The history of Sonic The Hedgehog is one of peaks and valleys. Easily its most prominent peak was in the 90s when the character was born. He was made to contrast the Nintendo icon Mario, so SEGA made him fast, mouthy, blue, and sure his games were not like his counterpart. As a result, SEGA found an icon they could pin their consoles on, and it worked! At first, at least. The original set of Sonic titles is hailed as legendary games today. But once the market shifted into the 3D space, Sonic’s games started to lose their sheen and quality. Something the fans didn’t like at all.

Despite all of this, SEGA has released a new sales figure for the franchise and claims that overall, the games have passed over 1.5 billion units played. At first, that sounds very impressive. However, some key details need to be noted to give the full context. Because while the figure does include all the mainline and spinoff titles that Sonic has starred in, it also features the series’s mobile games. Why should that matter? Because many of those mobile games are free to play. They have microtransactions that you can pay for, but the game itself is free, and if one person downloaded it, that counts toward the overall total.

To that end, one of those free titles, Sonic Dash, passed over 500 million downloads in 2021. So that means just this mobile title made up 1/3 of the units played. That’s impressive, but it doesn’t put the series in the best light.

That said, gaming-wise, things could be turning around for Sonic The Hedgehog. After all, we’re only a few weeks away from the release of Sonic Frontiers. The newest mainline game is one that SEGA and Sonic Team have been hyping up for months—even going so far as to say that this could be the catalyst for future titles in the series.

Recent gameplay trailers highlight the fast speed of combat and the open-world aesthetic that players can indulge in. It’s been a while since the blue blur had a game that fans and critics agreed was good, so this may start a new trend.

Even when you don’t count the games, it’s hard to call Sonic a failure in recent times. The two live-action movies that were released in the last few years were not only impressive, but they were also incredibly successful financially. So much so that a third movie has already been approved, and a spinoff featuring Knuckles is in development.

Additionally, a new animated series on Netflix is coming in December. So if things keep on this trajectory, the franchise will be overwhelmingly successful, and in a place it hasn’t been since the 90s.

Source: VGC