List of Best-selling Video Game Franchises - at Least 5 Million Copies

At Least 5 Million Copies

Franchise name Original release date Sales
SaGa December 15, 1989 9.9 million
SaGa is a series of open world role-playing video games produced by Square (now Square Enix).
Saints Row August 2006 9.8 million
Saints Row is a popular video game series created by Volition, Inc.. The gameplay consists of a mixture of action, adventure and driving and has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes.
EA Sports NASCAR series October 31, 1997 9 million
EA Sports NASCAR series was a series of NASCAR video games published by EA Sports. The series began with NASCAR 98 and NASCAR 99 in 1997 and 1998, respectively. EA Sports then released NASCAR Thunder 2002 in 2001, and ever since then, Jeff Gordon (2002), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (2003), and Tony Stewart (2004) were on the cover. After NASCAR Kart Racing was released in 2009 for Wii, EA's contract with NASCAR has since expired.
RollerCoaster Tycoon March 31, 1999 9 million
RollerCoaster Tycoon is a series of video games that simulate amusement park management. Each game in the series challenges players with open-ended amusement park management and development, and also allows players to construct and customize their own unique roller coasters.
BioShock August 21, 2007 9 million shipped
BioShock is a video game series developed by Irrational Games—the first under the name 2K Boston/2K Australia— and designed by Ken Levine.
Ninja Gaiden December 9, 1988 8.744 million
Ninja Gaiden (忍者外伝?) is a series of video games by Tecmo featuring the dragon ninja, Ryu Hayabusa. The series was originally known as Ninja Ryukenden (忍者龍剣伝, Ninja Ryūkenden?, lit. "Legend of the Ninja Dragon Sword") in Japan, while the original arcade title and early home installments of the series were usually known as Shadow Warriors in the PAL region.
Doom December 10, 1993 8.5 million
Doom is a series of video games by id Software, and several licensed properties have been based on the series.
Cars June 6, 2006 8 million
Cars is a video game based on the Disney/Pixarfilm, Cars, serving as a non-canon sequel to it.
Spider-Man 1982 8 million
Numerous electronic 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 cellphones.
Zoo Tycoon October 17, 2001 8 million
The Zoo Tycoon series is a video game series that began in 2001. All of the games in the series focus around building up a successful zoo and running it, although scenarios may have other goals. It was developed by Blue Fang Games.
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja October 23, 2003 10 million
Naruto: Ultimate Ninja (NARUTO-ナルト- ナルティメットヒーロー, Naruto: Narutimetto Hīrō?) is a series of 3D computer graphics fighting games, based on the popular manga and anime series Naruto. They were developed by CyberConnect2 and published by Namco Bandai.
Carnival Games August 27, 2007 8 million shipped
Carnival Games is a video game franchise for Nintendo's Wii console, the Nintendo DS, and Microsoft's Kinect. It was published by Global Star Software, before GSS was absorbed into Take-Two Interactive (and what is now 2K Play).
Far Cry 2004 8 million
Far Cry is a franchise of first person shooter computer and video games, following the name of the first game of the series.
Dead or Alive 1996 7.95 million
Dead or Alive (デッドオアアライブ, Deddo oa Araibu?) is a video game series produced by Tecmo that comprises primarily fighting games. The story and characters are the creation of Tomonobu Itagaki, and the game was developed by Tecmo's Team Ninja development team.
Onimusha January 25, 2001 7.9 million
Onimusha (鬼武者?, lit. "Oni Warrior") is a series of action-adventure games by Capcom. The series makes use of the historic figures that shaped Japan's history, retelling their stories with supernatural elements.
Everybody's Golf July 7, 1997 7.5 million
Everybody's Golf (みんなのGOLF, Minna no Golf?), known as Hot Shots Golf in North America is a series of golf games published by Sony for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 consoles.
Max Payne July 25, 2001 7.5 million shipped
Max Payne is a third-person shooter video game series originally developed by the Finnish company Remedy Entertainment, produced by 3D Realms and published by Gathering of Developers. Later versions were published by Rockstar Games, MacSoft and Feral Interactive. The Max Payne series has a major cinematic influence: the Hong Kong action movie genre, particularly the work of director John Woo, which features a great deal of slow-motion violence and gunfights, almost resembling ballet.
Total War June 13, 2000 7.5 million
Total War is a computer strategy game series developed by the Creative Assembly. Its games combine turn-based strategy and resource management, with real-time tactical control of battles.
Animal Crossing April 14, 2001 7 million
Animal Crossing, known in Japan as Dōbutsu no Mori (どうぶつの森?, lit. "Animal Forest"), is a video game series developed by Nintendo, in which the player lives his/her own virtual life in real time.
Moto Racer 1997 7 million
Moto Racer is a sports game based on motorbikes developed and published by Nobilis.
Project Gotham Racing November 9, 2001 7 million
