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Top 20 game franchises: Plumbers, mice, mutant chickens reign

Posted Jan 11, 2007 at 2:32AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: PS3, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PC Gaming Tags: Donkey Kong, James Bond, Japan, Pokemon, Sonic, UK

Remember all those McDonald's outlets that display how many people they have served over the years? Now, imagine putting that sort of computing into videogames, and see who comes out on top. With that said, we bring you this Top 20 published by the UK-based "The Independent."

From what we see, Japan seems to hold in this list, with Mario, Pokemon, and Final Fantasy making it to the top three. Then again, it looks like all the top gaming mascots are here. We advise the fans out there to cross-reference this with anything else they may have read, for accuracy's sake. Enjoy poring over it.

The best-selling games franchises

Mario: 193 million
PokÃ©mon: 155 million
Final Fantasy: 68 million
Madden NFL: 56 million
The Sims: 54 million
Grand Theft Auto': 50 million
Donkey Kong: 48 million (centre)
The Legend of Zelda: 47 million
Sonic the Hedgehog: 44 million
Gran Turismo: 44 million
Lineage: 43 million
Dragon Quest: 41 million
Crash Bandicoot: 34 million
Resident Evil: 31 million
James Bond: 30 million
Tomb Raider: 30 million
Mega Man: 26 million
Command & Conquer: 25 million
Street Fighter:25 million
Mortal Kombat:20 million

On a last note, we did find it mortifying that our personal faves like MGS did not make it.

Via The Independent

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I was well hyped over the nintendo wii when it came out but i a gotta say it does get old afta while and u start to realise the missing features it lacks such as online play, its friend system sucks, no HDD, no good video formats playable, cant play music while in game, poor graphics.

The xbox 360 for me is dreadful. Sure Xbox Live is the most amazing service ever. But seriously though the 360 doesn't have a lot of good exclusive games apart from Halo, Fable and Gears of War. And it hasnt had a good release in the past 6 months apart form gear of war. Sure it has a bundle is good games but nothing special. Even Halo 3 isnt as good as it as been hyped up to be. It little things that make the 360 annoying, such as no HD-DVD playback unless you buy an add-on, and no upgradable HDD that you can do straight away without waitin for microsoft to make one. Even the fact that games can't be put on HD-DVD disks annoys me as games may start to come on 2 disks in the future. I think that the 360 for what it is, is overpriced seriously. It doesn't have wireless internet out of the box, HD playback out of the box, and Xbox costs you £40 yearly (which isnt a lot but is annoying) on top of your broadband fee.

The Playstation 3 recently as had a lot of bad press, but this is over its price. People find ways to critize a console when it costs a lot because.... well it costs a lot. But people are forgetting the features that the PS3 is offering for the price. Such as Blu-Ray playback out of the box, upgradable HDD (up to 300gb) out of the box, Free Wireless online play out of the box, and Linux for hackers and people out of the box. Sony has offered all this and people begin to forget it. Sure Sony has lost some exclusive but not important ones, and its no like you still can't get them on the PS3 anymore. In fact most people forgot its exclusives it has left! Here is a list of up and coming games for the PS3 which are amazing in my personal opinion:

PS3 Exclusive and up and coming Games:

-Coded Arms Assault

-Devil May Cry 4

-Eight days (SCE)

-Final Fantasy XIII

-Final Fantasy Versus XIII

-Formula One (Published by Sony)

-Grand Turismo 5 (Published by Sony)

-Heavenly Sword (Published by Sony)

-Killzone 3 (SCE)

-Lair

-Full Auto 2: Battlelines

-Genji: Days of the Blade

-Metal Gear Solid 4

-Ratchet and Clank 5 (Published by Sony)

-Motor Storm (Published by Sony)

-Resistance: Fall of Man (Confirmation)

-Ridge Racer 7 (Confirmation)

-The Getaway (SCE)

-Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom (SCE)

-Warhawk (Published by Sony)

-Unreal Tournament 2007

-Silent Hill 5

-GTA IV

-Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier (Published by Sony)

# yeah — Guest 2007-01-11 05:26

very true ps3rider wii i always new was overhyped therss so many motion sensing cr a a p put there nintendo is just going the easy way out and overcloking there gamecube and putting a motion sensing thing to i its not even innnovation its just a idea that been arounnd fr years and no one wants it on there system becuase the fun dosent last fr ever and nintenndo the kiddy company ikes to add this new feature to there systame wa losers.....

# My Opinion — Guest 2007-01-11 05:44

The main reason that some great franchises (MGS specifically) didn't make it is because this is a list based on software sales. MGS doesn't have nearly as many titles as Mario. Solid Snake is a saint compared to that big fat money grubbing sell out Mario. No Snake Karts, 3 on 3 MG Basketball, etc.

