Japan is a nation of gamers with a high proportion of players and they have a particular fondness for titles and genres that are a little different from western tastes. Here is a country where popular games like GTA and Call of Duty don't reign supreme. Instead, cutesy RPGs are often preferred. So it is that new figures show Animal Crossing: New Horizons has taken the title for the best-selling game ever in Japan.
The Nintendo Switch game has sold 10.45 million copies in the country (thanks Game Data Library and Eurogamer). It overtook Pokemon Red/Blue/Green which slips into second place with 10,230,000 copies. Coming in third is Pokemon Gold/Silver with 7.17m; fourth place is 1985's Super Mario Bros. with 6.81m; and Super Mario Bros. Ultimate rounds out the top five with 6.65m.
It's maybe not surprising that Pokemon has so many entries on the top 20 list of best-selling games in Japan. What's more incredible is that Splatoon 3, despite only being out for a couple of months, has entered the list at number 17 with just over five million copies sold. It looks very likely to overtake its predecessor which currently sits at number 15.
New Horizons is not the only Animal Crossing game on the list. New Leaf and Wild World are also among the best-selling games, sitting at number 8 and 13, respectively, on the list of 20. Animal Crossing, Pokemon, and Mario titles (Smash Bros., Kart, and Super) are among the most popular games in Japan, with multiple titles on the list.
Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch and DS are the most popular platforms in the country, with their titles dominating the list. There are no PlayStation games among the top 20 best-selling titles of all time in Japan, while the only other publishers to make it on there besides Nintendo and Pokemon Co. are Capcom and Square Enix. Respectively, their titles are Monster Hunter Freedom 3 and Dragon Quest 9: Sentinel of the Starry Skies which sit at number 14 and 20.
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