How many copies did Sonic the Hedgehog sell? — 2023 statistics

The Sonic the Hedgehog series has sold over 95.4 million copies across all of the games.

(Source: VG Chartz)

• Sonic 3D Blast sold 700,000+ copies.
• Sonic Adventure sold 2.5 million copies.
• Sonic Heroes sold 4.58+ million copies.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) sold 2.69 million copies.
• Sonic and the Secret Rings sold 3 million copies.
• Sonic and the Black Knight sold 1.2 million copies.
• Sonic Colors sold 4 million copies.
• Sonic Generations sold 1.85 million copies.
• Sonic Lost World sold 710,000 copies.
• Sonic Frontiers sold 2.9 million copies.
• Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit) sold 15+ million copies.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (16-bit) sold 6+ million copies.
• Sonic the Hedgehog CD sold 1.5 million copies.
• Sonic Rush Adventure sold 1.2 million copies.
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I sold 1+ million copies.
• Sonic Mania sold 1+ million copies.

Wow, that’s a lot of games… And to think, these are just the games that have available sales numbers. The actual number of Sonic games sold is probably much, much higher, but we simply don’t have a way to find out. Either way, this is enough to prove that this is one of the most popular gaming franchises in history and it continues pulling epic numbers.

The Sonic the Hedgehog series has grossed over $1.5 billion in revenue.

(Source: TheGamer)

• This number includes both digital and physical sales on all platforms.
• Sonic has beaten even the Pokemon franchise in terms of game revenue.
• There are no franchises related to SEGA that come even close to Sonic, with the nearest franchise being the Total War series at 40.4 million sales.

This is a good number for you to form a perspective on just how popular the Sonic the Hedgehog series is as $1.5 billion is a massive number and it is even higher than the lifetime revenue of Pokemon, one of the biggest intellectual properties ever. There is no telling where our little blue friend is heading in the future, but it can only be up!

Sonic Frontiers reached 2.5 million sales in its first month.

(Source: Eurogamer)

• The game had 3 million total sales at the time of writing.
• The total sales of the Sonic franchise totaled 5.8 million in 2021.
• Sonic Frontiers managed to accumulate over half of an entire year’s sales in a single month.

This was the point where everyone could see just how much of a success the newest Sonic game would be in the future, as it managed to soar past 50% of the total franchise sales from the previous year in just one month. This means that SEGA hit it right on the nail and that they have found something that works quite well for the Sonic franchise at present.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is the highest-grossing video game movie of all time in the U.S.

(Sources: Game Informer, Deadline, NintendoLife)

• The movie has grossed over $400 million at the global box office.
• $190.6 million of that figure comes from the domestic box office and $209.5 million from the international box office.
• The movie debuted in April with $71 million in gross revenue.
• The first Sonic movie grossed about $320 million globally but failed to perform better on account of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Aside from video games, Sonic also finds himself running circles around the film industry as well. The second movie in the soon-to-be trilogy performed amazingly well, much better than its predecessor, although it isn’t fair to say that Sonic the Hedgehog was a flop. On the contrary, the movie also performed quite well, it was just slowed down by the pandemic.

The Sonic movies will become a trilogy.

(Sources: TrueAchievements, The Hollywood Reporter, The Gamer)

• SEGA confirmed that a third Sonic movie will come out at the end of 2024.
• The drive to produce a third movie came following the massive success of Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
• An original series for Paramount+ was also mentioned.
• The main competition for Sonic the Hedgehog 3 will be James Cameron’s Avatar 3.

We’ve already mentioned this in the previous line of stats, but yeah, it has been confirmed that the film industry will be blessed with another Sonic the Hedgehog movie in the future, which we expect to be just as good, if not better than the first two. At this point, it’s also important to note that Sonic is also likely branching into Paramount+, just like it did with Netflix.

Sonic Frontiers was the biggest launch in Japan in 18 years.

(Sources: Twisted Voxel, GameRant)

• It is also the biggest franchise release since Sonic Heroes in 2003.
• The game has sold over 40,000 copies in Japan.
• That is the biggest release since Sonic Adventures 2 which sold 84,000 units.

