Monster Hunter, Pokemon and Wii Fit Top Japan's 2008 Best Seller List

Although 2008 ended two months ago, things are barely starting to become clear in terms of sales for games in a lot of countries. We've already seen charts from other territories, but it was yesterday that Enterbrain, the publisher of the famous Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu, posted the Top 100 best selling titles in the Land of the Rising Sun.

While we will only post the first 20 games, anyone with remote knowledge of what went on last year in terms of gaming will already have a pretty big idea about which titles sold and which didn't. The number one spot is held by Monster Hunter Portable 2G, the smash hit for the PlayStation Portable in the Asian country, one that was almost single handedly responsible for the 50 million units sold worldwide by Sony.

Number two was a very sought after one, with Pokemon Platinum barely managing to top the worldwide phenomenon Wii Fit, selling 40,000 more units than Nintendo's marvelous title. And speaking of Nintendo, number four is occupied by everyone's favorite casual racer Mario Kart for the Wii, which sold over 2 million units in Japan.

Here are the rest of the top 20 games from the list made by Enterbrain:

1. Monster Hunter Portable 2nd G
Sales: 2,452,111
Life to date: 2,452,111

2. Pokemon Platinum
Sales: 2,187,337
Life to date: 2,187,337

3. Wii Fit
Sales: 2,149,131
Life to date: 2,967,297

4. Mario Kart Wii
Sales: 2,003,315
Life to date: 2,003,315

5. Dairantou Smash Brothers X
Sales: 1,747,113
Life to date: 1,747,113

6. Rhythm Tengoku Gold DS
Sales: 1,350,671
Life to date: 1,350,671

7. Dragon Quest V: Tenkuu No Hanayome
Sales: 1,176,082
Life to date: 1,176,082

8. Animal Crossing: City Folk
Sales: 895,302
Life to date: 895,302

9. Hoshi no Kirby: Ultra Super Deluxe
Sales: 855,427
Life to date: 855,427

10. Wii Sports
Sales: 841,736
Life to date: 3,306,470

11. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots
Sales: 686,254
Life to date: 686,254

12. Dissidia Final Fantasy
Sales: 660,262
Life to date: 660,262

13. Pokemon Ranger: Batonnage
Sales: 636,777
Life to date: 636,777

14. Phantasy Star Portable
Sales: 633,954
Life to date: 633,954

15. Layton Kyouju to Saigo no Jikan Ryokou
Sales: 628,143
Life to date: 628,143

16. Mario Kart DS
Sales: 621,890
Life to date: 3,317,318

17. Hajimete no Wii: Your First Step To Wii
Sales: 602,625
Life to date: 2,593,294

18. Mario Party DS
Sales: 599,621
Life to date: 1,832,265

19. Wagamama Fashion Girls Mode
Sales: 549,348
Life to date: 549,348

20. Super Robot Taisen Z
Sales: 480,093
Life to date: 480,093.

The entire top is available here.

You can clearly see why Japan is such an important market for game developers from across the world, as a lot of titles sold extremely well. With the recession taking its toll on the budget of a lot gamers worldwide, the 2009 list will be something completely different, according to a lot of analysts. All that's left for us is to wait and see.