List of best-selling video game franchises Wikipedia

It is also the most successful video game franchise created in the United States and the second best-selling video game franchise of all time. For any series to have more than a handful of games under it is impressive, but there are a few with more than 20 entries since their first title. Whether it’s new mainline entries, spin-offs, or mobile and arcade games, these are the video game series with the most entries – not including yearly sports titles like Madden and FIFA. Since 2005, there has been a new Call of Duty every year, including mainline entries with recurring characters, free-to-play titles, and multiple ports for mobile devices.

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Continuing a franchise doesn’t mean remaking an existing game, but means adding a new game to it. We also use franchises on VGG as a “site management” and “grouping tool” – a way to sort unrelated games that all share a certain quality or branding. These types of “special” franchises are typically decided upon and created by the admins. While Wikipedia calls these ‘Minigame Compilations’, A large subset of games in this category would also be classified as ‘Party Games’, and purely singleplayer versions may also be referred to as ‘Puzzle Games’. EDIT; thanks to everyone who is trying to help, especially as I have sold everyone a dummy.

Treyarch made one last World War II-based game, World at War (2008), before releasing Black Ops (2010) and subsequently creating the Black Ops sub-series. Five more entries, Black Ops II (2012), Black Ops III (2015), Black Ops 4 (2018), Black Ops Cold War (2020), and Black Ops 6 (2024) were made, the latter two in conjunction with Raven Software. Sledgehammer Games, which were co-developers for Modern Warfare 3, have also developed three titles, Advanced Warfare (2014), WWII (2017), and Vanguard (2021).

Call of Duty 2 is a first-person shooter video game and the sequel to Call of Duty. The game is set during World War II and is experienced through the perspectives of soldiers in the Red Army, British Army, and United States Army. It was released on October 25, 2005, for Windows, November 15, 2005, for the Xbox 360, and June 13, 2006, for Mac OS X. Other versions were made for mobile phones, Pocket PCs, and smartphones.

What’s difference between a series and a franchise?

What do we call a game series?

A series like a franchise is a set of related video games, usually a series tells a story in some form, where a franchise doesn’t have to. Also a franchise can have a series in ( the Final Fantasy franchise has the Final Fantasy Tactics series in it, for example. The Zork franchise includes the Enchanter trilogy and Zork trilogy as well. Call of Duty Online was announced by Activision when the company first stated their interest in a Massively multiplayer online game (MMO) in early 2011. Long before Project Cars, GRID, Toca or Forza Motorsport, there was Gran Turismo. Gran Turismo certainly wasn’t the first true racing simulator, but it was instantly the best when it was released in 1997 on the PlayStation after 5 years in development. It gave players unprecedented access behind the wheel, and under the hood, of 180 different cars ranging from the Fiat 500 L to the Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo, and everything in between.

Aside from the main series, there is also a group of Street Fighter Alpha and Street Fighter EX games and a bunch of crossover titles between other series like Tekken, X-Men, and SNK. The speed at which the Assassin’s Creed has grown from new IP to legitimate classic franchise is staggering. The original game, set in the crusades, was a novel piece of brilliance, blending history, open-world parkour, hand-to-hand combat and a terrific story told through great looking cut-scenes. When Ezio was introduced and the series jumped to the Renaissance, we were impressed. Now, several games and eras later, AC is a proper phenom and we’re glad to see Ubisoft digging deeper for the future of it.

Call of Duty: The War Collection

Almost every new entry is built around a mechanic or theme, like Planet Robobot or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, and each one is just as charming and delightful as the ones before it.

Of course, if you’re looking for a few new ways to insult someone’s mother, the COD community is happy to oblige you on that front, too. It has spawned over two hundred games if you count both the 2D and 3D mainline games and subseries such as Mario Kart, Paper Mario, Mario Tennis, and Mario Party. Even individual characters have received their own spin-offs like Luigi’s Mansion, WarioWare, and Yoshi’s Crafted World. While the stories in each game are vastly game guide different, they usually feature similar characters, themes, and gameplay mechanics. Few series have redefined themselves as frequently as The Legend of Zelda while maintaining the magic that makes the series so unique – the seamless ability to immerse you into new worlds full of puzzles and possibilities. The Mario franchise is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with over 879 million units sold worldwide.

Technical and legal definitions exist for both, but for the purposes of VGG we have attempted to create our own clear guidelines for what qualifies as a “series and a “franchise” on the site. But I tried typing “Video game series” in google and but it shows a list of Video Game franchises..Are they the same? Hideo Kojima’s brainchild has melded genetics and nuclear weapons in an almost soap-opera story that has more twists and turns than even the best season of 24.

From fighting games to pinball, there aren’t many genres Kirby hasn’t explored yet. The Legend of Zelda is one of Nintendo’s longest-running and most successful series, and almost every entry has lived up to the legacy established with the first game. The original Legend of Zelda launched in 1986 and has been followed by 20 mainline games, multiple spin-offs including Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule, and a slew of remakes. While Mega Man might not be as popular today as he used to be, there was a time when you couldn’t go a year without seeing his face on the cover of a new game. Created by Capcom, the first game in the series launched on the NES in 1987 and introduced a non-linear way of playing games through its “level select” feature. For best-selling individual video games, see the list of best-selling video games.

IGN has a phrase that pertains to the minigame calling it “The Game Within The Game” but no phrase that describes the main game either. In my childhood, we called the games within a game “minigames” or “the puzzle games inside the game.” But I don’t know what to call the “container” game, which has the other (mini)games within it. Sony’s de facto mascot never quite reached the level of fame that a certain plumber has but, nonetheless, there’s a soft spot in many hearts of Crash and his antics. With a reissue of his games having just come out and reigniting the love for Crash Bandicoot, we’re hoping to see more from Crash soon. Kirby’s one of the more oddball characters to grace this list, but Nintendo has put him to work for a long time, sucking up enemies and stealing abilities all along.

With the flimsiest of backstories, it’s Nintendo’s ability to put Mario into near-infinite set of circumstances that has kept the plumber fresh for fans over all these years. Aside from the 11 mainline games, there are multiple spin-off series including Dragon Quest Monsters – where you catch and train monsters to battle for you – and Dragon Quest Builders, which often feels like a fun twist on the Minecraft formula. There is even a Monopoly-style game that commonly features Dragon Quest characters and elements.

Say what you want about Princess Peach, if we could only save a single princess in our entire lifetime, Zelda would be our choice. Link may not have the same recognizability as Mario, but his games, even though there are fewer of them overall, are always wonderfully constructed with a terrific balance between head-scratching puzzles and balls out fighting. Mario’s games may be crazy fun, but Zelda games make you feel like a goddamn hero. Every console maker needs a mascot and, back in the days when Sega was making consoles, Sonic was their go-to guy… errrr… hedgehog.