The fact about Sega's IP sales data a.k.a Sonic series is at <100M units not ~800M

[ggx2ac]

There has been some misinformation because people have been looking at SegaSammy's recent integrated report and overlooked what data Sega uses to count as sales for their IP.

So I will go through this step-by-step showing the data without context and then filling in the blanks so that you'll see that the specific example I use: The Sonic IP isn't as big in consoles as you think.

Sonic the Hedgehog series IP sales data:

*Including downloads of free-to-play titles

FY3/2018:
Approx. 800 million (Units/Downloads*)
(packaged and digital* total)

FY3/2017:
Approx. 360 million (units / downloads)
(packaged and digital total)

FY3/2016:
Approx. 350 million (units / downloads)
(packaged and digital total)

FY3/2015:
Approx. 335 million (units / downloads)
(packaged and digital total)

FY3/2014:
Approx. 150 million (units / downloads)
(packaged and digital total)

FY3/2013:
70 million units

FY3/2011:
70 million units

Note that the * was applied in only one FY as it was the only one that specified f2p downloads.

Now you must be wondering how did the numbers become so inflated?

Well, since FY3/2014. Sega measured the strength of their IP by throwing in sales data from all their products. Which is why they show you this legend:

And here it is being applied for Sonic in the latest integrated report:

Anything that didn't apply would have a blank image where the icons are.

So what does this mean?

Console games are not the only sales being counted for the Sonic IP, they're including sales data from toys, pachinko and pachislot machines, amusement machines and mobile games.

The number has inflated upto 10x what the console software sales are.

So what are the console sales?

Based on the following images from their integrated reports years ago, it should be 70+ million.

FY3/2013:

FY3/2011:

It's possible that the reason there is no difference in sales between those years is because either 1) They didn't update it. Or 2) They round their sales figures down by one significant figure which means you'll only see it change from 70 million to 80 million, nothing in-between and not until they actually reach the number.

Click here regarding Sonic series sales on his 20th anniversary.

Regardless, there has not been any further milestone announcements as that 80 million figure was still used in articles for the recent Sonic the Hedgehog movie starring Jim Carrey.

So at this point, it is a certainty that the Sonic the Hedgehog series has not achieved 100 million sales on consoles.

Update:

Here are the latest numbers that could be found courtesy of Celine:

Sonic series total sales was specified to be 78 million units in CESA White Paper 2015.
The number of games included in the counting wasn't disclosed however the games were for the following platforms: NGC, WiiU, GBA, NDS, 3DS, SS, DC, MD, GG, 32X, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360

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Just to clarify, CESA get the data from japanese publishers.
Sonic console games* total sales are definitely under 100 million units.

* Not counting digital re-release many years after launch.

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Breakdown of current sales:

Regarding the current 800 million sales, we could approximate where the sales are coming from:
- 80 million console sales/downloads
- 430 million downloads of f2p titles
- 290 million sales from toys, pachinko, pachislot machines and amusement machines

The above is an estimate and has a margin of error but the breakdown is to highlight where these sales are coming from.

Last words:

So when you are looking at the sales data of Sega's IP, be aware of what they're counting as sales for their franchises.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Very very useful thread. So many people are spreading misinformation because of the dumb Sega numbers. No, Sonic didn't sell 800M units of console games.

Problem is that now a lot of people already reported the "fake" numbers and it will take time for people to stop using them. At least I can link this thread now.

 

[Shizuka]

Cheeky Sega.

 

[PlayBee]

A while back I saw someone trying to argue Sonic was the second highest selling games series of all time because of its mobile downloads. If those count then Pokemon gets to count PoGo too lol

 

[Virtua Sanus]

No, 360 million is actually the amount of sold games. Keep in mind it counts handheld, mobile and the numerous re-releases whereas certain earlier numbers were only listing mainline titles. It also is probably including the SEGA crossover games with Sonic's name in the title. There have been a few recent SEGA Japan streams where they discussed the number 350 million games sold and this trailer mentions it at the start.

Anyways, the high number is meant as more of a discussion point of cultural relevance than them trying to brag or whatever. This report is more about their corporate culture as a whole. In March we will see more direct sales numbers again.

 

[ckareset]

Wikipedia says 100m so how big is the misconception lol. Unless you changed it. That would cool.

 

[ggx2ac]

No, 360 million is actually the amount of sold games.

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Could you please explain to me what games sold 300 million units in the last 5 years and why hasn't Sega bragged about selling 3 times as many games as GTA V?

