This is a list of video game franchises that have sold or shipped at least twenty million copies. Unless otherwise stated, numbers indicate worldwide units sold, ordered alphabetically whenever two or more list the same amount. The exception are the ones specifying shipments, which have lower precedence than others listing sales.
Grand Theft Auto is an open-worldaction-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly; the later titles of which were created by brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by Scottish developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, and consists of eleven stand-alone games and four expansion packs. Grand Theft Auto is the most successful video game franchise originating from the United Kingdom and is the best-selling action-adventure and open-world series. The series's best-selling game, Grand Theft Auto V, is the second best-selling video game of all time with around 200 million copies shipped.[50]
Minecraft is a sandbox and survival video game originally created by Swedish game designer Markus "Notch" Persson and developed by Mojang. Originally a computer indie game made using Java, it has since been ported to game consoles and mobile devices. It was bought by Microsoft Studios in November 2014. It is the most successful video game franchise to originate in Sweden and the single best-selling game of all time.
The Wii series of simulation video games was created for the Wii console, starting in 2006. The first game in the series, Wii Sports, was bundled with the original Wii console and is one of the best-selling games of all time.
The Sims is a series of life simulation games primarily for personal computers but later released for game consoles. It was created by American game designer Will Wright, developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The series consists of four main games and a number of compilations and expansion packs.
NBA 2K is a series of basketballsports games. Originally published by Sega under the label Sega Sports, it is now published by 2K Sports. All of the games in the series have been developed by Visual Concepts.
Pro Evolution Soccer (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven in Japan) is a series of association football video games developed and published by Konami.
Monster Hunter is a Capcom franchise that contains a core series of action role-playing games, numerous spin-offs, as well as a live-action and animated film. Set in a fantasy universe inhabited by numerous, ferocious giant monsters, players become a Hunter who must take quests to slay them, or capture them for research purposes.
Tomb Raider is series of action-adventure video games, formerly developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive, it is now developed by Crystal Dynamics and is owned by Embracer Group. The series focuses on the adventures of fictional British archaeologist Lara Croft. The franchise has also spanned films, comic books, novels and animated series.
WWE 2K (formerly WWF SmackDown! and WWE SmackDown vs. Raw) is a series of professional wrestling video games released by 2K Sports (formerly by THQ). The games were formerly developed by Japanese game developer Yuke's.
Red Dead is a series of Western-themed action-adventure games published by Rockstar Games. Originally developed by Capcom, Rockstar eventually acquired the rights and expanded on it.
Gran Turismo[e] (Italian for "grand tourer" or "grand touring"), abbreviated GT, is a series of racing video games created by Kazunori Yamauchi for the PlayStation line of game systems. Developed by Polyphony Digital, Gran Turismo games are intended to emulate the appearance and performance of a large selection of vehicles, nearly all of which are licensed reproductions of real-world automobiles. Since the franchise's debut in December 1997, over 90 million units have been sold worldwide across the history of PlayStation systems, making it the highest-selling video game franchise exclusive to PlayStation.
Battlefield is a series of first-person shooter video games developed by EA DICE and Visceral Games, published by Electronic Arts. The games contain wide-ranging battles across expansive maps, with a focus on vehicle-based warfare.
Borderlands is a series of action role-playing first-person shooter video games created by Gearbox Software. The franchise has spawned a live action film, and takes place in a dystopian sci-fi universe where powerful "Vault Hunters" seek Vaults containing priceless artifacts left by the Eridian alien race.
Mortal Kombat is a series of fighting games created in 1992 by Ed Boon and John Tobias, primarily having a reputation for high levels of violent content. The original game spawned over ten sequels with several action-adventure spin-offs. It is currently the best-selling fighting game franchise. The franchise has also spanned a live-action film series, comic book adaptations, and various animated films.
Halo is a science fiction, predominantly first-person shooter video game series created by Bungie and published by Xbox Game Studios. It has been adapted into over thirty novels, several comic series, graphic novels, numerous action figures, and an anime series. The series centers on an interstellar war between humanity and the Covenant, a theocratic alien alliance. After Bungie gained independence from Microsoft in 2007, 343 Industries took control of the franchise. It is the highest-selling video game franchise exclusive to Xbox. The franchise has spanned a live action television series.
Just Dance is a series of dance and music video games published by Ubisoft. It also includes games outside of the name Just Dance, such as Michael Jackson: The Experience. It is the best-selling dance / music game franchise.
Animal Crossing[i], is a social simulation game series developed and published by Nintendo. The human player character moves to a small village inhabited by humanoid animals, and seeks to repay their mortgage while living a real time virtual life synced to the system clock.
Super Smash Bros.[108] is a series of platform fighting games published by Nintendo and created by Masahiro Sakurai. It features characters and elements from various Nintendo franchises and later installments also include third-party franchises as well. It is currently the most successful Japanese fighting game franchise. It is also the best selling crossover video game series of all time.
