NetEnt Stalker – Game Franchises – Press Release
With a higher value than either music or film, the video game industry is a colossal force and has always been fiercely competitive. With sales in the hundreds of millions, franchises have given us games and characters that have stood the test of time.
Whether it’s the simplicity of Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris or the vivid realms of Pokémon and Lego, franchises as old as 30 years have garnered universal popularity. New instalments and expansions keep fans hooked, with progressions in console technology only increasing demand from the makers of games like Mario, Final Fantasy and Madden.
NetEntStalker.com have produced an infographic illustrating the top 15 franchises ranked by overall sales along with some brief history and quotes from the influencers of the games themselves. These are some of the key findings in the search for the most popular franchises of all time:
- It’s him, Mario! – Gaming’s very own ‘Jumpman’ came into our lives in 1981 and has since created a franchise empire that places it at no.1 on our list. The heroic Italian plumber led Nintendo to domination in the gaming world, with over 250 game assets to date, with Super Mario Bros the most successful installment at over 47 million units sold.
- Gamers and their Guns – Much like the film industry, com’s research shows that 5 of the top 15 franchises for video games relate to fighting or war in some capacity. Call of Duty and Tom Clancy’s games are leaders in First-Person Shooters and stealth games while the Assassin’s Creed and Grand Theft Auto franchises lead the way in terms of visceral combat.
- Acceptable in the 80s – It appears that longevity is an invaluable asset for any gaming franchise, with a third of our list born in the 1980s. For example, Nintendo’s Mario, Alexey Pajitnov’s Tetris and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy have a lifespan that exceeds most gamers existed for longer than most gamers with combined sales of over a billion.
Two notable entries on NetEntStalkers.com graphic are Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed and Call of Duty, which both came into existence in only the last 14 years. Moreover, it is important to consider the significance of mobile apps, which has proved lucrative for many franchises like Tetris who have had 425 million paid downloads to date.
METHODOLOGY
The research from NetEntStalker.com was comprehensive and as well as the overall sales, it looked at several other metrics including:
- Name of franchise
- Original release date
- Developer
- Total copy/products sold
- Number of game assets
- Highest selling game to date
- Release date
- List of notable games
- Quote from game influencer
- Fact about game/franchise
The data was then input into a table and then arranged by the amount sold.
