Kids In Japan Vote Smash Bros., Mario, Splatoon, More In CoroCoro’s Best Game Series Poll

CoroCoro Comic celebrates its 42nd anniversary on May 15, 2019 and the magazine conducted a special survey for kids to vote for their favorite video game series including Smash Bros., Splatoon, Pokémon and more.

Since debuting back in May 1977, CoroCoro Comic has sold over 400 million copies with a target audience of elementary school boys, so the survey is actually a pretty good way to see what video games Japanese school kids have been into recently.

Here are the top series as voted by CoroCoro readers:

1. 1. Super Smash Bros. – 17%
   2. Mario – 16%
   3. Splatoon – 10%
   4. Pokémon – 9%
   5. Fortnite – 9%
   6. Nyanko Daisensou/The Battle Cats – 8%
   7. Minecraft – 8%
   8. Yo-kai Watch – 7%
   9. Kirby – 6%
   10. Inazuma Eleven – 3%
   11. Monster Hunter – 2%
   12. Others – 5%

The gag manga series Super Mario-Kun has been published in CoroCoro since 1991 and there’s been several Pokémon manga series in the magazine dating back to 1996. The Splatoon manga has been a favorite since its debut in 2016, so it’s easy to see why those game series top the chart of CoroCoro readers’ favorite series, led by Super Smash Bros. which appears to have gotten a huge rise in popularity among children in Japan with the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Had this survey taken place about 5 years ago, we would’ve likely seen Yo-kai Watch with the biggest part of the pie, but it looks like other than the aforementioned titles, kids these days have been more into games like Fortnite, Battle Cats, and Minecraft. Kirby, Inazuma Eleven, and Monster Hunter also made it on the list.

Here are a couple bonus questions that kids answered in CoroCoro:

Do you own a Nintendo Switch?

• Yes – 56%
• No – 44%

What have you and your friends been into lately?

• 1. Video games (Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, etc.)
• 2. Trading Card games (Duel Masters, etc.)
• 3. Soccer
• 4. Handheld games (Nintendo 3DS, PSV, etc.)
• 5. Play tag
• 6. Dodgeball
• 7. Baseball
• 8. Hobbies like Beyblade
• 9. Manga
• 10. Free-to-play online games
• 11. Jump rope
• 12. YouTuber
• 13. Basketball
• 14. Swimming
• 15. Table tennis
• 16. (Tie) Go & Shogi
• 16. (Tie) Model kits
• 18. Arcade games like Pokémon Ga–Olé
• 19. Board games
• 20. (Tie) Novels
• 20. (Tie) Music
• 22. Playing cards
• 23. Movies
• 24. Skiing
• 25. (Tie) Fishing
• 25. (Tie) Bicycles & Mountain bikes
• 25. (Tie) Computers
• 28. Athletics
• 29. Tennis
• 30. Volleyball
• 31. Riddles
• 32. Snacks that come with toys
• 33. (Tie) Horizontal bar/High bar
• 33. (Tie) Martial arts
• 33. (Tie) Magic
• 33. (Tie) Cooking
• 37. Recording videos
• 38. Snowboarding
• 39. (Tie) Rugby
• 39. (Tie) Camera & Digital camera
• 41. Golf
• 42. Rollerblade

With video games on top it shows that home console games are still popular among school children in Japan and it also shows that the kids are still very much into handheld gaming. Considering a good 44% of the readers that participated in the survey  currently don’t own Switches, it should be interesting to see how things go when the more affordable and portable-focused model releases.