While writing my recent Love/Hate posts about the Halo franchise, I was stunned when I realized the amount of effort that had to be put in for the developers to release four mainline Halo games during the Xbox 360 era. Like… these are Halo games, even a smaller title like ODST would have take a ton of work and creativity to complete. This achievement was even more impressive to me compared to today, where most AAA video game developers struggle to release even two games this generation. It got me wondering what other game franchises had a ton of releases over the span of a single console’s lifecycle. Well, it turns out that Halo‘s Xbox 360 run barely even warrants mention next to the titans we’re about to look at.

Some quick notes though about how we’re going to determine our criteria for what counts for this top eight list:

• The games here will include the original game (if applicable), and any sequels which are treated as a direct follow-up to its predecessor. So, for example, Super Mario Bros 2 would be a sequel to Super Mario Bros, but Mario Tennis or Mario Party would not (they would, instead, be considered their own separate series). This would include some side-games and spin-offs if they were intended to be a major release (for example, Dead Island: Riptide is a sequel, even though it is not a numbered entry like Dead Island 2). This does not apply to follow-ups which are expansions or DLC (such as Half Life: Blue Shift). This also doesn’t include clear, direct spin-off series within a wider franchise (such as Resident Evil: Survivor). It ultimately comes down to a judgment call from me, but I will mention my reasoning as needed.
• If a game received an official release on the console, then it will be eligible to be counted. However, I am not counting re-releases and remasters which are then released on a later console generation (so, for example, Halo: Combat Evolved would count towards the Xbox’s total, but I would not count Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary towards the Xbox 360’s total since it was a re-release. I will count ports, but only if they are within the same console generation and a short timeframe of the original release (such as Twisted Metal: Head-On, which I would count towards both PSP and PS2).
• I am not including sports video game franchises. Seeing the entire list clogged up with decades of annualized sports games is just boring – we know that they will dominate the list if we let them compete… the bastards. That said, I did look at all of the major sports games franchises and FIFA comes out on top with a whopping fourteen games releasing on both the PS2 and the Xbox 360!!! (NBA 2K was the second most-prolific, and then Madden.)
• Also, for simplicity’s sake, if a game has a different number of releases on different consoles across one console generation, I’m only going to count the console with the most releases. This is actually pretty relevant for the Xbox 360, which was getting exclusives and annualized games released on PS2 and Game Cube for a whole year before the PS3 and Wii released, which inflates its numbers somewhat.
• As I specifically mentioned “console generation” here, it should not surprise you that the PC and mobile are not in consideration for this list, and by extension, PC and mobile-exclusive games do not count.
• Finally, I have researched as best as I could for this topic, but it’s definitely possible that some obscure series exists with a ton of entries on a single console that I missed. I also don’t doubt that some shovelware publisher has released a threadbare game and several “sequels” in quick succession, but I don’t even think it’s worth anyone’s while for me to even mention those kinds of games anyway.

Honourable Mentions

• Dynasty Warriors had an impressive five mainline games release on the PS2. However, if I had chosen to include the Xtreme Legends and Empires expansions, then it would have been at ten games released on PS2 instead! It technically doesn’t count under my own rules, but I thought it was notable enough to mention!
• The Tony Hawk was notorious for pumping out a ton of sequels, but surprisingly, the franchise capped out at five games released on both the PS2 and the Xbox 360. I mean… that’s a lot of games, but it’s barely a blip on the radar for this list.
• Similarly, the other two franchises I always associated with a flurry of sequels during the PS1 era were Tomb Raider and Twisted Metal. However, these franchises both capped at a total of five games, which just goes to show how many games you had to pump out to even warrant a mention on this list.

Mega Man: 6 Games (Nintendo Entertainment System)

Games: Mega Man (1987), Mega Man 2 (1988), Mega Man 3 (1990), Mega Man 4 (1991), Mega Man 5 (1992), Mega Man 6 (1993)

The Mega Man games were well-known for how many of them were pumped out in the 80s and early 90s, so it was not too surprising to see them make the list. I have never played any of them myself, but even I knew that there were just loads and loads of these games released before I ever held a controller in my hands. They released nearly-annually, which is pretty impressive, but it does explain why the franchise didn’t innovate much at the time.

