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[electricmastro]

As recently compiled by https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Best-selling_first-person_shooters#Franchises, these are currently the best-selling first-person shooter franchises that have been calculated to have sold at least 5 million units.

There may still be some franchises that meet that criteria that haven't been accounted for, but in regards to what has been found so far:

1.) Call of Duty - 500 million

2.) Borderlands - 99 million

3.) Battlefield - 98.7 million

4.) Halo - 81 million

5.) Counter-Strike - 72 million

6.) Far Cry - 60 million

7.) Destiny - 50 million

8.) Overwatch - 50 million

9.) Star Wars: Battlefront - 43 million

10.) BioShock - 43 million

11.) Payday - 40.7 million

12.) Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - 40 million

13.) Medal of Honor - 39 million

14.) Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six - 32 million

15.) James Bond (FPS games) - 29.7 million

16.) Half-Life - 26.3 million

17.) Doom - 20 million

18.) Metro - 16.2 million

19.) S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - 15 million

20.) Sniper: Ghost Warrior - 13 million

21.) Wolfenstein - 12.6 million

22.) Left 4 Dead - 12 million

23.) Titanfall - 11 million

24.) Killing Floor - 10 million

25.) ARMA - 10 million

26.) Deep Rock Galactic - 10 million

27.) Killzone - 9.7 million

28.) Duke Nukem - 9 million

29.) Resistance - 8.5 million

30.) Crysis - 7.5 million

31.) Unreal - 7 million

32.) Turok - 6 million

33.) Brothers in Arms - 6 million

 

[OverHeat]

Halo is dad right?

 

[Tobimacoss]

Wtf, how is Borderlands higher than Battlefield? Hopefully that changes this round.

 

[Liopleurodon]

...

And we wonder why our 90s / 2000s favs aren't getting remakes...

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Halo is dad right?

 

[Tobimacoss]

So out of the top 10, Sony, Take Two, and Valve each own 1, Ubisoft and EA each own 2, and MS owns 3.

If Marathon fails, Sony should go all in on Destiny 3. But Marathon and Halo both as extraction shooters should be extremely interesting.

 

[Gaiff]

I thought Battlefield would be way higher, like 200M. It's not even close.

Halo...

 

[electricmastro]

Wtf, how is Borderlands higher than Battlefield? Hopefully that changes this round.

Battlefield actually would have been higher had Borderlands 4 not come out:

Borderlands:

By August 2025: 94 million - https://ir.take2games.com/static-files/4caa8ce3-9cd2-45d5-b267-593e2391801f

Borderlands 4: 2.5 million - https://gamerant.com/borderlands-4-total-copies-sold-in-first-2-weeks/

Battlefield:

By October 2022: 88.7 million - https://assets.publishing.service.g...6b8043d8cd/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment.pdf

Battlefield 6: 7 million - https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202...lls-over-7-million-copies-in-first-three-days

 

[Tobimacoss]

Battlefield actually would have been higher had Borderlands 4 not come out:

Borderlands:

By August 2025: 94 million - https://ir.take2games.com/static-files/4caa8ce3-9cd2-45d5-b267-593e2391801f

Borderlands 4: 2.5 million - https://gamerant.com/borderlands-4-total-copies-sold-in-first-2-weeks/

Battlefield:

By October 2022: 88.7 million - https://assets.publishing.service.g...6b8043d8cd/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment.pdf

Battlefield 6: 7 million - https://www.pushsquare.com/news/202...lls-over-7-million-copies-in-first-three-days

Yea, but Battlefield has F2P Battle Royale too, same with Halo with F2P multiplayer, so that skews the stats. Halo and Battlefield are bigger franchises overall than Borderlands. Isn't Counter Strike also F2P now?

Btw, any data on Third person shooters?

 

[Gaiff]

Yea, but Battlefield has F2P Battle Royale too, same with Halo with F2P multiplayer, so that skews the stats. Halo and Battlefield are bigger franchises overall than Borderlands. Isn't Counter Strike also F2P now?