 

[ggx2ac]

Wikipedia says 100m so how big is the misconception lol. Unless you changed it. That would cool.

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I've been told that Wikipedia post combined the sales of the Sonic games with the Mario and Sonic at the Olympics games:

The Sonic series had sold over 80 million units by June 22, 2011.[39] In addition, Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games sold 3.28 million copies and Sonic Generations sold 1.85 million units as of March 2012, Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed sold 1.36 million units as of March 2013, Sonic Lost World sold 710,000 units as of March 2014, and Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric & Shattered Crystal sold 620,000 units as of March 2015.[40][41][42][43] The iOS games Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing (released June 23, 2011) and Sonic Jump (2012) sold over 16.7 million and 8.8 million paid downloads, respectively, as of 2013.[44] Sonic Mania (2017) sold over 1 million units as of March 2018.[45]

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But you can see from one of the images in the OP, that Sega lists Mario & Sonic as a separate IP.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

No, 360 million is actually the amount of sold games. Keep in mind it counts handheld, mobile and the numerous re-releases whereas certain earlier numbers were only listing mainline titles. It also is probably including the SEGA crossover games with Sonic's name in the title. There have been a few recent SEGA Japan streams where they discussed the number 350 million games sold and this trailer mentions it at the start.

Anyways, the high number is meant as more of a discussion point of cultural relevance than them trying to brag or whatever. This report is more about their corporate culture as a whole. In March we will see more direct sales numbers again.

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Alright, I'll bite. What were the titles responsible for the increase of 165 million units during fiscal year 2015?

 

[Virtua Sanus]

Could you please explain to me what games sold 300 million units in the last 5 years and why hasn't Sega bragged about selling 3 times as many games as GTA V?

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Alright, I'll bite. What were the titles responsible for the increase of 165 million units during fiscal year 2015?

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They only just recently started counting spinoffs, crossovers (Racing Transformed, Mario & Sonic, etc) and re-releases of games (many of which have sold millions of units each) as part of Sonic number's in total. This could even mean some forced stuff like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and SEGA Superstars Tennis as part of the total. They also had weird arbitrary rules in the past for those numbers, like for example Sonic Colors was not listed as a mainline game until after Sonic Generations came out.

If you think these numbers are confusing you should see how poorly handled they listed games sold in the early 90s or how they outright forgot to record numbers of certain hardware models.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

Sonic also can't be selling that much on mobile recently to boost numbers so much. It's Sega adding a bunch of stuff with a mindset of "this technically counts as Sonic right?"

Sonic mobile titles in revenue last month:
https://sensortower.com/ios/publisher/sega/281966698

Other japanese Sega titles in revenue last month:
https://sensortower.com/android/publisher/sega-corporation/SEGA+CORPORATION

Puyo Puyo alone made much more.

 

[ggx2ac]

They only just recently started counting spinoffs, crossovers (Racing Transformed, Mario & Sonic, etc) and re-releases of games (many of which have sold millions of units each) as part of Sonic number's in total. This could even mean some forced stuff like Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and SEGA Superstars Tennis as part of the total. They also had weird arbitrary rules in the past for those numbers, like for example Sonic Colors was not listed as a mainline game until after Sonic Generations came out.

If you think these numbers are confusing you should see how poorly handled they listed games sold in the early 90s or how they outright forgot to record numbers of certain hardware models.

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The numbers are not confusing. You are obfuscating the facts.

I pointed out how they counted sales from FY3/2014 and it involved counting everything that isn't just a video game, you can even look at it yourself.

Sega didn't go from 70 million, to 150 million, to 335 million, to 350 million and then end at 360 million by counting spin-offs, retro collections and old data.

It makes no sense why they would slowly add to that number each year and not even specify where it's coming from other than the things I mentioned which are not console games that they have specified since FY3/2014.

 

[Virtua Sanus]

Sonic also can't be selling that much on mobile recently to boost numbers so much. It's Sega adding a bunch of stuff with a mindset of "this technically counts as Sonic right?"

Sonic mobile titles in revenue last month:
https://sensortower.com/ios/publisher/sega/281966698

Other japanese Sega titles in revenue last month:
https://sensortower.com/android/publisher/sega-corporation/SEGA+CORPORATION

Puyo Puyo alone made much more.