I still love you though, Mario, you filthy *****. :o)

# This is the wrong place for XBashing — Guest 2007-01-11 05:52

People, of course there are no MS exclusives there. This is a list of frachises, not games. XBOX has only sold 40+ million units meaning exclusives would be maxed out at 40mil. No deneying that Halo and H2 have outsold nearly every other game (not franchise) ever but thats still only 40mil total availible. Games like Crash (PS, PS2, XBOX,GC,GBA), GTA (PS2, XB, even GBA), DragonQuest ( dont forget this was out on the NES first, not either PS) have been on multiple platforms for decades in some instances. I mean if you want to go that route then XBOX has GTA, Sims, Crash, Madden, Sonic, R.E., Bond, Tomb Raider, Mega Man (aniversary), and Mortal Kombat. That's half the list!

# ???????? — Guest 2007-01-11 06:05

What the hell is pokemon doing there!!? Those games sucked!

# LINEAGE II FTW! — Guest 2007-01-11 06:06

nothing more to say!

/me hat ewig aufm Katsu Freeshard gezockt (Floxy, PP)

# afkh — Guest 2007-01-11 06:10

lol i love how the sony fans cling to any positive news about their console. but i guess if i bought a 600 console that was in last place in the war then i would too, but im not that stupid.

# Wiki — Guest 2007-01-11 06:26

These are the EXACT numbers "stolen" from wikipedia!

Great research Independent

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best_selling_computer_and_video_games#Franchise

# Wrong — Guest 2007-01-11 06:39

Halo 1 + Halo 2+14 Million

Gran turismo 3+14 Million alone

Thats One GT for all the Halo,s :)

# great post — Guest 2007-01-11 07:30

not too biased but yea , i agree ps3,xbox then wii. i own ps3 and xbox360 at the moment i cant find a game for the ps3 worth while. ill be purchasing lost planet tomorow. other than that my ps3 is waiting around , playing bluerays and demos.

# Wrong, if you don't understand grammar — Guest 2007-01-11 07:38

Broken_Hero , notice the word "nearly"...... it's almost as if I specifically chose a word that would indicate that there are a few other games that have outsold the Halo franchise.

My bad.... no, wait..... your bad.

And correction, I shouldn't have added R.E to the list. That one is my bad.

# word — Guest 2007-01-11 08:19

how does xbox have RE? the only 2 consoles to have a real RE was nintendo and sony and microsoft has had 1 tomb raider game and 1 mega man game so yea get your fax straight i wouldve expected halo 3 up there tho

# Ha! — hush404 2007-01-11 08:36

A sting to the xbots who think Halo is the omg best selling series ever, it didn't even make it.

# word — Guest 2007-01-11 08:41

Metal Gear + 1 million

MGS3 3.6 million

Metal Gear Solid 6 million

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty 7 million

MGSPO(PSP) 178,370 in first 3 days extremely high for psp game

Metal Gear acid 1 and 2 368,250(combined sadly)

Just got all that info off of wikipedia and vgcharts and that doesnt include metal gear 2 which i couldnt find anything on and doesnt include MGS3 and 2 subsistance

That comes close to about 18 mil without those 2 games which also appeared on xbox and pc as well(MGS2) and your going to tell me those 2 games combiend didnt sell the 2 mil to hit the top i tihnk thats kind of weird i think it should be at the bottom some where eya since all their major hits have come recently within apss 10 years with the exception of mgAcid which was terrifying but it should deff be at bottom of list

# sfbs — Guest 2007-01-11 08:44

# dfh — Guest 2007-01-11 08:46

well GTA is 360 also now and i believe Silent hill 5 will also be on 360

# Some "fax' for word — Guest 2007-01-11 09:19

Fax #1. Facts not fax. I would expect better spelling from a poster who replies under the heading "word"

Fax #2. I already corrected the fact that R.E. shouldn't be there in another post.

Fax #3. 1 Tomb Raider and Mega Man on Xbox. Thats the point dumb a$$! They are on XBOX as well.

# very nice? — Guest 2007-01-11 09:55

i don't know if you know but,Final Fantasy has been on Xbox 360 and 1-6 have all been nintendo games so it's not a Playstation exclusive.(ffxi was pc/360)(gameboy,gba ,ds,gamecube,sn es,nes, and wii)

Dragon Warrior had 2 games on Playstation (VII on ps1 and VIII on ps2) and has had everything else appear on just about every nintendo system.(Wii game,DS game,Gameboy games,NES,Snes)

so good one,you know your stuff.

you got Gran Turismo right!

Nintendo has had what 16 out of 20?

# think of it this way — Guest 2007-01-11 10:02

i bought 500 shares of apple stock when it was at $33 a share. look at it now.

my point is.... just wait.

