Sonic recently turned 30 years old, making him one of the longest-running video game franchises around. From the heady days of the Master Drive System and soon to arrive on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, Sonic has been around the block more than once. Probably a bunch of times, given how fast he is. Sonic’s longevity has also translated into some significant sales figures for Sega. According to Sega’s 2022 fiscal year report (provided by games analyst MauroNL), Sonic’s lifetime sales now exceed 1.5 billion. Related: The Big Question: What's The Best Video Game Movie? That’s 1.51 billion, to be precise, and that number includes both physical and digital downloads on all platforms. That’s a staggering number that even beats out Pokemon, which has yet to cross the 500 million mark (although with Scarlet & Violet around the corner, that’s probably going to happen very soon).

No other franchise on Sega's payroll comes even close. Next in line is the strategy war series Total War, which sits at 40.4 million units, and then the tile-matching puzzle series Puyo Puyo at 37.7 million units. Chain Chronicle, Sega's tower defense mobile series, has 25 million units sold, with the Yakuza series coming in next at just under 20 million. Shin Megami Tensei beats out Persona with 19 million compared to 15.5 million, and Virtua Fighter has 18.8 million in sales to its name.

It's unlikely that Sonic will ever lose its crown as Sega's best-selling franchise, especially with the success of the two blockbuster movies. There's also a new Netflix series on the way, and Sonic Frontiers arrives on November 8 as the first open-world Sonic game. Just recently, the official Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter account released a prologue comic to give players a sense of what to expect in the strange, almost alien world of Sonic Frontiers. As expected, Eggman is still up to his dirty tricks, and it's up to Sonic and friends to save the world once again.

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