Wednesday, July 15, 2020

The best-selling video game franchise of all time : after decades the truth has finally appeared!

The best-selling video game franchise of all time

The homonymous list on Wikipedia is wrong. After decades the truth has finally appeared.

In 2018 for the fist time ever Sega announced the sales of its most famous franchise: over 800 million.
http://www.segasammy.co.jp/english/ir/library/pdf/printing_annual/2018/ssh_ar18e_web.pdf

Only one year after that first announcement, these sales figures increased significantly, surpassing the 920 million mark, according to Sega's Integrated Report 2019. 
"Sonic the Hedgehog is one of our massively popular series, beloved by users around the world since its launch in 1991, with total sales exceeding 920 million copies." INTEGRATED REPORT 2019, page 55

These figures makes Sonic the Hedgehog the best-selling video game franchise of all time. The second place goes to Mario (including all variations:Super, Kart, Party...) with 639.04 million and in third place the Tetris franchise with 495 million.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

Even though these new official Sonic sales figures were released almost two years ago, Wikipedia has not yet corrected the wrong information that the Sonic franchise would have sold 140 million units, which was based on an unofficial source.

It is likely that these sales figures from the Sonic franchise, although impressive and already easily guarantee the first place, are underestimated, as Sega apparently does not have the full information on the sales figures of the Mega Drive, Master System, Game Gear and Sega CD games officially distributed by third parties during the last 30 years.

Certainly the main stars of the franchise are the Mega Drive / Sega Genesis games, especially the first two games. Unfortunately Sega did not disclose sales of any of the games individually. Probably Sonic The Hedgehog (Mega Drive - 1991) is one of the best selling games of all time if all re-releases are taken into account.  It is also not certain whether these figures took into account the countless collections sold with these games.

The Mega Drive / Sega Genesis has also originated other hugely successful franchises such as Puyo Puyo, FIFA, Madden, NHL, Shining, Stalker, Oasis, Streets of Rage, Road Rash, Strike, Illusion (Castle...), World Series Baseball, NBA Live, NBA Action, Earthworm Jim, Rocket Knight, Toe Jam & Earl, Ecco the Dolphin, Assault Suits, Vectorman (which apparently inspired the almost identical plot of the movie WALL-E), Eternal Champions, Joe Montana, Heroes (Gunstar, Guardians...), Columns, Lunar (CD) and many others. Even considering only Mega Drive sales, many of these franchises easily exceeded the million mark. Unfortunately, the sales figures of these franchises have never been revealed by Sega. Certainly, given the countless re-releases of Mega Drive games in recent decades, it is certain that many other classic Sega franchises have far surpassed the mark of many millions of copies sold. Apparently, due to the multiplicity of publishers responsible for selling/manufacturing the Sega Master System and Mega Drive outside Japan, Sega never managed to divulge the total number of games and consoles sold. This may be the reason for not disclosing the total number of sales for millionaire franchises like Phantasy Star, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, OutRun, After Burner, Fantasy Zone, Altered Beast, Alex Kidd, Shining and many others.

FIFA (282.4 million), Madden (130 million) and Puyo Puyo (27 million) are still among the best selling video game franchises of all time to this day. FIFA is in the seventh place and Madden in the fourteenth.
References: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/10/segas_sonic_the_hedgehog_series_has_shifted_800_million_games_to_date#enlarge-2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

For Phantasy Star, oddly Sega only released sales of Phantasy Star Online 2 (5 million)
Reference: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/10/segas_sonic_the_hedgehog_series_has_shifted_800_million_games_to_date#enlarge-2

Sega also released sales of the Hokuto-No-Ken series, but oddly did not include the series' Master System and Mega Drive games.
Reference: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/10/segas_sonic_the_hedgehog_series_has_shifted_800_million_games_to_date#enlarge-2

The snes also spawned some multi-platform games, but these games were mostly weak games that were promoted with a lot of hype such as Bubsy, The Tick, Robocop 3, WWF Wrestlemania, Bart's Nightmare, Hook, "Spider-Man and the X-men: Arcade's Revenge", Ultraman, The Death and Return of Superman, ClayFighters, B.O.B. and Weapon Lord.


