What is the Best Selling Sports Video Game Franchise?

By Amelia Walker Senior Content Writer Updated: 03 March 2023

Amelia Walker Senior Content Writer

Amelia Walker is a Senior Content Writer at Betting.US. She has a law degree and deep knowledge of the gambling laws in the United States. Her mission is to keep players informed about responsible gambling, while her passion for sports helps her create useful guides. Amelia has over a decade of experience in betting, which has positioned her as a trusted voice among our readers.

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Best Selling Sports Video Game

Since the birth of video game consoles, sports games have proven themselves to be a major attraction with gamers. If you’re wondering about the best selling sports video game franchise in history, this post is for you. We’re going to show you the five best selling sports game series – and tell you a bit about each game.

• The Best Selling Sports Video Game Franchise
• What IS The Most Popular Sports Video Game?
• FIFA – EA Sports
• Madden NFL – EA Sports
• NBA 2K – 2K Sports
• Pro Evolution Soccer – Konami
• NBA Live – EA Sports
• Other Notable Mentions
• Frequently Asked Questions

Best Selling Sports Video Game Franchise

It’s fairly easy to calculate the best selling sports video game franchise in history. You simply need to look at the number of sales each franchise has made! Most of the games we’ll be looking at on this page probably won’t surprise you, but there may be one or two that stand out. Let’s get started by looking at what the highest selling sports video game actually is.

What Is The Most Popular Sports Video Game?

It probably won’t come as any surprise to learn that FIFA from EA Sports is the most popular sports video game. This award-winning game has seen some 38 different editions produced, and it’s famous all around the world.

We’re going to begin this page with a closer look at the FIFA series of games. Later, we’ll look at the four other popular sports video games with the highest sales figures – and we’ll also show you some of the other games that didn’t quite make the top five list but have still enjoyed insane sales figures.

FIFA – EA Sports

Soccer is the most popular game in the world – and even in the USA, where it has been a notoriously unpopular sport in the past, it’s starting to gain popularity. FIFA, produced by EA Sports, is by far the best-selling sports video game franchise of all time, and it’s estimated that billions of people have played this game throughout the course of its life. The first edition of FIFA was released all the way back in 1993, and since then, 38 different editions have been developed!

The original game was called FIFA International Soccer and it was designed for the Sega Genesis console. Today, things have evolved quite a lot, and the game is available in 18 different languages! According to EA Sports, they’ve sold 325 million copies of the game in more than 50 countries, and this one franchise alone has generated a staggering $20 billion in sales in the last two decades.

Interestingly, the stock price of EA Sports has grown more than 2,000 percent since the first FIFA game was released – and when you compare this to the S&P 500, which is up around 800% for the same period – it really highlights the importance of the game for the brand.

However, things are soon going to get shaken up – and that’s because the partnership between FIFA and EA Sports is officially coming to an end in 2023. EA Sports has essentially lost its license to the FIFA name, and while the games will still be made, they will be released under a different name.

If you’re a fan of soccer and like betting on matches, make sure to check out our top-rated soccer online sportsbooks.

Madden NFL – EA Sports

While Madden isn’t the number one best-selling sports franchise game in the world, it comes pretty close – ranking number two on this list. However, some fans would argue that it’s equally as influential as the FIFA series of games – and the story behind the game’s development is fascinating.

EA Sports was initially turned down by Joe Montana when they approached him about developing a game, because he already had a deal with Atari. EA went to John Madden, instead – and he agreed to the idea! Their first edition of Madden NFL was released in 1988, and it was designed for the Commodore 64, Apple II, and MS-DOS. To date, the franchise has sold around 130 million copies, been released in 42 different editions, and estimates put sales at around $4 billion!

EA Sports is estimated to make $600 million each year from the game. However, it hasn’t always been easy – the first edition of the game reportedly took seven years to make before it was released! Make sure to check out our recommended NFL betting sites if you’re interested in betting on NFL matches!

NBA 2K – 2K Sports

NBA 2K was first released in 1998, and the original game was designed for the Sega Dreamcast console. Today, it’s the world’s third best-selling video game series of all time. Originally, Sega Sports and Visual Studios produced the game, but after Take-Two acquired Visual Studios from Sega in 2005 for $24 million, they’ve produced all subsequent versions.

Estimates put daily playing figures at around 2.3 million which is a huge figure when you think about it. To date, there have been 27 different editions of the game, and it’s sold more than 123 million copies. Fans like the realistic-looking graphics, individual player attributes, and customizable options within the game.

Pro Evolution Soccer – Konami

Back in the day, Pro Evolution Soccer was the main competitor to EA Sports’ FIFA. PES had managed to get Lionel Messi to be on the game’s front cover between 2009-2011, and the game was designed – on purpose – to be very different from FIFA. It was meant to offer a more realistic, slower, and smoother gaming experience than FIFA, and the developers Konami also wanted it to include more elements of strategy.

While it lost in the race against FIFA, Pro Evolution Soccer is still going strong – and it comes in at number four on this list. They’ve sold some 112 million copies of the game, and it’s been released in 21 editions. The first edition was released back in 2001 on the PlayStation 2.

However, Konami appears to have largely turned its attention to mobile gaming. The mobile version of PES (eFootball) has amassed over 500 million downloads since 2017.

NBA Live – EA Sports

NBA Live is the fifth most popular sports game in the world, and that means that three out of the top five games on this page have been produced by EA Games! However, the inclusion of NBA Live on this list may surprise some people. While it did incredibly well from the late 90s to the early 2000s, it started to see a decline in popularity after 2010 and NBA 2K became the clear market leader.

In fact, EA Sports even canceled the game in 2013, 2017, and 2020 – although it keeps coming back, so the sales must be good! The game is reported to have sold over 95 million copies, and the first edition was released back in 1994, for the MS-DOS, Genesis, and Super NES platforms.

Notable Mentions

Most of the franchises on this page are titles that you probably expected to see show up. However, there are some other notable names missing and we’re going to show you a few of the other best-selling sports video game franchises of all time, below.