A new survey asking Japanese players about their favourite video games they played last year featured no Western entries in the top 20.
The survey was commissioned earlier this year by Japanese game company HIKE Co and carried out independently by its research arm Sarugaku Agency.
The results, which have been reported onAutomaton, found that when 1,000 participants of varying ages and levels of game experience were asked about their favourite games they played last year, the vast majority of those most frequently mentioned were Japanese IPs.
In fact, in the entire top 20 of series mentioned, only the number 20 spot was a series not developed in Japan – the Chinese-developedGenshin Impact. The first Western game to appear in the list isFortniteat number 21.
Topping the list is the Final Fantasy series – presumably due to the release ofFinal Fantasy 7 Rebirth– followed closely byThe Legend of Zeldaand Super Mario, while Splatoon demonstrates its continued popularity in Japan with a number 6 slot.
The full top 20 from those surveyed is as follows:
Elsewhere in the survey,PC gaminghas shown growth in popularity compared to previous years, especially among ‘core’ players who play a lot of video games.
When asked which hardware players preferred to use when playing their games, theNintendo Switchwon out among casual players (41.2%), moderate players (32.7%) and ‘core’ players (23.6%).
WhilePS4was second place among casual and moderate players andPS5was second for ‘core’ players, however, PC came extremely close toSony‘s consoles in all three categories of player.
Among ‘core’ Japanese players, 19% of respondents said PC was their format of choice, compared to 16.9% last year and 17 the year before.
The survey also found that around half of casual players said they tended to focus on playing through one game at a time, while moderate and ‘core’ players said they preferred to jump between multiple games.
