This is a list of the best-selling video game franchises worldwide, ranked up to 50th place by reported software unit sales. Mario is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with over 907 million units sold since its first commercial release in 1983. Nintendo, the publisher of Mario, has the most franchises on the list with eight entries.

For this list, sales figures must be directly attributed to a franchise to be included. In instances where overall figures for a franchise are not known but sales of a single game within that franchise are, sales for that game will be attributed to the franchise. Sales of expansion packs and episodic video games are included. Metrics such as "players" or "installs" are not listed as they typically refer to user engagement rather than sales; even for paid games, these metrics could include free trials or other free promotions and cannot reliably be substituted for sales figures.

The listed publisher correspond to each franchise's most recent release, and release years refer only to the first commercial launch, excluding any pre-release stages. Rankings serve solely for numbering purposes and are not meant to be precise, reflecting the list's limited scope because there is no credible, comprehensive sales-tracking source for the video game industry, unlike for films, which have box office tracking sites such as Box Office Mojo and The Numbers. Tied ranks are resolved using the standard competition ranking method, in which entries with equal figures share the same rank and following ranks are increased based on the number of tied entries.

+ Rank Franchise Sales (millions) Genre(s) Debut year Publisher(s) 1 Mario 907.7 1983 Nintendo 2 Tetris 520 Puzzle 1988 Various 3 Pokémon 515 1996 Nintendo / The Pokémon Company 4 Call of Duty 500 First-person shooter 2003 Activision 5 Grand Theft Auto 475 Action-adventure 1997 Rockstar Games 6 Minecraft 425 2011 Mojang Studios 7FIFA 325 1993 Electronic Arts 8Assassin's Creed 250 Action-adventure 2007 Ubisoft 9 Final Fantasy 215 Role-playing 1987 Square Enix 10 Resident Evil 213 1996 Capcom 11 Wii 204 Simulation 2006 Nintendo 12 Lego 200 Various 1995 Warner Bros. Games The Sims 200 Social simulation 2000 Electronic Arts 14 NBA 2K 175 1999 2K 15 The Legend of Zelda 150 Action-adventure 1986 Nintendo Madden NFL 150 1988 Electronic Arts Need for Speed 150 Racing 1994 Electronic Arts 18 Sonic the Hedgehog 140 1991 Sega 19 Monster Hunter 131 Action role-playing 2004 Capcom 20 Red Dead 116 Action-adventure 2004 Rockstar Games 21 Pro Evolution Soccer 112.5 1995 Konami 22 Star Wars 102 1982 Various 23 Mortal Kombat 100 Fighting 1992 Warner Bros. Games Tomb Raider 100 Action-adventure 1996 Various Gran Turismo 100 Racing 1997 Sony Interactive Entertainment Bejeweled 100 2000 Electronic Arts Borderlands 100 First-person shooter 2009 2K Dragon Quest 100 Role-playing 1986 Square Enix 29 Tamagotchi 98.1 Virtual pet 1996 Bandai 30 WWE 2K 98 2000 2K 31The Witcher 90 Action role-playing 2007 CD Projekt Just Dance 90 2009 Ubisoft 33 Battlefield 88.7 First-person shooter 2002 Electronic Arts 34 Donkey Kong 82 Platformer 1981 Nintendo 35 Halo 81 First-person shooter 2001 Xbox Game Studios 36 Civilization 80 Strategy 1991 2K The Walking Dead 80 Adventure 2012 Telltale Games / Skybound Games 38Worms 75 1995 Team17 39Super Smash Bros. 72 Platform fighter 1999 Nintendo Counter-Strike 72 First-person shooter 2000 Valve 41 Animal Crossing 70 Social simulation 2001 Nintendo 42 Metal Gear 66.1 1987 Konami 43 God of War 66 Action-adventure 2005 Sony Interactive Entertainment 44 The Oregon Trail 65 Strategy 1971 Gameloft The Elder Scrolls 65 Action role-playing 1994 Bethesda Softworks 46 Tekken 61 Fighting 1994 Bandai Namco Entertainment 47Street Fighter 60 Fighting 1987 Capcom Far Cry 60 First-person shooter 2004 Ubisoft 49Kirby 50 Platformer 1992 Nintendo Hitman 50 Stealth 2000 IO Interactive Metro 50 Shooter 2010 Deep Silver Destiny 50 First-person shooter 2014 Bungie Overwatch 50 First-person shooter 2016 Blizzard Entertainment Marvel's Spider-Man 50 Action-adventure 2018 Sony Interactive Entertainment

See also List of video game franchises List of best-selling video games List of best-selling game consoles List of highest-grossing media franchises

Notes

References