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[electricmastro]

I was curious to see what gaming franchises have sold the most lifetime units, so I looked at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises to get some initial idea. It's pretty comprehensive, but I suspect there are some franchises that got left out due to a lack of solid reports as to how much a franchise sold.

So it might be considerably incomplete, but for now, the tally is:

1.) Mario - 957 million

2.) Tetris - 520 million

3.) Call of Duty - 500 million

4.) Pokémon - 489 million

5.) Grand Theft Auto - 450 million

6.) Minecraft - 350 million

7.) FIFA - 325 million

8.) Wii Series - 218 million

9.) Lego - 200 million

10.) The Sims - 200 million

11.) Assassin's Creed - 200 million

12.) Final Fantasy - 200 million

13.) Sonic the Hedgehog - 182 million

14.) Resident Evil - 170 million

15.) The Legend of Zelda - 168 million

16.) NBA 2K - 155 million

17.) Need for Speed - 150 million

18.) Star Wars - 131 million

19.) Madden NFL - 130 million

20.) Monster Hunter - 120 million

21.) eFootball - 100 million

22.) Tomb Raider - 100 million

23.) Red Dead - 100 million

24.) Mortal Kombat - 100 million

25.) Wizarding World - 95 million

26.) WWE 2K - 95 million

27.) Borderlands - 92 million

28.) Gran Turismo - 90 million

29.) Just Dance - 90 million

30.) Battlefield - 88 million

31.) Dragon Quest - 88 million

32.) Tom Clancy - 82 million

33.) Animal Crossing - 81 million

34.) Halo - 81 million

35.) The Walking Dead - 80 million

36.) Dragon Ball - 78 million

37.) Super Smash Bros. - 77 million

38.) The Witcher - 75 million

39.) Worms - 75 million

40.) Civilization - 73 million

41.) Crash Bandicoot - 71 million

42.) God of War - 66 million

43.) The Oregon Trail - 65 million

44.) Pac-Man - 63 million

45.) Spider-Man - 62 million

46.) Metal Gear - 61 million

47.) The Elder Scrolls - 59 million

48.) Tekken - 57 million

49.) Street Fighter - 56 million

50.) Uncharted - 51 million

51.) Gears of War - 50 million

52.) Far Cry - 50 million

53.) Diablo - 50 million

54.) Destiny - 50 million

55.) Bejeweled - 50 million

56.) Kirby - 50 million

 

[NeverYouMind]

Every other game Nintendo releases is Mario related and Tetris is always the same game with a different skin. WTF is "The Wii Series"?

---

I am surprised that Fortnite and Roblox are not regarded as franchises even if they are free to play considering how much they have branched out.

 

[TGO]

So Call of Duty and GTA

 

[Cakeboxer]

I'm surprised that the Walking Dead did better than any Sony franchise. If you would have asked me i don't think i would even have said 2 million sales. And i have no clue what Wizarding World is.

 

[electricmastro]

So Call of Duty and GTA

I knew Call of Duty was successful, but I was still actually rather surprised it maintained sales even rivaling Pokemon's sales.

 

[electricmastro]

WTF is "The Wii Series"?

Wii Sports

Wii Sports Resort

Wii Play

Wii Fit

Wii Fit Plus

Wii Party

Wii Music

Wii Party U

Wii Play: Motion

 

[RetroGamingUK]

I'm surprised that the Walking Dead did better than any Sony franchise. If you would have asked me i don't think i would even have said 2 million sales. And i have no clue what Wizarding World is.

Gran Turismo:

"Am I invisible to you?"

 

[Cakeboxer]

Gran Turismo:

"Am I invisible to you?"

Yeah i was blind. Still shocked by 80m Walking Dead.

 

[electricmastro]

Yeah i was blind. Still shocked by 80m Walking Dead.

Yep.

"The Walking Dead games in particular have generated more than $1 billion in consumer revenue. The games generated $100 million in revenue each for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and The Walking Dead: Survivals. The Walking Dead: Road to Survival has more than $500 million in revenue and 100 million downloads. And The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series has 80 million episodes sold for more than $300 million in revenue." - https://gamesbeat.com/the-walking-d...netflix-show-hits-1-3b-viewing-hours-in-2023/

 

[semiconscious]

tip of the hat to assassin's creed, no matter you personal feelings (origin was the last one that i liked)...

