Halo Tops, Mario Sixth
As reported by Kotaku, Guinness has revealed its top 50 game franchise. A list to vote on was originally published in the 2010 Guinness Book of Records Gamer’s Edition.
The vote was turned over to Guinness readers instead of industry professionals and critics. An online poll placed the top 50, and because of that, the Halo franchise takes the top spot for this year. The Sonic franchise ranked 15th overall–below Super Mario Bros. and Pokémon but ahead of Pac-Man, Final Fantasy, and WWE Smackdown vs. RAW. Yes, that last one did place.
The full list is available for your review below.
1. Halo
2. Call of Duty
3. The Legend of Zelda
4. Guitar Hero
5. Metal Gear
6. Super Mario Bros.
7. World of Warcraft
8. Gears of War
9. Super Smash Bros.
10. Grand Theft Auto
11. Pokemon
12. Resident Evil
13. Fallout
14. Half-Life
15. Sonic the Hedgehog
16. Counter-Strike
17. Runescape
18. FIFA
19. Kingdom Hearts
20. Final Fantasy
21. Pac-Man
22. Madden NFL
23. The Sims
24. Tomb Raider
25. WWE Smackdown vs. RAW
26. Rock Band
27. LittleBigPlanet
28. Saints Row
29. The Elder Scrolls
30. God of War
31. GoldenEye 007
32. BioShock
33. KillZone
34. Skate
35. Left 4 Dead
36. Need for Speed
37. Chrono Trigger
38. Gran Turismo
39. StarCraft
40. Ratchet & Clank
41. Pong
42. Tom Clancy’s
43. Star Wars: Battlefront
44. Battlefield
45. Diablo
46. Lego Batman
47. Mario Kart
48. Burnout
49. Crash Bandicoot
50. Pro Evolution Soccer
Loading ...
Um, Tristan, this book has been out since Janurary.
Crash Bandicoot is there yheeee
, Sonic Unleashed should be there too in the top ten in my opinion, but so far so good 
Next-gen is there 
sonic unleashed (su): It’s not a list of games it’s a list of franchises so the only way for sonic unleashed to be up there is for it to be it’s own franchise(or spinoff) and that’s not next gen that’s just sonic the hedgehog in general.
What an…awful list. Lego Batman is on there? Seriously? And Runescape? At 17, over Final Fantasy!? For shame.
I am VERY, and I mean VERY disappointed in the list; not only are Donkey Kong Country ,Roller Coaster Tycoon, Street Fighter,SimCity or the Civilization Series not in there but LEGO Batman IS!
What, the freaking CRAP!?!?!
There is only 1 LEGO Batman game, that [IMO] does not categorize it as a franchise.
Oh dear oh dear.
And even though I don’t like the Final Fantasy Series myself(I prefer Adventure games over RPGs) I realize it’s big series, and the fact that they put RUNESCAPE before it, is absolutely wretched!
Guinness, you disappoint me.
@ Sonic Unleashed (SU)
This is franchises, not games. Sonic 06 is not on there.
And how the hell is Halo, Call of Duty, and those other crappy games higher than Super Mario!? Mario popularized video games. He shouldn’t even be on the list! He’s too good for a list!
Mario sucks so much ass its unbelievable, I really can’t understand how anyone can even like him, it’s as if the world is oblivious to the fact that he is a nob and should just die already – if any franchise should be laid to rest it’s mario not sonic!
Sonic should of at least made it in 10th place and as for Halo getting tops? Overrated piece of flaming bullshit. Mario should of be at #1. Hell! He has sold even more than Halo in sales and honestly, how does one game count as a franchise? Lego Batman? This list is god awful. Not even official.
Ooh man, this list is all kinds of tragic. This is what happens when you let the internets vote.
LEGO Batman and Goldeneye007 my favorite game franchises.
That list may be the funniest thing to come out this week, pretty obvious that some of these were voted up by kids and people that have only played like 5 or less games in their lives.
@Dan LOL!!! I like that you treat your opinion as fact, your an idiot good sir
Halo is number 1 because of Microsoft’s massive efforts to market it as a huge brand image, they even went to as far to compare it to Star Wars at E3 a couple years back. the people polled may not have been huge gamers so they subconsciously picked Halo because it was drilled into their heads as the biggest thing in gaming because of the so far unmatched in scope marketing campaign.
