With the recent sales release from Sega making the rounds that was completely unexpected, it's also important to mention that Sonic Frontiers has managed to quickly become the 6th best selling Mainline Sonic game in franchise history, which is no small feat given how long and how many sales cuts (long-term) it took for most of the top games in the franchise after the top 4 to sell what they did.
Updated chart as of 12/13/2022 for Mainline Sonic games,
| Game | Platform |
1 | Sonic The Hedgehog | 15 million |
2 | Sonic 2 | Over 7 million |
3 | Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles | 4 million (combined) |
4 | Sonic Heroes | 3.4 million |
5 | Sonic Adventure | 2.5 million (DC) |
6 | Sonic Frontiers | 2.5 million |
7 | Sonic Unleashed | 2.45 million |
8 | Sonic Colors | 2.18 million |
9 | Shadow the Hedgehog | Over 2 million |
10 | Sonic Generations | 1.85 million |
11 | Sonic Adventure 2 Battle (GC) | 1.5 million |
12 | Sonic CD | 1.5 million |
13 | Sonic Mania | Over 1 million |
14 | Sonic 2006 | 870,000 (Genesis only) |
15 | Sonic Lost World | 710,000 (Original sales Wii U) |
16 | Sonic 3D Blast | 700,000 (Genesis) |
17 | Sonic Boom Wii U and 3DS | 620,000 |
18 | Sonic Forces | Less than 15k in Japan, Unknown ROTW no chart placement |
| | |
Now the question is how much more will Sonic Frontiers sell? Sonic releases have had a habit for over a decade now of having stronger sales frontloaded and then quickly declining in sales with a low stagnations which is why they usually haven't put in the best results despite the perception of how big the brand is seen, as shown in the above chart. Usually a Sonic game selling another million after early sales is unheard of post Genesis.
However, we don't know if that will hold true again for Frontiers. Will it run into that same problem and fail to do much more than SA1 on DC, or will it have longer legs and hype with updates that will cause it to sell
even further?
If the latter how far do you think Sonic Frontiers will sell? Past Sonic Heroes? Sonic3/Knuckles? Can it reach Sonic 2? Does it have the potential of being the best selling game in the franchise with 15 million or more sold?