The PlayStation brand would never have been as successful as it is today had it not been for the value it derives from its exclusive games and franchises. Some have gone on to become multiplatform series, but the bulk of their success has still been built on their original brand.
There are certain other franchises that have always been on PlayStation consoles, seeing so much commercial success that they’ve comfortably outsold multiplatform games. With the PS5 still in its early days, it’s worth checking out the franchises that have pushed the PlayStation brand to the topmost position in the gaming industry.
Updated September 9, 2021 by Tom Bowen: Given how much of the PS4's success can be attributed to its fantastic selection of exclusive titles, it's little surprise to see Sony taking a similar approach with its latest console. God of War: Ragnarok, Horizon Forbidden West, and Final Fantasy 16 are just three of the big PS5 exclusives expected to land in 2022, though they certainly won't be the last. The best PlayStation exclusive franchises have sold hundreds of millions of units between them since the release of the PS1 in the mid-nineties and will likely sell hundreds of millions more before the PS5 is finally put out to pasture.
12 Spyro: 20 Million
The Spyro series started out on the PS1, featuring an entire trilogy of games before going multiplatform. These were the franchise’s best days as well, with most of the 20 million copies sold coming around this time. The number is even more impressive considering the smaller userbase for consoles at that time.
The platforming series was also very critically acclaimed during the days of its original trilogy, which is most likely why customers decided to purchase the games in such numbers. Decades later, the overall tally still stands at the top level.
11 Singstar: 20 Million
While never the biggest critical darling, the Singstar series certainly had a tight grip on the casual fanbase back in the day. The fact that it sold as many as 20 million copies is a testament to this success. In truth though, with its karaoke-style gameplay, there was very little that could go wrong.
Sadly, the rise of casual games on the Nintendo platform and the oversaturation of the genre, in general, led to Singstar being sidelined. Still, the final tally of sales is enough for the series to have its name in the history books as a success for the PlayStation brand.
10 The Last Of Us: 24 Million
Impressively, The Last of Us sold more as a remaster on the PS4 than it did as a brand new game on the PS3. The second game’s penchant for hard-hitting weapons and its deep storyline also proved to be a successful formula, as it piled on the number of units for the series.
Despite consisting of just two games in, The Last of Us franchise has sold more than 24 million copies worldwide. It might take a long time for a new entry to give this figure a massive boost, but the second game continues to sell well, so, even without a third title, this total is sure to see a raise.
9 Tomb Raider - 26 Million+
Though Lara's first outing actually debuted on the Sega Saturn before the PS1, that didn't stop the tomb-raiding treasure hunter from becoming the face of Sony's first home console. The first five Tomb Raider games sold just shy of 26 million units between them, making the series the second best-selling franchise on the console.
After Microsoft released its Xbox console, the series became multiplatform, making it difficult to track how many additional units have been sold since then. Square Enix did reveal that the series has sold more than 81 million units in 2020 though, so it's incredibly likely that tens of millions of additional sales have been made on PlayStation consoles since the PS1 era.
8 Spider-Man: 26.5 Million
What’s incredible about the success of Insomniac’s Spider-Man games isn’t the number of plot holes it ignores, but the fact that the vast majority of its sales have come from one title alone. Spider-Man PS4 sold a whopping 20 million copies in its first few years on the market and continues to perform strongly to this day.
Spider-Man: Miles Morales couldn’t replicate the success of the original, although it has managed to snag an additional six and a half million or so units to boost the franchise’s total sales numbers. With more sequels expected, the series is definitely going to climb much higher in the future.
7 Ratchet & Clank: 27.1 Million
Considering the series has now been going on for two decades, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that earlier Ratchet & Clank games show a 26 million units figure for itself. Although the bulk of these numbers relate to a few precious titles, the franchise definitely has legs.
After a number of critical duds, the franchise went dormant for some time before returning with the acclaimed reimagining. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart seems to have built upon the previous title’s goodwill, selling more than a million units in its first six weeks even in spite of the limited install base of the PS5.
6 Uncharted: 44.02 Million
There have been some rumblings about the lack of morals Nathan Drake displayed during the series, but that hasn’t stopped fans from purchasing new games and checking out what the character is up to in each entry. A cool 44.02 million has even been touted by Sony themselves.
This is a superb achievement for a game that was unknown when Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune first launched as a PS3 title. Since then, the franchise has seen growth all the way up until Uncharted 4, which, for the moment, at least, seems destined to be the last of Nathan Drake's epic outings.
5 Tekken: 50 Million
It's worth noting that the overall figure is boosted quite a bit by recent multiplatform titles like Tekken 6 and Tekken 7, but the Tekken series was a PlayStation exclusive for three generations prior to its Xbox debut. Its inclusion of some of the best fighters during this era also helped.
As many as six games were exclusive to PlayStation consoles and achieved massive sales success. The recent games have benefitted from multi-platform releases to see a 50 million sales figure achievement for the iconic fighting game series.
4 Crash Bandicoot: 50 Million
The series seemed to have peaked in its critically acclaimed days with Naughty Dog, with Activision releasing a variety of titles that never really hit the mark. Still, the nostalgia proved to be strong as the N. Sane Trilogy sold well and the series got a boost to the 50 million mark in overall sales.
As many as 40 million of these sales came during the Naughty Dog days, proving the star power that the orange bandicoot commanded when the series was a PlayStation exclusive series. Crash Bandicoot 4 was nowhere near as successful despite its critical acclaim, but that's not to say that future Crash games couldn't still sell well.
3 God Of War: 51 Million
It’s guaranteed that God of War: Ragnarok will be a huge hit since fans are anxious to have their questions answered from the previous entry. Regardless, the God of War franchise is already a juggernaut, with an incredible 51 million units sold as every entry has been a commercial success.
Thanks to the reinvention of the series that arrived with God of War PS4, the franchise looks like it is here to stay with many more sequels likely on the way. For the time being, at least, the PlayStation brand can be proud in its support of a series that has seen half a century of sales success.
2 Final Fantasy: 52 Million
Having started life as a Nintendo exclusive, Final Fantasy made the leap to Sony's little gray box back in the mid-nineties. There, it's estimated to have sold over 25 million units alone, with around 40% of those coming from Final Fantasy 7 alone. In fact, the series' seventh and eighth entries are the second and fourth best selling PS1 games of all time respectively; demonstrated just how popular the series was in the mid to late nineties.
The series sold another 21 million units on the PS2, with Final Fantasy 10 (5th), Final Fantasy 12 (8th), and Final Fantasy 10-2 (11th) all among the console's best-selling games. After that, the series went multi-platform for a while, though with Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Final Fantasy 16 both being PlayStation exclusives at the time of writing, its current status isn't really clear.
1 Gran Turismo: 80 Million
It’s a shame the ridiculously long playthroughs of recent games have turned critics and fans off a bit, as the Gran Turismo series was Sony’s trump card not all that long ago. Even today though, every new entry is all but certain to sell enough for the series to see significant bumps in its sales total.
Of course, nobody can disregard a franchise that has sold upwards of 80 million units worldwide. With every PlayStation console seeing at least one Gran Turismo game, look for the PS5 to see a huge boost once the latest entry in this simulation series arrives.