The Witcher is a series of action role-playing games based on the series of novels of the same name by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. The Witcher takes place in a medieval fantasy world and follows the story of Geralt of Rivia, one of the few remaining "witchers" – traveling monster hunters for hire wielding unnatural powers. The franchise has spanned a live action television series.
Worms is a series of artillerytacticalvideo games developed by British company Team17. In these games, small platoons of anthropomorphic worms battle each other across a deformable landscape with the objective being to become the sole surviving team. The games are noted for their cartoony animation and extensive use of surrealism and slapstick humour.
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy video games. Sid Meier developed the first game in the series and has had creative input for most of the rest. The basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, guiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory to the present day.
Dragon Ball[l] was created by Akira Toriyama in 1984 and is composed primarily of multiple manga series, numerous anime series, a collection of animated feature films, video games, and a collectible trading card game, as well as other collectibles like action figures.
God of War is an action-adventure game franchise created by David Jaffe. All of the main games have been developed by Santa Monica Studio, with the other entries being done by Ready at Dawn and Javaground/SOE-LA. The multimedia franchise is loosely based on Greek and Norse mythology. The central story revolves around the Spartan warrior Kratos' quest for vengeance (Greek games) and later redemption (Norse games). Other media includes comic books, novels, toys, and an upcoming television series.
The Oregon Trail is a series of educational computer games that began with the first edition originally developed by Don Rawitsch, Bill Heinemann, and Paul Dillenberger in 1971 and produced by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium (MECC) in 1974. The original game was designed to teach school children about the realities of 19th-century pioneer life on the Oregon Trail. The player assumes the role of a wagon leader guiding a party of settlers from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon's Willamette Valley via a covered wagon in 1848.
Pac-Man[n] is a Japanese video game franchise currently owned and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, formerly Namco. The eponymous first entry was released in arcades in 1980 by Namco during the golden age of arcade video games. Most games in the franchise are maze chase games however it has delved into other genres such as platform, racing and sports.
Metal Gear[o] is a series of stealth games created by Japanese game designer Hideo Kojima and developed and published by Konami. The first game, Metal Gear, was released in 1987 for the MSX. The franchise also includes a novel, radio drama, comic books, and a toy line. The games generally revolve around the story of special forces operative Solid Snake, and his missions to find and destroy the mechasuperweapons known as Metal Gears.
The Elder Scrolls (abbreviated TES) is an action role-playing and open world video game series by Bethesda Softworks. Each game takes place on the fictional continent of Tamriel, inhabited by many high fantasy races, and often involves a chosen hero who must confront a great impending threat.
There have been numerous video games featuring the popular Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man have been released. To date, Spider-Man has made appearances on over 15 gaming platforms, which also includes mobile games on mobile phones.
Tekken[p] is a series of fighting games produced by Katsuhiro Harada, developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly by Namco). Originally exclusive to arcades, games have since been released for consoles, personal computers and mobile devices.
Street Fighter[q] is a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. The series has grown into a media franchise covering comic books, anime series and movies. Its best-selling release, Street Fighter II is credited with establishing many of the conventions of the one-on-one fighting genre.
Kirby[s] is a series of platform games developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo. The series centers around the adventures of a pink alien hero named Kirby.
BioShock is a retrofuturistic video game series published by 2K Games and developed by several studios, including Irrational Games which created the series. It is considered a spiritual successor to the System Shock series, on which many of Irrational's team had worked previously. The franchise has spanned a live action film.
Mega Man, known as Rockman[t] in Japan, is a series of video games created by Capcom, starring a series of characters each known by the moniker "Mega Man".
Gears of War is a video game franchise created by Epic Games, developed and managed by The Coalition, and owned and published by Xbox Game Studios. The franchise consists of six third-person shooter video games, which has also been supplemented by comics and novels. It focuses on the conflict between humanity, the subterranean reptilian hominids known as the Locust Horde, and their mutated counterparts, the Lambent.
Kingdom Hearts[v] is a series of action role-playing games developed and published by Square Enix (previously by Square) and is owned by The Walt Disney Company. It is the result of a collaboration between Disney Interactive Studios and Square Enix, and is under the direction of Tetsuya Nomura, a longtime Square Enix character designer.
Counter-Strike is a series of tactical first-person shooter games that began as a mod for the game Half-Life. The series has since been developed by Valve, and published by Sierra Entertainment and Valve.
Naruto is a series of mostly fighting games based on Japanese anime and manga franchise created by Masashi Kishimoto and its video games published by Bandai Namco Entertainment
Football Manager is a series of association football management simulation games developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game began its life in 1992 as Championship Manager; however, following the break-up of their partnership with original publishers Eidos Interactive, Sports Interactive lost the naming rights and re-branded the game Football Manager with their new publishers Sega.