Project Gotham Racing is a franchise of racing video games developed by Bizarre Creations and is published by Microsoft Game Studios. This series is exclusive to the Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles only. This series of racing games consists of Project Gotham Racing, Project Gotham Racing 2, Project Gotham Racing 3, and Project Gotham Racing 4.
The Settlers 1993 7 million
The Settlers (also known as Serf City, original German title Die Siedler) is a slow-paced real time strategy video game by German developer Blue Byte Software.
Unreal May 22, 1998 7 million
The Unreal series is a video game franchise developed by Epic Megagames, now known as Epic Games and originally published by GT Interactive, later by Infogrames, Atari, and currently by Midway Games. It was powered by the Unreal Engine which had been in development for over three years before the game was released.
Football Manager November 5, 2004 7 million
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.
Nancy Drew December 1998 Almost 7 million
Nancy Drew games follow the popular adventure game style of play. Players must move Nancy around in a virtual environment to talk to suspects, pick up clues, solve puzzles, and eventually solve the crime. They are usually published by Her Interactive.
EyeToy November 4, 2003 6.7 million
The EyeToy is a color digital camera device, similar to a webcam, for the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable. Games on these series require the camera to input gestures in order to achieve certain goals in themselves.
MX vs. ATV March 16, 2005 6.5 million shipped
MX vs. ATV was an offroad racing game franchise developed by Rainbow Studios and published by THQ.
Alone in the Dark 1992 6 million
Alone in the Dark is a series of survival horror video games from Infogrames, based on the writings of H. P. Lovecraft, although later games in the series drew inspiration from other sources, including Voodoo, the Wild West, and the works of H.R. Giger.
Brothers in Arms March 1, 2005 6 million
Brothers in Arms is a first-person shooter video game series created by Gearbox Software and published by Ubisoft, originally released in early 2005. The game takes place during World War II and focuses on team strategy rather than the faster paced run and gun tactics of the Medal of Honor series.
Buzz! October 21, 2005 6 million
Buzz! is a series of video games originated by Sleepydog Ltd., developed by Relentless Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe for the PlayStation 2 console. They are quiz games that sees the players answering trivia questions whilst competing in the fictional game show, Buzz.
Carmen Sandiego 1985 6 million
Carmen Sandiego was originally conceived in 1983 by ex-Disney artist Gene Portwood, Mark Iscaro, Dane Bigham and Lauren Elliott at Brøderbund Software. The concept for the product evolved from a game the Carlstons (founders of Brøderbund) played as kids, using the world almanac and maps to play quiz games. The franchise later developed into television series and books.
Championship Manager September 1, 1992 6 million
The Championship Manager series is a series of British football-management simulation. It was one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. The Championship Manager brand and game was conceived by two brothers: Paul and Oliver Collyer. The series was split in two in 2005 as the Collyers decided that their vision of the game was at odds with that of publisher Eidos Interactive so they need to leave to continue making a game they could be proud of. The brothers lost their battle to keep the Championship Manager name, however, and so their series was rebranded as Football Manager while Eidos continued to develop the game their own way under the Championship Manager moniker.
Guild Wars April 28, 2005 6 million
Guild Wars is an episodic series of multiplayer online role-playing games created by ArenaNet, a Seattle game development studio and a subsidiary of the South Korean game publisher NCsoft.
Mana June 8, 1991 6 million
The Mana series, known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu (聖剣伝説?, lit. "Holy Sword Legend"), is an action role-playing game series from Square Enix, created by Koichi Ishii. The series began as a handheld side story, Final Fantasy Adventure, to Square's flagship franchise Final Fantasy, though most Final Fantasy inspired elements were subsequently dropped, starting with the second installment, Secret of Mana.
Need for Speed: Most Wanted November 22, 2005 6 million
Need for Speed: Most Wanted is the ninth installment in the Need for Speed franchise developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It has a storyline and police pursuits.
NBA Jam 1993 6 million
NBA Jam is a series of basketball-based video games created by Midway and later Electronic Arts.
Raving Rabbids November 14, 2006 6 million
Raving Rabbids is a spinoff in the Rayman series released by the French company Ubisoft.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms 1986 6 million
Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國志, Sangokushi?) is a turn-based computerized wargame series by Koei that originated from Japan. The games cover events of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms in China during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
Test Drive 1987 6 million
Test Drive is the name of a racing game franchise originally published by Accolade, which was later bought by Infogrames. The Test Drive games are now published by Atari, the name which Infogrames renamed itself in 2003.
