Mario (franchise)

Mario is a media franchise, published and produced by video game company Nintendo, created by Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto and starring the fictional character Mario. It is primarily a video game franchise, but has extended to other forms of media, including television series, comic books, a 1993 feature film and theme park attractions. The series' first installment was 1983's Mario Bros., although Mario had made his first appearance in 1981's Donkey Kong, and had already been featured in several games of the Donkey Kong and Game & Watch series. The Mario games have been developed by a variety of developers including Nintendo, Hudson Soft, and AlphaDream. Most Mario games have been released exclusively for Nintendo's various video game consoles and handhelds, from the third generation onward.

The main Mario subseries is the Super Mario series of platform games started with 1985's Super Mario Bros., which mostly follows Mario's adventures in the fictional world of the Mushroom Kingdom and typically rely on Mario's jumping ability to allow him to progress through levels. The franchise has spawned more than 200 games of various genres and several sub-series, including Mario Golf, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, and Paper Mario; several characters introduced in the Mario franchise, such as Donkey Kong, Wario, and Yoshi, sparked successful franchises of their own.

The Mario series is one of gaming's most successful and renowned franchises, with many of its games, in particular within the Super Mario subseries, being considered to be some of the greatest video games ever made. It is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with more than 758.06 million copies of games sold, including 388.92 million for the Super Mario games alone. Mario has become one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.