Brain Age, also known as Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, is a series of video games developed and published by Nintendo, based on the work of Ryuta Kawashima.
Horizon is a series of action role-playing games developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. The series follows the adventures of Aloy, a young huntress in a world overrun by machines, who sets out to uncover her past.
Gundam[y] is a long-running anime series featuring giant robots or mecha, created by animation studio Sunrise in 1979. Video games based on the franchise have been released since 1983; games in the series are currently published by Namco Bandai Games.
Splatoon is a franchise of third person shooters created by Nintendo. The series centers around fictional cephalopods known as Inklings and Octolings – based on squids and octopuses respectively – which can transform between humanoid and cephalopod forms at will.
The Last of Us is a series of action-adventure games developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. The games revolve around teenager Ellie and her struggle to survive in a post-apocalyptic United States, after society collapsed because of a fungal infection that transforms humans into monster-like creatures. The franchise has spanned a live action television series.
Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy (RTS) video game franchise, first developed by Westwood Studios. The first game was one of the earliest of the RTS genre, itself based on Westwood Studios' influential strategy game Dune II and introducing trademarks followed in the rest of the series.
James Bond is a media franchise starring the titular James Bond, a fictional British agent, created in 1952 by British writer Ian Fleming. There are over 20 video games based on the franchise and it has been published by several companies including Nintendo and Electronic Arts. The license is currently held by Activision. The best-known game in the franchise is GoldenEye 007, developed by Rare and published by Nintendo.
The Tales[aa] series is a media franchise of role-playing video games created by Wolf Team and formerly published by Namco. The series is currently developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment.
Nintendogs is a real-timepet simulation video game series developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo 3DShandheld game consoles, originally released in three versions, plus two additional versions, all differing only in the starting available dogs to play with.
Ratchet & Clank is a series of platform and third-person shooter games. The franchise was created and developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation consoles. The franchise has spanned an animated film.
Rayman is a franchise of platform video games, published by Ubisoft. Created in 1995 by French graphic artist Michel Ancel, the main character of the series, Rayman, became an official mascot of its publisher, Ubisoft. The Rayman series does not include the Raving Rabbids series. The franchise has spanned an animated television series.
Power Pros[ac] is a baseball video game series created by Konami. It is a traditionally Japan-only series, and is known for its super deformed characters and arcade-style gameplay. It has several spin-off series, including Professional Baseball Spirits which are more realistic simulation games.
Tiger Woods PGA Tour is a series of golf video games developed and published by Electronic Arts and later their EA Sports sub-label, featuring professional golfer Tiger Woods, among others on the PGA Tour.
Mystery Dungeon is a franchise mixing roguelike and role-playing, created and owned by Spike Chunsoft. Since 1993, the franchise had numerous crossovers and, in 1995, the original Shiren the Wanderer sub-series.
Yu-Gi-Oh![ad] is a series of video games based on the Japanese anime and manga franchise created by Kazuki Takahashi. Games in the series have been developed and published by Konami.
Metroid is a sci-fi action-adventure franchise developed and published by Nintendo that revolves around Samus Aran, an intergalactic bounty hunter raised by aliens after her home was destroyed by the nefarious Space Pirate leader Ridley. The original Metroid was a genre pioneer, and Super Metroid went on to establish the Metroidvania genre alongside Castlevania. The latest release in the franchise has been Metroid Prime Remastered, a remake of Metroid Prime. Metroid Dread is currently the best-selling Metroid game, with over 3 million sales.
Like a Dragon,[af], formerly known outside of Asia as Yakuza,[213] is a Japanese video game franchise created, owned, and published by Sega. The franchise incorporates elements of the action-adventure, beat 'em up, and role-playing genres. The storyline premise for each franchise installment is typically a crime drama, with plot lines inspired by yakuza films and pre-millennial Japanese crime dramas.
Super Robot Wars, known in Japan as Super Robot Taisen, is a series of tactical role-playing video games produced by Bandai Namco Entertainment. Starting out as a spinoff of the Compati Hero series, the main feature of the franchise is having a story that crosses over several popular mecha anime, manga and video games, allowing characters and mecha from different titles to team up or battle one another.
Prince of Persia is a video game franchise created by Jordan Mechner, originally developed and published by Broderbund, then The Learning Company, and currently by Ubisoft. The franchise is built around a series of action-adventure games focused on various incarnations of the eponymous prince. and a live-action film.
Castlevania is an action-adventure gothic horror video game series developed and published by Konami. The franchise has also expanded into other media, including comic books, an animated TV series and several spin-off video games. It revolves around successive generations of vampire hunters and their attempts to stop Count Dracula from resurrecting and conquering the world.
