Just Dance (video game series)

• 1. Introduction

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  Just Dance began on the 17th of November 2009, when Ubisoft released a game whose song list put MC Hammer next to Elvis Presley and Iggy Pop. The Beach Boys, Baha Men, the Spice Girls, Gorillaz and Blur filled out the rest. Nobody holds a conventional controller in the way a player normally would. Instead, a dancer appears on the television, and the person in the living room tries to copy every move. The game then scores how closely the copy matches. This idea grew into a series that Ubisoft both developed and published. It has been played for entertainment, for fitness and in education, by people of very different ages and dance ability. How did a game built on imitation fit into a gaming world of joysticks and buttons? What changed from one release to the next? And how does a series about dancing survive the loss of the consoles it was built on?

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• 2. The Wii Moment

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  In 2006, Nintendo released the Wii, along with a remote called the Wiimote that used accelerometers and infrared sensors. Until then, players steered games with joysticks and buttons. Now they could swing an arm and have the game respond. At the same time, gyms were booming. Marc Stern has written that private fitness clubs in the United States grew from 3,000 in 1978 to nearly 20,000 by 2002. Memberships over the same stretch rose from 1.7 million in 1972 to 42.7 million by 2006. Exercise classes such as Zumba and dance cardio became mainstream in the 2000s, and games like Wii Sports built physical activity into their design. The console itself was simple and intuitive. Families, older adults and casual gamers who had never touched a game before suddenly had a reason to pick one up. That wider crowd helped casual gaming take off, and it opened the door to a new category of fitness games.

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• 3. Mirroring the Screen

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  On the screen, the dancers perform a routine while small pictures in the bottom right corner announce the moves coming up. Players earn points for accuracy and receive a rank when the song ends. Certain moments are marked as gold moves. To collect the bonus, a player must hold a pose or nail the hardest step in the routine. What counts as a controller depends on the game and the system. The Wii Remote and the Kinect camera have both done the job, and so has an app on a smart device. Player counts shift with the hardware. Eighth- and ninth-generation consoles allow up to six dancers at once. The same holds for the PC version of Just Dance 2017 and the Stadia versions of Just Dance 2020-2021 and 2022, where a gamepad or keyboard handles the menus. Some modes cut that number to four. Dance Crew routines are limited for Kinect users on Xbox One, Wii Remote users on Wii U and PlayStation Move users on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4. Seventh-generation consoles, plus the Wii U versions of Just Dance 4 through Just Dance 2015 and of Just Dance 2019, also stop at four. Only one installment has ever gone higher, and that is Just Dance 2, which supported eight players.

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• 4. A Yearly Ritual

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  Each new Just Dance arrived in the autumn, usually in October or November, after a reveal earlier in the year. Just Dance 3 was announced at the Ubisoft E3 conference on the 6th of June 2011. It was the first installment on Xbox 360 with Kinect support, and the first on PlayStation 3 with PlayStation Move support. Just Dance 4 followed in 2012 as the first on the Wii U. Just Dance 2014 was the first on Xbox One and PlayStation 4. In 2016, Just Dance 2017 became the first on the Nintendo Switch, and it remains the only one released on Microsoft Windows via Steam. Hardware also fell away. Just Dance 2018 was the last on the PlayStation 3. Just Dance 2019 was the last on the Wii U and the last game overall on Xbox 360. Just Dance 2020 was the first on Stadia and the last physically released on the Wii in North America. Just Dance 2021 broke ground on Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. It was unveiled on the 26th of August 2020, during a Nintendo Direct Mini showcase. Just Dance 2022 closed the book on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Stadia. The songs reflect each era's charts. Just Dance 2 offered Kesha, Outkast, Wham! and Boney M. Just Dance 2014 brought Psy and ABBA. Just Dance 2017 included Queen and Beyoncé, while Just Dance 2019 added Blackpink and J Balvin. Just Dance 2021 featured Twice and NCT 127, and Just Dance 2022 had Olivia Rodrigo and Bella Poarch. Then came the 22nd of November 2022 and Just Dance 2023 Edition, with BTS and Taylor Swift in its song list. It moved all future content onto a single live service platform with annual song packs. That service is backward compatible with the Nintendo Switch 2. The 2024 Edition arrived on the 24th of October 2023 with Rosalía, Miley Cyrus and SZA. The 2025 Edition came on the 15th of October 2024 with Celine Dion and Mandy Harvey. The 2026 Edition, the fourth annual pack, reached players on the 14th of October 2025 with Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter and Doechii.

