Best Selling Video Game Franchise of All Time: The Ultimate Record Holder

Mario is a plumber who hasn’t fixed a single pipe in 40 years. Yet, somehow, he owns the entire industry. And he isn’t the only one.

Games are one of the biggest entertainment formats on Earth, sitting right next to movies, streaming, music, and sports. Some franchises stepped out of the “only gaming” boundaries and became childhood memories, speedrun categories, esports scenes, merch empires, movie material, and permanent residents of every “best games ever” argument online.

But when we talk about the best selling video game franchise of all time, the leaderboard gets brutal fast. Call of Duty, GTA, The Sims etc. Still, the first place is Mario. The Mario series sold at least 893.4 million units as of June 10, 2025, and that amount excluded any sales from Mario Kart World after Switch 2's debut, according to Guinness World Records.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1962663/Call_of_Duty_Warzone/

How, however, did a plumber, a pocket monster empire, a military shooter, and a crime sandbox get to dominate gaming history? Let’s see why players keep coming back even after hundreds of millions of sales to the most popular game series of all time.

Before we start throwing around monster numbers, it may help to define the scoreboard. The term “best-selling” includes the number of paid copies sold, in physical discs, cartridges, and digital purchases. So when people say video game sales, they’re generally referring to software units moved.

“Best-selling” is not the same as highest-grossing. A game can sell fewer copies but make absurd money through DLC, battle passes, skins, subscriptions, or mobile microtransactions.

It also does not mean “most played.” Player count, installs, active users, free downloads, Game Pass access, free weekends, and trials are a different conversation entirely. A free-to-play game can have a massive audience without technically “selling” many copies in the traditional sense.

One more thing we need to mention. Different sources do not always count the same way. Wikipedia’s best-selling game list, for instance, categorizes single titles by their sales, and reports that re-releases, remasters, and enhanced versions are often considered combined, while remakes and expansion packs often get treated independently.

Source: https://www.gamesradar.com/gta-online-tips/

So when we talk about the best-selling video game franchise of all time, we are really asking: which one has sold the most copies across its whole catalog? It surely is a blunt metric, of course, but it is still one of the cleanest ways to measure how far a franchise has traveled.

Depending on the count of spin-offs, remakes, rereleases, and character appearances, Mario is part of upwards of 200 games of all sorts. As for fan and database-style source material, there are also higher numbers that add to their counts, particularly through related series, cameos, and franchises with ports and regional releases.

Part of the reason that Mario is so high on the list of popular video game franchises is that there is not a single lane within this franchise. It is the whole highway. Platformers, kart racing, party games, RPGs, sports games, puzzle games, educational titles, mobile games—Nintendo just transformed one character into a genre-hopping machine.

Source: https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h02742/

Furthermore, the franchise is structured like a content ecosystem. Super Mario brings you the platforming crowd. Mario Party owns couch multiplayer mayhem, and RPG spin-offs like Paper Mario or Mario & Luigi draw in players who want more story and mechanics.

The real trick is that Mario scales across audiences far better than nearly anything else in gaming. Kids get the colors, characters, and simple goals. Casual players benefit from readable controls and low-friction fun. Hardcore players get speedrun tech, precision platforming, challenge modes, shortcuts, hidden routes, and strange optimization rabbit holes.

And don’t let us start on longevity. Mario’s commercial history dates back to the early 1980s in Donkey Kong before Super Mario Bros. made him the face of Nintendo. Most gaming brands have one golden age. Mario got the NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Wii, DS, 3DS, Wii U, Switch, and now the Switch 2 era. At any game development company, that sort of staying power is basically the dream case study.

Finally, there is also the Nintendo hardware effect. Mario is not just software; he is a console seller. A new Mario game often serves as the sort of system showcase: Super Mario 64 clarified how 3D movement worked, Super Mario Galaxy provided motion-era creativity, Super Mario Odyssey proved to be one of the Switch’s signature adventure titles, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had become the kind of perennial title that just won’t budge from the charts.

So why is Mario number one? It has the craziest combination in the business: decades of brand trust, rudimentary mechanics, insane genre coverage, family-friendly appeal, hardcore depth when it’s warranted, and a track record of drops that cover every major Nintendo platform.

Launch year: 1984
Sales: Over 520 million units

Tetris is the cleanest proof that a game does not need lore to become immortal. Blocks fall, your brain panics, you make lines, and repeat forever. That design is so simple it can survive any platform: arcade, handheld, console, PC, mobile, smart devices, and probably a fridge somewhere. The Tetris Company says the brand has sold over 520 million units worldwide, though this franchise is tricky. Some sources count different versions together while others separate them.

