Top 30 Biggest Video Game Franchises in UK History by Revenue - Sales

by William D'Angelo , posted on 29 March 2022 / 1,788 Views

The list of the top 30 best-selling video game franchises at retail in UK history have been revealed by GfK and reported by GamesIndustry.

The 30 franchises since 1995 have generated over £12.7bn in revenue with FIFA as the number one franchise. FIFA at the top isn't a surprise as it has seen over 50 titles release over that time period. While it is an annual series now there were prior years that saw multiple releases.

Call of Duty is the second biggest franchise over the same period, which has seen 32 games released. It peaked at retail with 2010's Call of Duty: Black Ops and 2011's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

The Mario franchise, which includes all sub-brands, is the third biggest franchise. There were 109 Mario games released over that period with the biggest entries including Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8 and New Super Mario Bros.

The Grand Theft Auto series ranks fourth and the last major entry in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, account for 40 percent of all Grand Theft Auto sales.

There are 11 franchises in the Top 30 that are licensed. This includes LEGO, Star Wars, Tom Clancy, and Harry Potter.

"This is a fascinating list and anyone who has been following the development of the video game industry as I have will no doubt show little surprise at the sheer value, size, and breadth of this market," said GfK senior client insight director for Gaming Dorian Bloch.

"What was once seen as a niche sector is now an unquestionably mainstream market generating billions in revenue annually. The characters in these games have become much-loved heroes, from Lara Croft to Luigi and Mario, to Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Terms used in the franchises have entered our vocabulary, and there are more than a few gamers who could navigate their way around the outskirts of San Francisco from their time at the wheel of a stolen car in GTA."

Here are the top 30 biggest video game franchises in UK history by revenue:

No.	Name	Title Count	Series Start	Publisher
1	FIFA	50	1993	EA
2	Call of Duty	32	2003	Activision Blizzard
3	Mario	109	1987	Nintendo
4	Grand Theft Auto	21	1997	Rockstar
5	LEGO	77	1997	Warner/LucasArts/TT Games/Eidos
6	Star Wars	113	1983	EA/LucasArts/Warner
7	The Sims	106	2000	EA
8	Pokémon	93	1999	Nintendo
9	Assassin's Creed	27	2007	Ubisoft
10	Need For Speed	30	1994	EA
11	Sonic	55	1991	Sega
12	WWE and WWF	61	1987	Take-Two/THQ/Acclaim
13	Marvel	106	1982	Sony/Warner/Square Enix
14	Wii Fit	3	2008	Nintendo
15	Tom Clancy	72	1997	Ubisoft
16	Guitar Hero/DJ Hero	18	2006	Activision Blizzard
17	Pro Evolution Soccer	22	2001	Konami
18	Skylanders	6	2011	Activision Blizzard
19	Battlefield	30	2002	EA
20	Tomb Raider	31	1996	Eidos/Square Enix
21	Halo	15	2001	Microsoft
22	DC	43	1986	Warner/EA/Square/Telltale
23	Formula One	66	1992	Codemasters/EA/Sony
24	Gran Turismo	13	1998	Sony
25	Forza	13	2005	Microsoft
26	Harry Potter	13	2001	EA/Warner
27	Crash Bandicoot	22	1996	Activision/Vivendi/Sony
28	The Olympic Games	20	1992	Sega/Nintendo/Eidos/Konami/T2
29	Zelda	35	1987	Nintendo
30	PGA Tour Golf	46	1990	EA/Take-Two

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.

5 Comments

The Fury (on 30 March 2022)

If Disney didn't basically dissolve LucasArts when they bought them, and instead expanded them and allowed them to explore more of the galaxy with games, I'd say that would be higher. Same with Marvel. Disney really did go through an odd phase of buying these massive IPs and then just not making anything but mobile games for them which was odd.

JWeinCom (on 29 March 2022)

Surprised to see Wii Fit and Guitar Hero up there considering how short the lifespan of those franchises were. Goes to show how big they were at the time.