[uranusjr]

There are multiple factors and I’m not sure what the exact cause is either. The relative difficulty to build a playable bot is one. A Go game being relatively long and taxing may be another. Go also traditionally has a reputation of being a game for bureaucrats and intellectuals, while Shogi being a more people’s game. The obvious parallel between the battlefield also makes Shogi more popular among samurais, who yakuzas draw a lot of inspiration from.

In general I think the two are of comparable popularity in Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised if real yakuza people do like and play Shogi much more than Go.