Japan's Top Ten of '97

The latest issue of Famitsu reports the top 100 best-selling games of 1997. The list, compiled by Famitsu, surveyed video game retailers and convenience stores all over Japan. Famitsu used a statistical method that it never quite reveals - so these are estimates, not exact figures.

Here's the top-ten best-selling games in Japan last year (title, platform, publisher, units sold):

1 Pocket Monster (Red, Green, Blue) GB Nintendo 3,653,0012 Final Fantasy VII PS Square 3,277,2903 Derby Stallion PS Ascii 1,581,1384 Final Fantasy Tactics PS Square 1,237,3285 Saga Frontier PS Square 1,057,2636 Minna no Golf PS SCE 1,023,1687 I.Q. Intelligent Qube PS SCE 749,1388 Geme de Hakken!! Tamagotchi GB Bandai 746,3839 PaRappa the Rapper PS SCE 699,86710 Chocobo no Fushigi na Dangeon PS Square 648,901

Among them, PaRappa the Rapper was released December 6 and Pocket Monster on February 27, 1996. It's amazing that Pokemon was released nearly two years ago and is still selling well. Actually, Pokemon appeared on last year's list of best-selling games in the number two spot. It had sold 1,048,239 copies in 1996, according to Famitsu.

It is also amazing that the list was dominated by PlayStation and GameBoy games. It's obvious that the current Japanese market is dominated by Sony and, I should say, Square, who managed to feed four of their games into the top ten.

Looking at the US and Japanese top-ten games, there are significant differences between them. There are no racers and no shooters in the Japanese top ten and only one sports title. There are five RPGs, and four of them are from Square (not surprisingly).

Source: Weekly Famitsu