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Over 50,000 Japanese users vote for their favorite console games in TV Asahi poll – Top 100 announced

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69

100. Persona 3
99. Pokemon Platinum Version
98. Persona 4
97. Super Mario World
96. Romance of the Three Kingdoms
95. MOTHER
94. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
93. Persona 5 Royal
92. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
91. Street Fighter II
90. Final Fantasy VIII
89. Super Mario Galaxy 2
88. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
87. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
86. Monster Hunter
85. Dragon Quest VI: Realms of Revelation
84. Final Fantasy XI
83. Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past
82. Legend of Mana
81. Dragon Quest Builders 2
80. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
79. Metal Gear Solid
78. Nobunaga’s Ambition: Zenkokuban
77. Mario Kart Wii
76. Kirby Air Ride
75. Animal Crossing: Wild World
74. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
73. Gran Turismo 4
72. Kirby Super Star
71. Dr. Mario
70. Monster Hunter: World
69. Super Mario RPG
68. Pokemon X / Y
67. Bloodborne
66. Ghost of Tsushima
65. Suikoden
64. Pokemon Heart Gold / Soul Silver
63. Final Fantasy III
62. Xevious
61. Super Smash Bros.
60. Pokemon Black 2 / White 2
59. Dead by Daylight
58. Animal Crossing
57. Super Donkey Kong
56. Super Mario Galaxy
55. Yo-kai Watch 2: Bony Spirits / Fleshy Souls / Psychic Specters
54. Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King
53. Tales of the Abyss
52. The Legend of Zelda
51. Final Fantasy IV
50. Pokemon Ruby / Sapphire
49. Kingdom Hearts
48. NieR: Automata
47. Final Fantasy XIV
46. Dragon Quest II: Luminaries of the Legendary Line
45. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
44. Dragon Quest X: Rise of the Five Tribes Online
43. Xenoblade
42. Persona 5
41. Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa Heisei Reiwa mo Teiban!
40. Xenogears
39. Dark Souls III
38. Puyo Puyo
37. Final Fantasy IX
36. Pokemon Gold / Silver
35. Xenoblade 2
34. Final Fantasy V
33. Final Fantasy VI
32. Biohazard
31. Tactics Ogre
30. Apex Legends
29. Okami
28. MOTHER 2
27. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age
26. Pokemon Black / White
25. Tetris
24. Pokemon Red / Green / Blue
23. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
22. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
21. Splatoon
20. Minecraft
19. Suikoden II
18. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
16. Kingdom Hearts II
15. Dragon Quest IV: Chapters of the Chosen
14. Pokemon Sword / Shield
13. UNDERTALE
12. Super Mario Kart
11. Pokemon Diamond / Pearl
10. Super Mario Bros. 3
9. Final Fantasy X
8. Chrono Trigger
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation
5. Splatoon 2
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3. Final Fantasy VII
2. Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild


Recency bias is wild but man there are some curveballs in here. Apex? Undertale? Kirby?


edit - added context thanks ranmafan ranmafan

So I was watching my recording of the special last night again today and thought I would add some notes that I’ve noticed many sites haven’t posted about the list. Games were limited to video games on home and portable consoles, and so it looks like cell phone games were not allowed. Which would’ve been interesting had they had as I bet a few games would’ve made it on the list. Every game had at least 30000 units in sales. People voted their top five games and it was on a point system:

1st -10 points
2nd - 7 points
3rd - 5 points
4th - 3 points
5th - 1 point

Final rankings were done by point totals. For example the first title shown number 70 (71-100 were annouced a week before online) monster Hunter world had 660 points. Zelda had 74000 points.almost 20000 points more than second place dragon quest 5.

Some extra information. Undertale was very popular in the lowest age group, 6th place for boys, 5th for girls. Smash Bros for switch was number one for boys in the kids/teens and twenties group, and girls was not far behind. They also showed a clip of the Nintendo New York showing of the unveil with all the people going crazy to show how popular it is abroad. Dragon quest 3 was number one in the 40s age group with both men and women and almost number one for the 50s and 30s as well. Dq5 was number one in both men and women for the 50s group. Splatoon two was big with kids and twenty. Year olds. Was first place among the girls kids/teens group, and 3rd for girls in the twenties group. The program did not present info on how Zelda breath of the wild did in each group surprisingly. They did show an interesting number though. They interviewed the singer of the mazinger z theme song and showed he had played the game for 3155 hours!

