The best-selling Nintendo franchises of all time (as of September 2023)

I saw a comprehensive list of these on this great Metroid NES retrospective video made in August 2021 (https://youtu.be/x29FdH6KETA?si=qVsgN5c8TI1IMkbg&t=220), but I couldn’t find a comprehensive list myself when I googled it, so I decided to make my own using some website sources for all of the best selling game franchises ever. Hope this helps if you guys ever want reference to see how things have changed since the Switch’s lifecycle has mostly come and gone and most of its big hits have sold well.

NOTE: This list was formatted similar to this user’s post from 4 years ago, and I’m crediting him as such as I will also be referencing some numbers from his post to show what franchises have had pretty significant jumps in sales during the prime of the Switch’s lifecycle compared to how they were in 2019: https://www.reddit.com/r/nintendo/comments/cy0ioo/the_bestselling_nintendo_franchises_of_all_time/?ref=share&ref_source=link

**1. Mario – 832.37 million** (was 601 million as of August 2019)

Super Mario series: 389.47 million

Mario Kart series: 175.29 million

Mario Party series: 69.75 million

Mario Sports series: 46.75 million

Mario RPG series: 30.95 million

Other Mario games: 120.16 million

**2. Pokémon – 480 million** (was 340 million as of August 2019)

Pokémon mainline games – 324 million

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon – 17 million

**3. Wii Series – 214 million**

Wii Sports series – 126 million

Wii Fit series – 44 million

Wii Play series – 29 million

Wii Party series – 10 million

**4. The Legend of Zelda – 149.35 million** (was 106.62 million as of August 2019)

**5. Donkey Kong – 88 million**

**6. Animal Crossing – 76.76 million** (was 31.86 million as of August 2019)

**7. Super Smash Bros – 72.75 million** (was 54.92 million as of August 2019)

**8. Kirby – 42 million**

**9. Brain Age – 33.89 million**

**10. Duck Hunt – 28.60 million**

**11. Splatoon – 28.38 million** (was 13.64 million as of August 2019)

**12. Yoshi – 28.16 million** (was 20.65 million as of August 2019)

**13. Nintendogs – 27.95 million**

**14. Wario – 22 million**

**15. Metroid – 21.3 million** (was 14 million as of August 2019)

**16. Luigi’s Mansion – 19.26 million** (was 9.05 million as of August 2019)

**17. Fire Emblem – 16.40 million** (was 8 million as of August 2019)

**18. Star Fox – 11.9 million** (was 8.81 million as of August 2019)

**19. Tomodachi series – 11.57 million**

**20. Big Brain Academy – 10 million**

**21. Xenoblade Chronicles – 7 million+** (was 2.1 million as of August 2019)

Xenoblade Chronicles: 3 million+ (Wii, New 3DS and Definitive Edition sales combined)

Xenoblade Chronicles 2: 2.7 million (as of December 31st, 2022)

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: 1.86 million (as of March 31st, 2023)

**22. F-Zero – 5.85 million**

**23. Pikmin – 5 million**

Pikmin 1: 1.6 million (Sales not including recent Switch Port)

Pikmin 2 1.12 million (Sales not including recent Switch Port)

Pikmin 3 Deluxe: 2.4 million

Pikmin 4: 1 million (has sold 841,335 copies physically in Japan as of September 17th, 2023)

**24. Punch-Out!! – 4.7 million**

Punch-Out!! (NES): 3 million

Punch-Out!! (Wii): 1.7 million

**25. Rhythm Heaven – 4 million**

**26. Kid Icarus – 3.07 million**

Kid Icarus (NES): 1.7 million

Kid Icarus Uprising: 1.37 million

**27. Miitopia – 3.01 million** (from combined Switch/3DS sales)

**28. MOTHER / Earthbound – 1.08 million**

Mother 2 / Earthbound: 440,000

Mother 1+2: 278,000

Mother 3: 364,000

Sources used listed below:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

https://vgsales.fandom.com/wiki/Best_selling_game_franchises

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_Switch_video_games

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_Nintendo_3DS_video_games

Personally I’m pretty amazed how Animal Crossing got launched into the top 10 best selling Nintendo Franchises ever with New Horizons and the Switch alone. What are your guys’ thoughts on this list and how things have changed for Nintendo sales wise in recent years? Feel free to comment below!

by spiderfreak1011