Onyxmeth said:
Of course it is. Those games have managed to find a way to sell while others haven't. It's not a problem with the genre, but the fact that those games cannot hit the same audience as the top three for some reason. Obviously RPGs are desirable and those games show it. Your argument can be used to show many genres are niche. "Oh look, sports games are niche because only one has sold 40 million copies and the rest struggle for a few million".
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No it remains an invalid way to argue a point and statistically unsound - what matters is those games within the extremes. Dragon Quest for the record is essentially niche in all but one country in the world. Final Fantasy was niche in the West until Final Fantasy VII, which was in the right place at the right time. While Pokemon is a cultural phenomenon spanning television, games and movies - something which likely cannot be replicated.
These games are successful because of exogenous occurances that cannot be replicated and as such it would be incorrect to assume the success of these games is because they are JRPGs. That couldn't be further from the truth. The overwhelming majority of JRPGs appeal to a niche market, the genre is therefore niche.
