Japan-based games dominate list of all-time best sellers

by Blake Snow { Jan 10th 2007 at 4:24PM }

According to London's Independent, Japan-based franchises dominate the list of all-time best selling games. So if producers of the top selling games competed in an fictional Olympic event called Which Country Creates the Best Selling Video Games, results would be as follows:

Japan -- 11 games
US -- 6 games
UK -- 2 games
Korea -- 1 game

Japan takes the gold. Mario was listed as the top selling franchise of all-time with 193 million units, followed by Pokemon with 155 million, Final Fantasy with 68 million, and Madden in fourth place with 56 million. Click onward for Next-Gen's complete list of the top 20 best selling franchises of all-time.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Hannibal @ Jan 10th 2007 4:31PM

First of all, wow at Zelda being outsold by GTA.

Second of all, do that many people actually care about Lineage? That's amazing.

Neil @ Jan 10th 2007 4:40PM

And of course Halo is not on the list. Which means the upcoming Halo 3, while great, is only big news for Western Xbox fans.

Then again MGS isn't on the list either. So it all comes down to...River City Ransom 2k7!

Mode7 @ Jan 10th 2007 4:58PM

How the hell can the Americans claim James bond?

Mark Felps @ Jan 10th 2007 5:05PM

You realize the reason Halo isn't on the list is that there have been two Halo games in the franchise as compared to franchises that have been adding sales for more than twenty years. Halo 2 has outsold every Final Fantasy since FFVIII. Halo 2 has also outsold the recent MGS games.

At more than 14 million copies for a two game franchise, I don't suspect we'll have to wait much longer to see the Halo franchise make that list. If Halo 3 does just as well as Halo: CE, it'll be on the list shortly.

Btw, just wanted to point out that I personally don't like Halo much. I just started looking at some numbers the other day after reading another "Why do people like Halo" thread and hearing various people talk about MGS as if it's going to save the PS3. Go look at the MGS sales numbers and you'll realize that MGS alone isn't going to save anyone. FFX and X-2 have the same issue. None of those games have nearly the popularity worldwide that many fans of the franchises think they do.

Crazylink @ Jan 10th 2007 5:12PM

The reason Zelda isn't higher is because OoT and MM were on the 64, so they was more expensive to produce/buy.

Nerdtacular @ Jan 10th 2007 5:15PM

Where's Tony Hawk?

Havok @ Jan 10th 2007 5:22PM

3. How the hell can the Americans claim James bond?

Although Bond is English, the video game developers who made the Bond games are not.

v1cious @ Jan 10th 2007 5:24PM

this is Microsoft's fundamental flaw. if they're not careful, this could lead to their downfall later down the line.

VampireHunter Z @ Jan 10th 2007 5:29PM

I can't believe Tomb Raider made that list. Street Fighter should have sold a lot more. Pokemon isn't that old how the hell did it get so far on the list?

Mode7 @ Jan 10th 2007 5:32PM

Yeah Havok, Exept that goldeneye was developed in the UK.

Eagle @ Jan 10th 2007 5:35PM

Great list, in my opinion. The FF number is off, though.

If you add up total sales based off of vgcharts.org, FF has sold well more than 90 million, but oh welll the ordering is correct for sure.

And Halo 2 outselling FF games!? Uh, no? What shitty website do you get your sales data from? It didn't even outsell the worst selling FF since FFVIII, buddy.

JRM @ Jan 10th 2007 5:37PM

I can't believe Madden is so high on the list, considering that only North Americans are into NFL football.

yet EA's FIFA (which has been around since 1994) is not on the list despite having a worldwide market...

glitched @ Jan 10th 2007 5:38PM

@Mark, I agree, fans claim final fantasy and metal gear solid as sony's saving grace... But when it comes down to it and you look at the numbers, Gran turismo sells better than both of those series, and is right behind GTA games.

although according to:
http://www.answers.com/topic/list-of-best-selling-computer-and-video-games
MGS 2 sold better than Halo 2 and 1, FF10 sold better than Halo 1 but not 2. At least world-wide, probably a whole nother story in the US only.

Vidikron @ Jan 10th 2007 5:40PM

That list is dumb since it favors games with sequals. A list of sales on a per game basis would be far more meaningful.

Wiistation360 @ Jan 10th 2007 5:42PM

"Halo 2 has outsold every Final Fantasy since FFVIII"

True but does halo have the chance at reaching 70 million units after halo 3???

Also only reason why halo numbers are so big is because when the xbox came out halo 1&2 were the best FPS you could get at the time for that system.

the xbox360 has Rainbow:six,gears of war,bioshock,fear,prey,half-life 2 and the Ghost recon series.

