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A couple of months ago, Japanese publication Famitsu released its 1000th issue. In celebration, they published a list of the top 100-selling Japanese-created games in Japan for each year going back to 1996, and the top ten games going back to '83. Looking at the raw numbers like that is pretty interesting to get an idea of what kinds of games Japan really cares about.

In particular, it gives you a view into how important Pokemon has been to Nintendo over the years. We all know the story about how it breathed new life into the old Brick GameBoy back in the mid-90s. But when confronted by the cold hard stats about the sheer dominance of the Pokemon franchise, like them or hate them, it's hard not to be in awe at the sheer popularity of these games.

So if you're interested in a window into the perspective of the people who create some of your favorite games, check below the cut. We'll have the official top 3 sellers for each year starting in 1996, the total games produced on each system, as well as a little commentary. Some of the results may surprise you!

(PLEASE NOTE: The information given is only for units produced and sold in Japan.)

1996 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Red/Green/Blue (GB) - 1,663,861
2. Tekken 2 (PS) - 1,079,585
3. Super Mario RPG (SNES) - 995,898

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 1996?
PlayStation - 422
Saturn - 324
Super Nintendo - 158
Gameboy - 35
Neo-Geo - 33
PC-FX - 24
3DO - 15
Game Gear - 11
Nintendo 64 - 10
TurboGrafx-16 - 7
Megadrive - 2

It's no surprise that Famitsu starts its in-depth coverage the same year as the torch officially passes from Nintendo to Sony. Here, the Super Nintendo (Super Famicom in Japan) starts on its decline and the PlayStation would dominate the market for the next ten years (I mean, look at the number of PS games produced in Japan verses the number of N64 games -- it stays at roughly that ratio throughout). And yet, it also marks a period of dominance for Nintendo's handhelds.

1997 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Red/Green/Blue (GB) - 3,995,992
2. Final Fantasy VII (PS) - 3,277,291
3. Derby Stallion (PS) - 1,581,139

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 1997
PlayStation - 519
Saturn - 390
Gameboy - 60
Nintendo 64 - 45
Super Nintendo - 34
PC-FX - 17
Neo-Geo - 10
TurboGrafx-16 - 1

This was the part where I was flipping through the magazine, and my eyes popped out of my head. Final Fantasy VII wasn't the #1-selling game in Japan?! What's more, it lost to a game in its second year of release, and by a healthy margin, too. I mean yeah, you can argue that Pokemon is technically three games, but it's still pretty insane. This year also teaches us that Japan really loves its horse-racing sims. What you don't see is that the aforelisted Derby Stallion beat out Final Fantasy Tactics, which had to settle for the #4 slot. Also note how the Pokemon sales numbers have doubled since the previous year, along with the total number of GB games produced in Japan.

1998 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Red/Green/Blue/Pikachu (GB) - 3,006,067
2. Resident Evil 2 (PS) - 2,154,974
3. Gran Turismo (PS) - 1,495,757

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 1998
PlayStation - 664
Saturn - 262
GameBoy - 95
Nintendo 64 - 55
Neo-Geo Pocket - 10
Super Nintendo - 9
Dreamcast - 8
Neo-Geo - 8
PC-FX - 4

The release of the Pikachu edition (Pokemon Yellow in the States) marks another year of dominance for Pokemon and the GameBoy, blowing out even popular franchises-to-be Resident Evil and Gran Turismo (though I'm sure the numbers look different if you factor in American sales figures). At this point it was clear that Pokemon was an unstoppable juggernaut, whose reign would only be ended by...

1999 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Gold/Silver (GB) - 3,628,627
2. Final Fantasy VIII (PS) - 3,501,588
3. Resident Evil 3 (PS) - 1,339,022

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 1999
PlayStation - 828
GameBoy - 148
Dreamcast - 120
Wonderswan - 73
Nintendo 64 - 58
Neo-Geo Pocket - 39
Saturn - 25
Super Nintendo - 17
Neo-Geo - 5

...more Pokemon! It's another Pokemon/Final Fantasy blowout in the top slots, with both games tripling the numbers of the #3 placer. I don't mean to undersell the significance of selling 3.5 million games or anything, but you just know Squaresoft must've been feeling the burn at this point with their graphical juggernauts being regularly beaten out by a bunch of 4-bit plushies. Not seen on this list: Super Smash Brothers at #4 with 1.3 million sales, the highest an N64 game has placed on the list in its lifespan. (Even Super Mario 64 barely lurched to #6 in its release year.)

