Sega's latest financial statement claims that the sales for the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise have surpassed over 1.5 billion. It's no secret that this franchise has been through huge ups and downs both critically and commercially throughout the past three decades, but it has still managed to remain a relevant gaming icon despite it all. With the Sonic franchise's bright future seeming to be coming around, this has translated into quite a number of sales.
The Sega report covered everything that was released between the end of March 2021 to the end of March 2022, with some interesting financial statistics. This includes the sales milestones of the Persona franchise, along with other in-house IPs from the company. Sonic the Hedgehog was also discussed quite a bit in this report, with it covering quite a number of media that the franchise has been utilized in. This includes the latest cinematic films, along with a variety of video games.
The report states that the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise has surpassed 1.5 billion units sold. However, it notes that this includes both full games and downloads of games that are free-to-play, muddying the statistics a little. Sega has released a number of mobile titles ever since 2013, with games such as Sonic Dash, Sonic Runners, Sonic Forces: Speed Battle, and more. The number of downloads for these free games along with microtransactions likely contributed to these high numbers of sales, with Sonic Forces: Speed Battle for example reportedly passing 94 million downloads in April 2022.
With this data in mind, this is an increase from the last fiscal year, along with a reported 1.4 million sales forecasted for 2023. This report from Sega did note some strategies that will increase the IP's growth and build on its worldwide appeal. Carrying on the momentum from the Sonic movies, Sega will be utilizing the IP in a variety of ways, such as collaborations with other popular games and licensing in areas like toys and merchandise. Specific examples were brought up in this report, where Sonic has collaborated with games that have worldwide appeal, such as Minecraft, Roblox, and Fall Guys.
This report also notes that with the Sonic fanbase now growing even larger due to the recent success of the films, there will be strategies to utilize the IP in creating new games to increase profits. The company will be utilizing a strategy that releases a mix of media utilizing the IP, emphasized with both the upcoming launch of Sonic Frontiers and the Sonic Prime animated show. Sega also notes that it hopes that this strategy can be applied to other IPs outside of Sonic the Hedgehog that can lead to similar success.