Rock Band: 6 Games (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)

Games: Rock Band (2007), Rock Band 2 (2008), The Beatles: Rock Band (2009), Lego Rock Band (2009), Green Day: Rock Band (2010), Rock Band 3 (2010)

Oh my God, the over-saturation of the rhythm game market was absolutely bonkers in the late 2000s. Multiple entries on this list released within a couple months of each other! How could you sustain your audience’s interest with that many releases!

Note: I did not include Rock Band Blitz into this list, because it is meant to be a spiritual successor to Amplitude and Frequency, and therefore is a spin-off. However, I did include Lego Rock Band, because it is a full-on Rock Band game with a Lego skin applied.

Ratchet & Clank: 6 Games (PlayStation 2)

Games: Ratchet & Clank (2002), Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (2003), Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (2004), Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005), Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters (2007), Secret Agent Clank (2008)

Wow, I had no idea that the Ratchet & Clank games were so prolific during the PS2 era! They were creative and innovative games, so it never really felt like we were getting over-saturated with Ratchet & Clank games.

Perhaps controversially, I’m counting Secret Agent Clank on this list. I considered cutting it, but it’s meant to be the narrative follow-up to Size Matters and plays similarly to all the other games… I mean, I can’t really justify it as anything but a proper sequel.

Need For Speed: 7 Games (Playstation 2)

Games: Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 (2002), Need For Speed: Underground (2003), Need For Speed: Underground 2 (2004), Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005), Need For Speed: Carbon (2006), Need For Speed: ProStreet (2007), Need For Speed: Undercover (2008)

It’s wild how Need For Speed was a full-on annualized series on PS2, whereas today the “serious”, AAA racing market is a desert of variety. I appreciated how they would try out different designs in each year’s installment, it always kept the series fresh and exciting.

Assassin’s Creed: 7 Games (Playstation 4/Xbox One)

Games: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014), Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015), Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017), Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (2018), Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (2020), Assassin’s Creed Mirage (2023)

Assassin’s Creed just does not stop, even when it definitely should have. These are such difficult games to pump out annually, with such detailed environments and animations, I do not know how they manage it. That said, when we get seven games on one console, is it any wonder that audiences have gotten burnt out on this franchise on multiple occasions?

Note, I did not count Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry, since it was intended to be a standalone DLC for Assassin’s Creed IV.

Assassin’s Creed: 8 Games (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360)

Games: Assassin’s Creed (2007), Assassin’s Creed II (2009), Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (2010), Assassin’s Creed: Revelations (2011), Assassin’s Creed III (2012), Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), Assassin’s Creed Liberation (2014), Assassin’s Creed Rogue (2014)

You got that right, Assassin’s Creed has had so many games release that it managed to beat itself on this list! I did not expect the PS3/Xbox 360 era of Assassin’s Creed to be its most prolific, but I suppose it managed to avoid any of the fatigue-related cooling of the brakes for the release cadence.

Note, I chose to count Assassin’s Creed Liberation‘s port to PS3/Xbox 360 for this list since it released about a year and a half after the PS Vita version and retains the series’ traditional gameplay, so it’s more-or-less a proper sequel in its own right.

Armored Core: 8 Games (PlayStation 2)

Games: Armored Core 2 (2000), Armored Core 2: Another Age (2001), Armored Core 3 (2002), Silent Line: Armored Core (2003), Armored Core: Nexus (2004), Armored Core: Nine Breaker (2004), Armored Core: Formula Front (2004), Armored Core: Last Raven (2005)

Good God, I had no idea there were so many Armored Core games on PS2! FromSoftware were working their asses off in the 2000s, and all for a fairly niche market! I mean, we have three games released in 2004, that should tell you the rate at which this series was being cranked out.

The series’ naming conventions were so weird to parse through, but it seems like the non-numbered entries are not expansions or spin-offs, but full-on games in most cases. I agonized about whether to count Armored Core: Nine Breaker since it was meant to be a stand-alone multiplayer game, back before multiplayer was included as an optional mode in a primarily single-player game. I decided I would count it since it’s technically its own entry in the series, but it’s pushing the limits of what I’d accept…

Traveller’s Tales Lego Franchise: 9 Games (PS4)

Games: Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013), Lego The Hobbit (2014), Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014), Lego Dimensions (2015), Lego Marvel’s Avengers (2016), Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 (2017), Lego DC Super-Villains (2018), The Lego Movie 2 Video Game (2019), Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (2022)

This might be a controversial inclusion here, since I’m counting all the various “franchises” of Lego games under the banner of Traveller’s Tales’ overall Lego game brand, but I don’t think it’s unwarranted. These games all play virtually identically, with some minor changes made to fit the theme of the franchise it’s riffing on. There’s actually been less of them released in the past decade than I realized, with a pretty long wait between 2019 and 2022 for a new release. Hopefully the slower release cadence is a sign of better games to come!

