The Longest Running Video Game Series

Key Takeaways

• Madden NFL tops the list with 44 games spanning 30 years.
• Megami Tensei boasts a staggering 96 games, including all spin-offs.
• Final Fantasy surpasses 100 games in its long legacy.

Video games have been around a good long while now. Not quite so long as movies, but long enough to have left a legacy. Starting back in 1958 with Tennis For Two, gaming has come a long way. No longer are we restricted to limited memory and low resolutions.

And in the 60-odd years since gaming first came around, some games have left a trail long enough to trace back to their origins. Many of those games are still around, while others trailed off into obscurity over the decades. Needless to say, there are quite a lot of games, and these are the ones that have been around the longest.

Updated 1st November, 2024 by Hilton Webster: Wow, there sure are a lot of games out there now, huh? Too many for one person to play honestly. Yet even when spoiled for choice with new series’, it’s so easy to fall on the comfort of a familiar series that has been running for so long that you can’t help but love it. Well we’ve given this article some heavy tidying so you can admire all these games for the long legacy they’ve built.

30

Madden NFL (1988) – 44 Games

A sports series which feels like it has been running since the dawn of gaming, Madden NFL has been ongoing for over thirty years. Madden NFL has steadily been releasing one new game every year for as many consoles as possible since 1988. On occasions, the series does deviate from this lucrative plans, releasing mobile versions, or a unique version of its game for the Nintendo 64 in 1997.

The result is 44 unique games, despite the franchise being only thirty years old. Despite having very little differences between iterations, it’s still sold over 130 million copies in total.

29

R.B.I. Baseball (1988) – 16 Games

The first R.B.I. Baseball, released in 1988, was a Tengen cartridge for NES, meaning that it was unlicensed by Nintendo. It was a port of a Japanese game and used the name of MLB players for added realism. The sequel, however, was its own thing, and the series kept building on its own name and engine until a 20-year hiatus, which started in 1996.

Though nowhere close to its former glory, new games are still being released to mediocre reviews, with 16 titles bearing the series’ name so far.

28

Megami Tensei (1987) – 96 Games

Another role-playing game series created in 1987, Megami Tensei spans many subgenres and birthed so many spin-offs that calculating the exact number of games in the series is a daunting task. There are 14 mainline games, but a frankly staggering amount of spin-offs if you count every other subseries.

Yep, in total you will have over 90 Megami Tensei games if you count the entirety of the series. It makes up the bulk of Atlus’ development efforts, while plenty other entries were outsourced, too. AT least we finally have Metaphor: ReFantazio to see what an Atlus game without all the Megami Tensei branding would look like.

27

Final Fantasy (1987) – 100+ Games

The incredibly popular Final Fantasy was first released in 1987 and named as such because Hironobu Sakaguchi, the series’ creator, was convinced that this would be his last effort in the gaming industry. The game was so successful that he just had to stay with his series.

The series sold another 100 million copies before Sakaguchi finally left Square. The series has since had 16 main entries, but has had so many spin-offs, including fighting games, racing games and strategy games, that you get approximately 100 titles once everything is tallied.

26

The Legend of Zelda (1987) – 46 Games

Looks like 1987 was a pretty strong year for the creation of blockbuster franchises. The Legend of Zelda was also created that year and has since captured the imagination of gamers at large and Nintendo fans in particular.

There has been a grand total of 46 entries in The Legend of Zelda since it first stepped onto the scene in 1987, with Nintendo finally creating a Zelda-helmed adventure of her own. It might not approach the numbers of some of Nintendo’s other series’, but it’s a great number for how how it’s existed all the same.

To complete the haul of legendary games which first appeared in 1987, we have Metal Gear, which was originally a top-down shooter released for the MSX2 computer in Japan. Later ported to the NES, the game was completely different from what the series would eventually become.

Now renowned for its stealth gameplay, as well as its endless cutscenes, the series has seen around 27 entries with all the various remakes, spin-offs, and compilations taken into account. Of course, the series has been on something of a hiatus since Metal Gear Solid Survive.

24

Darius (1987) – 12 Games

Darius might not be the most famous franchise on our list, but it’s one of the toughest ones to play. A series of shoot ‘em up games, it started in 1987 with a critically acclaimed arcade game, which was itself ported to numerous consoles.

To stand out from the crowd of shooting games, Darius used mirrors in its cabinet to give the illusion of a widescreen monitor way before such a thing was common. Since then, around 12 main entries have been created, with only a few ports and remakes to speak of.

23

Ys (1987) – 18 Games

Ys is an elder in the genre of Japanese RPGs, with the first game, Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished being released in 1987 for the NEC PC-8801 computer. Since then, the series has been fairly subdued, only producing 18 games over its 30+ years of existence.

These entries have mostly been met with critical success and praises from fans of the genre. More specifically, the series has often been lauded for its music, to the point where each game’s soundtrack was subsequently remixed and released individually.

22

Metroid (1986) – 14 Games

Since its 1986 origins, the Metroid series has only seen the release of 14 titles, a decent number of those games being remakes and spin-offs of the original. For a series that has been going on for such a long time, it’s a surprisingly small number, especially when comapred to other Nintendo series’.