Btw, any data on Third person shooters?

Halo these days is most definitely not bigger than Borderlands.

 

[Mister Wolf]

We are past due for another Bioshock. Where the hell is Judas?

 

[adamsapple]

Call of Duty - 500 million

 

[Loomy]

Wtf, how is Borderlands higher than Battlefield? Hopefully that changes this round.

It's an incredibly popular series.

 

[forsakkenSoul]

13.) Medal of Honor - 39 million

Medal of Honor, it's been a long time since I played anything from this franchise. I think the last one was Airborne.

 

[electricmastro]

Btw, any data on Third person shooters?

No formal list, but in pulling up data I've seen off-hand:

Gears of War - 41 million

Ratchet and Clank - 40 million

Splatoon - 30 million

Sniper Elite - 30 million

Helldivers - 22 million

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs - 12 million

Tom Clancy's The Division - 10 million

Max Payne - 7.5 million

Dead Space - 7.4 million

Syphon Filter - 5.5 million

 

[Tobimacoss]

No formal list, but in pulling up data I've seen off-hand:

Gears of War - 41 million

Ratchet and Clank - 40 million

Splatoon - 30 million

Sniper Elite - 30 million

Helldivers - 22 million

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs - 12 million

Tom Clancy's The Division - 10 million

Max Payne - 7.5 million

Dead Space - 7.4 million

Syphon Filter - 5.5 million

Thanks, amusing list. Never thought of Splatoon or Ratchet and Clank as TPS.

Gears E-Day plus the remakes should get that over the 50 million mark.

HellDivers has a nice showing. Not much else except for the Max Payne remakes.

 

[electricmastro]

Thanks, amusing list. Never thought of Splatoon or Ratchet and Clank as TPS.

Gears E-Day plus the remakes should get that over the 50 million mark.

HellDivers has a nice showing. Not much else except for the Max Payne remakes.

There can be a little bit of overlap. I actually sometimes see Uncharted listed as a third-person shooter, but decided to leave it off. lol

 

[consoul]

If Dead Space makes the third person shooter list, then Resident Evil's 170 million games sold should probably be considered.

 

[electricmastro]

If Dead Space makes the third person shooter list, then Resident Evil's 170 million games sold should probably be considered.

I counted Far Cry as FPS, but have also seen Metroid Prime listed as FPS as well. Your mileage may vary I suppose!

 

[Judge Magister]

Medal of Honor, it's been a long time since I played anything from this franchise. I think the last one was Airborne.

Maybe the 2010 reboot it's worth a try, i enjoyed it back then. The narrative focus on Afghanistan, Unreal Engine 3 snowy mountains and all.
Warfighter is worse imo. The VR game sucks judging from reviews.

 

[Kacho]

Doom only sold 20 million but Wolfenstein sold 12.6? Numbers sound bogus.

 

[Hollowpoint5557]

How do you stop at Left for Dead 2 if you have 12 million sold for the franchise? What a crying shame they let such a great I.P. rot.

Is Portal a FPS? I mean technically you have a gun, you are in first person and you shoot. Yes you are solving puzzles, but other FPS games have puzzles to solve as well. I think it's around 30 million (or more) sales.

 

[Gaiff]

Doom only sold 20 million but Wolfenstein sold 12.6? Numbers sound bogus.

Some numbers are from a long time ago because the publishers never gave an update since the last report.

 

[Tobimacoss]

Halo these days is most definitely not bigger than Borderlands.

How can you truly say that?

Some numbers are from a long time ago because the publishers never gave an update since the last report.

Halo numbers are old too, I don't think they include Infinite.

You aren't counting the Gamepass users, or the free to play Infinite multiplayer users. Those two alone plus the upcoming remakes would put Halo above 100 million franchise easily.

If Dead Space makes the third person shooter list, then Resident Evil's 170 million games sold should probably be considered.

FortNite would count as TPS too right. That's the problem with not counting F2P games, they skew the numbers.