The Best Selling Game:
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991):
Sonic The Hedgehog originated the best selling video game franchising of all time and probably remains the best-selling game in this franchise to date (even without considering the 8-bit version for Master System and Game Gear).
Although the number of sales of the game is not known, it is considered the record holder in re-releases and most likely it is one of the best-selling games of all time. Below is a list of releases of this game, most of which do not have known sales figures.
a. Bundled on Sega Genesis in North America: Sonic the Hedgehog sold over 15 million units bundled on Sega Genesis (between late 1991 and 1992).
a.2.  Bundled on Sega Genesis in North America (1993-2020): unknown sales figures
a2. Buldleld with Mega Drive in Western Europe (1991-1994): 6.88 
a.3. Mega Drive console bundles in South Korea during 1992 to 1993: 260,000
a.4. Buldleld with Mega Drive in Brazil: unknown sales figures more than 1 million)
a.5: Buldleld with Mega Drive in other regions (Asia; Japan; Middle East; East Europe; Australia/New Zealand): unknown sales figures
b. Bundled on Mega Drive third party licensed variations (1993-2020, all regions): unknown sales figures
c. Genesis/Mega Drive Cartridges (1991-1999): unknown sales figures
d. Other licensed Genesis/Mega Drive cartridges sold in compilations with other Mega Drive / Sega Genesis Games such as:
d.1: Sonic Classics: unknown sales figures
d.2: 6-Pack: unknown sales figures
d.3: Mega 6 vol. 3: unknown sales figures
d.4: Telstar Double Value Games: unknown sales figures
d.5: 10 Super Jogos: unknown sales figures
d.6: Mega Games 10: unknown sales figures
e. Bundled whit Sega CD: unknown sales figures
f. Mega-Tech: unknown sales figures
g. Mega Play: unknown sales figures
Total Sonic the Hedgehog sales for the original hardware: unknown sales figures
Sonic the Hedgehog (1991) sales in other consoles: 
1.Sonic Jam (Sega Saturn, 1997): unknown sales figures
2.Sonic the Hedgehog Genesis (Game Boy Advance, 2006): unknown sales figures
3.Wii Virtual Console (2006): unknown sales figures
4.iOS (2007) : unknown sales figures
5.X-Box Live Arcade (2007): 482,960 units. Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#cite_ref-49
6.Paid mobile downloads in 2008: over 8 million.  Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#cite_note-49
6.2. Paid mobile downloads between 2009 and 2020: unknown sales figures
7.Paid Android downloads between 2013 and 2016: over 500,000 (unknown sales figures).  Reference:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games#cite_note-49
8. 3D Classics (Nintendo 3DS, 2013) : unknown
9.Sonic Mega Collection (Game Cube, 2002): unknown sales figures
10. Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PlayStation 2, 2003): 2.3 million
11. Sonic Mega Collection Plus (X-Box, 2003): unknown sales figures
12. Sega Mega Drive Collection/Sega Genesis Collection (PlayStation 2, 2006): unknown
13. Sega Mega Drive Collection/Sega Genesis Collection (PlayStation Portable, 2006): unknown
14. Sonic Mega Collection Plus (PC-Windows, 2007): unknown
15. Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection/Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (PS3,2009): unknown
16. Sega Mega Drive Ultimate Collection/Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection (X-Box 360,2009)
17. Sonic Classic Collection (Nintendo DS, 2010): unknown
18. Sega Ages vol. 1 (Windows, MacOs and Linux, 2010): unknown
19. Sega Forever (iOS and Android, 2017) : unknown
20. Sega Mega Drive Classics /Sega Genesis Classics (PlayStation 4, 2018): unknown
21. Sega Mega Drive Classics /Sega Genesis Classics (X-Box One, 2018): unknown
22. Sega Ages (PlatStation 4, 2018): unknown
23. Sega Ages (XBox One, 2018): unknown
24. Sega Ages (Nintendo Switch, 2018): unknown
25. Sega Mega Drive Classics /Sega Genesis Classics (Nintendo Switch, 2018): unknown
26. Sega Mega Drive Classics /Sega Genesis Classics (Steam, 2010-2020): total sales figures unknown. Sega sold over 350,000 Mega Drive/Genesis classic games in only 20 days since launching its Mega Drive and Genesis Hub on Steam on April 28 2016, according to Sega Europe's director of digital distribution, James Schall. Reference: 
28. Sega Mega Drive Classics /Sega Genesis Classics (Steam, 2010-2020): includes Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Spinball, Dr Robotnik and 44 other Mega Drive/Genesis games. total sales figures unknown. Sales: 1,514,485 up to the 1st July 2018 (in other words, 10.601.395 classic Sonic games). Just considering the sales of this collection until this date, these 50 Mega Drive games occupy the fourth position of best-selling Japanese games of all time on Steam (even if counted as one game instead of 50 games). Sonic CD is also in the all time top 100. 
28. Sonic the Hedgehog: Ultimate Bundle (Steam): unknown sales figures
29. Around 30 versions for iOS: unknown sales figures
30. Sega Classics for smartphones:  unknown sales figures
31. Google Play Store (for Android): over 10 million downloads between 06/21/2017 and jun 2020
Total original Sonic the Hedgehog sales (in other consoles): unknown sales figures
31. Sonic the Hedgehog (X-Box 360): 483,000 up to 2011 (Sonic 2: 510,000; Sonic 3: 203,000; Sonic & Knuckles: 207,366; Golden Axe: 268,000; Streets of Rage 2:185,000; Altered Beast: 58,000; Sonic Adventure: 203,000). Reference: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/39713/Xbox_Live_Arcde_by_the_numbers__the_2011_year_in_review.php
32. SEGA Megadrive and Genesis Classics Collection (Direct2Drive): unknown sales figures
33. Sonic Hits Collection: unknown sales figures. http://www.sonicstadium.org/2014/05/get-seventeen-sonic-games-on-steam-for-5/

