ガチ勢［乙～スラ（３０）］

Fuga · March 31, 2025, 1:57am

Hey everyone!

やっと暖かい日が続く様になってきたね！春は最高だけど、今年の黄砂の量はハンパない。

この記事を書いている時点では、黄砂がピークしていて、目はパサパサするし、喉も痒いし、辛すぎる。大げさかもだけど、インターステラーの世界に入り込んだ感じがする（笑）

愚痴はここまでにしておこう。

今日のトピックはガチ勢（ぜい）！

ガチ勢?

If you are in any Japanese fandom or in a gaming community, you have probably seen this used quite often. So what does this word mean and how is it used?

Before we jump in lets break this word down!

This word is made from two words, ガチ and 勢.

ガチ is an abbreviation of the word ガチンコ, which has a similar meaning to 真剣に, まじめに, and 本気で.

What does 勢 mean?

This one has quite a few definitions. It could mean ‘power’, ‘military force’, ‘team’, and many more, but the definition that ガチ勢 uses is ‘team’.

If we combine them and translate it we get a word that means ‘Serious team’, or ‘Team serious’.

When this word is used, it is usually used to describe gamers that take gaming very seriously. The English equivalent of this would be ‘Try hard’ or ‘sweaty’.

Origin

This term was originally used in the ゲーム界隈, to describe gamers that plays like their life depends on winning. When this was originally used, 勢 would be used after a name of a game.

Examples:

ポケモンガチ勢

Serious Pokemon player

エペガチ勢

Serious Apex player

Just like the English equivalents, this word is usually used as an insult, however, in the Japanese ゲーム界隈, it can sometimes be used as a praise.

There is a similar word to this that is sometimes used, which is 廃人（はいじん）. However, since the definition for this is ‘People who are unable to lead a normal life due to injury, illness, etc.’, it has a negative nuance. When used in the ゲーム界隈, it is usually used with the nuance of ‘a person who takes gaming so seriously, to the point that they cannot have a normal social life’. Due to the negative nuance, it is usually only used as an insult or when making a self-deprecating jokes.

Because ガチ勢 can be used with a positive nuance, people tend to use this word more often.

Not a ‘Sweaty’ gamer

Not all gamers are ‘sweaty’, some if not most people actually play just for fun.

These casual gamers are simply called エンジョイ勢.

Unlike ガチ勢, エンジョイ勢 describes people that enjoys the game they play and prioritizes the community associated with the game.

Uses outside the ゲーム界隈

Although this started out in the gaming community, as with any internet slang, this leaked into other communities such as anime, idols, sports, etc.

When ガチ勢 is used outside of the gaming community, it is usually used to describe hardcore fans or anyone that is very knowledgeable about a specific thing. Due to this,when used outside of the gaming community, it is used with a nuance closer to 〇〇マニア and 〇〇オタク.

For example, if someone is a コーヒーガチ勢, they will be very knowledgeable about coffee and will have a huge collection of coffee related things. If a person is a [Anime title]ガチ勢, they will know a lot about that specific anime and would own a lot of merch related to that specific anime.

Although this word is very versatile and can be used with anything that a person can get really into, it is uncommon for this word to be used for sports that have a well-known/well-established professional organization, such as baseball and soccer. However, in the rare occasion that it is used in relation to sports, it will be used to describe sports fans that are very knowledgeable about a specific sport, instead of someone who participates in them.

For example, 野球ガチ勢 would be used to describe hardcore baseball fans and not people that play baseball seriously.

This may seem similar to 推し, but ガチ勢 has a slightly stronger nuance, and can be used in a wider range!

今日も最後まで読んでくれてありがとう！

Fuga

If you missed the previous posts, you can check them out here!

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