 

[bitbydeath]

No formal list, but in pulling up data I've seen off-hand:

Gears of War - 41 million

Ratchet and Clank - 40 million

Splatoon - 30 million

Sniper Elite - 30 million

Helldivers - 22 million

SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs - 12 million

Tom Clancy's The Division - 10 million

Max Payne - 7.5 million

Dead Space - 7.4 million

Syphon Filter - 5.5 million

The biggest one is Fortnite, somewhere around 650M registered players and averaging around 2M playing at the same time which has previously climbed as high as over 14M at once.

 

[Heimdall_Xtreme]

I thought Battlefield would be way higher, like 200M. It's not even close.

That's what happens when you keep the same game and mechanics for over 15 years. Playing the new Battlefield 1, even though it's from a different era... It's the same game, just with different skins. That's how I felt when I saw the new game... It's the same.

 

[IAmRei]

copies are not the same with revenue, if i might add. because some part of them might be discounted or given free as promotional

 

[Robb]

Tom Clancy (FPS games) - 72 million

Shouldn't this just be Rainbow Six? Seems weird to label it like this when everything else is labeled by franchise.

Might as well just say "Valve (FPS games)" and lump all of those into one.

 

[kevboard]

Shouldn't this just be Rainbow Six? Seems weird to label it like this when everything else is labeled by franchise.

Might as well just say "Valve (FPS games)" and lump all of those into one.

true.
"Tom Clancy FPS games" is an insanely weird category. especially since (if counted correctly) it would literally break apart sub-franchises within the Tom Clancy games.
like how some Ghost Recon titles are first person, while others aren't. hell, GRAW is third person and first person depending on which console version you play, or if you play the PC version. PC, PS2 and Xbox were first person shooters, while the 360 version was a third person shooter.

 

[onQ123]

The fact that Destiny has come so close to Halo this fast is kinda mind blowing but I think the gap will widening now that Halo is on PlayStation.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

1.) Call of Duty - 500 million

2.) Borderlands - 96.5 million

Literally "and it's not even close". God damn.

 

[Sophist]

Literally "and it's not even close". God damn.

borderlands: 5 games
call of duty: 22+ games

 

[Calverz]

Those Call of Duty numbers….

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

borderlands: 5 games
call of duty: 22+ games

I was talking on an absolute scale.

 

[Calverz]

No quake. That's surprising to me. But then again maybe not.

 

[electricmastro]

Shouldn't this just be Rainbow Six? Seems weird to label it like this when everything else is labeled by franchise.

Might as well just say "Valve (FPS games)" and lump all of those into one.

Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon are treated as FPS more often than Splinter Cell and The Division, among other Tom Clancy games, which is why the distinction is there.

 

[electricmastro]

Doom only sold 20 million

That's what was reported, yep:

"The original Doom sold an impressive 4.65 million copies since its debut in 1993 through 1999. In total, the Doom series has sold over 20 million units combined." - https://insider-gaming.com/doom-the-dark-ages-trailer/

 

[GudOlRub]

Seeing Medal of Honor and Brothers in Arms in that list just makes me sad about the current situation...
Fuck EA and fuck Randy

 

[electricmastro]

Literally "and it's not even close". God damn.

Sony even mentioned this when commenting on the Microsoft/Activision
Blizzard transaction back in 2022, when Call of Duty's sales were given as 400 million (500 million in 2024): https://assets.publishing.service.g...6b8043d8cd/Sony_Interactive_Entertainment.pdf

 

[L*][*N*K]

Wtf, how is Borderlands higher than Battlefield? Hopefully that changes this round.

Borderlands is an all hit franchise, even their weakest game (BL3) is a very good game with a shit story, there are like 17 battlefield games and 4 of them are good.

 

[RoadHazard]

No Quake, really? Not even 5 million copies in total across all entries? I have a hard time believing that.