 

[Black_Stride]

What franchise do you think is missing?

I'm surprised that the Walking Dead did better than any Sony franchise. If you would have asked me i don't think i would even have said 2 million sales. And i have no clue what Wizarding World is.

Harry Pothead.

I knew it was successful, but I was still actually rather surprised it maintained sales even rivaling Pokemon's sales.

Call of Duty or GTA?
Call of Duty considers 10 million week one a bad day.
30 million is considered below par.........and they release a new one every year......mate what world you living in?
GTA released the same game over 3 consoles generations and every year its one of the best selling titles........the same game........

 

[Cakeboxer]

Yep.

"The Walking Dead games in particular have generated more than $1 billion in consumer revenue. The games generated $100 million in revenue each for The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and The Walking Dead: Survivals. The Walking Dead: Road to Survival has more than $500 million in revenue and 100 million downloads. And The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series has 80 million episodes sold for more than $300 million in revenue." - https://gamesbeat.com/the-walking-d...netflix-show-hits-1-3b-viewing-hours-in-2023/

Just wow. Played one of those and thought it has shitty graphics and wasn't very good.

 

[electricmastro]

And i have no clue what Wizarding World is.

Harry Potter

 

[electricmastro]

Call of Duty or GTA?

Call of Duty

 

[Loomy]

I am surprised that Fortnite and Roblox are not regarded as franchises even if they are free to play considering how much they have branched out.

I think it's because they're both technically just 1 game. They're more platforms than franchises.

 

[Rush2112]

Yeah I don't play any of those

 

[electricmastro]

What franchise do you think is missing?

Well there were some franchises I was uncertain as to whether or not they've sold over 50 million units, due to limited sources:

Doom

Warcraft

Dark Souls

StarCraft

Fallout

Counter-Strike

Batman

Megami Tensei

Hitman

Total War

 

[Hookshot]

I like Worms but I wouldn't have said it sold more than Civilization.

 

[electricmastro]

I like Worms but I wouldn't have said it sold more than Civilization.

Makes me wonder if profits have slowed down with no new game out since this report:

"The Worms franchise has sold over 75 million game units since its first launch 25 years ago. The new game will give players the chance to experience Worms in a new, modern format. Developed internally by Team17 across both the Wakefield and Manchester studios, Team17 said the game will attract both new audiences and loyal fans, maximising revenues.

Team17 said revenue rose 43 per cent to £62m in 2019 and gross profit rose 49 per cent to £29.5m." - https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/bus...-year-with-plans-for-a-new-worms-game-2445271

 

[Black_Stride]

tip of the hat to assassin's creed, no matter you personal feelings (origin was the last one that i liked)...

Always remember that internet discourse and GAF specifically dont always read as usually correlate with actual sales numbers.
GAF loves dunking on COD its consistently a best seller.
GAF has a weird relationship with Assassins Creed.......its doing numbers.
I dont think ive ever even seen a FIFA/EAFC OT on GAF.

Call of Duty

Hahaha what?
Mate Call of Duty has been in the top 5 most played since Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360.....and a new one is released every year.

What Call of Duty calls a bad launch most games even AAA titles would celebrate as their LTD sales.





To put things into perspective, if Call of Duty stopped counting sales 10 years ago........it would still be in the top 10 of this list.
This shit is digital oil.

 

[hemo memo]

It's crazy how high the GTA sales figures are compared to the number of releases. Don't they only have about 11 games total? The average sales per game is insane.

 

[MonkD]

Surprised Pokemon isn't at the top. But I'm guessing they're largest buy much if you consider merch and anime

 

[poppabk]

Makes me wonder if profits have slowed down with no new game out since this report:

"The Worms franchise has sold over 75 million game units since its first launch 25 years ago. The new game will give players the chance to experience Worms in a new, modern format. Developed internally by Team17 across both the Wakefield and Manchester studios, Team17 said the game will attract both new audiences and loyal fans, maximising revenues.

Team17 said revenue rose 43 per cent to £62m in 2019 and gross profit rose 49 per cent to £29.5m." - https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/bus...-year-with-plans-for-a-new-worms-game-2445271

Its tough to reinvent a game whose main draw is its simplistic nature.

 

[MonkD]

It's crazy how high the GTA sales figures are compared to the number of releases. Don't they only have about 11 games total? The average sales per game is insane.

Most of that is probably 5 too.