Thankfully, the series got a second wing with the Samus Returns remake of Metroid 2, with Metroid Dread finally bringing us a proper sequel to Metroid Fusion. And now, Metroid Prime 4 is finally back on the radar. The future is, for the first time in a long while, looking bright for Metroid.

21

Castlevania (1986) – 32 Games

Still strong after all these years, the Castlevania series has come a long way since 1986. Though the 32 games in the series more often than not remain close in spirit to the original NES classic, Konami did try to bring the franchise into the 3D world a few times, to varying success.

It’s had great success in the multimedia side of things too, with an animated series, pachislot machines, endless collabs, and actually quite competent compilations. While a new game hasn’t been made in quite a few years, there’s always a chance its popularity will bring a new one into existence. Maybe.

20

Might and Magic (1986) – 40 Games

Starting in 1986, this RPG and Strategy series has been a favourite of PC gamers, standing out as one of the first popular games in its genre. The game’s world, immense for its time, was praised for its imagination and non-linearity.

Its success was such that it was eventually ported to many consoles through the years. The main Might & Magic series has only ten games to its name. However, if we include the many spin-offs, such as Heroes of Might & Magic, the number of games is closer to 40.

19

Family Stadium (1986) – 38 Games

One of Japan’s favourite baseball series, it has also been going on since 1986. There are 38 games in the series, with only one of them making it to the US. That game was renamed R.B.I. Baseball, so this one is closely linked with the earlier entry on our list.

Family Stadium distinguishes itself with its cartoonish graphics, as well as its arcade-style gameplay which emphasizes a fast pace over realism. Though it had been quiet since the days of the Wii, the series has recently made a comeback on Nintendo Switch.

18

Dragon Quest (1986) – 41 Games

Another series that found its footing in 1986, Dragon Quest has always been more popular in Japan, being something of a cultural phenomenon. Still, its popularity in the Western world has consistently increased every year, a marked difference from its days of being introduced as Dragon Warrior in the US and basically non-existent releases in the rest of the world.

Since then, the series has had plentiful mainline entries, and a growing number of spin-offs that are finally starting to see the world beyond Japan.

17

Carmen Sandiego (1985) – 27 Games

Turns out that the world has been looking for Carmen Sandiego since 1985, through 27 different titles, and over two dozens of systems and consoles. Though the TV show upstaged the game series for a while, the series always went back to its roots: new titles are released every few years,

The series even has a Netflix show now to compliment the many games it already has. It hasn’t showed any signs of slowing just yet though, so keep an eye out for just where you might find Carmen Sandiego next.

16

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (1985) – 29 Games

The first of these difficult tactical RPGs was released in 1985. Not all of them have been released outside of Japan, but a total of 29 games exist, with only 13 belonging to the main series. The rest are ports and crossovers.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms also birthed Dynasty Warriors, a series which has become so popular that it now has its own spin-offs to take care of. Interestingly, a series set in ancient China also has a crossover with Level 5’s Yo-kai Watch series, though it has been a Japanese exclusive so far.

15

Tetris (1985) – 150+ Games

You can’t really accurately define what a spin-off of Tetris would really be since the gameplay always remains the same. Only the music, backgrounds, and game modes come and go. Still, other games have worn the name despite being entirely different, such as Tetris Attack or Tetrisphere. Should these be counted?

Just remember that the series was created in 1984 and that, since then, so many ports and variants and versions have been released that it is impossible to accurately calculate how many of them were created. Just counting official variants, it’s safe to say that at least 150 versions exist.

14

Dragon Slayer (1984) – 60+ Games

The Dragon Slayer series is mostly known in Japan, where it has received frequent updates since 1984. It is sporadically released in the rest of the world, with the most famous example possibly being Faxanadu, a NES game which barely mentioned the series’ origins.

Nevertheless, there are between 40 and 60 titles in existence, depending on whether or not you count the various ports and subseries which have evolved independently. The most famous of these is probably Legend of Heroes, which itself spawned the Trails series, and has since outpaced the popularity of the original internationally.

13

King’s Quest (1984) – 9 Games

One of the first influential point-and-click adventures, King’s Quest is the game that built Roberta Williams’ reputation and, at the same time, made Sierra On-Line a household name of the genre in the 80s and 90s.

There are only 9 entries in the game, with the first one coming in 1984. Since then, there has been very few attempts at updating the series, mostly just improving the graphics for a port. The series might be a classic, but it has always been under the radar somehow.

12

Math Blaster (1983) – 28 Games

Just because you didn’t play it doesn’t mean it’s not popular! Math Blaster is an edutainment series that asks you to shoot numbers on the screen to get the result of an equation. Not exactly riveting stuff, but it has still been selling decently since 1983.

As of 2013, the Math series has 18 games, but there are a dozen more if you include the “Reading” and “Science” spinoffs. While the use of games as a learning tool has dwindled in recent years, these are a fun reminder of the past.

11

Bomberman (1983) – 70 Games

Bomberman still has a very solid following more than thirty years after its creation. It even released a brand new game for the launch of the Nintendo Switch, selling over a million copies once again.

Since 1983, there has been 70 Bomberman games, most of them following the same formula. There has been some ventures into the world of 3D platforming and kart racing, but for the most parts, the series is content with following its bombs and mazes gameplay.