This is another area where the Sonic franchise has been improving with Sonic Frontiers as Japanese gamers are not the target audience of the games, but Western gamers. Sonic games usually do not sell too well in Japan anyway, with the best Sonic-related performance being in 2001 with Sonic Adventures 2. This is a good sign for the Sonic franchise going further as the performance of Sonic Frontiers could boost future game sales.

SEGA brought 12 old Sonic titles to the Nintendo Switch in June 2023.

(Source: Pocket Tactics)

• The company announced a bundle called Sonic Origins Plus which is available for the Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
• It comes with the following titles:
• Dr. Robotnik’s Mean Bean Machine
• Sonic Blast
• Sonic Chaos
• Sonic Drift
• Sonic Drift 2
• Sonic Labyrinth
• Sonic Spinball
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic the Hedgehog 2
• Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble
• Tails Adventure
• Tails’ Skypatrol
• The price for the physical and digital editions cost $39.99, while the expansion pack for current owners of the base game is $9.99.
• The bundle also comes with a 20-page art book and a reversible coversheet of more art.

A good way of retaining new players and bringing back long-time fans that have avoided new releases is to bring old titles back to new consoles. That is exactly what SEGA is doing by re-introducing 12 Sonic titles to multiple platforms. This way, players can enjoy a wide variety of Sonic games without any issues.

Yuji Naka, co-creator of the Sonic series pleaded guilty to insider trading.

(Source: Engadget)

• The developer bought 10,000 shares in Aiming, a game production company after learning that they were working with Square Enix on Dragon Quest Tact.
• The shares were worth approximately $20,000.
• Naka learned about Dragon Quest Tact being in development during his time at Square Enix, prompting him to invest in Aiming.
• He sued Square Enix for removing him as Balan Wonderland’s director six months before the game came out.
• He wasn’t the only former Square Enix employee to be arrested for insider trading.

This is a bit of a dark spot on the legacy of the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Behavior like this, while the creator’s actions are not in direct relation to SEGA and the Sonic franchise, is entirely unacceptable. Naka helped bring one of the biggest gaming franchises to life, and to see his stoop down to petty crimes like these is just disappointing. Be better, Naka.

Sonic Frontiers performed so well that the team working on it received a 15% salary increase.

(Source: Game Reactor)

• Bonuses for employees were partially incorporated into salaries.
• The company’s aim was to further stabilize employee income and create a comfortable working environment.
• With this, they have the goal of creating a healthy environment to improve productivity and maintain the quality of their games.

Another bright spot for the gaming industry! We’ve talked about the massive wave of layoffs at Microsoft in our Halo segment, which were sad and disappointing to see in any respect. However, Nintendo recently announced that its employees would be receiving average salary increases of 10%, but they were later increased by 15% instead. Moves like these are crucial for a company to succeed since happy workers are more likely to produce better results.

SEGA’s profits increased by 15.6% as it recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Source: Games Industry)

• SEGA reported net sales of $2.5 billion, which was a 15.6% increase compared to 2021.
• Its Entertainment Contents division reported net sales of $1.8 billion, which was an 8.3% year-on-year increase.
• Operating income rose by 392% to $248 million, while their ordinary income rose by 1,858% to $258 million.
• This was attributed to the recovery of SEGA’s other businesses.
• SEGA also streamlined its business by cutting ties with the Japanese arcade scene after 56 years.

Here, we have some statistics relating to the overall success of SEGA following the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic. The company struggled for a bit due to a change in the way things worked because of the virus, but as it passed and things began improving, so did SEGA’s financial status. They had solid profit increases in multiple sectors, but most notably in the ordinary income sector, which rose by 1,858%. Overall, massive improvements across the board.

To sum up

This is the point where we have to relinquish our rings as our run is done. That’s all we have to say about the Sonic the Hedgehog series and we really hope that you are satisfied with what we’ve had to say. Of course, since the series has 32 mainline games we could not talk about each one in more detail, so we focused more on the newer releases. That must be why you’re here, after all. We can’t wait to see what’s in store next for this legendary series, so be sure that we’ll update this with any and all new information that pops up.