Dear VGChartians, because of the thread on Sony entering Nintendo level of sales success and also the one on Monster Hunter World being the highest selling game of Capcom and first to reach 10M I decided to look at the number of games selling over 10M and the number of franchises per publisher/studio.

I was really surprised to see that besides Nintendo domination on the list there were very few games that managed to sell over 10M even launching on all platforms and being very well regarded.

Below we have the number of 10M+ sellers released per gen and publisher (I put Handhelds together on the gen and name the gen after the most selling console of that generation). All considering only VGC numbers, so no digital and some errors.

Unsurprisingly Nintendo holds almost half the games selling over 10M, and if we "ignore" the big spike on Wii casuals we can see that there have been a increase on 10M gen after gen which can potentially explained by gaming becoming more mainstream but also costs increases making fewer blockbusters releasing thus concentrating sales on those best of the best (just to remember no console is near total sales of SW as PS2 crossing 1.5B).

When we change to see the franchises we can see that also very few franchises have crossed the 10M barrier and usually those have had several releases selling on that high number (even for Nintendo, except of course the one outs on Wii).

Bellow we have the best sold released of franchises under each publisher (not naming which game was the record in that).

Nintendo (12): Wii Sports 82M (probably over 20M even counting just the unbundled sales, was a real beast), Super Mario Bros 40M (would probably do over 20M as well on its own as the best on NES), Mario Kart 36M, Tetris 30M (still supposed to be the record holding game on all platforms), Duck Hunt 28M (holy moses of the flashguns), Nintendogs 25M, Pokemon 31M (and also very consistent at it), Animal Crossing 12M, Brain Training 20M (and making almost a genre for itself on DS), Smash Bros 13M, Zelda 10.5M ( https://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/pdf/2018/180201_2e.pdf ) and Wii Fit 23M (and needing an addon, fantastic). I could separate 3D Mario from the SMB, but we also now they are steady big sellers. Also not needed to say how many genres Nintendo started themselves and some have been almost the only (and usually the best) output there.

Sony (3): Gran Turismo 15M, Uncharted 10M, The Last of Us 17M. Starting simulation and improving the cinematic experience SP games.

MS (3): Halo 12M, Kinect Adventure 22M (yep Kinect sold a lot), Minecraft 30M

EA(4): Fifa 12M, Battlefield 14.5M , Battleground 12M, NFS 16M, The Sims(?)

Ubisoft (1): Just Dance 10M

Activision (6): Call of Duty 30M Guitar Hero 16.5M - https://www.statista.com/statistics/321374/global-all-time-unit-sales-call-of-duty-games/ Overwatch, Diablo, World of Warcraft and StarCraft

Capcom (3): SF 14M, RE 10.5M, MH 10M

SE (1): FF 10M

THQ (2): GTA 100M (Yeah unimaginable to see it beaten by nothing but the next GTA), Borderlands 12M - https://in.ign.com/borderlands-2/74307/news/borderlands-2-sales-pass-the-12-million-mark

Warner Bros (2): Batman Arkham 11M, Lego Batman 10M (scracthed it).

Bethesda (2): Elder Scrolls 36M, Fallout 14.5M

Now looking on this gen and the future these are the franchises on each publisher I can see having a shot of selling 10M (or have already sold)

Nintendo (8): 2D Mario, 3D Mario, Pokemon, Mario Kart, Zelda, Smash Bros, Animal Crossing, Splatoon

Sony (7): The Last of US, Uncharted, God of War, Gran Turismo (can it regrow?), Ghost of Tsushima (can it achieve glory?), Spider-Man (preorders are higher than GoW, record breaking for Sony), Horizon Zero Dawn (if they can outdo themselves they have a shot for another near 10M)

MS (1): Minecraft. Can they reboost Halo and Gears?

EA (1): Fifa, Battlefield, Battleground, The Sims

Ubisoft (0): Can they make Assassins Creed cross the barrier?

Activision (5): Call of Duty, Overwatch - https://www.pcgamer.com/overwatch-has-more-than-40-million-players/, Diablo - https://www.polygon.com/2015/8/4/9097497/diablo-3-sales-30-million-units, World of Warcraft - http://ca.ign.com/articles/2010/10/07/world-of-warcraft-reaches-12-million-subscribers and StarCraft

Capcom (1): Monster Hunter (can they sustain?), also can SF or RE redo what they once had in sales?

S-E (1): Final Fantasy

THQ (2): GTA, Read Dead (I think they can make it big in sales as well)

Bethesda (2): Elder Scrolls, Fallout

So seems like that on the variety of franchises Sony have got a level that rivals Nintendo but on sales are still a lot below. The other devs like Rockstar and Activision can have 1 game that sells much over the regular good but so far it seems like Sony have made a firm ground for themselves as finally a selling power on its own platform, very different than in the past where even though they had great games hardly any of them would rival sales with the highest selling 3rd parties (but still the TOP 10 of PS4 is held by 3rd parties, with only Uncharted showing here, which we know is wrong since TLOU sold about 10M in PS4, GoW is close to 10M and HZD is over 7M).

