A new survey on Japanese gamers for 2024 concluded that none of them bothered to play Western games, as evident in their top 20 list.

In the survey from company HIKE Co and research arm Sarugaku Agency, Japanese gamers’ favourite video games in 2024 featured no Western entries in the top 20. The majority of their top 20 were Japanese IPs.

Just shy of number 20 was Fortnite by Western developer Epic Games, which was placed at 21st. The number 1 game? Final Fantasy, followed by The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, Dragon Quest, and Pokémon. Here’s the top 20 game series of 2024 according to Japanese gamers.

1. Final Fantasy
2. The Legend of Zelda
3. Super Mario
4. Dragon Quest
5. Pokémon
6. Splatoon
7. Elden Ring
8. Like a Dragon
9. Momotaro Densetsu
10. Animal Crossing
11. Persona
12. Resident Evil
13. Monster Hunter
14. Street Fighter
15. Unicorn Overlord
16. Armored Core
17. Powerful Pro Baseball
18. Shiren the Wanderer
19. NieR
20. Genshin Impact

Other highlights from the survey include:

• PC gaming has been showing growth in popularity, with 19% saying it’s their format of choice
• The Nintendo Switch was the most-played console among casual players, moderate players, and core gamers.
• The PlayStation 5 was second place among core gamers.

Our Take

It’s clear as day that the Western developers way of making games on a huge scale is dying and slowly losing relevance, especially when compared to how Japanese developers have handled things for the past few years. Look at Warner Bros. Games, Microsoft, Ubisoft, and Activision Blizzard as few examples; they could learn a thing or two from Capcom, Koei Tecmo, Sega, and even Konami for Christ’s sake. You know your side of the world’s industry done fucked up when you have to look up to Konami of all companies to learn how to handle your games division. The West are the kind of folks who would say “live service games are the way to go, not single-player” when Sega has been making bank on a series that has always been a single-player game since 2005.

PC gaming has been the top dog in gaming since it’s the all-around choice for worldwide gaming, so it’s great to see Japan on-board thanks to more affordable laptops and desktops that can moderately run games of most sizes.