Animal Crossing

While American interest in Japanese video games has been waning with the shift in market towards Western developed titles, you can bet your hat that Japan is still very much in love with the games they create. A list of games put together by Media Create has compiled the 30 best selling video games in Japan over the course of 2012, and not a single game on the list was created beyond Japan's borders.

Call it island nation syndrome, or whatever, the Japanese still love what they do best. All the typical heavy hitters: Mario, Pokemon, and Dragon Quest took the top spots with Animal Crossing: New Leaf taking a surprising second place as the year's dark horse. Monster Hunter did not see a release this year, but the most recent game launched back in 2011 still managed to crack the top 15.

Other surprise hits were Dragon's Dogma, Capcom's first time attempt at an open world RPG, and Fire Emblem: Awakening shattering all expectations and emerging as one of the best selling Nintendo 3DS games of the year.

Here is the list below. If you are no a fan of JRPGs and cutesy platformers, I suggest you look away. This list was translated by Siliconera

Rank Title 2012 sales
Tot. sales		 Sys. Publisher
01. Pokémon Black/White 2 2,919,977
2,919,977		 DS Pokémon Co.
02. Animal Crossing: New Leaf 1,969,955
1,969,955		 3DS Nintendo
03. New Super Mario Bros. 2 1,743,791
1,743,791		 3DS Nintendo
04. Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry's Wonderland 3D 919,870
919,870		 3DS Square Enix
05. Resident Evil 6 833,012
833,012		 PS3 Capcom
06. One Piece: Pirate Warriors 828,150
828,150		 PS3 Namco Bandai
07. Mario Kart 7 748,797
1,908,966		 3DS Nintendo
08. Super Mario 3D Land 689,374
1,769,566		 3DS Nintendo
09. Mario Party 9 641,348
641,348		 Wii Nintendo
10. Dragon Quest X 609,783
609,783		 Wii Square Enix
11. Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate 602,058
1,587,556		 3DS Capcom
12. Yakuza 5 518,224
518,224		 PS3 Sega
13. Dragon's Dogma 467,375
467,375		 PS3 Capcom
14. Fire Emblem: Awakening 455,268
455,268		 3DS Nintendo
15. Tales of Xillia 2 428,913
428,913		 PS3 Namco Bandai
16. Paper Mario: Sticker Star 402,133
402,133		 3DS Nintendo
17. Pro Evolution Soccer 2013 399,340
399,340		 PS3 Konami
18. Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates of Infinity 373,699
373,699		 3DS Pokémon Co.
19. New Super Mario Bros. U 369,392
369,392		 WiiU Nintendo
20. Wii Sports Resort (w/ MotionPlus pack-in) 358,627
1,161,600		 Wii Nintendo
21. The 2nd Super Robot Taisen Z 344,018
344,018		 PSP Namco Bandai
22. Pokémon Conquest 341,250
341,250		 DS Pokémon Co.
23. Taiko Drum Master: The Little Dragon and the Mysterious Orb 340,533
340,533		 3DS Namco Bandai
24. Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City 338,889
338,889		 PS3 Capcom
25. Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance 338,812
338,812		 3DS Square Enix
26. Run for Money Tousouchuu 337,472
337,472		 3DS Namco Bandai
27. Taiko Drum Master: Super Splendid Edition 321,959
321,959		 Wii Namco Bandai
28. Kid Icarus: Uprising 316,133
316,133		 3DS Nintendo
29. Inazuma Eleven Go 2: Chrono Stone – Neppuu/Raimei 314,016
314,016		 3DS Level 5
30. Resident Evil: Revelations 296,040
296,040		 3DS Capcom