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Video sport franchises are massive enterprise, which is why you retain seeing Nintendo churn out new video games in a lot of its franchises. The identical is true for different builders, and that’s not going to alter. A profitable franchise signifies that any new title will have already got a pre-existing viewers upon launch, so that they’re usually assured to promote properly. They don’t at all times, however for essentially the most half, the maths works within the writer’s favor. There are many wonderful online game franchises on the market, however just some stand above the remaining (with a handful coming wherever near $50 billion in income). We seemed by means of the numbers and located the ten best-selling gaming franchises in historical past, organized from lowest to highest income.
10) LEGO
Of all of the online game franchises on the market, LEGO might be essentially the most various. It takes current IPs and creates video games round them, utilizing its personal distinctive spin. The video games are extremely detailed and entertaining, however largely, they’re simple to choose up and play … like LEGO bricks themselves. Tons of nice LEGO video games span all types of properties, and plenty of have bought extremely properly. Total gross sales figures aren’t well-known, however it’s clear that the multitude of LEGO titles have bought in extra of 100 million copies for the reason that first, LEGO Fun to Build, arrived in 1995. Unfortunately, the franchise’s whole valuation isn’t clear, so it takes the underside spot on the listing regardless of its excessive gross sales quantity.
9) Tetris
Tetris might be the perfect rags-to-riches story in gaming as a result of it got here out of the Soviet Union from one man’s work and have become the second-best-selling online game franchise of all time. Granted, it took lots of work and time to succeed in that milestone, however humbler beginnings don’t actually exist. The sport first gained widespread recognition exterior the USSR when it was included as a pack-in sport with the Nintendo Game Boy, and since then, a number of variations of Tetris have appeared on all types of units. According to the Tetris web site, over 520 million Tetris video games have been bought for the reason that first model’s launch, giving the franchise an total valuation of round $2 billion, although this determine may very well be a lot greater, because the franchise’s fairness isn’t publicly accessible.
8) Minecraft
If you wish to take a look at a hit story, begin and finish with , essentially the most profitable independently developed sport in historical past. While it’s now owned by Microsoft (for a $2.5 billion buy worth), it was developed by Markus “Notch” Persson, who used neighborhood involvement and an prolonged open beta to shine the sport as a lot as doable earlier than its official launch. Minecraft has since grown right into a behemoth, that includes toys, plushies, video games, and extra. While the entire franchise valuation sits at round $10 billion as of writing, solely round $4 billion is attributed to the sport itself, which has bought round 350 million copies.
7) Assassin’s Creed
The Assassin’s Creed franchise started in 2007, introducing the world to an uncommon time journey mechanic that didn’t truly contain time journey. The video games embrace detailed historic evaluation and delightful recreations of the previous, typically requiring historians and numerous photographers to seize actual buildings and guarantee absolutely correct reproductions in-game. There have been 14 mainline Assassin’s Creed video games as of writing, and so they’ve largely all bought extremely properly for Ubisoft. The franchise has bought round 230 million copies of its video games, valuing it at over $8.3 billion, a determine that doesn’t account for different merchandise or its unlucky live-action characteristic movie.
6) Grand Theft Auto
Unsurprisingly, Rockstar Games’ largest franchise, Grand Theft Auto, is without doubt one of the best-selling sport franchises in historical past. When it was launched, GTA V reached $1 billion in gross sales quicker than some other sport, and it’s continued to promote extremely properly ever since. With the forthcoming launch of GTA VI, count on the entire franchise valuation to leap considerably, because it’s extremely probably that any gross sales document set by its predecessor might be shortly damaged. Combined, the GTA franchise has bought over 460 million items, although GTA V represents its largest earner. The whole franchise valuation sits at round $13.6 billion, although round $8.6 billion of that falls on GTA V’s shoulders.
5) Final Fantasy
When it involves Japanese Role-playing sport franchises, the cream of the crop is Final Fantasy. The franchise started in 1987 on the Nintendo Entertainment System. Since then, it has seen the discharge of 16 mainline video games, quite a few re-releases, and a big remake of Final Fantasy VII. It’s a significant multimedia franchise that hasn’t achieved notably properly exterior of gaming, however it’s nonetheless been extremely influential on this planet of JRPGs. In phrases of online game gross sales, the corporate has bought over 200 million items throughout its many video games, and whole income from sport gross sales is round $19 billion.
4) FIFA
For many years, EA Sports printed video games within the FIFA franchise, however that ended with FIFA 23. Since then, the secret has been EA Sports FC, primarily the identical, minus the FIFA license. Regardless, the FIFA franchise dominated for many years, promoting a whole bunch of tens of millions of copies throughout just about each accessible platform. Throughout that point, EA Sports moved greater than 325 million copies of the franchise’s video games. While it’s not completely clear what the entire valuation was earlier than EA switched it up after FIFA 23, lifetime income was probably properly over $20 billion.
3) Pokémon
Nintendo unleashed the Pokémon franchise on its followers in 1996, releasing Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue for the Nintendo Game Boy. The video games have been extremely fashionable and addictive, permitting gamers to commerce their Pokémon to catch all 151. Since then, the Pokémon franchise has grown right into a multimedia juggernaut, encompassing anime, comics, live-action movies, buying and selling card video games, and rather more. Nintendo continues to launch new Pokémon video games semi-regularly, and the video games at all times promote properly. The whole valuation for the Pokémon franchise is properly over $150 billion, however a lot of it’s in merchandising. In phrases of online game gross sales, the valuation is nearer to round $30 billion.
2) Call of Duty
The Call of Duty franchise began type of small, as one in every of many first-person shooters set throughout World War II. It didn’t take lengthy for the franchise to construct up steam, overtaking Medal of Honor and different fashionable FPS collection to develop into the best-selling FPS franchise in historical past. Since its inception, Call of Duty video games have bought over 500 million copies throughout its dozens of titles, and whereas some have bought higher than others, it’s not going wherever anytime quickly. In phrases of valuation, for the reason that starting and as of 2025-early 2026, the Call of Duty franchise is estimated to be price between $30 and $35 billion.
1) Mario
The best-selling online game franchise in historical past is the Mario franchise. There are so many Mario video games that it’s tough to rely all of them, however they quantity within the a whole bunch throughout each Nintendo platform. While the entire variety of gross sales isn’t often called of writing, in June 2025, the franchise set the Guinness World Record for “Best-selling videogame series” with 893,464,669 items bought. The franchise’s estimated valuation in 2025 was round $60 billion, making it considerably extra useful than some other online game franchise. It’s probably gone up since then, because the Nintendo Switch 2 has been launched, and Mario video games maintain flying off cabinets.
What’s your favourite sport franchise? Leave a remark beneath and be part of the dialog now within the ComicBook Forum!
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