These collections mentioned above usually also contain several other classic Mega Drive / Sega Genesis games, including several Sonic games.

Best-sellers retrogames in Amazon.com (paid games as of August 23th 2020):
#1. Sonic 2 (Mega Drive/ Genesis version) 
#2. Sonic The Hedgehog (Mega Drive/ Genesis version)
#3. Sonic CD (Sega CD version)
They are the only retrogames present in the "top 100 paid".
Sonic The Hedgehog (Mega Drive/ Genesis version) in the forth place in the list of action games (paid games as of August 23th 2020):
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/mobile-apps/9408529011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_mobile-apps
Sonic The Hedgehog (Mega Drive/ Genesis version) in the forth place in the list of arcade games and in eighth place in the Sega Classics package together with other 24 genesis games: Sonic 2 , Sonic CD,  Sonic Spinball, The Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 1, 2 & 3; Altered Beast; Golden Axe 1,2 & 3; Comix Zone; Ristar; Beyond Oasis; Decap Attack; ESWAT: City Under Siege; Gunstar Heroes; Dynamite Headdy; Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine; Columns; Bio-Hazard Battle; Alien Storm; Bonanza Bros; Gain Ground (paid games as of August 23th 2020): http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/mobile-apps/9408531011/ref=pd_zg_hrsr_mobile-apps

In addition to the classic Sonic games, another big hit is Sonic Dash with over 400 million downloads:

Sega IPs that "inspired" Nintendo's best-selling franchises, but were abandoned by Sega:

The success of Sega's franchises could be even greater. Since 1995, Sega of Japan in the war with Sega of America decided to centralize power and focus on the Japanese market. With that in mind, the Japanese CEOs started to devalue IPs that were hugely successful in the rest of the world (outside Japan). Sega could certainly invest more in new games from its classic franchises (imagine how interesting it would be for example a sequel of Altered Beast in the same vein as God of War 3).
Another side of this internal Sega war in 1995 was that some great Sega games from Japan ended up not even being published in other countries.
Here are some examples of Sega's IPs that inspired the best seller Nintendo's Franchises and that were largely overlooked by Sega, while Nintendo released dozens of versions of those games, constantly and endlessly "milking the Cash Cow":