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Yeah, I think SEGA started to bundle spinoffs and crossover numbers together because Sonic games in general have been seeing a huge downturn in sales in recent years, even with Sonic Mania being the raging success it is. The series is kind of in a weird state like Mega Man where it has these great numbers but mostly only due to sheer amount of releases. I am fully expecting Team Sonic Racing to continue the tradition and only really chart in one or two regions for a super short period of time.

The numbers are not confusing. You are obfuscating the facts.

I pointed out how they counted sales from FY3/2014 and it involved counting everything that isn't just a video game, you can even look at it yourself.

Sega didn't go from 70 million, to 150 million, to 335 million, to 350 million and then end at 360 million by counting spin-offs, retro collections and old data.

It makes no sense why they would slowly add to that number each year and not even specify where it's coming from other than the things I mentioned which are not console games that they have specified since FY3/2014.

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They are changing their rules for what is counted as a game in the Sonic IP. They've had weird rules in the past, so these more recent totals seem more accurate even if it sounds like they are adding games that technically should not count like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Mario & Sonic.

As I mentioned before, this is more of a discussion piece on Sonic's cultural significance and in March will see more direct sales numbers.

Honestly I am most annoyed by how they listed the Phantasy Star series on their chart. They titled it as if the franchise total was around five million, but only meant the online accounts people made for Phantasy Star Online 2.

 

[ggx2ac]

They are changing their rules for what is counted as a game in the Sonic IP. They've had weird rules in the past, so these more recent totals seem more accurate even if it sounds like they are adding games that technically should not count like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed and Mario & Sonic.

As I mentioned before, this is more of a discussion piece on Sonic's cultural significance and in March will see more direct sales numbers.

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Do you understand what you are saying here?

You said:

No, 360 million is actually the amount of sold games.

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And you claim that it comes from spin-offs, retro collections and re-releases.

Can you give a breakdown of where that 290 million sales actually comes from? And I mean putting numbers to each of these spin-offs, retro collections and re-releases.

You can estimate it, I just want to see what titles suddenly contributed to 290 million sales from FY3/2014 to FY3/2017 as you claim.

 

[FreddeGredde]

You can estimate it, I just want to see what titles suddenly contributed to 290 million sales from FY3/2014 to FY3/2017 as you claim.

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He probably means that they started adding rereleases and spin-offs from the entire history of Sonic (virtual console sales from the Wii era etc), and not just sales between 2014-17. They just didn't place them at the years they actually happened.

Numbers still won't add up though.

 

[ggx2ac]

He probably means that they started adding rereleases and spin-offs from the entire history of Sonic (virtual console sales from the Wii era etc), and not just sales between 2014-17. They just didn't place them at the years they actually happened.

Numbers still won't add up though.

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Yes, that's what I meant in the end. If they were adding spin-offs and other releases regardless of when it released, there is no way it will add up to 290 million sales which is over 4 times the 70 million sales from the Sonic series mentioned in their annual reports from FY3/2010.

 

[Servbot24]

Who on earth believed Sonic of all things sold 800 million. Lol.

 

[ggx2ac]

Who on earth believed Sonic of all things sold 800 million. Lol.

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I made this thread based on what was happening in the following thread:

https://www.resetera.com/threads/se...ase-its-games-simultaneously-worldwide.74576/

 

[Virtua Sanus]

And you claim that it comes from spin-offs, retro collections and re-releases.

Can you give a breakdown of where that 290 million sales actually comes from? And I mean putting numbers to each of these spin-offs, retro collections and re-releases.

You can estimate it, I just want to see what titles suddenly contributed to 290 million sales from FY3/2014 to FY3/2017 as you claim.

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There is not too much I can do. The most significant addition is download games which sadly do not have any numbers released and could be outrageously high on any number of platforms (I heard those terrible Xbox Live Arcade Sonic ports made a load of cash, but again no numbers).

Mario & Sonic now being listed as part of the Sonic IP in total adds at least about 21 million on it's own (13 million for the first, 6 for the second, 4 for London, etc). SEGA Superstars Tennis (if counted) and the All-Stars Racing titles all easily hit a million units sold by themselves and Racing Transformed hit 3 million mostly due to PC sales. This is obviously nowhere close to the total, but free downloads being added to that total would send it up way higher as Sonic Dash 1 alone hit 200 million downloads two years ago.

Again, just like with Mega Man it is mostly due to sheer amount of games moreso than individual games selling incredibly high. A lot of it starts to make sense when you see how weirdly they have listed some games in the past (as I mentioned, they only started counting Sonic Colors as a mainline game years after it launched).