Turok February 28, 1997 6 million
Turok is a first-person shooter video game series, set in a primitive world inhabited by dinosaurs and other creatures, published by Acclaim Entertainment.
Warhammer 40,000 August 2003 6 million
Warhammer 40,000 is a series of video games based on the Games Workshop tabletop game Warhammer 40,000. Since being taken over by THQ in 2001, games in the franchise have included real-time strategy Dawn of War, its expansions and sequel for windows PCs; Squad Command, a turn-based tactics game for handheld systems; turn-based strategy game Glory in Death for the Nokia N-Gage and first person shooter Fire Warrior for Windows and PlayStation 2.
Conflict September 30, 2002 6 million shipped
Conflict is a series of tactical third-person shooter developed by Pivotal Games and published by SCi.
Major League Baseball 2K March 1, 2004 5.5 million
Major League Baseball 2K is a series of Major League Baseball video games, developed by Visual Concepts and Kush Games, and published by 2K Sports. Visual Concepts called the series World Series Baseball in years prior to 2004 for the Dreamcast, with Pedro Martínez as the cover athlete.
Chrono March 11, 1995 5.3 million
The Chrono (クロノ?) series is a video game franchise developed and published by Square Enix (formerly Square). It began in 1995 with the time travel role-playing video game Chrono Trigger, which spawned two continuations, the visual novel Radical Dreamers and the role-playing game Chrono Cross.
Dead Rising August 8, 2006 5.3 million
Dead Rising (デッドライジング, Deddo Raijingu?) is a series of survival horror action-adventure games developed by Capcom and produced by Keiji Inafune.
Banjo Kazooie June 30, 1998 5.25 million
Banjo Kazooie is a series of games produced by Rare by Gregg Mayles.
Yakuza December 8, 2005 5.15 million
Yakuza (龍が如く Ryū ga Gotoku, lit. "Like a Dragon") is an open world action-adventure game franchise created by Amusement Vision and owned and published by Sega.
Anno February 1, 2000 5 million
Anno is a series of games with both real time strategy and city building elements, developed by Germany-based Sunflowers Interactive Entertainment Software company.
Asterix 1983 5 million
Based on The Adventures of Asterix (French: Astérix), a series of French comic books by René Goscinny (stories) and Albert Uderzo (illustrations). The video game franchise has been handled by Infogrames since 1993.
Baldur's Gate November 30, 1998 5 million
Baldur's Gate is a series of role-playing video games that take place on Faerûn, the main continent from Dungeons & Dragons's Forgotten Realms campaign setting, set in the years following the cataclysmic Time of Troubles, originally developed by BioWare.
Chessmaster 1986 5 million
Chessmaster is a chess playing video game series by Ubisoft initially developed by The Software Toolworks. It includes numerous tutorials by International Master Joshua Waitzkin for players of all skill levels.
Oddworld September 19, 1997 5 million
Oddworld is a comprehensive fictional universe presented in video game form, created by game developers Oddworld Inhabitants under the direction of Lorne Lanning.
Stronghold October 21, 2001 5 million
Stronghold is a historic real-time strategy (RTS) game series developed by Firefly Studios starting from 2001. The game focuses primarily on conquest and expansion through military pursuits, but also provides space for economic strategy and development.
Tecmo Bowl 1987 5 million
Tecmo Bowl is an arcade video game series of American Football released by Tecmo, Inc.
TOCA Touring Car 1997 5 million
TOCA is a racing video game series developed and published by Codemasters, initially focusing specifically on touring car racing but more recently expanding to cover a wide variety of motorsport.
Twisted Metal November 5, 1995 5 million in North America
Twisted Metal is a vehicular combat series made for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PSP. The series is published by Sony and developed by the game studio Incognito Entertainment.
V-Rally July 1998 5 million
V-Rally is a racing game franchise originally developed by Eden Studios and published by Infogrames and later by Electronic Arts.
Mafia August 28, 2002 5 million shipped
Mafia is a third-person shooter series made for Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox, and Xbox 360 that is set in the 1930s through 1950s and focuses on fictional American Mafia families of that era. The series is currently published by 2K Games and developed by 2K Czech, previously known as Illusion Softworks.

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Famous quotes containing the words million and/or copies:

    The low level which commercial morality has reached in America is deplorable. We have humble God fearing Christian men among us who will stoop to do things for a million dollars that they ought not to be willing to do for less than 2 millions.
    Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)

    Realism to be effective must be a matter of selection. ... genius chooses its materials with a view to their beauty and effectiveness; mere talent copies what it thinks is nature, only to find it has been deceived by the external grossness of things.
    Julia Marlowe (1866–1950)