I suppose you could give them the benefit of the doubt and say that “LEGO Batman” represents the entire licenced LEGO series (including Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and the upcoming Harry Potter). It’s the lack of METROID on this list that bugs me. And the general order, of course. Halo #1, my ass. Obviously, Guiness gets a LOT of traffic from mainstream gamers, and probably a good number of non-gamers who for some odd reason felt compelled to vote and just picked buzz word titles.
Sonic the Hedgehog>>>>>Final Fantasy?
You mean a blue Hedgehog is better than a Grey-haired Mama’s Boy?
■sonicsmashkirby@: oh ok my bad dude lol.
I agree with Dan too
@Dan: Sounds like somebody’s still stuck in the 90′s.
Yeah, I remember seeing this. I have the book myself. Considering its harsh descent into and slow rise from mediocrity in recent times, I wasn’t too surprised that Sonic was placed in the #15 spot.
wow! Awesome! The Sonic series is 15th, not bad, and Halo is 1st?!? jesus… good work Bungie
who here thinks I should go along with this idea for LittleBigPlanet?
Ahem,
“Sonic The Hedgehog: Green Hill Zone Act 1. To unlock next act ratings must be good and hearts atleast 10. Level will be republished with a KEY to Act 2 and next amount will be requierd for Act 3…”
Of course It sounds abit like blackmail, but better ALOT better than wasting your time making a level and seeing no one plays it…
Well what do you think? Good or Bad?
PS: My level should be hopefully going up sometime tonight LBP users. If I can get round to my aunts and use the internet and if it dosn`t go on & off… lol.
Guinness, next time, leave “Top #” lists to professionals, not random smucks who don’t know sqwat about gaming.
This list fails on so many levels… It’s irritating.
wow….this list is…terrible. Just shows you what kind of readers Guinness have. I mean theres not even street fighter on there (Im no big street fighter fan but the series is massively popular) but Lego batman and Runescape are……RUNESCAPE!? WTF. I just cant wrap my head around that. This list was created by the 10 year olds you get on Xbox Live. Thats the only explanation I can come up with. I mean…just…Runescape!
They were high when they made this list. Runescape got an higher place than Final Fantasy!? I think FF should have made the top ten. Sometimes I wounder how stupid people are. But as long as Mario don’t get the first place I’m happy, he’s really overrated, if he wasn’t overrated it would be okay if he got the first place or something. I’m glad Halo is on the first place, it’s at least something good.
@Dan: GET OUT.
What the hell is with this list and the other Nintendo franchises are not in this that proves that Nintendo isn’t focusing on them…
Lego batman above mario kart???? RunESCAPE???? and wtf guitar hero so high.. thats just a fun family game. And where’s metroid??? Bullshittt
Hahahaha.
This is hilarious how many ridiculous comments I see.
They let an internet poll take place for their list. What else do you expect? Frankly, I myself am a little ticked that Mario had not ranked higher. And yes, I am very perturbed by the fact that nothing else that was good from Nintendo had not ranked at all. Where the hell is Metroid? Ratchet and Clank in #40? That series has seen nothing but good days unlike the blue dude (unfortunately)… That and the games have stayed fun.
Runescape on the list? Don’t be too surprised. Too many kids play this shitty game. Yes, they should have gone straight to the pros for the list, but they didn’t.
Go on with the complaints.
15?, this list is bull shit, (Halo the first?…)
(EDIT – Inflammatory -T)
@ Blueblur
Please post these comments on the Sonic Showcase section of The Sonic Stadium. Your comment has nothing to do with this story
*copy/paste with a little edit*
Let me tell you this for starters, I don’t hate Halo, I hate the fans. They are the issue.
Which is why Halo got #1.
The fans are not very good at times. They’re why I will not play an Xbox or on Live. They’re as bad as certain Sonic fans. You know who they are. (there are some in these very comments but I’m not naming anyone)
Call of Duty has this same issue but it’s a realistic war game. I’d find Halo more fun seeming then this. But I like Sci-Fi stuff sometimes.
So in short if this book sucks, it’s mostly the fans fault.
We all know Fangirls ruin everything but male fans also ruin things too. Since games like Halo and COD do have mostly male players. Not all of them, just most.
I stopped reading as soon as I saw the first two spots.
Why the hell is Devil May Cry not here?
Call of Duty……… what has this world come to?!
Oh, so Crash Bandicoot’s still hanging in there, huh? That’s good.
@edge: well sorry if im changing the subject from boring old sonic news and not moaning about the stupid story u idiot! >:-(
One of my biggest pet peeves is when they refer to WoW like it wasn’t already an established franchise.
Mario… Six?
I now believe in 2012.
This unholy list needs to be burned.