Mario (series)

Mario
The emblem of Mario's hat as commonly used in the series.
Genres	List Action-adventure Educational Edutainment Party Platform Puzzle Racing Role-playing Sports
Developers	Nintendo
Publishers	Nintendo
Creators	Shigeru Miyamoto
Platforms	List Arcade Amstrad CPC Android Apple II Atari 2600 Atari 5200 Atari 7800 Atari 8-bit ColecoVision Philips CD-i Commodore 64 Game & Watch Game Boy Game Boy Color Game Boy Advance GameCube Intellivision iQue Player iOS MSX MS-DOS NEC PC-8801 Nelsonic Game Watch Nintendo 3DS Nintendo 64 Nintendo DS Nintendo DSi Nintendo Entertainment System Nintendo Switch PC PlayChoice-10 Satellaview Super Nintendo Entertainment System Sharp X1 Virtual Boy Wii Wii U ZX Spectrum
Platform of origin	Arcade
Year of inception	1981
First release	Donkey Kong July 9, 1981
Latest release	Mario Sports Superstars March 10, 2017

The Mario (Japanese: マリオ, Hepburn: Mario^?) franchise is a video game franchise published and produced by Nintendo starring the fictional Italian character Mario. The franchise's other forms of media include several television series and a feature film. It was originally created by game designer Shigeru Miyamoto with the arcade 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 either been released for the arcade or Nintendo video game consoles and handhelds dating from the Nintendo Entertainment System to the current generation of video game consoles.

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. Analysts suggest that by 2012, the Mario franchise was valued at over $10 billion. The franchise has spawned over 200 games of various genre. The entire franchise, including series such as Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, Tennis and Golf, has sold more than 500 million copies, making it the best-selling video game franchise of all time.