Final Fantasy 14 and Emet-Selch dominate series' 35th anniversary poll

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That's nearly a quarter of the vote for the MMO

Final Fantasy 14
(Image credit: Square Enix)

Final Fantasy 14 has been crowned the best Final Fantasy game by fans in Japan.

The results of the poll from NicoNico was announced over the past weekend, with Final Fantasy 14 absolutely trouncing the competition. The MMO took home nearly a quarter of all votes by fans in Japan, with runner-up Final Fantasy 7 only able to grasp 14% of the total votes.

NicoNico actually ran two polls, with the other letting fans vote for their most beloved character in Final Fantasy. Again though, Final Fantasy 14 pretty safely dominated, with Shadowbringers villain Emet-Selch taking the top spot, beloved catboy G'Raha Tia taking the seventh spot, and the fantastic Haurchefant rounding out the top 10.

For what it's worth, we should point out that the poll from NicoNico was relatively small. The final number of votes came in at just over 10,000 earlier this month, which is a far cry from NHK's poll on the series for example, which ultimately raked in well over 100,000 votes. 

In the huge NHK poll, Final Fantasy 14 actually dropped a few places in the race for most popular game to the fifth spot, beaten out by Final Fantasy 9, 6, 7, and 10 in ascending order (thanks, DualShockers). No matter the poll though, it's clear that Final Fantasy 14 has a devout following in Japan, and rightly so, as the MMO has gone from strength to strength over the last few years with the launch of Shadowbringers in 2019, and then Endwalker last year in 2021.

Head over to our pick of the best Final Fantasy games to see where 14 placed for us. 

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.