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British newspaper The Independent has published a list of what it claims are the top twenty best selling video games franchises of all-time, topped by Nintendo's seminal Mario, and with Madden NFL leading Western-developed series.

David Jenkins, Blogger

January 10, 2007

2 Min Read

British newspaper The Independent has published a list of what it claims are the top twenty best selling video games franchises of all-time. The top ten brands are largely as would be expected, with the large number of games to which the Mario name has been applied making it easily the top seller. Overall, Nintendo has the largest number of franchises in the top twenty, with all four of its titles in the top ten. 1. Mario (Nintendo): 193 million 2. Pokemon (Nintendo): 155 million 3. Final Fantasy (Square Enix): 68 million 4. Madden NFL (Electronic Arts): 56 million 5. The Sims (Maxis/Electronic Arts): 54 million 6. Grand Theft Auto (Rockstar): 50 million 7. Donkey Kong (Nintendo): 48 million 8. The Legend of Zelda (Nintendo): 47 million 9. Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega): 44 million 10. Gran Turismo (Sony): 44 million 11. Lineage (NCsoft): 43 million 12. Dragon Quest (Square Enix): 41 million 13. Crash Bandicoot (Sony/Vivendi): 34 million 14. Resident Evil (Capcom): 31 million 15. James Bond (Various): 30 million 16. Tomb Raider (Eidos Interactive): 30 million 17. Mega Man (Capcom): 26 million 18. Command & Conquer (Westwood Studios/Electronic Arts): 25 million 19. Street Fighter (Capcom): 25 million 20. Mortal Kombat (Midway): 20 million Madden NFL is the highest ranked Western developed game in the chart at number four, one of the few games in the chart which is not also popular in Japan. Despite most of the entries in the series not having been released in the West, Square Enix’s Dragon Quest is placed at number twelve in the chart, with James Bond being the only licensed franchise at number fifteen. Korean-developed massively multiplayer online game Lineage is the highest ranked PC-only brand in the chart, with Command & Conquer the only other at number eighteen. It is also notable that six out of the top ten titles are single-format exclusives (ignoring spin-offs and portable versions), with Grand Theft Auto and Sonic the Hedgehog only becoming multiformat relatively recently.

About the Author(s)

David Jenkins

Blogger

David Jenkins ([email protected]) is a freelance writer and journalist working in the UK. As well as being a regular news contributor to Gamasutra.com, he also writes for newsstand magazines Cube, Games TM and Edge, in addition to working for companies including BBC Worldwide, Disney, Amazon and Telewest.

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