Board 8 > So what is the biggest post-2000 Japanese game series?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Is it Monster Hunter or Animal Crossing?

I can't really think of anything bigger off the top of my head, but might be overlooking something obvious.

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Kingdom Hearts?
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Jakyl25 posted...

Kingdom Hearts?

Oh right blindspot for me since so many of the attractions are from pre-2000s nostalgia, but is KH really bigger than the other two?
I feel that MH dominated handhelds to a level that pushes it past KH and then World def felt like a bigger deal than KHIII and Rise is getting some really big hype too.

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Yakuza, maybe?
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Dark Souls?
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According to sales, the largest is the Wii ____ series.

Then MonHun, then Animal Crossing, Brain Age, Kingdom Hearts, and Souls
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Though a good batch of the Wii series was bundled in.
But damn Brain Age, above Dark Souls? Did not expect that to come on top from the newer DS stuff.

Thought those Nintendogs/Nintencats would have had it beat, I think Yokai Watch was another DS thing with a super high peak.

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Sales-wise, Animal Crossing is definitely above MonHun. New Horizons outsold all the pre-World ones on its own, and New Leaf sales are about even with World.

Fate/ is fairly successful if we're including mobile games.
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voltch posted...

Though a good batch of the Wii series was bundled in.
But damn Brain Age, above Dark Souls? Did not expect that to come on top from the newer DS stuff.

Thought those Nintendogs/Nintencats would have had it beat, I think Yokai Watch was another DS thing with a super high peak.

Other than the ones I listed, the only other ones with 20M+ sales are Nintendogs, Devil May Cry, and Naruto
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If you add Bloodborne and Sekiro to the Souls series it comes about dead even with Brain Age
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I'd totally include mobile games, I just have no idea which is the better metric to gauge popularity between download numbers and sales.
Relatively speaking that smaller whale portion is gonna drive revenue up higher than some of these 20m sales series.
But it's free to download so a bunch of people clearly rerolled plenty of accounts.

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But what does biggest mean? Like, I think people outside of the gaming circle know Kingdom Hearts more than they do Monster Hunter. I also think Kingdom Hearts is easier to get into than MH would be, just as an example.

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has kingdom hearts gotten a movie? checkmate.

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I never ever would have guessed Monster Hunter has outsold Kingdom Hearts.

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RyoCaliente posted...

But what does biggest mean? Like, I think people outside of the gaming circle know Kingdom Hearts more than they do Monster Hunter. I also think Kingdom Hearts is easier to get into than MH would be, just as an example.

If that's the criteria, Animal Crossing shreds both.

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I guess it also depends on the region and demo too.
MH probably way more well known to casual audiences in Japan than KH.


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My first thought just in terms of importance, number of entries in the series, and overall popularity was Monster Hunter

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Monster Hunter was the first thing to come to mind, but Animal Crossing is definitely in the conversation after how New Horizons did.

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Animal Crossing, easily. New Horizons looks set to dethrone GTAVs first year sales record, it will absolutely end up as one of the highest selling games ever made. It also has a lot of both casual and dedicated fans. Before New Horizons there may have been some debate but Animal Crossing is now one of the biggest franchises ever.

As for second place, Monster Hunter is a much bigger deal than Kingdom Hearts these days.

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for better or worse, it's probably a series with a significant gacha entry

i'm gonna throw fate in for the hell of it