Fable statistics

The Fable series has sold 12.6 million units.

(Source: VG Chartz)

• The original Fable sold 3 million copies.
• Fable 2 sold 5 million copies.
• Fable 3 sold 3 million copies.

Immediately from the first line of stats, we can see that the Fable series did not sell as many copies as other successful franchises, but that does not mean that 12 million sales are anything to smirk at. Fable 2 is definitely the most popular Fable game, as is reflected in its sales compared to the other games. Overall, the total number of sales is fairly impressive and we expect the next Fable game to sell quite well too.

Fable broke sales records across all platforms in September 2004.

(Source: Games Industry)

• The game sold 375,000 units in North America in its first week.
• It sold over 600,000 in its first month in retail in the United States.
• By October 2004, the total sales for Fable were nearing 1 million.

To say that the original Fable game was a success would be no exaggeration since it took the #1 spot when it came to game sales in September 2004, thus paving the way for the rest of the series to have similar success. Of course, since the digital age has allowed gamers to acquire games much easier than before, so the initial sales of Fable in 2004 are considerably lower than the sales a new game might have today.

There is a lot of pressure on Playground Games to produce a good Fable game.

(Source: GameRant)

• Fable 4 is confirmed to be in development, and it will essentially serve as a reboot of the original trilogy.
• Because of this, Playground Games is under a lot of pressure to learn from the mistakes of the previous games and release something that will keep fans hooked.
• Some are speculating that the reason there have been no updates on Fable 4 is due to logistical issues.

When you suddenly take the reins on a new project with a legacy attached to it, there is bound to be a considerable amount of pressure on you to make sure that the game you make lives up to its predecessors and bring something new to the table at the same time. Something similar happened to the developers at EA Motive when they took on the monumental task of remaking the original Dead Space.

Fable Legends cost $75 million to make, but no one wanted to work on it.

(Source: Polygon)

• The members of the now-shut-down Lionhead Studios wanted to make Fable 4, but they were pushed to work on Fable Legends.
• Fable Legends was a free-to-play game, but it was plagued by various issues, and it ended up being canceled.
• No one was expecting Fable Legends to last a long time, and no one was optimistic about its development from the moment the idea was pitched.

This is a story from the dark ages of Fable when Fable Legends was just announced and it was more than clear that the team had absolutely no intention of working on the game as they wanted to work on Fable 4. Fable 4 wasn’t in the works at that point, so the studio was left to work on this free-to-play game, which was eventually canceled and the studio was terminated.

Microsoft bought Lionhead Studios and refused to sell it years later.

(Source: Macworld, Games Industry)

• From the acquisition in 2006, Lionhead Studios exclusively worked on games for the Xbox and for Microsoft Windows.
• Fable and Fable: Chapters were the most successful Xbox RPGs at that time, selling 2 million copies.
• In 2016, when Lionhead Studios was supposed to shut down, multiple parties wanted to purchase the studio.
• However, Microsoft did not accept a single offer despite some of them ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
• 90% of the parties interested in acquiring the studio gave up when Microsoft did not accept their terms.

This was a bit strange because Lionhead Studios came to a halt and there were no other projects in the works for them, yet Microsoft still did not want to sell anything. Why this could be, we are not quite sure. As far as we know, Lionhead Studios is thoroughly dead and it’s just collecting dust. When you think about it, Microsoft should have just sold the studio and been done with it.

Peter Molyneux’s NFT game made $50 million selling virtual land.

(Source: GameByte)

• The game is called Legacy and the plot of land is completely fictional, with no purpose.
• The biggest virtual plot of land was sold in London for $900,000.
• The entire game is based on blockchain gaming, which means that money invested might lead to you making your money back.
• In-game mechanics called Legacy Keys allows players to earn a percentage of what business partners earn, but reviews have just called it a pyramid scheme.

NFT gaming was a fad that was as unappealing as it was pointless. Those types of games took away from the essence of gaming and pushed a toxic business model that culminated in mostly scams and pyramid schemes. The same thing happened with Peter Molyneux’s NFT game called Legacy, which generated dozens of millions of dollars in virtual land that no one can feasibly use.

The Fable franchise has 7 books published.

(Source: Games Industry, Fandom)

• The book series was established sometime around 2012.
• The publishing hours for the Fable series is Random House Worlds, founded by Critical Role members and world-class voice actors like Matt Mercer, Sam Riegel, Ashley Johnson, and Marisha Ray.
• While Lionhead Studios was still alive and passionate about Fable, they put great pride in the Fable book series to present the story in an even better light.

It’s always nice to see video game franchises branch out into other forms of media, and the Fable series did exactly that. The Fable books are a great read with coherent and immersive stories that anyone can pick up and enjoy.

The team working on Fable: The Journey was destroyed by criticism.

(Source: Games Industry)

• Fable: The Journey is an Xbox 360 game that was meant to be played using Kinect.
• It was an anticipated title, but its E3 presentation was horrendous and was met with intense criticism.
• The team working on the game took it to heart and they didn’t know how to continue working on the game.
• However, they rallied and continued to work on the game and finished it.
• Later, the game wasn’t received too well since it just wasn’t fun, and it currently has a 4.7/10 and a 7.2/10 rating on IMDb and IGN, respectively.

Fable: The Journey was supposed to be a much better game than it turned out to be, and the criticism that it received at E3 was far too much for its developers to handle. The feedback was harsh and it left the developers wondering if they should even continue working on the game. In the end, they pulled through and continued working on it.

Players planted 1 million flags in Fable 3: Kingmaker in 2010.

(Source: Video Gamer)

• Kingmaker is a companion game that works in tandem with Fable 3.
• It worked similarly to Pokemon Go, where players can mark real-world locations and earn gold to use in Fable 3 whenever they would visit the location.
• The game had over 60,000 players at the time.
• There were two factions in the game — Rebels and Royals.

This is a bit random, but it’s still something nice to point out for the Fable series because of Kingmaker, a real-life interactive game where fans of the Fable franchise from all around the world were able to come together and strengthen their faction. There isn’t much more to say about Kingmaker other than it was a fantastic way to get the fans engaged with the franchise.

To sum up

Alright, that would be all we have to say about the Fable series and everything it has given to the gaming community over the last decade. The best fantasy RPG games have a grand scope, excellent storyline, and a sense of wonder that follows you throughout all of the titles. Even though Fable’s history has been far from perfect, and it has had its ups and downs, we are looking ahead to a brighter future as we expect Playground Games to create something excellent through Fable 4. We sincerely hope that you have enjoyed the content we have provided here and that you have learned something new about this legendary series.