List of best-selling video game franchises
At least 100 million copies
– This color indicates a sub-series of a larger video game franchise. This does not necessarily apply for series that are not video game-based.

List of best-selling video game franchises

Section Title: At least 100 million copies
Table Section Text: – This color indicates a sub-series of a larger video game franchise. This does not necessarily apply for series that are not video game-based.

Franchise name	Original release date	Sales

Mario	July 9, 1981	594.85 million Super Mario series: 330.58 million Mario Kart series: 138.41 million Mario Party series: 47.09 million Mario Sports series: 38.528 million Mario RPG series: 16.49 million Other Mario games: 24.6542 million

Mario first appeared in 1981 in the original Donkey Kong, before starring in Mario Bros., followed by the Super Mario series of platform games.

Super Mario	September 13, 1985	330.58 million

The Super Mario series of platform games began in 1985 and features Nintendo's character Mario. The Super Mario series forms the core of the Mario franchise.

Pokémon	February 27, 1996	311.54 million

Pokémon was created by Satoshi Tajiri, founder and president of Game Freak, in 1996 as a role-playing video game for the Game Boy handheld game console, soon turning into a media franchise including an anime series, manga, trading cards, toys, merchandise, books, twenty anime films (one of the highest-grossing animated film series), a live-action film, and other media.

Call of Duty	October 29, 2003	288+ million

Call of Duty is a first-person shooter video game series. The series is published by Activision and Aspyr Media and developed by Infinity Ward, Gray Matter Interactive, Treyarch, Sledgehammer Games, Raven Software, Neversoft and High Moon Studios.

Grand Theft Auto	October 21, 1997	280 million

Grand Theft Auto is an open world action-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, and primarily developed by Scottish developer Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games, including ten stand-alone games and two expansion packs for the original game and two for the ninth.

FIFA	Christmas 1993	260 million

A series of association football based sports games, released yearly by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports brand, and the first to have an official licence from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (International Federation of Association Football), the international governing body of football.

Wii	November 19, 2006	202.57 million

The Wii series of physical simulation video games was created by Shigeru Miyamoto in 2006 to help with the initial launch of Nintendo's Wii console.

The Sims	February 4, 2000	200 million

The Sims is a series of strategic life simulation computer and console video games created by American game designer Will Wright, developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts.

Tetris	June 6, 1984	170 million

Tetris is a falling-blocks puzzle video game, created by Soviet game designer Alexey Pajitnov and released on a vast spectrum of platforms, from video game consoles and computers to mobile devices and calculators, with the version bundled with the Game Boy selling over 35 million.

Minecraft	November 18, 2011	154 million

Minecraft is a sandbox-building video game originally created by Swedish game designer Markus "Notch" Persson and developed by Mojang. Originally a computer game made using Java, there have been ports released for home consoles and mobile devices.

Need for Speed	August 31, 1994	150 million

Need for Speed is a series of racing video games published by Electronic Arts, and has been developed by multiple companies in the past such as EA Black Box and Criterion Games.

Final Fantasy	December 18, 1987	142 million

Final Fantasy is a media franchise created by Japanese game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi and owned by Square Enix. The franchise encompasses fifteen signature role-playing video games alongside a number of spin-off video games, motion pictures, and other consumer products and interactive media.

Mario Kart	August 27, 1992	138.41 million

Mario Kart is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed and published by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from their trademark Super Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games.

Madden NFL	June 1, 1988	130 million

Madden NFL is an American football video game series developed by Electronic Arts Tiburon for EA Sports. The game is named after Pro Football Hall of Famer John Madden, a well-known color commentator for NBC Sports and formerly a Super Bowl-winning head coach during the 1970s with the Oakland Raiders.

Sonic the Hedgehog	June 23, 1991	123.32 million (estimated) 97.82 million physical sales (estimated) 25.5 million paid mobile downloads

The Sonic the Hedgehog series is a franchise of video games released by Sega starring and named after its mascot character Sonic the Hedgehog, created by game designer Yuji Naka and character designer Naoto Ohshima.

Wii Sports	November 19, 2006	115.12 million

The Wii Sports series of physical sports games was created by Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo's Wii console in 2006. Its success led to the Wii video game series, of which it is a sub-series.

Lego	December, 1995	100 million

The Lego franchise includes many different games, including original games such as Lego Island, Lego Racers and Lego Rock Raiders, as well as several different licensed properties like Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, Lego Batman: The Video Game, and Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4.

Assassin's Creed	November 13, 2007	100 million

Assassin's Creed is a historical fiction action-adventure open world stealth series developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft.

Pro Evolution Soccer	July 21, 1995	100 million

Pro Evolution Soccer (known as World Soccer: Winning Eleven in Japan) is a series of association football video games developed and published by Konami.

Sentence(s)

Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the best-selling video game franchises.

final_sentence: Sonic the Hedgehog was one of the best-selling video game franchises.