Like all major players in video games, SEGA has just released its latest financial results. But while some, like Nintendo, take stock of sales of certain games, Sonic House likes to update overall stats for its major series. This enables an inventory of the license hierarchy at the publisher with the blue logo.
SEGA has just updated the sales and attendance figures for its main series. This information was in the. spreadIntegrated report from SEGA Sammy for the year 2021. This allows us to take stock of the situation of the most important Japanese licenses of the publisher such as Sonic, Yakuza, Persona, Puyo Puyo. But not only. His major PC series such as Total War and Football Manager are also affected.
Sonic boom
Unsurprisingly, Sonic remains king at SEGA. A total of 1.38 billion games have been sold or downloaded since the first Sonic the Hedgehog was released in 1991. However, the publisher states that this number includes both games sold and free-to-play title downloads.
Since SEGA didn’t sell 240 million Sonic games in a year, that increase must be largely related to free-to-play downloads. However, the popularity of the blue hedgehog on a global scale remains undisputed. And the arrival of new titles, as well as the film’s sequel, should keep Sonic in the spotlight.
Puyo Puyo has reached 35 million since SEGA acquired the license in 1998. This total includes game sales, F2P downloads, and IDs recorded on arcade terminals. The increase is three million since SEGA’s release of last year’s report.
Yakuza, a SEGA series that is doing well
The yakuza series has seen a big boom in a year. By the end of 2020, the series created by Toshihiro Nagoshi had racked up 14 million copies sold (including physical and dematerialized games). A year later there are 17 million. The multiplication of the platforms the Yakuza are available on, as well as their availability on Xbox Game Pass, has certainly contributed to this surge in statistics.
The Sakura Wars series, more discreet to the west, has also seen an increase in its number. F2P game sales and downloads increased from 4.1 million to 5.7 million in one year.
Interesting detail, Virtua Fighter is on the board here. The famous fighting game series was actually missing from the document published in late 2020. The release of Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown last June is certainly not for nothing. According to SEGA, Virtua fighters are therefore more than 18 million. This also includes game sales, F2P downloads, and IDs registered on arcade terminals.
At the end of the SEGA First Party Games, a word about taking part in Phantasy Star games. At the end of 2020, Phantasy Star Online 2 had 5.5 million users in Japan alone. By the end of 2021, Phantasy Star Online 2 and Phantasy Star Online 2 New Genesis had 9 million users worldwide.
Atlus on the bus!
Also note that SEGA divides its table into three categories. The first concerns the licenses it creates. The second corresponds to the licenses acquired and the third to the third-party licenses it operates. As for the second category, Atlus and PC licenses are logically suggested.
The Shin Megami Tensei series, launched in 1992, has now sold or downloaded 17.7 million games (including F2P game downloads). This total was 17.4 million at the end of 2020, which is a slight increase. With Shin Megami Tensei V releasing on Switch in a matter of days, it’s a safe bet that that total will rise in the coming year.
Another star on Atlus’ side, the Persona series. The latter has now sold 15 million games (including dematerialized sales) since 1996. Despite the lack of new releases since the end of December 2021, almost 2 million additional personas were sold in one year.
On PC, series and a key sector for SEGA
In the PC world, too, growth in the millions is measured. As of November 2021, the Total War series sold 37.8 million games (including digital copies). This corresponds to an increase of 3.5 million since the end of 2020.
The Football Manager license continues to enjoy great popularity. The Integrated Report 2021 puts it at 24 million games sold (including dematerialized copies). The growth here is 2 million copies in one year.
As for the third and last category, the Hatsune Miku series stands out. In fact, SEGA speaks of 11.5 million games (including F2P) sold or downloaded since 2009. Here, too, the jump in one year is considerable, with 6.4 million at the end of 2020.
As all of these numbers show, SEGA’s year-over-year game sales are not based solely on new releases. The publisher also states that sales of games from its catalog are increasing. In his opinion, the latter are one of the most important pillars of commercial performance.
SEGA also believes that the growth of the subscription gaming services market will help further promote its games. He expects his productions to be exploited longer in the future.
What do you think of these statistics on SEGA license sales and popularity? Does any of them surprise you? What do you think the Japanese publisher can do to further increase the popularity of its series? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
Table of Contents
