I've kinda wondered why this forum doesn't keep an all-time list. I've only listed the top 30 here, as it consists of every franchise that has sold more than 30 million units.

1. Mario (201 million)
2. Pokémon (186 million)
3. The Sims (100 million)
4. Need for Speed (almost 100 million)
5. Final Fantasy (85 million)
6. Grand Theft Auto (70 million)
7. Madden NFL (70 million)
8. Tetris (70 million)
9. FIFA (65 million)
10. Tom Clancy (55 million, includes Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, and Splinter Cell franchises)
11. The Legend of Zelda (52 million)
12. Nickelodeon (50 million, includes SpongeBob SquarePants franchise)
13. Sonic the Hedgehog (50 million)
14. Gran Turismo (50 million shipped)
15. Donkey Kong (48 million)
16. Winning Eleven (48 million shipped)
17. Dragon Quest (47 million)
18. Lineage (43 million)
19. Crash Bandicoot (40 million)
20. Resident Evil (40 million shipped)
21. WWE SmackDown! (39 million)
22. Call of Duty (35 million)
23. Tomb Raider (35 million)
24. Pixar (35 million shipped, includes Cars franchise)
25. Tekken (33 million)
26. Guitar Hero (32 million)
27. Medal of Honor (31 million)
28. James Bond (30 million)
29. Kirby (30 million)
30. Tony Hawk (30 million)

Of course, it's Wiki, so it's not going to be completely accurate, but every single number is sourced, so I think any inaccuracies would most likely be the result of the list not being entirely up-to-date (seems to be updated pretty frequently, though).

Only surprises to me were Need for Speed (I knew it was popular, but 100 mil surprised me) and Nickelodeon (more than Sonic and GT? Really?).

Here's the same list based on VGChartz numbers. The Wikipedia numbers are heavily outdated for some, and up to date for others. Thus, they're flawed. Also, some of the sources seem a bit fishy (IIRC).

pdated the list. the (+) is change since sometime in March last year.

1. Mario - 351M  

2. Pokemon - 169M

3. Wii Series 84.6M

3. Grand Theft Auto - 77M  

4. Final Fantasy - 61M

5. The Sims - 56M

6  Need for Speed (with numerous missing data) - 54.5 m

7. Sonic 51M

8. Gran Turismo - 50.6M

9. The legend of Zelda - 49.6M  

10. Tetris - 46,5M  

11. Donkey Kong - 45.1M  

12. Dragon quest 39.7M  



13. Madden 43.1M (6M)

14 - GUITAR HERO (without PC) - 35.9 M


15 - Call of Duty (with missing data) - 34.6M

16. Fifa 33.3M



17. Pro evo soccer - 31M

18. Brain Training - 30.9M

19, Crash Bandicoot 29,3M

20. Resident evil - 29,1M

21. Kirby 25,3M

22. Tekken 24,4M

23. Tomb Raider - 21,8M

Which sources seemed fishy? A lot of them a simply company press releases.

I definitely trust VGC more for franchises like Mario, though. Games are released too frequently (and sell too quickly) for Wikipedia to ever keep up.

Oyvoyvoyv - I don't think the list in Wikipedia even accounts for the Wii series. But I like your list better cuz Final Fantasy is higher!

^^ Final Fantasy actually isn't higher. Oyvoyvoy counted #3 twice accidentally. And yeah, Wiki doesn't count for the Wii series (it should).

 Yeah, my list isn't that accurate. The first time I made it I somehow put Zelda 6M too high.

I can't find the fishy soures, so that might just be bad memory from my side (there was a thread much alike this one some time ago).

But take NFS. http://news.ea.com/portal/site/ea/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&ndmConfigId=1012492&newsId=20090130005163&newsLang=en. It says close to 100M sold. That could be 80M, couldn't it?

Series like The Sims are also heavily mis-tracked by this site, and all franchises that have a PC game are a bit undertracked here (because we don't track PC games).

Edit:

Oh, and my list is outdated by 1-2 months.

EA officially announced the 100 million sold Sims versions months ago, so it should be #3.

PC games sales are not counted by a first party company, like on consoles, so even vgcharts must rely on EA's press releases.

Ironically, Wikipedia does the same, but more accuratelly. 

Here, some of the Sims games are still at 0.00m, that is ridiculous, for e.p.s like "Pets", that was one of the biggest ones.

Doesn't that 100 million number include expansions, though?

vgc doesnt have PC sales for games like resident evil and tomb raider. They were quite popular on the pc.

ummm i would figgure Metal gear would be on here.....

Close but no dice