Overall the show was fun to watch. Lots of interviews with game personalities. And even the “talent”’on the shows panel were surprisingly well versed in games.
 
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Concern

Member
Angry Bad Day GIF by Hollyoaks


That goddamn botw


/s
 
BotW deserves it. I think Zelda has always been less popular in Japan than in the west, so that's pretty cool to see. Or maybe I'm thinking of FF.
Final Fantasy is more popular there.

I think you're thinking of Final Fantasy vs Dragon Quest. Dragon Quest is bigger than Final Fantasy there. Everywhere else it's the opposite. But, they are both more popular in Japan than anywhere else.
 
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ranmafan

Member
Was watching the special last night as it aired and many surprises but mostly on the spot. Apex Legends being there isn’t a typo, it’s quite popular here. Same with Undertale. Top ten was pretty much what I expected it to be. Was shocked not to super Mario bros on the list or even fortnite, but the fortnite boom has ended here lately. Was glad to see Fire Emblem Three houses so high. They made a point once again that the series is more popular with women and all. Probably something that people screaming about the fan service in the game in the west would be surprised to here. Also Mother and Mother 2 on the list, but not
mother 3. I guess the hype that the third game is so huge here is overblown by fans of the series. Still overall a nice list and really does reflect Japanese opinions on games over the years.
 

Bragr

Banned
This is like if you polled a random 50,000 in the US. Half the list would be stuff like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Dark Souls, and Madden.

Number 1 is the only one that got the right position.
 

amigastar

Member
wait, Super Mario Odyssey didn't make the list??....weird, I think that's the 2nd best game on Switch
Yeah. Currently playing it and it's awesome. Not a big fan of Breath of the Wild, though. Maybe i should give it another try.
 
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ranmafan

Member
The only real surprise in my eyes was no Wii Sports. Also there's not as much representation for the DS or Wii as I'd expect.
Wii sports missing is a bit surprising. Of course the game wasn’t bundled with the system in Japan and like a lot of Wii games kinda has gotten forgotten as time has passed.
 

PSYGN

Member
Apex Legends is a great multiplayer game. Interesting to see it rated so highly considering the type of game and demographic.
 
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Ebidramon

Banned
I mean, say what you want about rankings, but that is actually really good list with many, many great games.

There exist thousands of games, so even Persona 3 is ranked extremely high.
 

ranmafan

Member
Apex Legends is a great multiplayer game. Interesting to see it rated so highly considering the type of game and demographic.

Yeah its quite popular here, especially with he esports crowd. Talking with some of my fellow teachers here, they say a large amount of their students from elementary through high school play the game. Whenever there is news on the game its usually trending on twitter in Japan. While I'm surprised at how high it got on the list, I'm not surprised at its inclusion on the list like others are.
 

Mistake

Gold Member
I have noticed that BotW seems to appeal to a wider audience. Personally I don’t care for it, and for me there’s no comparing to Chrono Trigger. I haven’t tried DQ5, is it really that good? I thought DQ9 was decent, but I probably would have liked it a lot more in my younger days
 

Drell

Member
I'm really Happy to see my Fire Emblem 4 made it! I know there's some love for this game there, but I thought it was only a niche, having it up at the 94th place is really nice to see.
 

Vandole

Member
I have noticed that BotW seems to appeal to a wider audience. Personally I don’t care for it, and for me there’s no comparing to Chrono Trigger. I haven’t tried DQ5, is it really that good? I thought DQ9 was decent, but I probably would have liked it a lot more in my younger days
DQV had the best story in 16-bit gaming, and the improvements that were made for the DS/mobile versions made the game even better.

That said it's not a top 5 game of all time. It has a few new features, but aside from the story it's a pretty typical turn-based RPG of the time. The nostalgia glow is strong with that one. Still, I would recommend you giving it a go if you like 16 bit jrpgs.
 
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