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• 5. Branches of the Family

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  On the 9th of November 2010, Just Dance Kids reached the Wii with 42 tracks drawn from children's songs, television shows such as Yo Gabba Gabba! and The Wiggles, and pop hits. In Australia and Europe, it was called Dance Juniors. That name led to a quirk the next year. Just Dance Kids 2 shipped there as Just Dance Kids, since the original already carried the other title. Its songs came from Shrek 2, Despicable Me, Tangled and Disney's The Lion King. Just Dance Kids 2014 added Victorious and Fraggle Rock to the mix. A Disney spin-off followed on the 23rd of October 2012 in North America, and it drew on Disney films and Disney Channel pop. Its sequel in 2015 gathered more than 20 tracks from Disney Channel series and movies, including Descendants, Teen Beach Movie and Liv and Maddie. Michael Jackson: The Experience offered 26 songs with full Michael Jackson choreography in November 2010. Eurogamer judged the routines in the Xbox 360 game to "feel a little slower and more simplistic than those in the PS3 game". The Black Eyed Peas Experience followed in November 2011, and its Xbox 360 version played completely differently from the Wii version. The Hip Hop Dance Experience, in 2012, brought Flo Rida, B.o.B and Rihanna. Other branches went further afield. Dance on Broadway, a game unrelated to the series, carried 20 songs from musicals including The Lion King, Legally Blonde, Fame and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The Smurfs Dance Party let players dance beside Papa Smurf, Smurfette and even Gargamel. ABBA: You Can Dance gathered 26 songs by the group. Two compilations rounded things out. Just Dance: Summer Party collected downloadable content from Just Dance 2, including "Funkytown" as covered by Sweat Invaders, though some planned songs, such as "Crazy Christmas" by Santa Clones, were scrapped. Just Dance: Greatest Hits gathered favorites from earlier titles, and PAL Wii owners knew it as Just Dance: Best Of.

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• 6. Japan Gets Its Own

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  In Japan, the series took a different path. Just Dance Wii came out on the 13th of October 2011 for the Wii only. Nintendo published and edited it, and Ubisoft Paris developed it. It paired 16 J-pop songs from Exile, Kara, Kumi Koda and AKB48 with 11 songs from the first two main games. A single Super Mario Bros. tune could be unlocked by playing everything else. According to Media Create, it had sold 560,301 copies in Japan by the 11th of March 2012. Just Dance Wii 2 arrived on the 26th of July 2012 with 20 J-pop songs, among them tracks by Speed, Da Pump, T-ara, DJ Ozma, 2PM, Happiness and MAX. Fifteen more were borrowed from Just Dance 2 and Just Dance 3. Nintendo revealed Just Dance Wii U in a Nintendo Direct on the 14th of February 2014, and it was released on the 3rd of April 2014. Its 20 J-pop songs came from SKE48, AKB48, BIGBANG, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu and Momoiro Clover Z. A long roster of Ubisoft studios worked on it, in Paris, Reflections, Romania, Montpellier, Bucharest, Milan and Pune. The fourth Japanese entry, Yo-kai Watch Dance: Just Dance Special Version, appeared on the 5th of December 2015. Level-5 co-developed and published it, and it was built around that company's Yo-kai Watch characters and songs.

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• 7. Beyond the Disc

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  Just Dance Now freed the series from the console. A player syncs a device with a website running on a television or computer screen, and the phone becomes the controller, much like a Wii Remote. A related app began as Just Dance 2015 Motion Controller for the PS4 and Xbox One versions of that year's game. On the 27th of July 2015, it was retitled Just Dance Controller. Its support spread to the Wii U version of Just Dance 2016 and then to the Steam and Switch versions of Just Dance 2017. Until Just Dance 2018, it included a photo booth, which let players take a self-portrait decorated with items from the game. Smart device compatibility was removed from the Wii U and Switch versions of Just Dance 2019 in October 2018. Subscriptions have replaced the old downloadable songs. Just Dance Unlimited ran from Just Dance 2016 through Just Dance 2022, and by the end of the 2022 cycle it offered over 700 songs. It was delisted on Xbox and PlayStation consoles on the 1st of July 2024, and on Nintendo Switch on the 31st of March 2025. Just Dance+ launched alongside the 2023 Edition as its replacement, with older songs plus new exclusives. Just Dance VR then rebuilt 25 songs from the main series in virtual reality. It was released on the 15th of October 2024 for Meta Quest 2, 3 and Pro.

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• 8. Scores and Screens

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  The first Just Dance earned just 49 out of 100 on Metacritic. Just Dance 2 jumped to 74. Just Dance 3 scored between 70 on Xbox 360 and 75 on PlayStation 3. Just Dance 4 ranged from 66 on Wii U to 77 on Xbox 360 and PS3. Just Dance 2014 peaked at 79 on Xbox 360. Later entries mostly stayed in the low to mid 70s, with Just Dance 2019 hitting 77 on Xbox One and PS4. The highest mark of all is 83 out of 100 for Just Dance 2022 on Xbox Series X/S. The 2023 Edition got 80 on the same console, while the 2024 Edition got 68 on PlayStation 5. The 2025 Edition earned 79 on PlayStation 5. Spin-offs fared worse. Dance on Broadway got 48 on the Wii. Michael Jackson: The Experience got 56 on Wii and 66 on PS3. ABBA: You Can Dance scored 66. A film is also in the works. On the 14th of January 2019, Deadline reported that Screen Gems had acquired the rights, with Jason Altman and Margaret Boykin of Ubisoft Film & Television producing. Jodi Hildebrand and Will Gluck of Olive Bridge Entertainment would join them. In January 2020, the script was credited to Molly Prather, Amelie Gillette, Brian Gatewood and Alessandro Tanaka. By January 2023, Gluck was reported to be rewriting it alongside A.C. Bradley.

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