User blog comment:Plexioth- xD/Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate/@comment-3405141-20120206025931/@comment-70.54.115.173-20120206195025

I figure that earlier Final Fantasy games were just the most popular Dragon Quest rip-offs out there, but Final Fantasy VII was the most influential - the first use of pre-rendered cutscenes in RPGs, or at least the first popular use.

Anyway, I realized that my numbers might have been misleading, so here's some things that have been bigger in Japan than any Monster Hunter. There's not a lot of things that can go over five million there, but they do exist.

New Super Mario Bros: 6.4 million Japan, 26.9 million worldwide

Pokemon Diamond / Pearl: 6.0 million Japan, 18.0 million worldwide

Brain Age 2: 5.3 million Japan, 15.2 million worldwide

Animal Crossing Wild World: 5.3 million japan, 11.7 million worldwide