Sega revealed today as part of its yearly financial report that the Sonic the Hedgehog series has lifetime game sales of approximately 360 million. This includes physical and digital.
When Sega shared this number last year, the franchise’s sales were at approximately 350 million. Sonic Mania, the retro 2D platformer, came out for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC this August. Now, this doesn’t mean that Sonic Mania alone sold about 10 million copies, since back catalog sales were a factor for the growth. Sonic Mania is likely in pushing the number up to 360 million.
The first Sonic the Hedgehog came out in 1991 for the Genesis. Since then, the blue mascot has starred in dozen of games, mostly 2D and 3D platformers. He used to appear exclusively on Sega consoles back when the company was making video game systems, but Sonic started showing up on Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony machines once Sega got out of the hardware business in 2001.
Although Sonic Mania already made a big impact in 2017, Sega’s releasing one more major Sonic game this year. Sonic Forces features gameplay that switches from 3D to 2D perspectives, similar to 2011’s Sonic Generations. It comes out on November 7 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.