@Khuutra

Indeed, Mario as well. But there's no bigger gaming franchise than Pokemon, and I doubt that there will always be one.

Of course Mario, but Mario is not a RPG series (despite having great RPGs)...

Now, Mario has more absolute sales, but Pokemon is a bigger phenomenom considering how much a single Pokemon game sells (with a simple repeated formula) and the cultural influence... And the franchise is getting near outselling Mario with less years out (Mario has around 210 million and started in 1983, Pokemon has around 190 million and started 12 years later)...

@The Anarchyz

Yeah you're right, but that's going by the Wikipedia list if i'm correct. I don't know how officialy it goes for Nintendo, but i don't think they really care :P The two best selling franchises are theirs, everything else is just gravy xD

Jajajajajaja, well, i checked the sources to see if someone had modified the entry, those are estimates...

Of course Ninty has the actual numbers, and having the strongest 1st party prints them a lot of money... Mario & Pokemon are the 2 biggest, Zelda is in the Top 10, Donkey Kong is in the Top 20, Kirby is in the Top 40, Nintendogs is in the Top 50, and now, the WiiX franchise adds to that list with tons of sales...

@The anarchyz

Indeed, Nintendo does know how to make franchises that will bring them big sales and to top that, most of those franchises are quality ones, that's why they will always be the best amongst the best in the gaming industry. If only they could have a SNES generation all over again, I will be a very very happy gamer :). Don't get me wrong, I love the Wii, it has some really great games, but to me, the SNES is still the best console that ever was released.

You and I are on the same page, i still have my SNES and it's still my favorite console ever... Once here i listed the reasons and i lost almost an hour doing it XD XD

I think people don't give pokemon the credit it deserves in sales

ITs just not a phenomenon anymore, due to this fact we suddenly forget that the games still sell more than most other games lol

@The Anarchyz

I don't even want to start doing that because I will also lose a lot of time xD But my main primordial reasons are three games, Lufia 2, LoZ: ALTTP and Terranigma :)

@darth

Pokemon will always be a phenomenon to me and to most of our generation who grew up with pokemon and gaming in general, because it's just fantastic to see how a game can cross generations and still be as strong as it was before in the past if not even stronger.

Dragon Quest wins Japan. That's probably also because the franchise hasn't been milked anywhere as much as FF so each title is still heavily anticipated

@Pristine

I think Dragon Quest Monsters, Dragon Warrior Monsters, Dragon Quest Swords, Dragon Quest Rocket Slime, Dragon Quest&Final Fantasy in Itadaki, Dragon Quest Wars, Torneko no Daibōken: Fushigi no Dungeon, Torneko: The Last Hope, Torneko no Daibōken 3: Fushigi no Dungeon, Shōnen Yangus to Fushigi no Dungeon, Itadaki Street DS all want a word with you :P