Frogger is video game franchise created and developed by Konami and originally published by Sega and Gremlin Industries for arcade in 1981; it is currently owned, developed, and published by Konami. Frogger has seen numerous sequels and re-releases for a number of platforms including personal computers, video game consoles, and mobile devices. The given sales figure does not include arcade game sales.
Lemmings is a puzzle video game, originally developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) for the Amiga, and owned by Psygnosis (now Sony Computer Entertainment Liverpool) who published it in 1991.
The Simple series is a number of budget-priced video games, published by Japanese company D3 Publisher and developed by a variety of companies, covering many systems.
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series and media franchise created in 1996 by Stephen Hillenburg. The games were formerly published by THQ and Activision; it is currently published by THQ's successor THQ Nordic.
Spyro is a series of platform video games which feature the protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Originally owned by Universal Pictures and developed by Insomniac Games, the franchise has changed hands and developers numerous times before being acquired by Activision in 2008. The series spawned the toys-to-life spin-off, Skylanders.
SimCity is an open-endedcity-building video game series originally designed by Will Wright. The first game in the series was published by Maxis, now a division of Electronic Arts.
Watch Dogs is an action-adventure game franchise developed and published by Ubisoft. The franchise has spanned comic books, novelizations, and animated television series.
^See Kirby (series)#Sales. 18 of the series's 39 total games have each sold less than one million units, and as such sales information of these titles is currently unavailable.
1,963,078 in 1983.[122] 35,719 in 1986. 138,400 in 1987. 125,266 in 1988. 38,597 in 1989. 10,368 in 1990.[123]
Ms. Pac-Man (Sega Genesis / Mega Drive) – 1 million cartridges (Cifaldi, Frank. "Retronauts Episode 91: A Tengen Family Reunion". Frank Cifaldi talks to rebellious NES game developers Franz Lanzinger (Toobin', Ms. Pac-Man), Steve Woita (Super Sprint, Police Academy) and Mark Morris (Hard Drivin', 007: License to Kill) about the old days. 1up.com. Archived from the original on July 22, 2016. Retrieved September 27, 2010.)
^At half a billion sales, Call of Duty is as good as it’s ever been "The Call of Duty series has sold more than 500 million copies to date, publisher Activision-Blizzard told The Washington Post. This elevates it to among the best-selling game franchises in history alongside “Tetris” and the Pokémon franchise, and behind Nintendo’s Mario properties." October 30, 2024. Retrieved Oct 30, 2024.
^"EA extends UEFA exclusivity, working on multiple FIFA mobile games". GamesIndustry.biz. February 2, 2021. Archived from the original on March 8, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2021. The FIFA franchise has now sold more than 325 million units over its lifetime, with player count for FIFA 21 already tracking ahead of the record-breaking FIFA 20.
^Schiesel, Seth (November 11, 2020). "PlayStation 5: The Next Step in Sony's Rebound". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved November 12, 2012. Sony attributes much of its success over the last console generation to the popularity of its exclusive game franchises, including stalwarts like God of War (more than 51 million copies sold)...
^ abCartridge Sales Since 1980. Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari. Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
^ abVendel, Curt (May 28, 2009). "Site News". Atari Museum. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
Desslock's Ramblings – RPG Sales Figures: "Fallout and Fallout 2, which are considered to be two of the best RPGs released in recent years, sold approximately 144,000 and 123,000 copies, respectively, in PC Data's tracked data. Very good sales, especially since the overall figures are likely double those amounts, but considerably below the sales volumes for true blockbuster titles." [May 2000]
Timeline of Game Development in Australia: "Micro Forté releases Fallout Tactics, the next release in Interplay's fallout franchise, which sells over 300,000 units and goes to No. 2 in the US sales charts." [January 2008]
Fallout 4 could be a bigger hit than Skyrim: "Fallout 3 (2008) surpassed Oblivion, selling 12.4 million copies. Fallout: New Vegas (2010) — the only game on this list not actually developed by Bethesda Game Studios — performed just slightly lower, selling 11.6 million copies from its 2010 release date to now [November 2015]."
Worldwide digital games market: November 2018Archived February 7, 2019, at the Wayback Machine: "Battlefield V and Fallout 76 launches fail to meet franchise benchmarks. We estimate Battlefield V and Fallout 76 sold 1.9 million and 1.4 million digital units, respectively, across console and PC at launch. Both are down from Battlefield 1 and Fallout 4."
^1.1 million Opposing Force, 0.8 million Blue Shift; does not count digital copies. Decay was bundled with the PlayStation 2 port of Half-Life, and thus, is not counted separately. Remo, 2008.
^Half-Life 2, Episode One and Episode Two were sold as part of the Orange Box, which is counted as one product here to avoid double-counting; does not include digital. Remo, 2008.
^At least 2.5 million physical copies of Mass Effect Andromeda sold-in as of May 2017, and over 349,000 PC digital copies sold-through as of March 2017; total figure is unknown.