2000 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Dragon Quest VII (PS) - 3,784,681
2. Final Fantasy IX (PS) - 2,659,221
3. Pokemon Gold/Silver (GB) - 2,383,096

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2000
PlayStation - 757
GameBoy - 172
Dreamcast - 169
PlayStation 2 - 122
Wonderswan - 52
Nintendo 64 - 33
Neo-Geo Pocket - 34
Super Famicom - 5
Neo-Geo - 3
Saturn - 3

A curious thing going on in this list -- unlike Yellow, Pokemon Crystal was classified as a separate game from Gold/Silver, so it's listed later at #5 with 1.06 million sales. If you add the Gold/Silver/Crystal numbers together, it's enough to overtake Final Fantasy IX at the #2 slot, but not Dragon Quest VII at #1. If you've ever wondered about that rumor about Dragon Quest is Japan's true favorite RPG franchise, the proof's right here. See also the way the GameBoy's library has blossomed to make it the second highest-producing platform two years in a row.

2001 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Final Fantasy X (PS2) - 2,264,047
2. Gran Turismo 3 (PS2) - 1,437,581
3. Dragon Quest Monsters 2 (GB) - 1,138,756

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2001
PlayStation - 496
PlayStation 2 - 243
GameBoy Advance - 131
Dreamcast - 125
GameBoy - 115
Wonderswan - 40
GameCube - 10
Neo-Geo Pocket - 8
Nintendo 64 - 6
Pokemon Mini - 3
Neo-Geo - 1

No new Pokemon this year, so Final Fantasy finally takes the top slot with its first PS2 release as Nintendo simultaneously starts its push with the GBA. Notice the overall lower sales for units in the top slot this year, though, most likely due to the relatively small installbase for PlayStation 2 in its first year. But the popularity of the Pokemon franchise even led Nintendo to develop a handheld based purely around it, the short-lived Pokemon Mini.

2002 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire (GBA) - 3,197,762
2. World Soccer: Winning Eleven 6 (PS2) - 1,115,707
3. Onimusha 2 (PS2) - 1,002,968

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2002
PlayStation 2 - 427
PlayStation - 377
GameBoy Advance - 205
Dreamcast - 73
GameCube - 68
Xbox - 68
Wonderswan - 27
GameBoy - 15
Pokemon Mini - 6
Neo-Geo - 4

There's only so many times you can gape at Pokemon's sales numbers and Sony's overall domination, so I'll just let this list speak for itself. Really, the big surprise for me here? That Japan was actually supporting the Xbox as strongly as the GameCube. Wow! (Not shown: Kingdom Hearts lagging just behind at #4 with 838,000 units sold, Super Mario Sunshine clunking down at #7.)

2003 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Final Fantasy X-2 (PS2) - 1,941,727
2. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire (GBA) - 1,704,458
3. Dynasty Warriors 3 (PS2) - 1,178,455

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2003
PlayStation 2 - 555
GameBoy Advance - 154
PlayStation - 142
GameCube - 103
Xbox - 64
Dreamcast - 48
Wonderswan - 11
GameBoy - 2
Neo-Geo - 2

Final Fantasy X-2 takes the top slot in what looks to be a pretty slow year overall, with Ruby/Sapphire still making a strong enough showing in its second year to hang onto #2. You can see that the PS2 is taking up over half of the software produced in Japan that year, though, a trend which would continue for years to come.