Pulseman (Sega, 1994)
Pulseman is an exclusive Mega Drive game. Although today Pulseman is recognized as a triple-A game, it has received little attention from Sega itself, being released physically exclusively in Japan. As the Sega Genesis/ Mega Drive was the best selling video game console outside Japan, Sega missed a great opportunity to popularize Pulseman and after that completely forgot it and never developed a sequel.  This strategic error occurred in the midst of the conflict between the Japanese Sega and Sega of America, which also limited the release of other great games released by Sega for the Mega Drive in Japan at that time such as Monster World IV, The Hybrid Front, Surging Aura, Alien Soldier and Lord Monarch.
The origin of the second best seller Nintendo franchise of all time (Pokémon) was strongly influenced by Pulseman. Most of the staff members who worked on Pulseman received little attention from Sega and would later work for Nintendo creating the Pokémon series, including the designer and director Ken Sugimori, designer Satoshi Tajiri, artist Atsuko Nishida and composer Junichi Masuda. The main character of the Pokémon series (Pikachu) had its electrical powers based on Pulseman's powers. In addition, Pulseman's diagonal attack that serves for locomotion and damage called Voltecker, looks almost identical to that of Pikachu's Volt Tackle in Emerald (GBA, 2004), Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii, 2008) and in the anime. The design of the main character of Pulseman also influenced several Pokémon characters such as: Remoraid, Xatu, Registroel, Ledian, Bisharp and Rotom from Diamond, Pearl and Platinum (Nintendo DS, 2006 and 2008). Several other characters from Pokémon were also influenced by characters from Pulseman, such as: Mars (Pókemon) vs Beatrice (Pulseman) and Charon (Pókemon) vs Dr Waruyama (Pulseman). The most important object in the Pókemon series, the Poké Ball, also had its design inspired by the game Pulseman, more specifically in the vehicle of the arch-enemy of Pulseman (as can be seen in the photo below).
Pulseman's influence is also strong on the soundtrack of Pokémon games. Many Pokémon game themes are based on Pulseman songs. Pulseman's "Shutdown 1" and the theme of the battle against Mesprit, Azelf and Uxie, in DPP, could be considered simple remixes of the Pulseman's music. Lavender Town and Viridian Forest are examples of songs influenced by Pulseman's soundtrack. 
While Sega forgot Pulseman, Nintendo continues for more than 20 years releasing numerous games, anime, movie and other products based on Pókemon and with many elements inspired by Pulseman. Nintendo recognized the virtues of Pulseman more than Sega itself and re-launched the Mega Drive for the Wii on the Virtual Console in Japan in 2007, and in North America and Europe in 2009.
The first Pokemon games (1996,1998,1999) were also strongly influenced by Sega's Shining Force series (1992,1993,1994) for the Mega Drive and Game Gear. The influence is very evident in the battles and also in the focus on obtaining allies. This strong influence is explained by the love of Ken Sugimori - character designer and art director for the Pokémon franchise - for the Mega Drive. According to his own words: "Since I loved arcade games, I was hooked once I saw that the Mega Drive had FM sound and raster scrolling. The Mega Drive got a lot of high-quality arcade ports, and I played them all. If a title came out for multiple consoles at the same time, there was no question about it. I would get the Mega Drive version". 
References:
Pulseman (Mega Drive, Sega, 1994)
Pulseman (Mega Drive, Sega, 1994)

Power Drift (Sega, 1988)
This pioneering Kart racing game with a strong sense of humor inspired the Mario Kart series started four years later in 1992. While Nintendo has been continually releasing countless versions, updates and rehashs of that game, Sega has just kept on never releasing a sequel to Power Drift. Worse than that, Sega could easily have released a fairly accurate port of the arcade game for Sega CD or 32 X but it never did. Even stranger is the fact that Sega has authorized a downgraded port for the PC Engine. The first port of the game for a Sega home console only came almost 10 years later on a Sega Saturn with exclusive release in Japan. Sega's original idea of using the mascot in a racing game even predates Power Drift. In 1987, Sega launched the Alex Kidd BMX Trial only in Japan for Master System (Sega Mark III in Japan).