I apologize if this is not sufficient enough for you, but I cannot imagine they would just casually start saying 'over 350 games sold' without knowing for sure. In the absolute worst case scenario I could perhaps see them counting any sales in games like Sonic Dash as a confirmed purchase of the user for that game, but I could only see that spiking up sales much higher than just 360 million.

 

[Ghost_Messiah]

For what's it worth, I do think Virtua Sanus is mostly correct and the 360 million sales number is going to be accurate. Sega might be using crazy retcon gymnastics to get there, but I can't see the PR of a major corporation announcing 360 million in actual updated and lifetime video game sales via physical and digital in their Sonic Forces promo and not be telling the truth with that number.

The 800 million number is even more egregious - but again they are technically still telling the truth in that report with that legend and breakdown, even it's super misleading.

 

[McScroggz]

There is not too much I can do. The most significant addition is download games which sadly do not have any numbers released and could be outrageously high on any number of platforms (I heard those terrible Xbox Live Arcade Sonic ports made a load of cash, but again no numbers).

Mario & Sonic now being listed as part of the Sonic IP in total adds at least about 21 million on it's own (13 million for the first, 6 for the second, 4 for London, etc). SEGA Superstars Tennis (if counted) and the All-Stars Racing titles all easily hit a million units sold by themselves and Racing Transformed hit 3 million mostly due to PC sales. This is obviously nowhere close to the total, but free downloads being added to that total would send it up way higher as Sonic Dash 1 alone hit 200 million downloads two years ago.

Again, just like with Mega Man it is mostly due to sheer amount of games moreso than individual games selling incredibly high. A lot of it starts to make sense when you see how weirdly they have listed some games in the past (as I mentioned, they only started counting Sonic Colors as a mainline game years after it launched).

I apologize if this is not sufficient enough for you, but I cannot imagine they would just casually start saying 'over 350 games sold' without knowing for sure. In the absolute worst case scenario I could perhaps see them counting any sales in games like Sonic Dash as a confirmed purchase of the user for that game, but I could only see that spiking up sales much higher than just 360 million.

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You are saying you can't look at the great info in the OP, understand how SEGA is playing around with the numbers in order to inflate the Sonic IP and figure out that 350 million games is a number that does not make sense.

I mean think about every game you've mentioned, even if all of the games that fit your description averaged 10 million, which obviously is an absurdly generous number, it still falls short of 350.

SEGA is making up numbers. Not in a literal sense. But when we talk about games sold, even taking into account games bundled with console, it's fair to assume the OP is probably right with a 70-80 million units sold or around 100~ with the sonic/Mario games.

350 is hilarious unless we are just extremely wrong. I don't think we are.

 

[Aaron]

I mean... alright, seems like dumb corporate spin.

As long as they know how well Mania did and how underwhelming Forces was, they should be able to recalibrate the strategy for the series.

 

[Deleted member 42686]

I thank you for that. Once I read that thread about Sega I keep wondering how the hell Sonic gets so many sales if Sonic is really(and say really) nowhere good as it was in the old days?

Sure we get Mania...but what about Forces? Or Boom? Or Lost World? No way I would believe Sonic is at that margin with mediocre games like that.

 

[Notaskwid]

Can't wait for them to add every single movie ticket sold to the Jim Carrey movie to that number.

 

[ggx2ac]

This is obviously nowhere close to the total, but free downloads being added to that total would send it up way higher as Sonic Dash 1 alone hit 200 million downloads two years ago.

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To which Sega added f2p titles in FY3/2018 which is why 430 million units got added to the total.

I apologize if this is not sufficient enough for you, but I cannot imagine they would just casually start saying 'over 350 games sold' without knowing for sure.

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So you're referring to that video which said this?

Look carefully at the annual report for FY3/2016:

They're not lying about the number. The Sonic series did sell 350 million units. But they're omitting what the sales are from, and those sales are found in the annual report. That's why 350 million sales coming from video games alone is outlandishly wrong.

Edit:

Just to add since you said this twice now

There have been a few recent SEGA Japan streams where they discussed the number 350 million games sold and this trailer mentions it at the start.

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You kept saying "350 million games" but that fansub doesn't even say 350 million games, it says "350 million copies", so that doesn't even match up with what you're saying and is actually matching up with what the report is saying.

 

[~Fake]

We at least have Sonic Force numbers? Already showed or not?

 

[Deleted member 2793]

There's just no way that 350M is actual Sonic sales and they're spinning a lot to get to that. Not even VGSales gets close to that (and they add stuff like Mario & Sonic and Sonic Dash as units sold): http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Sonic

We at least have Sonic Force numbers? Already showed or not?

