Dragon Quest Is A Big Deal in Japan

[DA]

Dragon Quest games may be often delayed. They may often be the same thing over again (or the same slime over again?). They may go for bargain-bin prices one month after release. But the Japanese still love 'em. To bits.
A few statistics to prove this, courtesy of this week's issue of Famitsu magazine:

- 95.5% of Japanese people (not just gamers) between ages 16 and 49 are aware of the Dragon Quest brand.

- In Famitsu's "Most Wanted" list (where readers are polled on what games they're looking forward to the most), DQIX has ranked number one 62 times since the game's announcement in December 2006. It's never placed below number four once in the past two and a half years. There was one point when it took the top spot for 40 weeks in a row, in fact.

- How much have all the Dragon Quest games sold in Japan? This much:

* Dragon Quest: 1.5 million
* Dragon Quest II: 2.4 million
* Dragon Quest III: 5.9 million (including SNES and GBC remakes)
* Dragon Quest IV: 5.6 million (including PS and DS remakes)
* Dragon Quest V: 5.8 million (including PS and DS remakes)
* Dragon Quest VI: 3.2 million
* Dragon Quest VII: 4.1 million
* Dragon Quest VIII: 3.7 million

That's a total of 32.2 million copies, enough to give one copy to a quarter of Japan's entire population. Heavens.