 

[Cakeboxer]

The biggest one is Fortnite, somewhere around 650M registered players and averaging around 2M playing at the same time which has previously climbed as high as over 14M at once.

F2P ≠ best selling

 

[Donald mac Ronald]

I thought Battlefield would be way higher, like 200M. It's not even close.

Halo...

Why would you think that? Cod has released every year since COD4. Which released in 2007. That's 18 call of duties including this year.

Bf biggest games are bf3 maybe 4. One and 6.

Biggest surprise here is destiny selling 50 million between 2 games.

 

[electricmastro]

No Quake, really? Not even 5 million copies in total across all entries? I have a hard time believing that.

It's hard to find sales figures for older games as it is. In Quake's case, here's what could be found:

Quake (1996) - 1,400,000 - https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/86824402/

Quake II (1997) - 1,000,000 - https://web.archive.org/web/2002121...oftware.com/business/home/history/c-index.php

Quake III Arena (1999) - 1,000,000 - https://web.archive.org/web/2000030...amespot.com/news/99_12/13_pc_quake/index.html

Quake 4 (2005) - 390,000 - https://www.vgchartz.com/game/1819/quake-4/?region=All

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007) - 820,000 - https://www.vgchartz.com/game/16992/enemy-territory-quake-wars/?region=All

Not counting possibly referenced shareware copies, the total so far is 4,610,000, so thus under 5 million. If more solid sales figures can be found, I welcome to be informed about them.

 

[Gaiff]

Why would you think that? Cod has released every year since COD4. Which released in 2007. That's 18 call of duties including this year.

Bf biggest games are bf3 maybe 4. One and 6.

Biggest surprise here is destiny selling 50 million between 2 games.

Battlefield has 15 mainline entries.

 

[electricmastro]

Those Call of Duty numbers….

It's interesting to see how Call of Duty became the MCU of games: https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Call_of_Duty#Summary

Call of Duty (2003) - 4.5 million

Call of Duty 2 (2005) - 5.9 million

Call of Duty 3 (2006) - 7.2 million

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007) - 15.7 million

Call of Duty: World at War (2008) - 17.66 million

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009) - 25.02 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010) - 31 million

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011) - 30.9 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012) - 29 million

Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013) - 28 million

Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014) - 21 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015) - 43 million

Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016) - 12 million

Call of Duty: WWII (2017) - 19 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018) - 14.3 million

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) - 41 million

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020) - 30 million

Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) - 30 million

 

[Mr Moose]

9.) Overwatch - 50 million

In 2016, Activision Blizzard's Overwatch was the absolute hotness. The candy-colored team shooter, featuring a diverse cast of endearing heroes, garnered mass attention from gamers and non-gamers alike, eventually selling 50 million copies.

What's the source for this? The dude confusing players for payers?

 

[RoadHazard]

It's hard to find sales figures for older games as it is. In Quake's case, here's what could be found:

Quake (1996) - 1,400,000 - https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news/86824402/

Quake II (1997) - 1,000,000 - https://web.archive.org/web/2002121...oftware.com/business/home/history/c-index.php

Quake III Arena (1999) - 1,000,000 - https://web.archive.org/web/2000030...amespot.com/news/99_12/13_pc_quake/index.html

Quake 4 (2005) - 390,000 - https://www.vgchartz.com/game/1819/quake-4/?region=All

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars (2007) - 820,000 - https://www.vgchartz.com/game/16992/enemy-territory-quake-wars/?region=All

Not counting possibly referenced shareware copies, the total so far is 4,610,000, so thus under 5 million. If more solid sales figures can be found, I welcome to be informed about them.

Really thought Quake 1-3 were more popular than that, felt like they were pretty huge at the time.

 

[electricmastro]

Really thought Quake 1-3 were more popular than that, felt like they were pretty huge at the time.

This article from New York Daily News mentions "an estimated 5 million more online", but as mentioned, I'm not sure if this references shareware copies shared for free:

 

[twilo99]

Literally "and it's not even close". God damn.

Call of Duty is a very good video game.