Some notes on what I would consider to qualify for this lst. I would not consider, say, Lego Racers or Lego Rock Band part of this franchise – just being a Lego game does not qualify, the game has to be following the Traveller’s Tales formula for me to consider it here. By that token, I did not include Lego Worlds, which is more like a Lego take on the Minecraft formula. However, I did include Lego Dimensions, since it’s basically just a toys-to-life take on the traditional formula, and The Lego Movie 2 Video Game is basically a Lego game with the Lego IP as its theme, which is kind of funny to think about.

Guitar Hero: 10 Games (Xbox 360)

Games: Guitar Hero II (2006), Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (2007), Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (2008), Guitar Hero World Tour (2008), Guitar Hero: Metallica (2009), Guitar Hero Smash Hits (2009), Guitar Hero 5 (2009), Band Hero (2009), Guitar Hero: Van Halen (2009), Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock (2009)

The rhythm game genre would have been oversaturated by Rock Band‘s releases alone, but Guitar Hero absolutely took the piss with ten games released on the Xbox 360! They released five fucking games in 2009!!! Seriously, the rhythm genre did not die due to disinterest, Activision actively killed the damn thing.

Note, I waffled on whether to include Guitar Hero Smash Hits on this list. Like, I would not consider a band’s greatest hits album to be a proper entry in their discography, right? But ultimately I did decide to include it, because it includes new recordings of many of the older songs, adds in support for other instruments, has new venues, etc, meaning that more-or-less has new content which justifies its existence. I also chose to include Band Hero, since it is identical to Guitar Hero, but with slightly different branding due to being full of pop songs rather than rock/metal.

Need For Speed: 10 Games (Xbox 360)

Games: Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2005), Need For Speed: Carbon (2006), Need For Speed: ProStreet (2007), Need For Speed: Undercover (2008), Need For Speed: Shift (2009), Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010), Shift 2: Unleashed (2011), Need For Speed: The Run (2011), Need For Speed: Most Wanted (2012), Need For Speed: Rivals (2013)

As impressed as I was with the release cadence for Need For Speed on PS2, it is wild how many of these games released on Xbox 360. However, you can really see how much flailing EA were doing during this console generation, as they went from arcade action with Most Wanted, to failed attempts at more serious games with ProStreet and Shift, and then back to a Most Wanted reboot to try to recapture what previously worked. Despite that, the series still put out a new game every single year (and two of them in 2011!), which is pretty wild for a franchise which was struggling with an identity crisis, and I imagine the breakneck release schedule didn’t help any with that.

Call of Duty: 11 Games (Xbox 360)

Games: Call of Duty 2 (2005), Call of Duty 3 (2006), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007), Call of Duty: World at War (2008), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009), Call of Duty: Black Ops (2010), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011), Call of Duty: Black Ops II (2012), Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013), Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014), Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015)

We all knew that Call of Duty was going to make this list. A new Call of Duty game each year is one of the universe’s constants; we are all truly fucked when Activision finally decides to take a year off. Looking back, this series was absolute fire during this era, as the run from Modern Warfare to Black Ops II gave us some of the best first person shooters of all-time.

Note, the Xbox 360 port of the original Call of Duty does not count for this list, as it was ported six years after it originally released.

Call of Duty: 12 Games (PlayStation 4)

Games: Call of Duty: Ghosts (2013), Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare (2014), Call of Duty: Black Ops III (2015), Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (2016), Call of Duty: WWII (2017), Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (2018), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War (2020), Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (2022), Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III (2023), Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 (2024)

Yeah, that’s right, like Assassin’s Creed, Call of Duty is so prolific that it manages to smash its own, absolutely insane records, despite multiple revolts from their hardcore fans during this console generation. The craziest part is that there very well could be more games releasing on PS4 in future, so this number may end up getting higher in the next couple years!

Note, I am not counting Call of Duty: Warzone as a separate game, as it is a stand-alone multiplayer mode that is included in the mainline releases.