From what I saw from the ingame footage and the things they add halo 3 cant hold a candle to gears and rainbow.

Halo as good as it is will never be as big of a Franchise as the final fantasy series .......

Leto @ Jan 10th 2007 6:03PM

That list was taken from Wikipedia, we'd have maintained that list for quite a while. London Independent didn't even bother to give Wikipedia credit!

Go here for proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best_selling_video_games#Franchise

mfelps @ Jan 10th 2007 6:23PM

For the guy wondering where I got my numbers, it was the very same Wikipedia that these numbers came from, and, unlike vgcharts, whose numbers are crap, they actually reference where their numbers come from. According to said chart, by the way, the most popular PS2 FF was FFX, which sold 3 million less than Halo 2. In fact, the only games on the PS2 which sold more units than Halo 2 are the three GTAs and Gran Turismo 3. Not DMC, not MGS, not Kingdom Hearts. If you don't agree with the data, that's fine, but since this list comes from that data, we might as well just erase the entire thread.

For the fellow that asked if Halo 3 would put them over 70 million, of course not. But FFIII didn't get Square to 70 million either. Halo 3 likely will get the franchise into the 20 million range, so I don't see much of a problem by the time they launch Halo XII.

Gozan @ Jan 10th 2007 6:43PM

How exactly is James Bond not counted as a British franchise?

ast @ Jan 10th 2007 6:48PM

If you ask me the UK have 3 or at least 2.5

The list included Donkey Kong on the Japanese side. While the IP is owned by Nintendo it was stagnate for many years before Rare (UK company) breathed life into it:

Donkey Kong Country/Land • Donkey Kong Country 2/Land 2 • Donkey Kong Country 3/Land 3 • Diddy Kong Racing • Donkey Kong 64 • Diddy Kong Racing DS

Peter S. @ Jan 10th 2007 8:14PM

C'mon USA, let's make some fuck-ing games! ;)

Peter Pan @ Jan 10th 2007 10:59PM

GTA is UK as well. Mostly developed at DMA/Rockstar in Scotland.

Ry_Trapp0 @ Jan 10th 2007 11:03PM

at #1, no one should give a damn about lineage. ill take a good game over "lineage" any day.

Big beN @ Jan 11th 2007 5:29AM

MARIO 193 M !!! I don't think that figure includes the Spin-off like "Smash bros" or "Mario Kart", because Super Mario + Super Mario land + Super Mario World = more 100 millions copies...

arrakisman @ Jan 11th 2007 8:02AM

I would of thought WarCraft would of made it. There are four games that are all best sellers not to mention the lucritive subscription revenue from WOW.

Karttikeya @ Jan 12th 2007 12:13AM

Well, there are only two Halo games, both on a limited Xbox install base (nobody cares about the two year old PC ports), so it's not a big surprise.

The Halo franchise will make it up there though, after Halo 3, and even further up there with Halo Wars and "Wingnut Interactive Projet #1".

And I wouldn't be surprised by GTA, it attracts the average gamer, and it has over ten games in its series.

teeif @ Jan 12th 2007 7:53AM

The same should be said of James Bond.Goldeneye is the greatest of all bond games and was also made by Rare.

Thats 3.5 games then.

By the way: what about the legacy of Fifa games? Surely they've sold quite a few, they've released one every year since 1995!

MoonfirePewPEwPEw @ Jan 14th 2007 3:52AM

"And of course Halo is not on the list. Which means the upcoming Halo 3, while great, is only big news for Western Xbox fans."

Or it could mean that a series that only has 2 entries in it, is going against series that has up to SEVERAL DOZEN entries into its franchise like Mario and Final Fantasy.

Many of those series have at least 10 games in their franchises (remember, spin offs count).

Ian @ Jan 14th 2007 2:20PM

Well Halo and GTA and other American games, save for Madden, haven't becomed whored games like Mario and FF who come out with shit all the time. Theres 2 fucking FF: XIII for Christ's sake. Plus all the bullshit remakes and the fact that its been around since the 80's help it. Then you have Mario who, not only has his games packaged in systems, but is sold on so much shit. Mario Party, Mario Soccer, Mario DDR, etc. shouldn't be considered "Mario" games but they are because Mario is a whore. Where as Halo has been around since 2001 and hasn't had 100 different variations.....yet. Plus the fact that theres a lot of new original games coming all the time like Bioshock, Gears of War, Mass Effect, etc. all coming this generations while Japanese companies continue to produce games that have been around since the early 90's. Not saying that thats a bad or good thing, but also I know American companys do the same thing, but seeing how many massively popular games there were in the 80's/early 90's, well most were Japanese, so of course they've sold a lot.