Have you ever gotten into a game because of its sprites?

[Koh]

Even if you say graphics don't matter Koh, a good reason you buy/rent/borrow/pick up a game to play is mostly because of it's visuals. I'm not talking about games you already know and love no matter what, I'm talking about games you never played before. The gameplay may make it or break it for you in the end, but It's the graphics (the style at least) that attracts you to the game in the first place. Wheather it be it through screenshots or box art. I could be mistaken as different people have different tastes, but I think the most important aspects of a game should be 25% of all story, OST/sounds, gameplay, and graphics. They are all equally important.

That's why I've stated I've come because of the visuals before (Seiken Densetsu 3), but that's not always the case.  Things like the Most Challenging Game or Flappy Bird certainly don't win any awards for graphics, but rather the gameplay is what attracted people to them.  As much as I hate Flappy Bird and all of its fan made spinoffs for being the bare minimum of what you can call a game, its gameplay model is designed to get people addicted and coming back for more.  "Just one more point."

Visuals can certainly help with advertising, especially in the olden days when 3D was a new thing.  I don't disagree that the style can bring in a lot of people.  But when it boils down to staying after playing, you would never hear someone say "I only continued to play because of the graphics/visuals."  That would be outrageous.

You can have the prettiest, or most stylistically pleasing visuals in the world, but ultimately lose all the players because the game sucks. But rarely do you hear of a game losing its players because the gameplay was well polished and fun, but had bland visuals. It just shows up as a point in a critique.