Launch year: 2003
Sales: Over 500 million units

Call of Duty became the annual FPS machine everyone complains about and still buys or plays. Its success derived from a very tight loop: cinematic campaign, speedy multiplayer, grind of progression, recognizable gunfeel, and a release schedule that saw the brand continuously in the limelight. It is one of the most popular game series because it owns the military shooter lane in mainstream culture. Activision confirmed the franchise passed 500 million lifetime units before Black Ops 6 was counted.

Launch year: 1996
Sales: Over 489 million units

Pokémon is a collection addiction with monsters attached. The main loop is simple for new players, and deep enough for competitive players. It also has insane cross-media support from anime, cards, toys, movies, mobile games, and merch. As of March 2025, the Pokémon video game series had sold over 489 million units worldwide.

Launch year: 1997
Sales: Around 465 million units sold-in

GTA sells fantasy in volume: The open-world crime sandbox, radio stations, satire, chaos, driving, missions, side activities, and the freedom to ignore the main story. And the reason the franchise works so well is that Rockstar treats every big entry like an event. GTA V alone has sold over 225 million copies, while the full series reached nearly 465 million units by early 2026. And now we’re all waiting patiently (some of us not so intrepidly) for the sixth entry this autumn.

Launch year: 2011
Sales: Over 350 million units

The question “Is Minecraft popular?” has now become rhetorical. It is the rare game that can be survival horror, Lego, engineering homework, roleplay server, YouTube content factory, classroom tool, and chill building sim at the same time. The art direction is also genius in its own weird way: simple blocky game art that looks “basic” at first, but becomes impossible to mistake for anything else. Guinness lists Minecraft as the best-selling video game of all time, with 350 million units sold as of April 2025.

Launch year: 2006
Sales: Over 200 million units

The Wii series was sold because it understood that not everyone will want a 40-hour campaign or a complicated control scheme. There are often instances where people just want to swing a remote and play tennis in a living room. Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and Wii Play turned gaming into something easy to join. Among major video game brands, Wii became the “hand the controller to anyone” franchise and that accessibility is exactly why it moved such insane numbers.

Launch year: 2000
Sales: Over 200 million units

The Sims understands one dangerous truth, and that is why it is successful. Players love control, chaos, decorating, drama, and trapping tiny digital people in deeply questionable life experiments. It is 1/4 life sim, 1/4 dollhouse, 1/4 architecture tool, 1/4 storytelling sandbox. Expansions also keep the ecosystem alive for years, adding careers, pets, seasons, supernatural content, interior design, social systems, and whatever else players are willing to mod into existence.

Launch year: 2007
Sales: Over 200 million units

Assassin’s Creed came out with a killer format that was historical tourism with stabbing. Players enjoy parkour through Renaissance Italy, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Viking England, Baghdad, and more, while simultaneously mixing stealth, combat, exploration, collectibles, and conspiracy lore. Its biggest strength is setting variety. Even when fans argue about RPG mechanics or bloated maps, the brand keeps pulling people back.

Launch year: 1996
Sales: Over 160 million units

Resident Evil has one of the best survival arcs in gaming history. The franchise stays relevant because Capcom understands atmosphere, monster design, resource tension, and replay value. Also, let’s be real: few video game brands have produced this many iconic monsters, mansions, labs, viruses, and “why is this puzzle in a police station?” moments.

Launch year: 1994
Sales: Over 150 million units

Need for Speed made racing feel stylish. even iconic. Street racing, police chases, car customization, licensed vehicles, neon cities, drifting, soundtracks, and arcade loop carried the series for decades. It is not always consistent, and fans definitely have their favorite eras, but the brand’s identity is clear.

Source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1262540/Need_for_Speed/

We are certainly fans of these popular video game series, and not only because the sales numbers are insane. Mario, Tetris, Pokémon, GTA, Call of Duty, Minecraft, and the rest all prove the same thing in different ways: a strong game brand is built on a clear identity.

Of course, nobody can promise “the next Mario.” That would be pure LinkedIn fantasy. But building a franchise-ready game starts with the right foundation: smart concept work, polished mechanics, memorable game art, scalable production, and a team that understands how players actually behave once the game leaves the pitch deck and enters the wild.

Here we are, your future partner, Argentics. Whether you need full-cycle game development, production support, character design, environment art, animation, or game art outsourcing, we can help turn your idea into something players want to remember and come back many many times.

Have a game concept that deserves more than staying in a Notion doc? Contact Argentics, and let’s build your next franchise together.