Sega's Sonic The Hedgehog Series Has Shifted 800 Million Games To Date

And only a few of the games are decent. For me, the best games were the ones from the dream cast Era and before that

Then the ones on Gameboy advance and DS. Sonic does so much better when they stick to 2D imo.

As for stuff I own, I got the sonic collection on steam so I have all the old school ones. Sonic 3 and knuckles (2 games, I know) is my fav.

Still adore Sonic to this day, I can't imagine gaming without him.

800,000,000 hedgehogs glitched in the wall, take one, set it free, 799,999,999 hedgehogs glitched in the wall.

"Do you own any Sonic games?"

Actually 1, but from Mario & Sonic at Sochi 2014 Wii U.
I rarely play that game due to Boring presentation of Winter Sports.

Super fast

That's a lot of garbage for the landfill. I wonder what the volume of 800 million pieces of packaging is.

Edit: I’m not sure people are understanding that I’m calling Sonic garbage.

total editions means games in X series? how TF does SMT has 30 editions?

pretty sure i'm reading that wrong tbh

@justin233 well to be fair they include digital sales, which probably account for most of the number.

700+ million come from mobile game downloads.

In 1993, I was playing Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on my Genesis, reading monthly issues of the fantastic Sonic the Hedgehog comic book, and watching the excellent weekend Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon which was based on the comic book. That will always be the year of Sonic for me.

I’ve finally learned my lesson with 3D Sonic. Every time a new one releases I buy it in the hopes I’ll like it in spite of the reviews and I’m always disappointed. I managed to not buy Forces and I know I’m better for it. Mania, on the other hand, was excellent.

@thesilverbrick Forces was so sad. The game looked like it had potential but it feels like it got rushed before they could actually do anything.

So you ended up with characters you don't care about, levels they are just kinda thrown together and all and all, yet another boring 3D sonic game.

I haven't played a Main Sonic Game since Sonic Colors.
My most favorite Sonic Games are: Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic CD, Sonic Adventures, Sonic Adventures 2, Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Colors, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic & Sega All Star Racing and it's Sequel
Sonic CD is mostly my Childhood Sonic game.

I've been wanting to get Generations, But I've been too busy with other games. That I've never had the time to get it.
edit: I'm sure there are more Sonic games that i have played years ago. mostly played main sonic games then spinoffs

It’s sad to see that games like Phantasy Star, SMT and Persona have lifetime sales through all franchises so low. I mean one Pokémon game has sold more than an entirety of SMT.

I buy a fair amount of used games. If there's one franchise where its hard to find games in very good condition, it's Sonic. Nearly every Sonic game I've tried has arrived looking shabby. What's up peeps, why u no look after your Sonic games?

So many bad games...

Too bad there are many of bad quality

"while also giving us a good LUCK at sales figures for its top franchises."

Typo?

Also, the headline is a bit wrong: Sega talks about Units, not games. Strangely Sega did not only count Games, but toys into these numbers (the last pillar in the graph). I'm pretty sure a good number is plushies and stuff.

@justin233 It counts smart device downloads and toys too, so less than you'd expect.

Wow welcome to hipsterville.
“The Sonic the Hedgehog series has sold 800,000,000 units.”
“I didn’t buy any. Those games are beneath me.”
I’m surprised no one on here has thrown out any super obscure games they play instead, along with that information, to let us know how hip they truly are.

These sales numbers seem shockingly low to me for how long some of these series have been around and with how many editions they have made.

And only Sonic 1, 2, 3/Sonic & Knuckles and Mania were objectively the only great games in the series. The 3D era games are largely only loved by 1992+ borns, who only like them because of childhood nostalgia. There have been a few okay-good ones, like Adventure 2, Colors and Generations, but they're nothing compared to 3D Marios.

800M sales. And at least 50M for good games.

But whoa, EO is even a less loved series than I thought. So many entries and it's sold far less than even other unloved series, and less than everything that's released past the Genesis/MegaDrive era. It's one of the youngest series here but even a few younger than it have outsold it, and those games had less entries.

