"Brand new analysis" from sales tracking firm GfK has lifted the lid on the UK's top 30 best-selling pieces of gaming software since 1995 – and it should come as no real shock to learn that Mario ranks very highly indeed.
The new chart has been ranked in order of revenue generated, and while FIFA and Call of Duty take the top two places, everyone's favourite Italian plumber is in third place. The titles that contributed most to this success were Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8, and New Super Mario Bros.
Elsewhere, the Pokémon series is at number 8 in the chart, while Zelda is all the way down in 29th position. Wii Fit, however, ranks 13th – impressive when you consider that it has only seen three individual releases in its lifetime. Mario's one-time rival Sonic is at number 11.
In total, the top 30 titles have generated over £26bn in the last 27 years.
Here's the full chart, as complied by GfK:
No. | Top-selling game by brand | Titles (1995-) | Series start |
---|---|---|---|
1 | FIFA | 50 | 1993 |
2 | Call of Duty | 32 | 2003 |
3 | Mario | 109 | 1987 |
4 | Grand Theft Auto | 21 | 1997 |
5 | Lego | 77 | 1997 |
6 | Star Wars | 113 | 1983 |
7 | The Sims | 106 | 2000 |
8 | Pokémon | 93 | 1999 |
9 | Assassin's Creed | 27 | 2007 |
10 | Need For Speed | 30 | 1994 |
11 | Sonic | 55 | 1991 |
12 | WWF / WWE / Wrestlemania | 61 | 1987 |
13 | Marvel | 106 | 1982 |
14 | Wii Fit | 3 | 2008 |
15 | Tom Claney | 72 | 1997 |
16 | Guitar / DJ Hero | 18 | 2006 |
17 | Pro Evolution Soccer | 22 | 2001 |
18 | Skylanders | 6 | 2011 |
19 | Battlefield | 30 | 2002 |
20 | Tomb Raider | 31 | 1996 |
21 | Halo | 15 | 2001 |
22 | DC | 43 | 1986 |
23 | Formula One | 66 | 1992 |
24 | Gran Turismo | 13 | 1998 |
25 | Forza | 13 | 2005 |
26 | Harry Potter | 17 | 2001 |
27 | Crash Bandicoot | 22 | 1996 |
28 | The Olympic Games | 20 | 1992 |
29 | Zelda |
35 |
1987 |
30 | PGA Tour Golf | 46 | 1990 |
GfK’s Senior Client Insight Director for Gaming, Dorian Bloch, had this to say about the data:
This is a fascinating list and anyone who has been following the development of the videogame industry as I have will no doubt show little surprise at the sheer value, size, and breadth of this market. What was once seen as a niche sector is now an unquestionably mainstream market generating billions in revenue annually. The characters in these games have become much-loved heroes, from Lara Croft to Luigi and Mario, to Sonic the Hedgehog. Terms used in the franchises have entered our vocabulary, and there are more than a few gamers who could navigate their way around the outskirts of San Francisco from their time at the wheel of a stolen car in GTA.
[source gfk.com]
Comments 44
Please don’t judge all British people by this 😅 some of us know that FIFA and COD are overrated
A lot of it just comes down to what Is advertised the most, and what you can buy everywhere.
I'm shocked, flabbergasted even. It's not as if the British public has a history of making stupid decisions!
@Balladeer I wouldn't be surprised to see FIFA dominate all over Europe. Possibly COD as well. FIFA and COD are very much social games but they are seen as cool and therefore sell very very well. I don't see much wrong with their popularity.
@Mattock1987 I wouldn't call buying a FIFA or COD game a stupid decision but everyone is allowed their own opinion.
Let's see if this will still be the case when EA Sports Football Club comes around.
For me, Dance Dance Revolution is my number 1 game, beyond all those games above.
@Balladeer Stupid rude comment!!
Wii Fit being number 14 in the list with just 3 entries into the series really stands out compared to the rest of the list. Lightning in a bottle on the Wii.
Sad to see something like Skylanders above titles like Halo & Zelda, but then I suppose all the toys to life style games rely heavily on the extra sales for invidual figures.
I love Tom Claney games. Surprised they are so high as most people will only have heard of the cheap knock off, Tom Clancy.
I wonder if GTA would've overtook Mario in the alternate reality where a more recent game than 2013's GTAV existed.
