Based on the sales of these series over the past five years or so within Japan:
Top Tier (Over 6 million Sales)
- Pokemon
- Monster Hunter
- Yokai Watch
- Dragon Quest
Second Tier (2 to 4 Million
- Final Fantasy
- Inazuma Eleven
- Tales of
Third Tier (0.75 to 1.5 million)
- Fire Emblem
- Mario
- Dark Souls
- Shin Megami Tensei
- Persona
Note that the Top Tier besides Yokai Watch all had big games in 2010 not counted here. Dragon Quest would have been second a few years ago, but Monster hunter's move to the 3DS and the birth of Yokai Watch now overshadow it.
The second tier includes shows that Final Fantasy still has strong points despite its relative decline.The FFXIII sequels didn't do as well as X-2 back in the day, but still sold a bunch of units. So did Type 0, FFXIV, and various spinoffs and remakes.
One oddity to note about the third tier is that if I were to treat Persona and Shin Megami Tensei as a single entity, they'd be ahead of Fire Emblem. Speaking of which, Awakening and Fates were both similarly big hits, selling a bit over 0.5 million each. The series hasn't done this well since the SNES.
"Mario" includes both Sticker Star and the Mario & Luigi games.
