The Mario franchise is a media franchise, published and produced by video game company Nintendo, starring the fictional Italian character Mario. It is primarily a video game franchise, with the franchise's other forms of media including several television series and a feature film. It was originally created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto with the arcade game Donkey Kong, released on July 9, 1981. The games have been developed by a variety of developers including Nintendo, Hudson Soft, and AlphaDream. Most Mario games have been released for Nintendo's various video game consoles and handhelds, from the third generation onward. The main series in the franchise is the Super Mario platform series, which mostly follows Mario's adventures in the fictional world of the Mushroom Kingdom. These games 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 series, including Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, and Mario Golf. The Mario series is one of Nintendo's most renowned and successful franchises; many games in its series, specifically the "Super Mario" portion, are considered to be some of the greatest video games ever made. By 2011, the core Super Mario video games had grossed an estimated US$12 billion in sales.[1] More than 600 million copies of Mario games have been sold, making it the best-selling video game franchise of all time. It is also the 9th highest-grossing media franchise of all time, with an estimated revenue above $36 billion.
