If you thought that the lack of a new Sonic game (or news one) has dented the popularity of SEGA’s long-running franchise, prepare to be pleasantly surprised. In SEGA Sammy’s latest financial call, the company revealed that the Sonic the Hedgehog series remains the best-selling of all of the publisher’s titles.
Taking into account full game sales for the last fiscal year (2021), Sonic legacy and spinoff titles have contributed to a franchise total of 4,400,000 units. That smashes the total SEGA’s second-strongest IP, Total War which topped out at 4 million units. Showcasing the strength of SEGA’s European/Western IP, Football Manager comes a close third with 3.8m games sold, while Atlus’ Persona series clocks in at around 3 million.
What’s interesting here is the list of titles SEGA has outlined as ‘Major Titles’ in its Investor Relations deck – suggesting that these particular Sonic the Hedgehog games contributed heavily towards the series’ 4.4m unit total. Of these, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo and Team Sonic Racing are the two most recent entries in the franchise, while Sonic Mania continues to sell well based on critical and fan acclaim.
Sonic Generations also makes the list. This was a game released in November 2011 (December in Japan) to celebrate Sonic’s 20th Anniversary. It seems fitting that it appears here, contributing to sales on the cusp of Sonic’s 30th Anniversary. Perhaps fans are revisiting notable games in the series to get ready for whatever SEGA has planned to announce for the big 3-0. Who knows? All we know is that Sonic’s still on top, baby!
Source: SEGA Sammy
Hmm, just maybe if Sonic didn’t account for most of the games Sega has released since leaving console-making two decades ago and they had continued making some of their mountain of OTHER beloved IPs instead of letting them collect dust, he wouldn’t necessarily be #1. Makes no sense to tout the sales of a franchise your company has had a myopic focus on for years and years.
Exactly how may people bought Nights compared to sonic? What about Crazi Taxi, Jet Set Radio and any other sega IP. Frankly those IPs haven’t done the numbers that sonic, total war and the rest on that list, let’s be honest had people bought a sega saturn and/or sega dreamcast insted of a ps1 or ps2 at that time these other IPs would do great maybe. No one outside of certain sega fans have bought anything from sega besides Sonic, and the rest on this list. Remember Skies of Arcadia?(If I’m speeling that right) They remade that game for the gamecube and didn’t do so well, and it was the same as billy hatcher.
No surprise there.