# Perspective — Gryff33 2007-01-11 12:30

Here's the thing: as someone else said, the number of games per series has a lot to do with this. Assuming spin-offs are included (and I believe they are), Mario, Mega Man, and Final Fantasy are fairly meaningless. There are too many Mario games to count, and in addition to the 12 main Final Fantasies, there were 3 game boy games, Mystic Quest, Crystal Chronicles, X-2, Chocobo Racing, the DS remake of 3, all the GBA remakes, and probably more. The most notable ones are GTA (6 games + 2 expansions for the first game), Gran Turismo (4 games), Tomb Raider (I'm not sure but I don't think it was that many), and Command and Conquer (same thing). I think Pokemon is notable as well; yes, there have been plenty of games (though not as many as in the three series I listed as having a lot), it far outsold the next series on the list (Final Fantasy), which has more games, has been around longer, has appeared on more consoles, and appeals to a broader audience. In fact, I would say that being number 2 on the list, and by such a wide margin, makes Pokemon the most impressive (with Gran Turismo at a close second for being in the top 10 despite having very few games).

Now for the console wars front. Before I continue I want to note, so no bias or angle is assumed, that I am a Nintendo fan but I am going to be neutral here. The numbers are misleading; sure, it shows 4 Nintendo exclusives (Mario, Zelda, DK, and Pokemon), 1 Sony exclusive (Gran Turismo), and 0 Microsoft exclusives. The thing is, though, Nintendo has been in the business for MUCH longer than the other two, with Mario and DK being around since the first home systems and Zelda being around since the 8-bit days. Pokemon is notable, being around only since the late 90's, but that just makes Nintendo and Sony even. Microsoft has only had two consoles, one of which is still around the beginning of its life; its most popular series, Halo, has only had 2 games and one expansion pack, all on a single console. Wait until Halo 3 and Halo Wars come out, putting Halo even in number of games and consoles with Gran Turismo (excluding the Gran Turismo HD demo which I do not believe is counted on this list) before making any judgments.

Finally, to the person who posted about how much he loves the PS3, what in the world does that have to do with this article?

# word — Guest 2007-01-11 13:37

well i agree but with GTA i dont think its that notable.... they had GTA 1 2 3 VC SA LCS VCS and multi console ports and also the double and triple packs

# Lol — Guest 2007-01-11 15:17

This is a pretty easy article to understand, but I guess some people just don't get it. This is about how many games AN ENTIRE FRANCHISE has sold, ie how many games have sold with Mario, Mega Man etc. IN THE NAME, ACROSS ALL SYSTEMS. What's so hard about that? I guess some morons still find a way to bash the Xbox with this (referring to PS3Rider, half of those games aren't even PS exclusives [or won't be soon enough], and the rest just suck, wtf is Coded Arms?)

Like Gryff and others said, the amount of games in a franchise is important, Mario and FF each have almost too many games to count so they mean little. And considering how many Mega Man games there are it actually did pretty bad. I'll admit GT did amazing for how many games it has, but just wait 'till Halo has more (it almost got on this list with just TWO games). When H2Vista, Halo 3, Halo Wars, and the Peter Jackson Halo project come out it'll be top ten. Good job to GTA and Pokemon too

# . — Guest 2007-01-11 15:27

GTA 4 will be on 360

Silent hill 5 most likely will see a 360 and PC release

Unreal Tournament 2007... saying thats ps3 exclusive is just plain retarded.. it will see a PC release

Coded arms is rumored to be canceled.. and isnt one of those final fantasy games for the psp??

Counting games that are made by SOE doesnt really count as exclusives eather.. its made by sony.. thats like counting every mario and zelda game. we know damn well its not gonna be made for a sony or microsoft system.

Dont expect Devil may cry and metal geat to be exclusive too long.. it will only be a matter of time before 360 gets a special edition of it.

that narrows the list down quite well...

# . — Guest 2007-01-11 15:28

a franchise is not just based on games sales alone. its overall product in which the characters from said game appear in (snacks, toys, ect) which i find it hard to believe pokemon isnt #1.

# To darkdreamr — MGSROCKS1 2007-01-11 16:08

When people say exclusive we always mean consoles not PC. PCs are in their own space so when a game comes out for a console we say its exclusive because it won't see release in another console.

As for the Sony exclusives, yes they're a lot, but the problem is how long do we have to wait before we actually see them in playable form? Personally, I'm waiting for MGS4 as thats the game that will push me to get a PS3. Right now I'm happy with my 360, and trying my best to save money to get a PS3 and Wii. This will be the first time I'm ever going to own 3 systems in a generation. All these great games coming out for both systems, and each system gives different unique options of playing those games. This is the generation where not owning all 3 systems, has you missing out on amazing upcoming games.

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