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No. They talked a lot about Mania, highlighting the million sales and good critical reception. Pretty much ignored Forces, so I think they're aware reception was awful The numbers we have aren't even good, so I think it sold above 1M and less than 2M, which is kinda embarrassing to Sonic Team in comparison to a smaller and more budget game like Mania.

 

[Celine]

Sonic series total sales was specified to be 78 million units in CESA White Paper 2015.
The number of games included in the counting wasn't disclosed however the games were for the following platforms: NGC, WiiU, GBA, NDS, 3DS, SS, DC, MD, GG, 32X, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360

The only relevant platform it misses is Master System (Neo Geo Pocket sold so low that Sonic Pocket Adventure sales doesn't really matter much).

That Sonic total sales on console couldn't be over 100 million, it is obvious when you think the very first Sonic is still by far the best selling game in the franchise with 15 million units.
The rest of the bunch sold much lower.
It would be even more obvious when you look at other Sonic games shipment LTD.

 

[alphacat]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?

i mean besides mario, what are other mascot/platforming series are more popular?

 

[Xyer]

Yakuza deserves to be at 100 million instead.

5 million is criminal.

 

[Ryuichi Naruhodo]

Very nice and detailed explanation

 

[Deleted member 2793]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?

i mean besides mario, what are other mascot/platforming series are more popular?

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It's good and there are no other platformers/mascot with as many sales besides Mario.

Sonic's main problem is that recent titles are selling closer to Kirby than Mario (with Kirby managing to beat it sometimes).

 

[Celine]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?

i mean besides mario, what are other mascot/platforming series are more popular?

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Definitely very good total.
Taking Nintendo away for a moment, there wouldn't be many other japanese game franchises that had sold more (Final Fantasy, Winning Eleven, Resident Evil, Gran Turismo).
The problem for the Sonic series is that its relevance is diminished in these days.

Sonic's main problem is that recent titles are selling closer to Kirby than Mario (with Kirby managing to beat it sometimes).

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In the last 5 or so years Kirby definitely performed better than Sonic.

 

[CaviarMeths]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?

i mean besides mario, what are other mascot/platforming series are more popular?

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Nothing. Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Mega Man would be next down the list and I think all of those have sales in the 30-40m range.

 

[Shadoken]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?
i mean besides mario, what are other mascot/platforming series are more popular?

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There only very few franchises that are higher Mario,Pokemon,COD..etc.

The bad news is a majority of that 80m isn't from this Decade.

 

[SinCityAssassin]

isn't 80 million still pretty good?

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The argument isn't "The true range is bad or mediocre", it's "In no goddamn way did Sonic sell over 800 million units"

 

[Celine]

Nothing. Donkey Kong, Kirby, and Mega Man would be next down the list and I think all of those have sales in the 30-40m range.

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Donkey Kong: 67.25M (sum of Nintendo million seller with "kong" in the title)
Kirby: 36.68M (sum of Nintendo million seller with "kirby" in the title)
Mega Man: 32M (exact LTD from Capcom website)

 

[CaviarMeths]

Donkey Kong: 67.25M (sum of Nintendo million seller with "kong" in the title)
Kirby: 36.68M (sum of Nintendo million seller with "kirby" in the title)
Mega Man: 32M (exact LTD from Capcom website)

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Yeah, I did a really rough estimate for Donkey Kong excluding the non-platformers. Just the Country/Land series + DK64, basically.

 

[Deleted member 2793]

In the last 5 or so years Kirby definitely performed better than Sonic.

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Yep. Multiplat Forces must be at what, a bit over 1M? Star Allies as an exclusive can be above 2M this Christmas and with the game costing 60$ (x 40$ for Forces).

 

[KtSlime]

It's good and there are no other platformers/mascot with as many sales besides Mario.

Sonic's main problem is that recent titles are selling closer to Kirby than Mario (with Kirby managing to beat it sometimes).

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Kirby has a secret trick, its games have better than Sonic games.

 

[ggx2ac]

I made a typo, it was supposed to be FY3/2011, not FY3/2010 where this image came from, I fixed the relevant year for it in the explanation.

 

[alphacat]

Kirby has a secret trick, its games have better than Sonic games.

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lol kirby has also been pretty inconsistent in the past 10 years (in terms of quality, not sales)

but the sonic lows are way worse, obviously

 

[Joeyro]

i thought it was obvious that it included downloads of the mobile game, wouldn't 800M make Sonic the most selling franchise by far if it was actual sales?

