{"id":34317,"date":"2025-07-30T21:12:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34317\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T21:12:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:12:11","slug":"japanese-variety-show-ranks-nations-favourite-games-mario-animal-crossing-miss-top-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34317\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Variety Show Ranks Nation’s Favourite Games, Mario & Animal Crossing Miss Top Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Minecraft<\/a>Image: Nintendo Life<\/p>\n

A new survey conducted by Japanese variety show Ariyoshiiieeeee! \u2013 Oh yeah! Wanna play games at your place now? has revealed Japan’s favourite video games<\/a>, both overall and by age rating, and while the likes of Mario, Splatoon, Pok\u00e9mon, Zelda, Animal Crossing, and Dragon Quest all make frequent appearances, none of them made the top spot. (thanks, Automaton Media<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Nope, Japan’s number one game \u2014 at least, according to a survey of 3,000 people conducted by the show \u2014 is none other than Minecraft<\/a>. Super Mario Bros.<\/a> landed at second overall, while Animal Crossing: New Horizons<\/a> came in third. Everyone surveyed was asked to give their five favourite games, and then votes were tallied up to bring us the results.<\/p>\n

Now, the above shouldn’t be too surprising, as Minecraft is absolutely massive worldwide, and the hosts of the show make a very good point \u2014 Minecraft is not just a game, but a platform.” And nowadays, as the announcer says, “it’s become very normal for young people to experience games not just for the gameplay, but as a means of communication.”<\/p>\n

The top 100 includes many Nintendo, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy games, but here are a few stats that stood out to us. Fortnite<\/a> takes the overall number 5 spot, with Apex Legends<\/a> at 18. Pok\u00e9mon Diamond & Pearl<\/a> is the highest-ranked Pok\u00e9mon game at 14, but Scarlet & Violet<\/a> is right behind it. No Final Fantasy game makes the top ten, but Final Fantasy VII<\/a> is the closest at 16th (with X<\/a> right on its tail).<\/p>\n

Other interesting games making an appearance include Yo-kai Watch 2<\/a> at 25, Undertale<\/a> at 46, Street Fighter 6<\/a> at 60, and Xevious<\/a> at 93. Xevious!<\/p>\n

Here’s the overall top 10 \u2014 for the rest of the results, check out Automaton Media<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Minecraft
\nSuper Mario Bros.
\nAnimal Crossing: New Horizons
\nDragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation
\nFortnite
\nSplatoon 3
\nSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate
\nSplatoon 2
\nThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
\nDragon Quest<\/p>\n

\"Mario<\/a>\"Mario<\/a>Mario and Splatoon 3 both made the top ten \u2014 Images: Nintendo<\/p>\n

Breaking things down by age group, the show split these into five categories \u2014 gamers in their teens (10-19), 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s.<\/p>\n

For teens, Minecraft is unequivocally the number one game, with Fortnite and Splatoon 3<\/a> rounding out the top three. Mojang’s mammoth game also makes it into the top ten games for those in their 20s at number 8, where Diamond & Pearl sits up top ahead of Smash Ultimate<\/a> and New Horizons.<\/p>\n

For those of us in our 30s (like this author), Pok\u00e9mon Red & Green<\/a> is number one, with Final Fantasy X and Gold & Silver<\/a> right behind it. Not surprised at the early-gen Pok\u00e9mon love here. For the 40s and 50s crowd, Dragon Quest III<\/a> and Super Mario Bros. are the one-two here (flipped for the older gamers), with another Dragon Quest game right behind them \u2014 V<\/a> for the 40-year-olds, and the original NES game<\/a> for the 50s.<\/p>\n

We’re not massively surprised at any of these results, but it’s an interesting look at how trends in video games have shifted over time \u2014 and what people value in video games. And while the vast majority of games are from Japan, there are lots of Western titles making a dent in people’s hearts \u2014 and consoles. You can watch the episode right here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Of course, it’s only a small sample of people (3,000 isn’t many!), but it’s still an interesting capsule of consumer interests, and it pairs nicely with Nikkei’s own survey, which shows gender splits and average ages for fans of particular series<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Are you surprised by any of the results here? Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n

[source tver.jp<\/a>, via automaton-media.com<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\tRelated Games<\/p>\n

\tSee Also<\/p>\n

\"Alana<\/p>\n

Alana has been with Nintendo Life since 2022, and while RPGs are her first love, Nintendo is a close second. She enjoys nothing more than overthinking battle strategies, characters, and stories. She also wishes she was a Sega air pirate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Nintendo Life A new survey conducted by Japanese variety show Ariyoshiiieeeee! \u2013 Oh yeah! Wanna play games…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20507,59,386,769,136,20508,86,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-34317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-animal-crossing","tag-gb","tag-japan","tag-mario","tag-nintendo","tag-splatoon","tag-technology","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}