@Kiz3000 not saying it’s stupid, that would be mean, just that those games are kind of all the same and I don’t get why they’re still so popular.
It's nice to see EA's little Football Club doing so well.
at least Mario is above pokemon I'm happy screw pokemon
I have NEVER bought a FIFA or CoD, have played them and never liked them
@Enigk Do you prefer Tom Claney’s Goat Recon series or Tom Claney’s Banerow Six?
Well, football is an obviously British thing, and according to Wikipedia, "In Britain and Ireland, cod and haddock appear most commonly as the fish used for fish and chips", so I suppose there's nothing to get surprised at.
I'm shocked football manager isn't up there.
@Krull I love a bit of Goat Recon. Splinter Ball is also good for a laugh.
How silly is it that the UK’s top 30 is dominated by terrible brands that made tone-deaf business decisions!
I’m sure the US wouldn’t have an identical list if you swapped FIFA for Madden, right?
Right…?
@nhSnork
The conspiracy is revealed…
By this marketing standard, the next game to do crazy in Britain will be called Tactical Egg Analysis.
@Mattock1987 Sorry man I put my replies round the wrong way. Apologies. That comment was for someone else.
@MinatoYuki In all honesty JRPG's are far too slow and complex for the average gamer, baring in mind the average gamer is more casual than any of us on a gaming website. FIFA and COD are far more straight forward to just bang in the console and away you go. Also those games have online elements so you can go and wreck your friends. Can't do that in most JRPGs.
@doodlewhizz Weird to see Wii Fit and not Wii Sports. Do all the bundled sales of Wii Sports not count as sales for the game? Then you have the Wii U version and the (soon to be released) Switch version.
@Mattock1987 and also some of them know that mario is overrated. So this can go and on 😉
@Bunkerneath how did you played them if you never bought them?
@clianvXAi that so admittedly a great point. It’s all subjective.
I despise the top 2 games but if people like them well then so be it.
@Balladeer I'm surprised you would say that about your own but then again Irish people are probably worse when it comes to making decisions.
109 Mario games seems excessive but 106 Sims games???
At least a lot of development goes into CoD each year, certainly in comparison to FIFA.
Which franchise did Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games fall into? Both I assume?
The fact that there are as many Sims games as there are Mario games is astounding to me.
Need to know the units shifted for this to be comparable data at all
@Inaroomalone
Mario & Sonic falls into "The Olympic Games" franchise which ranks at #28.
And GTA at 4th & Pokemon at 8th. Actually this list totally checks out, pretty much mirrors the weekly/annual releases of UK game sales. The only anomaly is Lego at 5th but lego games do not tend to sell that well in the UK (I guess we might see with Lego Star Wars?)
While I do respect people's opinions I find it bizarre that CoD and FIFA can overtake Mario. Do Brits show more appeal in more realistic games?
I find it interesting how several of you commenting here are very surprised by FIFA and COD dominating the chart. I live in UK, specifically in London and I remember at school FIFA and COD would be one of the most common things I hear people talking about!
People acting like these trends wouldn't be exactly the same for a US list. If anything, that would be 'worse' as Madden, FIFA and NBA 2K are near the top of the yearly charts every single year, along with CoD.
UK obsessed with FIFA? You don’t say.
HaHa I'm from the UK and love that people here have such a bad taste in videogames.
I do not want the messages in some (Capcom, Nintendo, Square Enix) to become mainstream. ***** them.
OK... but does LEGO Batman count as DC, LEGO or both? Also, does Mario include Golf, Tennis, Kart?
Why is everyone shocked by FIFA and COD?! They release a new game... every... single... year... and they each sell a million copies in the first month.
Yes, Mario has started to hit a higher frequency too, but only in the Switch era. COD and FIFA are generations of consistently frequent huge sales.
Also, COD and FIFA have been top for years and years... Mario has actually gone up recently. It used to be LEGO in third place.
I'm more perplexed that Skylanders is in the top 20, especially now that the series is dead.
@HammerGalladeBro Activision (and Disney and Warner with Infinity and LEGO Dimenions) argued successfully that all the accessories should be counted as individual units. So that Skylanders number is all the software plus all the hardware/accessories - and then add on all the discounted stock that still went through as a unit each time...
The big book of British game choices.
is FIFA surprising for some people? I mean, football is by far the most popular sport in the world, so obviously football "simulators" are going to sell a lot
Tap here to load 44 comments
Leave A Comment
Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...