 

[Parshias]

i thought it was obvious that it included downloads of the mobile game, wouldn't 800M make Sonic the most selling franchise by far if it was actual sales?

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Wikipedia puts the Mario franchise (so all the main games and the spin-offs like Mario Kart) just shy of 570 million units sold, so that should have been a sign the numbers were flubbed, unless people actually believed Sonic rocketed past Mario to be the biggest gaming franchise by a wide margin.

Though if we were to use Sega's metrics of throwing just about anything with the IP on it into a big bucket, Pokemon should be the largest gaming franchise out there considering the regular games and spin-offs (per wikipedia) are sitting at 300 million, plus 800 million Pokemon Go downloads, (reported in May, I couldn't find anything later on a quick google) plus whatever else for their other mobile games, plus some absolutely absurd number for merchandise. (I'm pretty sure Pokemon makes more money in merchandise sales than Star Wars does, so let that give you an idea of how big the sales must be)

 

[Dooble]

What caused the spike between 2014 and 2015 of 200 million? I know Sonic Dash did bump up the number around 2013, for sure.

 

[ggx2ac]

What caused the spike between 2014 and 2015 of 200 million? I know Sonic Dash did bump up the number around 2013, for sure.

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Sonic Dash is a f2p game and its downloads wouldn't have been counted until FY3/2018. Otherwise, you're counting ~600 million downloads (instead of ~400 million) of f2p games which isn't correct seeing as how later sonic f2p games declined in downloads.

Think, the sales come from:

See the one that says Toys, etc?
Now what happened to Sonic in late 2014?
Sega invested in the kids market with this:

Sonic Boom had its own TV show and a toy line from Tomy
Now, do you see where the sales would have come from for FY3/2015?

 

[Deleted member 2793]

What caused the spike between 2014 and 2015 of 200 million? I know Sonic Dash did bump up the number around 2013, for sure.

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OP explains. They just changed the way of counting "total sales" from game sales to everything:

Well, since FY3/2014. Sega measured the strength of their IP by throwing in sales data from all their products. Which is why they show you this legend:

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Console games are not the only sales being counted for the Sonic IP, they're including sales data from toys, pachinko and pachislot machines, amusement machines and mobile games.

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Basically, the last number we got from the actual game sales from the Sonic IP is that 70M in FY 2013. The total sales numbers is 70M + whatever it sold after that (which didn't even sell that much by what we know).

 

[Celine]

Wikipedia puts the Mario franchise (so all the main games and the spin-offs like Mario Kart) just shy of 570 million units sold, so that should have been a sign the numbers were flubbed, unless people actually believed Sonic rocketed past Mario to be the biggest gaming franchise by a wide margin.

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Mario: 565.02M (sum of Nintendo million seller with "Mario" in the title)

Of course the Mario universe spawned (or was spawned in the case of Donkey Kong) other games whose title and protagonist isn't Mario but one of his fellows (Peach, Luigi, Toad, Yoshi, Wario, Donkey Kong all had games that were million sellers).

 

[ggx2ac]

I am now removing this article from the OP because it is debunked: https://www.videogamer.com/news/sonic_the_hedgehog_celebrates_his_20th_birthday

In it, the author claims that the Sonic series is at 80 million units on its 20th anniversary in 2011 with no sources used and there are no other sites that make mention of that sales figure during that time meaning it is very unlikely to be PR from Sega. The issue is that this article is used in Wikipedia for Sonic the Hedgehog.

Here's Sega actually stating the sales numbers to be 70 million for Sonic on his 20th anniversary, this is from the CSR report for FY3/2011:

 

[Aki-at]

Even the 70 million is sketchy since back then Sega opted to exclude the Mario & Sonic sales from the total.

And we've got people claiming Sonic the Hedgehog 1 sold over 20 million between it's original release and mobile release.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mFs2v7XM4o

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/30705/Sonic-rings-mobile-success

I do think the actual sales of the series is way under 800 million but I think the series sales would have to be certainly above 70 - 80 million as well. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 adds another 10 million to the figure at least, so between 2 titles the series is already sitting at 30 million. You add the multitude of spinoffs that all did over 1 million (Sonic Spinball, Sonic Riders, Shadow the Hedgehog) and other mainline entries that did over 2 million (Sonic Adventure, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Colours etc) I think it's possible the series is above the 100 million sales mark.