay in order to dampen the impact of hitting buttons and allow for easier sliding on the screen's surface, as well as to minimize injuries caused by friction, especially while playing at higher difficulties.
The game's song library is regularly updated. Each song has a unique background image or music video. Currently, songs in Maimai are sorted into categories based on where they originated from, with the main categories being:
All songs may also be sorted into another category at a time, such as release version, numerical difficulty level, and alphabetical order. Each song has four or five playable difficulty levels for its charts. The four regular difficulty levels are Basic, Advanced, Expert, and Master. Previously, there was also a fifth 'Easy' difficulty lower than Basic, but it was removed entirely in DX. Some songs have an additional Re:MASTER chart which may be added either on release or in a later version.
For songs added within the latest three versions of Maimai, a song's Master (and Re:MASTER if applicable) difficulty chart is only unlocked upon achieving an S rank (97% and above) on its Expert chart or harder (in multiplayer, if one player has unlocked the Master and Re:MASTER charts, the other may also play these, even if they have not reached the unlock conditions).
Every chart is also assigned a numerical level from 1 to 15. With the exception of level 1-6 and 15, there is also a harder '+' equivalent for each level (e.g. 7+, 9+, 11+,...). Since BUDDiES PLUS, the + label is for charts where the internal level difficulty has a decimal of .6 or higher (7.6 to 7.9 are 7+). Before this, the + appeared at .9 prior to DX Plus, and .7 from DX PLUS to BUDDiES.
Maimais scoring system includes alphabetical ranks and a percentage score up to 100.00 in addition to around 0.015 added per Break note in the chart pre-DX and 101.0000% from DX calculated based on the player's cumulative note judgements.
In order to "clear" a song, players must score at least 80% for an A rank. In Maimai PiNK, the ranking system changed from D-SS to F-SSS. In Maimai MiLK PLUS, 3 new ranks, namely S+, SS+ and SSS+, were added to the ranking system, thus changing the system to F-SSS+. In Maimai DX, ranks F and E were removed, and the B rank was split into B, BB and BBB, making the system D-SSS+. The maximum possible score obtainable, achieved when a player hits all notes as Perfect or higher while hitting all 'Break' notes with Critical Perfect (2600 points in FiNALE), is 101%, officially referred as an "All Perfect+" since Milk Plus, which was considered as SSS+ in the pre-DX scoring system.
Every chart is assigned a rating value based on the difficulty with a hidden decimal constant and score ranking, with songs split into old and new for total rating calculation. Songs released within the previous and current version of the game are considered new songs, while songs released in past versions are considered old songs (including Re:MASTER charts added for old songs during a "new song" version).
As of Splash PLUS, the player's total rating is calculated as the sum of the ratings of the top 15 new songs and top 35 old songs. Rating numbers are by default displayed along with the player's username (though this option can be turned off), with unique badges for certain rating ranges, ranging from the default white and blue for 999 and under to rainbow for 15000 and up. As of CiRCLE, achieving "All Perfect" on a chart gives one additional rating point to it.
Maimai NET (now Maimai DX NET) is Maimais website for players to access their account. To enable these services, a Sega ID or other IC card with play data has to be linked.
In earlier versions (pre-DX), if the game cabinet had a camera installed, players could record one of their played songs and access them on the Maimai NET website, which could then be downloaded and posted to sites like Niconico and YouTube.