Have you ever played a game and wished there was more of it, but not quite the same thing? Like maybe you just played a great first-person shooter, but you really wish you could just sit down and romance all those beloved characters. That’s where spin-offs come in, presenting us with new ways of looking at and playing in a pre-existing world.
Spin-offs are incredibly common in games, though they’ve definitely dwindled in recent years — the environment for them to flourish in simply does not exist anymore. That said, some series have kept up a healthy pace of releases, numbering entries to frankly unbelievable heights.
Some of these numbers below are estimates because many series' have simply so many games that clearly defining a spin-off versus a mainline game is difficult. Also counting them all takes a very long time.
9Like A Dragon - 12 Spin-Offs
TheLike A Dragonseries (or Yakuza, as you may more popularly know it) is a pretty big hit, only growing in popularity with each entry. What you may know less, however, is that many of its games have not actually been launched internationally, and the vast majority of those are spin-offs.
While Like A Dragon hit international fame with Yakuza 0, the series has thrived in Japan from day one and features a multitude of spin-offs. These included PSP entries focusing on side characters, games taking place in Japan’s history, and even an online game.
8Tomb Raider - 15 Spin-Offs
TheTomb Raiderseries made something of a comeback in early 2024 with the highly lauded remaster of the original trilogy, though the series has never fully left the limelight ever since its inception back in 1996. In all those years though, the series has produced a fair few spin-offs, many of which are portable entries.
Many of the early spin-offs were for Game Boy, pared-down versions of Lara’s adventures. Then they became top-down isometric dungeon crawlers, then a smattering of mobile games from puzzle-based entries to endless runners. It’s a variety by all means that somehow keeps the overall tone of the series in check.
7Resident Evil - 16 Spin-Offs
Resident Evil, responsible in part forrevitalizing horroras a genre not just in games but in media at large, is one of gaming’s most iconic and beloved series. While every entry in the mainline series has its fans and detractors, there’s no variety in the series quite like what you see in its spin-off entries.
Sometimes these games follow the structure of mainline games closely, like Code Veronica. Others will be on-rail shooters dragging you through creepy corridors. A few are full-on action games, many of them are attempts at multiplayer, and one of them, Survivor, was even the first in the series to use the first-person perspective.
6Assassin’s Creed - 17 Spin-Offs
Assassin’s Creedis the catalyst for many of the events in the games industry, whether you view that as a negative or a positive. The direction of an Assassin’s Creed game is indicative of the industry at large. Big open worlds, RPG mechanics, bloated at times, and pushed to an almost yearly release cycle.
In that same sense, it has also slowed in terms of spin-offs but was absolutely packed with them in its early days. As you might expect, many of them were mobile games too, oscillating between premium entries or free-to-play microtransaction havens. Some of them were even exclusive to Facebook, such as Project Legacy.
5Megami Tensei - Approximately 80 Spin-Offs
Now you might read that above entry and think to yourself, “Shouldn’t that sayShin Megami Tensei?” and you would be partially correct. The series is officially known as Shin Megami Tensei, especially for the self-named series, though for the sake of the greater franchise, it is Megami Tensei.
And the Megami Tensei series is large. Not only does it include Shin Megami Tensei, but it also includes Persona, Soul Hackers, Digital Devil Saga, and so much more. It is a staggeringly large franchise packed with pacts and teeming with demons.
Even funnier, Megami Tensei is actually the subtitle of the original games, Digital Devil Story, which are all based on a book series of the same name.
4Pokemon - Approximately 100 Spin-Offs
Pokemon, like the evolutionary process of carcinisation, is inevitable. From its humble Game Boy beginnings came the largest media franchise in the world. And with such a lofty title, you can expect a whole bunch of media. Yes, there are many different shows and trading cards, but there is an assuredly immense number of games.
There are so many Pokemon spin-offs that they form series of their own. Pokemon Snap has two games, Ranger has three, and Mystery Dungeon has up to 11 if you count paired entries. You can get into and enjoy Pokemon without ever having touched a mainline game in your life.
3Final Fantasy - Approximately 100 Spin-Offs (Or More If You Count Kingdom Hearts And SaGa)
Final Fantasyis one of the longest-running series in gaming, beginning back on the NES in 1987. Since then, it has only grown and gained more and more entries, an ironic feat for a series called Final Fantasy. At this point in time, you could count the number of spin-offs even by the series they’ve generated.
Counting spin-offs in Final Fantasy is difficult because in one way or another, many other series connect to it. Kingdom Hearts and SaGa could just as easily be seen as spin-offs as independent series. Then the Chocobo Racing games are just Chocobos and nothing else. Meanwhile, you have the Ivalice games, which started as a non-Final Fantasy game, Vagrant Story, before becoming the setting of a mainline game.
2Sonic The Hedgehog - Approximately 150 Spin-Offs
Ah, the wonderful blue blur, and a foil to Mario in every regard. They complement each other beautifully, with Mario arguably winning in the video games department andSonicsucceeding in cross-media appearances. However, that’s not to say Sonic is a slouch when it comes to games.
Far from it, in fact. Sonic has copious games from side-scrollers to open-world,2D and 3D. Racing games, fighting games, tennis games. you may get a taste of Sonic in every walk of life and in so many genres of gaming. RPG Sonic from Bioware? You got it! Solve Sonic’s murder in a free detective game? Sure! There’s plenty to choose from.
1Mario - Over 200 Spin-Offs
Mariois one of the best-selling video game series ever, and as you’ve seen above, it has over 200 games just in spin-offs. Except at this point, what really is a Mario spin-off? The character is more a mascot than any singular entry that can be defined by mainline games.
Mario Galaxy could be seen as mainline, though you could argue that Super Mario Wonder, back to the roots of Mario’s side-scrolling origins is a main title as well. It’s a hard line to define, though with over 200 games you don’t really need to worry about that. If you want Mario, any flavor of Mario you could possibly yearn for, it exists.
