I took the time and effort to put together these charts because I was curious about which gaming franchises had started in the current generation of consoles and wanted to know about their sales. Using this site's software sales estimates I think I managed to make a very complete list of the major franchises and IPs for consoles in the market : Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2*.

I think you may find it interesting so I wanted to share it with all of you. Looking at the charts you can appreciate the performance of new franchises from both 1st and 3rd party publishers, and how much exclusive new franchises sell oppose to multiplatform franchises.

 NOTES

1- List includes only console games that belong to NEW franchises. Games that belong to a franchise older than current consoles on the market are not included. Any franchises that appeared on a portable before a console(s)'s launch is not considered a new franchise in these charts. No sequels, spin-offs, reboots, remasters, remakes, etc. that include an old franchise title are included. *PS2 iterations of some franchises that started on current generation consoles are included.

2- List includes only games that sold over 1 million units in at least 1 console iteration of the franchise.

3- If you find something missing that matches the above criteria let me know. If you find any technical problem within the charts please let me know, and thanks in advance.

The first table lists all the titles that belong to a new franchise from the current generation of consoles, sorted out from highest-selling to lowest-selling. The second table groups all these titles in their respective franchises so we can look at each of them as a whole and appreciate their total sales from highest to lowest-selling.

 BEST-SELLING NEW FRANCHISE TITLES THIS GENERATION 

 BEST-SELLING NEW FRANCHISES THIS GENERATION 

 SUMMARY

New Franchise Leader                                                        Wii Fit*                                             

New Exclusive Franchise Leader                                         Wii Fit*                                             

New Multiplat Franchise Leader                                          Assassin's Creed                              

New Franchise Publisher Leader                                         Nintendo                                          

New Franchise Exclusive Publisher Leader                          Nintendo                                          

New Franchise Multiplat Publisher Leader                           Ubisoft                                             

New Franchise Third-party sales leader                              Electronic Arts*                                

Most New Franchises publisher leader                                Electronic Arts (8)**                        

Most New Exclusive Franchises publisher leader                 Sony Computer Entertainment (7)  

Most New Multiplat Franchises publisher leader                  Electronic Arts (3)                            

Most New Franchises console leader                                   PlayStation 3 (19)                           

Most New Exclusive Franchises console leader                    Wii (14)                                           

l 39 new millon-selling franchises don't seem like a lot, especially when 14 of those are exclusive to just one console (Wii). However, consider I just listed franchises with at least one game selling 1 million, there's certainly a large group of new franchises/IPs that have managed very good sales, some beyond 1.5 million (for example, Grid and Dirt) between different consoles and sequels. My goal was not to include all, but to include the best-selling. I know it's unfair to leave some games out (again, Grid), but I had to cut somewhere. Hopefully those are a very small minority.

l The third-party business is strong when it comes to new franchises this generation. 14 third-party companies publish 25 of the 39 new major franchises this generation.  Nintendo holds the most sales as a publisher for its own console, surprisingly, with just  3 new franchises. Sony Computer Entertainment is on distant 2nd place despite having the most new franchises for its console. 

Total New Franchises per Console

PS3       19

X360     18

Wii        16

Total New Exclusive Franchises per Console

Wii         14
 
PS3         7

X360       6

Total Third-party Publishers per Console

X360     10
 
PS3        9

Wii         8

The presence of new franchises among all the current consoles is even, but it's interesting to note that Nintendo Wii holds exclusively 14 of the new 16 franchises present in its library. The correlation between the PS3 and Xbox 360's libraries is clear, as all but three new third-party franchises (L4D, Mass Effect, Dead Rising) are present on both consoles.

 Top 5 Publishers (millions of units sold)                  
                                       
Nintendo                                         49.12*
Sony Computer Entertainment        23.51
Electronic Arts                                 22.07**
Ubisoft                                            19.41
Microsoft                                         17.26

* Wii Sports is not included.  Credit where it's due, Wii Fit is the true stand-alone new franchise sales leader.

** Includes EA sports Active published by EA Sports.

Nice Job!

EXCELLENT analysis & very impressed at PS3's performance, xbox 360's & of course Wii Series

Damn, I can't get the sales numbers to appear on the second table, wth??

Now we're talking

Good job, tough you should add LBP and Motorstorm the PSP and PS2 versions to

^LBP for PS2?? what. when. how. where?

@gekkokamen
He means LBP for PSP and Motorstrom for PS2.

@hunter_alien
Title says best selling new CONSOLE franchises of THIS GENERATION. So no PSP and PS2 ver.

Scottie - You are missing mario and Sonic at the _______ games

Someone else, possibly the OP or someone who owns either a PS3 or a 360 - That's part of an established franchise

Scottie - O RLY? Surely that same logic applies to Star Wars: The Force unleashed, I hear Star Wars has been around for a while

Other Person - Oh yeah

@OP: Nice job!
Unsurprisingly, for 3rd parties, multiplatform looks like the way to go...
XB360 is a very strong SW seller for its installed base.