Recently, a discussion regarding the highest-grossing media franchises piqued my curiosity, so I decided to do a deep dive. I found two primary lists: one from Fandom’s Ultimate Pop Culture Wiki and the other from Wikipedia.
It’s normal for these rankings to vary in figures and positions due to different methodologies, and for most IPs, the gap isn't that large. However, I quickly noticed one franchise where the discrepancy is absolutely staggering:
Mario.
On the Fandom list, Mario ranks 6th with $57.3B in revenue. Yet on Wikipedia, it’s sitting at 44th with only $8.75B—lower than Fortnite, Angry Birds, and Street Fighter. No shade to those games, but man, this is the most iconic franchise in gaming history. The gap is mind-blowing.
I couldn't help but look into why such a massive difference exists, and the answer was easy to find: the culprit is the video game revenue. Fandom puts Mario’s game revenue at $47.3B, while Wikipedia lists it at a mere $7.36B.
How? Fortunately, both lists cite their sources. Fandom provides a detailed breakdown of every Mario title, including sales figures and estimated revenue, which looks very credible.
But Wikipedia… what's going on there? They essentially just took an $7 Billion figure from a 2002 report and added six other games as their source. Where did the last twenty-plus years of Mario games go?
Wiki list:
Mario video games:
Up until 2002 – $7 billion
Mario Golf: Toadstool Tour (2003) – $26 million(United States)
Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga (2003) – $30 million(United States)
Super Mario 64 DS (2004) – $42 million(United States)
Mario Kart DS (2005) – $31 million(United States)
Mario Kart Tour (2019 to April 2021) – $200 million
Dr. Mario World (2019) – $4.8 million
I’m genuinely confused. The Wikipedia entry was supposedly updated on December 30, 2025, so the "outdated info" excuse doesn't hold water. Can anyone tell me why this is?
I checked other games such as Minecraft and Call of Duty, and found that they also have similar problems. However, at least they have been recorded up to around 2020. Mario was only recorded up to 2002, which makes the problem particularly severe.
Anyway, I now understand why major institutions use Fandom’s data instead of Wikipedia’s when reporting this list.