Image via Sega
Sega has claimed that its Sonic franchise has surpassed 1.5 billion units, including full premium games and downloads for free-to-play titles.
Sonic was a high-selling franchise back in the 90s and had a strong following despite criticism towards more recent titles in the 2000s. With mobile gaming on the rise, Sonic has once again become a strong contender in the gaming world.
Since 2013, Sega has released several mobile titles for Sonic, including Sonic Dash, Sonic Runners, Sonic Dash 2: Sonic Boom and Sonic Runners Adventures. These endless runner games are free-to-play, but include microtransactions.
Although the number of 1.5 billion is impressive, it is most likely due to the many Sonic mobile games that have been downloaded for free.
Sonic Dash surpassed 500 million downloads alone–over one-third of the franchise’s overall units.
Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, which released in 2017 for mobile, passed 94 million downloads as of April 2022.
Sonic’s latest success has been due to the popularity of mobile games and the ease at which mobile games can be downloaded and played. With the games being free, it’s more enticing for people to download them as well.
The next major Sonic project, Sonic Frontiers, is releasing on November 8, 2022. It will be available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
Hey, thanks for reading DZSH! Check out our newsletter too so you can always stay in the loop!
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
