Overseas gamers choose Zelda: Breath of the Wild as one of their favorite Japanese games – here’s why

A few weeks ago, Famitsu did something rather interesting and out of the norm for the magazine. A questionnaire was sent out to overseas fans – as opposed to readers in Japan – and asked them to share some information about their favorite Japanese games. The results were published in the latest issue this week.

As for the rankings, below are the top 20:

1. Persona 5 – 1,276 votes
2. NieR: Automata – 1,132 votes
3. Dark Souls – 502 votes
4. Monster Hunter: World – 494 votes
5. Zelda: Breath of the Wild – 474 votes
6. Monster Hunter series – 458 votes
7. Bloodborne – 452 votes
8. Yakuza 0 – 365 votes
9. Persona 4 – 318 votes
10. Final Fantasy VII – 308 votes
11. Chrono Trigger – 247 votes
12. Metal Gear Solid 2 – 227 votes
13. Persona 3 – 203 votes
14. Metal Gear Solid 3 – 198 votes
15. Super Mario Odyssey – 197 votes
16. Metal Gear Solid – 191 votes
17. Final Fantasy series – 190 votes
18. Nioh – 168 votes
19. Okami – 164 votes
20. Pokemon series – 162 votes

Famitsu recorded a total of 6,678 responses. Here’s the breakdown by age group:

– 20s – 4,429
– 30s – 1,378
– 10-19 – 717
– 50 or older – 7
– 9 or younger – 2

And by region:

– North America – 3,397
– Europe – 2,212
– Asia – 406
– South America – 364
– Oceania – 230

And gender:

– Male – 5,606
– Female – 887
– Other – 122
– N/A – 63

Out of the top 20, Famitsu featured Zelda: Breath of the Wild as one of the games to give the spotlight to. The magazine shared some of the survey comments and more. On the next page, we have the complete Zelda-specific results.