EDIT: Just Checked and yes Warner Brothers had Batman crossing 10M on 3 platforms (marginally) last gen, but won't cross this gen from the outlook. Lego Batman also crossed.

EDIT2: For games people have official data I'm going to include then on the OP with the link. Unfortunately VGC numbers for games that are majorly on PC is very off.

PC games not accounted above

Team Fortress 2- 50,191,347
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive- 46,305,966
PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS- 36,604,134
Unturned- 27,381,399
Left 4 Dead 2- 23,143,723
PAYDAY 2- 18,643,807
Garry's Mod- 18,576,379
Warframe- 16,332,217
Counter-Strike: Source- 15,001,876
Paladins- 14,371,946
Terraria- 13,132,545
Portal 2- 13,062,700
Sid Meier's Civilization V- 12,701,498
Robocraft- 10,145,493
Rocket League- 10,110,342

Don't forget Splatoon 2! It is basically guaranteed 10 million

Rockstar isn't a publisher. Take Two is the publisher. Borderlands and Borderlands 2 sold 10 million as well as some NBA 2K games I'm sure, so add them.

You forgot Warner Bros as well.

Best selling COD game is MW3 at 30 million sold. https://www.statista.com/statistics/321374/global-all-time-unit-sales-call-of-duty-games/

You are right, it is getting close to it, not sure how I missed it. So there are currently 8 Nintendo franchises with potential (not sure SMB and AC will get there though).

I tried to combine the numbers whenever I could see they on the list, but VGC listing may not be the best all the time.

My lower section is how many franchises currently have a shot of crossing 10M (thus why I put GT as a doubt, AC and SMB also not secured 10M yet) since I don't think Wii Sports, Duck Hunt and Nintendogs will cross 10M again.

Yes PS2 is something that have plenty 1M seller and some strong niche games, but not many 10M+.

VGC listed R* as publisher (and this is why I used " on the title) if you have statistics for physical copies of either Borderlands I'll gladly add them, but on VGC I didn't see it.

Also didn't saw WB, will look at it.

I only counted VGC numbers it's on the OP text =p I even called the ranking on PS4 to be perhaps wrong considering some of Sony games crossed much higher numbers than VGC accounts for.

Borderlands 2 sold 12 million in 3 years. https://in.ign.com/borderlands-2/74307/news/borderlands-2-sales-pass-the-12-million-mark

Don't have sales numbers for any NBA 2K game but maybe look it up.

Warner Bros has Arkham City on VGC above 10 million if I'm not wrong, Arkham Asylum and Knight are above 10 million in the real world for sure but Knight in particular is heavily undertracked here. Arkham Knight sold 5 million in 4 months. MK 10 sold 5 million in 6 months and the 2 games got complete editions after those sales. 

Yes I checked WB, you can see on the edit on OP.

Borderlands on VGC doesn't sum over 10M, I double checked.

Nope, I have summed the multiple outings on the platform (I certainly wouldn't sum Fifa 14+15+16+17+18 as one, but I summed 15 for all platforms).

On the middle section it may be that Nintendo having to many 10M+ I just forgot to mention all those =p

It is a rumor for HZD2. And on the last section I was using potential (thus I gone over what VGC have since we know HZD is closer to 8M and there is a chance of it crossing 10M on this release or potentially on a sequel) that is why I made a small explanation inside () for the titles that wouldn't be "certain" to reach 10M.

Still it shows Nintendo for the near future should stay with most potential 10M+ sellers IPs with Sony approaching it, but still to prove it can do it consistently.

It could be due to VGC numbers being incorrect.

But certainly if anyone can show some franchise I didn't mention on the OP I'll be glad to add. From SpokenTruth remembering seems like I need to add some Nintendo ones =]

You should use accurate figures wherever available, which would make it a better chart in my opinion :)

Like games where official figures are way above VGC figures are obviously poorly tracked and for some games official figures are either not available else really dated. There VGC figures are probably the better estimation of sales.

Also, in addition to the games Kapi stated, NFS Most Wanted from 2005 sold 16 million units.

Well if I used for one I would have to use for all, and that would be an herculean effort. VGC already have threads for us to give sources for more accurate numbers and they will correcting the mistakes along the way.

Thanks Man.

Will also try and edit the table to show the totals of publishers better. Work for after lunch.

Yep, people expected it to be revealed at this E3, others expect it to release on PS5 launch. It is a good game worth waiting for.

I'm trying to sum everything that "is the same".

Like for Street Fighter 2 I counted all editions on all platforms I found on VGC that had reasonable numbers, same for Resident Evil and remakes. But sequels I have counted each separate (like if RE2 or 4 crosses 10M with all their ports and remakes would add as well). Does that make sense on what you were asking?