Traveller’s Tales Lego Franchise: 15 Games (Xbox 360)

Games: Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (2006), Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures (2008), Lego Batman: The Video Game (2008), Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues (2009), Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 (2010), Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars (2011), Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game (2011), Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 (2011), Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes (2012), Lego The Lord of the Rings (2012), Lego Marvel Super Heroes (2013), Lego The Hobbit (2014), Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014), Lego Dimensions (2015), Lego Marvel’s Avengers (2016)

Okay, I knew that the number of Lego games on PS4 felt kind of low, but fifteen games on Xbox 360 is absolutely nuts. The different franchises helped to break things up and allow you to engage with the properties you cared about, but it’s no wonder this game formula became so over-saturated when we had this many games in eight years!

Note, Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga does not count for this list, since it is a re-release of the first two Lego Star Wars games. Bionicle Heroes also does not count, since it is not following the “Traveller’s Tales Lego game formula” that binds this disparate franchise together.

Just Dance: 18 Games (Wii)

Games: Just Dance (2009), Just Dance 2 (2010), Just Dance Kids (2010), Just Dance 3 (2011), Just Dance Wii (2011), Just Dance Kids 2 (2011), Just Dance Wii 2 (2012), Just Dance 4 (2012), Just Dance: Disney Party (2012), Just Dance 2014 (2013), Just Dance Kids 2014 (2013), Just Dance 2015 (2014), Just Dance 2016 (2015), Just Dance: Disney Party 2 (2015), Just Dance 2017 (2016), Just Dance 2018 (2017), Just Dance 2019 (2018), Just Dance 2020 (2019)

GOOD GOD, eighteen games in a ten year period!?!! Some of these games literally released within less than a week of the previous entry! I knew that the Just Dance games had a bunch of releases, but I never would have imagined that it was that prolific. To me, the wildest part about this is that Just Dance didn’t start releasing games until three years into the Wii’s lifecycle… can you imagine how many more games there would have been if we had gotten three more years of releases?

Note, I am not including Just Dance Summer Party, as it is basically a re-release of Just Dance 2. Likewise, Just Dance: Best Of is straight-up a greatest hits compilation with minimal changes made to the formula. I chose to include the Kids and Disney Party games on this list, as they are fundamentally identical to a mainline entry, just with kid-centric soundtracks. Also, Just Dance Wii and Wii 2 were Japan-exclusive, but that counts as far as I’m concerned!

Singstar: At Least 39 Games (PS2)

Games: SingStar (2004), SingStar Party (2004), SingStar Anthems (2006), SingStar Rocks! (2006), SingStar Norske Hits (2007), SingStar Pop (2007), SingStar Popworld (2007), SingStar Pop Hits (2007), SingStar: Die Toten Hosen (2007), SingStar Svenska Hits (2007), SingStar Svenska Hits Schlager (2007), SingStar ’80s (2007), SingStar Amped (2007), SingStar Rock Ballads (2007), SingStar Deutsch Rock-Pop Vol. 2 (2007), SingStar Bollywood (2007), SingStar R&B (2007), SingStar: Morangos com Açúcar (2008), SingStar ’90s (2008), SingStar Summer Party (2008), SingStar Pop Vol. 2 (2008), SingStar Hottest Hits (2008), SingStar Boy Bands vs Girl Bands (2008), SingStar Country (2008), SingStar Legends (2008), SingStar Singalong With Disney (2008), SingStar ABBA (2008), SingStar Queen (2009), SingStar Motown (2009), SingStar Take That (2009), SingStar Vasco (2009), SingStar Latino (2009), SingStar Kent (2010), SingStar The Wiggles (2010), SingStar: Fussballhits (2010), SingStar Portugal Hits (2010), SingStar SuomiHitit (2010), SingStar Studio 100 (2010), SingStar Chart Hits (2010)

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!?!?!!! I knew that there were a bunch of SingStar games, but I had no idea the franchise was this fucking unhinged. By the way: 39 games is an estimate based on what I could find, there very well could be nearly double that number!

It’s worth mentioning that this particular list was a massive pain in the ass to collate. No one can seem to agree which SingStar game was released when, or how many of these games there even are. Some games were region-exclusive, and even international releases will often have different tracks in different territories. Wikipedia doesn’t even have a complete list, and everywhere I looked for lists of what games had been released, I would find new entries I’d never heard of, while others were missing from their lists… what the fuck is going on here???

Honestly, I throw my hands up to this one, SingStar has defeated me. Backloggd says that there were 61 games released on PS2 in a six year period, and I’m just going to take their word for it. God help us if there is a video game franchise with even more entries in one console generation…