This sort of inspired me to bump up my old "biggest 20 franchises of the 7th gen" thread. Sadly, I made that on Oyv, and he's banned, so that's kind of useless. This isn't an attempt to hijack your thread or anything of the sorts, so hope you don't view it as that. If you do, just tell me and I'll get out of your thread.
Essentially, a game is part of the franchise if it has the name in the title. "Mario & Sonic @ the Olympics" counts towards both Mario and Sonic. One of the few exceptions (if not the only) is the Wii series. Mario Kart Wii only counts towards Mario (and Mario Kart), not the Wii series (Which is sports, play, fit, fit plus, music, sports resort)
The amount of games is the amount of releases it has had. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 counts as 2 games, one on X360 and one of Ps3.
The ones in italic aren't part of the list, but just there for the fun of it. The list probably isn't complete, so shout out anything I missed/forgot. It's also 15m as of now, which is why there's no Zelda, Mario Party, Smash Bros, Gears of War or Metal Gear on it.
1. "Wii series" - 144.51 million (6 games)
2. Mario - 143.53 million (21 games)
3. Call of Duty - 55.4 million (17 games)
4. Pokemon - 50.94 million (12 games)
Mario Kart - 40.41 million (2 games)
2D Mario Platformers - 36.78 million (2 games)
Wii Fit - 35.24 million (2 games)
5. Sonic - 34.55 million (24 games)
6. Guitar Hero - 33.65 (22 games)
7. Brain Age - 33.94 million (2 games)
8. "Lego" - 32.41 million (27 games)
9. Grand Theft Auto - 27.77 million (8 games)
10. Fifa - 26.38 million (34 games)
11. Nintendogs - 23.71 million (1 game)
12. Madden - 23.59 milllion (24 games)
13. Final Fantasy - 19.53 million (24 games)
Mario & Sonic - 18.4 million (4 games)
14. Halo - 18.1 million (3 games)
15. Assassin's Creed - 16.75 million (7 games)
16. Animal Crossing - 15.1 million (2 games)
I have one tricky issue. Link's Crossbow training. Would you say that's part of the Zelda franchise? Different genre, different name. I didn't include it, but I think that perhaps I should have.