 

[electricmastro]

It's crazy how high the GTA sales figures are compared to the number of releases. Don't they only have about 11 games total? The average sales per game is insane.

Yep, it kept up with Call of Duty and Pokemon sales even though GTA has far less games than them, and no new game in the last 10+ years too.

 

[electricmastro]

Hahaha what?
Mate Call of Duty has been in the top 5 most played since Call of Duty 2 on the Xbox 360.....and a new one is released every year.

What Call of Duty calls a bad launch most games even AAA titles would celebrate as their LTD sales.

I mean, Pokemon is usually a top best-seller too. It even has a long-running TV show, various movies, and various spin-offs. Call of Duty doesn't have any of that, and yet it's still up there with Pokemon.

 

[Banjo64]

eFootball is F2P so assuming this means the PES series, however 100m seems really high for that?

 

[electricmastro]

eFootball is F2P so assuming this means the PES series, however 100m seems really high for that?

I'm willing to believe that number considering the success of FIFA.

 

[nial]

I'm very, VERY certain that Gran Turismo is >100M at this point.

 

[Black_Stride]

Well there were some franchises I was uncertain as to whether or not they've sold over 50 million units, due to limited sources:
Counter-Strike

Counter-Strike was a mod of Half-Life
Counter-Strike Condition Zero was a commercial failure
Counter-Strike Global Offensive quickly became free to play
Counter-Strike Source peaked at 100,000 players.
Counter-Strike 2 was free from the get go.

Where exactly are they supposed to get 50+ million sales from?

Dynasty Warriors

The highest selling Dynasty Warriors game did ~2 million units.......they havent made 25 Dynasty Warriors games even if all the others could match that success.

Fallout

Fallout 4 is the most popular Fallout game......it did 14m, New Vegas 11m, Fallout 3 did ~12(and outsold every prior game combined)
That still not breaking 50 million.

Warcraft

Warcraft 1, 2 and 3 sold peanuts by this charts standards.
World of Warcraft started as a subscription game......no way to guarantee sales.....its now Free to Play.
If peak players were counted as sales then it would make the list......alas subscriptions.

Hitman

Id think it could creep to 50 million units as a series......maybe not.
World of Assassination did well sales wise, id think the Trilogy alone would have got them to atleast 30 million.....I guess not.

 

[Nocty]

honestly I thought Dragon Quest and Gran Turismo would both be a lot higher.

 

[Hookshot]

eFootball is F2P so assuming this means the PES series, however 100m seems really high for that?

If it's all of it, then it's not just PES but the ISS games before them. Mentioned it here the other day for some reason that we used to play PES and Gears all the time in my circle. With Gears at 50 million and the popularity of football/soccer, plus earlier million selling games I can see it.

 

[kevboard]

ok... the walking dead? I call bullshit on that. they probably count every single episode as its own game, when in reality it's essentially a single game split up into multiple parts.

I wonder what the numbers are if you count 1 season as a single entity

 

[Magic Carpet]

Borderlands 4 needs to sell 9 million for a total 100 million?

 

[Black_Stride]

I mean, Pokemon is usually a top best-seller too. It even has a long-running TV show, various movies, and various spin-offs. Call of Duty doesn't have any of that, and yet it's still up there with Pokemon.

Pokemon games themselves sell well.
But they dont release every year and some dont pull the 30 million that top games pull.
Call of Duty has the advantage of coming out every year.....every year Pokemon skips CoD is adding another 30+ million to its series tally.

 

[ReyBrujo]

Used to be one of the maintainers of that list until about the time Mario or Pokémon reached 200 million or so (made lots of contribs back in 2007-2008). Quit when they stopped considering original research adding up values (like, "Hey, this article says the game sold 10k in Belize, let's add that to the total"). Til then we would only use single sources which I thought was far better (like, a Nintendo release stating the Mario franchise has sold 500 million units instead of finding 10 different articles and adding all the values).

 

[electricmastro]

I'm very, VERY certain that Gran Turismo is >100M at this point.

Can we be sure of that?

 

[I collect VHS tapes]

Jfc Mario is almost at a billion

 

[Black_Stride]

ok... the walking dead? I call bullshit on that. they probably count every single episode as its own game, when in reality it's essentially a single game split up into multiple parts.

