Five months after the finale of the long-running “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games” video series was released, Masahiro Sakurai has shared the top-performing videos on the English and Japanese versions of his YouTube channel. Save for a few similarities, the two channels have a very different top 10 list:
In descending order, the top three videos on the Japanese channel are “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games: Finale Special,” “Development Secrets of the Original Kirby [Grab Bag]” and “Just Do It Already! [Work Ethic].” Sakurai makes special mention of the Kirby Air Ride video exceeding one million views, whose increased performance recently is likely due to the announcement of Kirby Air Riders during April 2’s Nintendo Direct. The planning videos for the first Super Smash Bros. fighting game and Kirby of the Stars anime (“Kirby: Right Back At Ya!” in the West) round off the list in ninth and tenth place respectively.
Over on the English channel, the top three videos are “About This Channel” (the first video uploaded to the channe;), “Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Games: Finale Special,” and “Stop for Big Moments! [Design Specifics].” It should be noted that English channel viewers seem to be more Super Smash Bros.-oriented, as most of the top videos deal with the franchise and fighting game concepts (frame rates, risk and reward, and lag). Funnily enough, Sakurai’s video showcasing his cat, Fukurashi, is the fifth most-viewed video on the English channel, proving once again that the internet was made for sharing cat videos.
While it’s no surprise that the first and last videos as well as the game concept video for Super Smash Bros. are doing well on both the Japanese and English channels, what’s more interesting is how many topics Sakurai has covered. From divulging game development secrets to giving work ethic tips, the video game director and designer really wants to “buff people’s lives” with his knowledge of video games.