Fighters Megamix (1996) and Sonic The Fighters (1996) 
Both games "inspired" Nintendo to release Super Smash Bros in 1999. While Nintendo has been continually releasing countless versions, updates and rehashs of that game, Sega has just kept on never releasing a sequel for either of its two pioneering games. Worse than that, Sega could easily have released a fairly accurate port of Sonic The Fighters for the Sega Saturn, but never did. It would be easy to expand the cast of "Sonic The Fighters" in new versions to include characters like Ristar, Alex Kidd, Monster World, Opa-Opa, Kid Chameleon, Pulseman, Psycho Fox, Shining Force, Soleil, Dragon Force, Bonanza Bros., Teddy Boy, Flicky, Decap Attack, Dynamite Headdy, Gunstar Heroes, Samba de Amigo, Toe Jam and Earl. The original Fighter Megamix had 36 characters from Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Virtua Cop 2, Rent-a-Hero and Daytona USA. Likewise, it would be easy to imagine "Fighter Megamix" sequences including characters from Streets of Rage, SpikeOut, Last Bronx, Yakuza, Shenmue, Eternal Champions, Shinobi / Shadow Dancer, Golden Axe, Beyond Oasis, Phantasy Star, Landstalker, Altered Beast, Black Belt, Alien Storm, Arabian Fight, Guardian Heroes, D.D. Crew, Dynamite Deka, Holosseum, Dark Edge, Jet Set Radio, Segata Sanshiro, Vectorman, E-Swat, Jewel Master, Comix Zone and Space Harrier.

Puzzle & Action: Tant-R (Sega, 1993), Puzzle & Action: Ichidant-R (Sega,1994) and Puzzle & Action: Treasure Hunt (Sega, 1995)
Considered the forerunners of the "party games" genre, these three games were the inspiration for 1998's Mario Party. Even the roulette used in the selection of mini-games was reused in Mario Party. These Sega games were based on the Bonanza Bros. universe. while Nintendo's were based on the Mario Bros. universe. While Nintendo has been continually releasing countless versions, updates and rehashs of that game, Sega has just kept Puzzle & Action series restricted to Japan, both on arcade and on consoles (Mega Drive / Mega Drive Mini, Game Gear and Saturn).


Wonder Boy / Monster World
The first Wonder Boy was the source for an inferior clone called "Adventure Island" that had several sequels released for NES and snes.
Wonderboy in Monster World (Sega Genesis / Mega Drive, 1991), with the use of an ocarina by the protagonist, was one of the main inspirations for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64,1998).
While Nintendo continues until today to release and re-launch numerous Zelda games, unfortunately Sega prematurely abandoned all its franchises and action RPG / adventures games like Monster World, LandStalker, Beyond Oasis, Soleil, Light Crusader, King Colossus, Rent a Hero, Sword of Vermilion, Spellcaster, Golden Axe Warrior and Lord of the Sword.

Golden Axe
Battletoads (Rare, 1991) was one of the biggest hits on the NES, which received an improved version for Sega Genesis (after Nintendo's monopoly was considered illegal) and a sequel released for snes and Master System. Everyone knows that the game is obviously inspired by TMNT. However, very few know that the main stages of these games and some enemies were strongly inspired by the middle part of the "Fiend's Path" stage of the game Golden Axe (Sega, 1989).

See also:
The Real and Most Complete Sega Genesis / Mega Drive Worldwide Games Sales Figures:
http://segaclassics.blogspot.com/2020/07/console-wars-real-and-most-complete.html



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