I wonder what the numbers are if you count 1 season as a single entity

Yes they count each episode as a sale......cuz you had to buy each episode to play it......its a sale.(On console, Steam was a one time deal for Season 1).
I think the later seasons you had to buy the whole thing as one package atleast on Playstation(which would count as 1 sale)......I might be misremembering if it was PS or Xbox which had you buy the entire season.
I know for Xbox Season 1 you had to own Episode 1 to play any other Episode.

 

[willothedog]

Microsoft Windows games (solitaire, minesweeper, space cadet pinball) = billions??? (whilst technically not sold you still need to buy a Windows Licence to access them)

 

[electricmastro]

Yes they count each episode as a sale......cuz you had to buy each episode to play it......its a sale.(On console, Steam was a one time deal for Season 1).
I think the later seasons you had to buy the whole thing as one package atleast on Playstation(which would count as 1 sale)......I might be misremembering if it was PS or Xbox which had you buy the entire season.
I know for Xbox Season 1 you had to own Episode 1 to play any other Episode.

Yep, might seem unorthodox to say that The Walking Dead sold 80 million episodes, but then again, a sale is still a sale.

 

[rodrigolfp]

Are Luigi's Mansion and Super Princess Peach counted as Mario games?

 

[electricmastro]

Counter-Strike was a mod of Half-Life
Counter-Strike Condition Zero was a commercial failure
Counter-Strike Global Offensive quickly became free to play
Counter-Strike Source peaked at 100,000 players.
Counter-Strike 2 was free from the get go.

Where exactly are they supposed to get 50+ million sales from?



The highest selling Dynasty Warriors game did ~2 million units.......they havent made 25 Dynasty Warriors games even if all the others could match that success.



Fallout 4 is the most popular Fallout game......it did 14m, New Vegas 11m, Fallout 3 did ~12(and outsold every prior game combined)
That still not breaking 50 million.



Warcraft 1, 2 and 3 sold peanuts by this charts standards.
World of Warcraft started as a subscription game......no way to guarantee sales.....its now Free to Play.
If peak players were counted as sales then it would make the list......alas subscriptions.



Id think it could creep to 50 million units as a series......maybe not.
World of Assassination did well sales wise, id think the Trilogy alone would have got them to atleast 30 million.....I guess not.

Thanks.

There are also franchises that were previously reported in the 40s range, but haven't found an updated number if it has passed that or not:

Kirby - 48 million

Dying Light - 45 million

BioShock - 43 million

Mega Man - 43 million

Megami Tensei - 42 million

Guitar Hero - 40 million

 

[electricmastro]

Pokemon games themselves sell well.
But they dont release every year and some dont pull the 30 million that top games pull.
Call of Duty has the advantage of coming out every year.....every year Pokemon skips CoD is adding another 30+ million to its series tally.

Even with all that, it still feels crazy that Call of Duty has sold that much!

 

[Unknown?]

Microsoft Windows games (solitaire, minesweeper, space cadet pinball) = billions??? (whilst technically not sold you still need to buy a Windows Licence to access them)

Well they should count if we're counting Wii Sports.

Are Luigi's Mansion and Super Princess Peach counted as Mario games?

Yes, that's where the majority of their sells come from.

 

[Hawk The Slayer]

Elder Scrolls VI should be way higher since Skyrim alone sold over 60 million as of years ago. Combined with the others including Oblivion Remaster it probably hit around 80 million + by now.

 

[electricmastro]

Are Luigi's Mansion and Super Princess Peach counted as Mario games?

Yep, among others:

Donkey Kong - 85 million

Super Princess Peach - 1 million

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker - 1 million

Luigi - 24 million

Wario - 9 million

Yoshi - 13 million

 

[kevboard]

Yes they count each episode as a sale......cuz you had to buy each episode to play it......its a sale.(On console, Steam was a one time deal for Season 1).
I think the later seasons you had to buy the whole thing as one package atleast on Playstation(which would count as 1 sale)......I might be misremembering if it was PS or Xbox which had you buy the entire season.
I know for Xbox Season 1 you had to own Episode 1 to play any other Episode.

well, Episode 1 of Telltale games is always free afaik (it wasn't always, but they eventually started doing that). it's basically the demo.
and the other episodes are essentially DLC for that Episode 1 install

 

[FoxMcChief]

I think World of Warcraft and its expansions should be high on the list, yet aren't at all.

 

[electricmastro]

So why has Borderlands become the 2nd best-selling FPS franchise of all time?