Also, what's with the teddy bear icon on these games? SMT is sold in cuddly children's toys? Is Teddy involved?

@Trickbaby14 Who actually bought Sonic when Ganbare Goemon 2: Kiteretsu Shogun Magginesu was available and was infinitely better? Pfft, casuals.

Did I fix it for you?

This is inaccurate, you'll notice that those 800 million sales are from all Sonic products (including merchandise, amusement devices, etc.) if you look closely at the report. In reality the Sonic titles have sold around 80 million. I believe the last official game sales numbers from SEGA were in the 70 million range some years ago (not including f2p).

Sonic Forces wasn't ruined by it's mediocre 3D stages (They're mediocre, not bad level designs) It was the bad 2D physics for both Modern Sonic and Classic Sonic and the awful level designs for the 2D parts that ruined it for me.

Etrian Odyssey is so niche I can't believe they are still making entries, but I'm really glad that they are.

It just can't compete in a market where people prefer flashy, instant gratification, easy progression RPGs.

@Anti-Matter I bought Soochi b/c it was $17 at Target bundled with the blue Wiimote Plus. Played the game once, used the Wiimote a lot so it was worth it.

@ACK Welcome to the new NL, where it's all wrong all the time, and Amazon ads. 😛

Have they shifted Sonic Racing to 2019 yet?

@Trickbaby14 Sonic & Garfield?

@NEStalgia now that’s more like it!

Just on the 360 I have around 10 Sonic games and that's just a fraction, so yeah, I believe this.

Sega sure has made a lot of mistakes with it's IP, but many developers could learn a thing or too from Sega on making their back catalogue available wherever possible.

I definitely own quite a few sonic games including the recent Sega Ages release on the Switch and sonic forces on PS4

@ACK yeah but reporting 80 instead of 800 million sales wouldn't get dem clicks so get out of here with your facts

@yuwarite that's one heck of an opinion. I'd rather play Sonic Colours over Super Mario Galaxy and 3D World.

I've bought many, Sonic is the reason I got into gaming. A by chance got Sonic Adv 2 on the GBA and from there on it was a seemingly endless journey to collect every single game. Though I did not succeed, I am proud of my collection. I absolutely love that with the GB Player I can play a total of 12 Sonics not counting each title in the compilations. In fact most of my GameCube library is just Sonic.

Gosh I could go for some hang castle right about now. But I am anti->2010 Sonic, I really hate the boost/awkwardly-change-to-2d-sections gameplay, one game was enough.

A rubbish franchise with so, so little going for it. If there was any justice, Sonic ought to be laying dormant and forgotten. Sega's obsession with the brand is why I perceive them as the loser that they are in the industry, which is a shame, because they occasionally come out with some brilliant games, and have some pretty awesome IP, but they continue to lavish Sonic with attention, because for better and for worse, it is their golden goose, however, I can't fathom why people still support such a poor quality franchise when so many others have outclassed it and demonstrated consistently high quality when Sonic has been mostly mediocre if it not outright bad.

While Mario has ambitiously leaped from gameplay style to gameplay style and evolved over the years, Sonic feels pretty much the same as it always has, and the fact that Mania was so widely praised for leaving Sonic stuck in the past is quite frankly, sad and pathetic, and epitomises the difference between the two iconic brands.

Some 25 years ago, Epic Games (now known for Unreal, its engine, and Fortnite) released a curious little gem called Jazz Jackrabbit and also a sequel a few years later before being unceremoniously retired.

Based on the old fable, The Tortoise and the Hare, Jazz Jackrabbit was quite similar to Sonic in that Jazz's novelty was that he travelled really fast, however, the cheap, abrupt deaths that characterise the Sonic series were nowhere to be seen thanks to its far superior design. I'm so disappointed that Epic hadn't persisted with it, as Jazz could very easily have outperformed Sonic sales-wise (quality-wise, they have outclassed Sonic, no question about it). If there was any justice at all, Jazz Jackrabbit ought to be in Sonic's place as a legendary icon in video gaming, and yet, the vastly inferior IP reigns supreme. If only Epic knew what they had and branched it out to other platforms (I suppose it's never too late).