2004 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Dragon Quest VIII (PS2) - 3,231,288
2. Pokemon Fire Red/Leaf Green (GBA) - 2,377,713
3. Dragon Quest V (PS2) - 1,616,155

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2004
PlayStation 2 - 630
GameBoy Advance - 192
Xbox - 63
GameCube - 54
PlayStation - 29
Dreamcast - 27
PSP - 18
Nintendo DS - 14
Neo-Geo - 3
Wonderswan - 2

Pokemon finally loses its first "real" showdown for the #1 slot, to Dragon Quest VIII in a Dragon Quest year. Really, who didn't see that coming? I was in Japan when they were building up to this game's release, and I can testify first-hand to the excitement it over there. (It's worth noting that Pokemon Emerald, being classified as an individual game, takes the #4 slot with 1.3 units sold.) Meanwhile, PS2 dominates, the PSP and DS make underwhelming debuts, and the Dreamcast hangs in there like a trooper.

2005 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Animal Crossing: Wild World (DS) - 1,169,757
2. Gran Turismo 4 (PS2) - 1,066,749
3. Brain Age (DS) - 1,011,341

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2005
PlayStation 2 - 651
Nintendo DS - 112
GameBoy Advance - 109
PSP - 108
GameCube - 109
Xbox - 42
Xbox 360 - 10
PlayStation - 6
Dreamcast - 3

There's no Pokemon here, but we start to see the beginnings of Nintendo's "Blue Ocean" strategy paying off, as casual DS games with similar appeal to the Pokemon franchise dominate an overall weak sales list. And just because I've been overlooking its three placements on top three rankings so far, I feel obligated to note that Japan really loves it some Gran Turismo, too. (Not shown: Nintendogs at #4 with just under a million sales. Huh, really? I know it's nothing to turn your nose up at, but I was expecting that to be the big seller for the year.)

2006 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl (DS) - 4,302,815
2. New Super Mario Bros (DS) - 3,818,214
3. Brain Age 2 (DS) - 3,748,638

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2006
PlayStation 2 - 549
Nintendo DS - 251
PSP - 231
Xbox 360 - 65
GameBoy Advance - 63
Wii - 21
PlayStation - 17
PlayStation 3 - 13
GameCube - 11
Xbox - 2
Dreamcast - 2

Holy crap. Do you see those numbers? Even the #3 seller outstrips almost every other #1 seen on this list in terms of total sales. What's more, 16 out of the top 20 games are for the DS, with Final Fantasy XII's impressive 2.3 million units still landing it only at #5. It's worth noting that although the PSP rivals the DS in number of titles produced here, its highest-ranking seller is Monster Hunter Portable at #30. It's also worth noting that this is the first top-three placement for a Mario game since 1996.

2007 Top-Selling Games and Units Sold
1. Wii Sports (Wii) - 1,911,520
2. Monster Hunter Portable 2 (PSP) - 1,489,898
3. Wii Play (Wii) - 1,487,484

Total Software Produced for Platforms in 2007
Nintendo DS - 434
PlayStation 2 - 401
PlayStation Portable - 160
Wii - 100
Xbox 360 - 79
PlayStation 3 - 54
PlayStation - 6
Dreamcast - 2
Xbox - 1

...and suddenly, everyone wants to develop for the DS! Now, does it really surprise anyone that Square-Enix chose it as the sole platform for DQIX? Sony does get a little bit of revenge, placing Monster Hunter Portable at #2, but it's a pyrrhic victory, as they only get one other game placing in the top 20 (Crisis Core, at #18). Otherwise, the list is utterly dominated by Wii and DS titles, with strong newcomers like Mario Party 8, Wii Fit, Dragon Quest IV DS, and Professor Layton, as well as holdovers like Mario Kart DS and Tetris DS.

So what can we learn from all this? Well, it's interesting to see a list not dominated by the omni-platform movie tie-ins that choke up the American sales every year. It's interesting to see the gradual die-off of the handheld glut through the late 90s, which was if anything even more pronounced in Japan with the tenacious Neo-Geo Pocket and Wonderswan systems. Japan clearly has its own favorite franchises, which are not so different from our own favorite franchises, though they seem to put relatively little stock in Mario unless he's 2D.

And they really do refuse to let the Dreamcast die.

What about you guys? Any big surprises on this list, or is it about what you expected to see?

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