Mario is the Highest-Grossing Video Game Franchise Ever

Mario has reportedly cemented its position as the highest-grossing video game franchise of all time, according to compiled industry data. The long-running franchise, owned by Nintendo, continues to dominate both unit sales and total lifetime revenue across multiple generations of gaming.

The Mario franchise, spanning mainline titles, spin-offs such as Mario Kart and Mario Party, and cross-media adaptations, has generated $53.85 billion USD in gross revenue. In lifetime gross, the Mario franchise has surpassed renowned franchises such as Pokémon, Call of Duty (CoD), and Grand Theft Auto (GTA).

According to Guinness World Records the Mario franchise is the best-selling gaming series with 893.4M units sold as of June 10, 2025. The record does not yet account for Mario Kart World, which was released on Switch 2 in June 2025. As per the Super Mario Wiki, total Mario franchise copies across all titles have since crossed 950M, the highest ever recorded for any video game series.

Mario and Top Five Highest-Grossing Video Game Franchises Highlight Industry Concentration

As Mario leads in lifetime gross, the compilation chart reflects long-running franchise dominance. Pokémon ranks at second with $35.4B gross revenue, and it is closely followed by CoD, which accounts for $35B gross in total.

Fourth and fifth places were taken by Pac-Man and Candy Crush Saga, respectively. Like the top five, most of the video games on the list have been running for more than decade, and data shows their relevance amidst the new block-buster AAA launches in recent years.

Within the top 20, other notable performers include FIFA, now rebranded as EA Sports FC, and Minecraft, both of which leverage global player bases and recurring monetization models.

Notably, the chart highlights that most of the titles among the top ten highest-grossing gaming titles are from Japan. Titles from Nintendo and Capcom take up most of the ranks in this cohort, while the 11th to 20th ranks are mostly dominated by titles from South Korea, such as Crossfire and PUBG.

The concentration of gross revenue among a handful of franchises reflects broader industry trends, where established intellectual properties from particular companies sustain more engagement than others. However, gross revenue and units sold are entirely different metrics; gross revenue underscores the total earnings made from the sales, whereas, ‘units sold’ defines the number of copies that were sold. The compilation chart is only based on lifetime gross revenue, which is adjusted for inflation.