I have an eccentric friend who is obsessed with Sonic and Sega and I tell him that his fanaticism is irrational and absolutely delusional. I have given Sonic far, far more chances than it deserves. I had even considered grabbing Forces, however, the Japanese demo was handled in such a monumentally stupid way that I refused to buy it due to how idiotic it was by design (the demo only lets you play ONE MINUTE from the first level of the game, and that one minute is very frequently interrupted with tutorial screens).

Psst, Epic. Bring back Jazz.

@IBeAGamer You'd play Colours over Galaxy? Galaxy is considered one of, if not the best game of the 7th generation, but okay.

And you may not have realised this, but the 3D World games are intentionally designed to be a mix of old school 2D Mario meets 3D, that's why Mario has a digital 8-way run in those games. As a result, I don't hold them to the same regards of other 3D Marios, because Nintendo were intentionally trying to do something different with them. That said, I found 3D World extremely fun in multiplayer and overall felt it was a very intelligently designed game, with tight level design that made excellent use of the game's power-ups.

3D Sonic games on the other hand... Well, the 2D portions of those games control horribly, and no where near as tight as the original 2D games. And the 3D portions essentially all play like those automated linear temple runner style games on mobile phones. 3D Sonics aren't designed for non linear gameplay and free-roaming, like 3D Mario games are; the times they've attempted to copy Mario's style has resulted in terrible games like Sonic Lost World.

It’s actually hard to believe that sonic and Mario were massive rivals back in the day! Thank god for the Nintendo seal of approval

@yuwarite Funny that you bring up Sonic Lost World even though it was more of a spiritual successor to Sonic Xtreme but kk.

I tried looking for a "Sonic army" gif, and look what I found.

I... don't know what I should think about this.

Sega's including things like merchandise and pachislots to increase the numbers here. Last year they said Sonic sold 360 million but going back to 2011 it only sold 70 million. No way did they sell 730 million Sonic games between 2011 and 2018, or more than double the sales figure from last year.

Since the modern Sonic games are based on reaction time and trial and error, why can't Sega make a Sonic rhythm game spin-off?

@Aozz101x
Both of equal importance and quality.
Thank you for this treasure.

The first Sonic the Hedgehog on the Genesis was a marvel to look at, with awesome music and gameplay for its time. Sonic 2, Sonic 3 (and Knuckles), and Sonic CD (albeit with the terrible decision to replace the Japanese soundtrack with Spencer Nielsen's) all added new wrinkles to the formula and kept the franchise's momentum going. But with each subsequent iteration (especially the 3D Sonic games beginning with the Dreamcast), that magic waned. And yet for years and years after they left making consoles Sega seemed myopic in their determination to keep churning out more (often mediocre) Sonic games when fans were crying for revivals of their mountain of other iconic IPs. It made longtime Sega fans like myself actually begin to despise Sonic; the way he was being used not only was preventing us from ever seeing so many great franchises again, but also mirrored Sega's own precipitous fall from once being perhaps the most prolific AAA developer in the entire industry.

Along with the remake of Shenmue I-II for the PS4 and the much-awaited next TRUE Valkyria Chronicles title in VC 4, recent announcements by Sega appear to hint that they may at last be seeing the light and realizing that giving the fans what they want (instead of trying to hold onto the glory days of a mascot whose collective body of work stopped warranting "face of the company" treatment a LONG time ago) is the right call. Given enough time and a project with enough genuine passion, I'm sure that Sonic can someday make a great return...but he really needs a good, long rest for now. There are simply WAY too many great Sega IPs that need revisiting for a generation (or two by now) who never got to experience them the first time around. And when all is said and done, just maybe Sega themselves will realize that was all it took to get their groove back, not a mascot whose "coolness" evaporated back in the early 2000s.

Dang, 800 million?! Now imagine how much higher those numbers would be if all of them would’ve been good Sonic games.