1994 was the year in which the most popular racing game franchise was born. In that year, Electronic Arts released the first Need for Speed game for the 3DO console, but it would have never guessed just how much of an impact it would have. Right now, the game has gathered 14 sequels spread across 14 consoles. Today, these titles, along with the original, have sold over 100 million copies and make for the only racing game to ever reach this number. This milestone isn't a first achievement for Electronic Arts, as its Sims series has managed to cross the 100-million line as well.

All NFS games ever made have amounted to a total sales income of $2.7 billion, a number that exceeds the gross national product of some smaller countries. Of course, EA takes great pride in watching these crumbling territories from far above in its tower built of money and the dreams and hopes of developers. It also takes pride in many other achievements of some of its Need for Speed games. 2005 was the year of Need for Speed Most Wanted, as it sold 16 million copies worldwide and 3.9 million in the US. EA itself was the one that measured their global sales, while the localized ones were supervised by the NPD Group.

As one could have expected, the 16 million copies were the top bar for sales, as far as a single title was concerned. The following installments in the series could not match up to Most Wanted, but that doesn't mean they didn't do very well on their own. In the US alone, Need for Speed: Carbon sold 3.2 million units, ProStreet 2.4 million and 1.4 million Need for Speed: Undercover copies landed in the hands of the American fans.

To try and relieve the glory of Most Wanted, Activision has two new games in the series planned for this year alone and another one coming fresh in 2010. Need for Speed Shift was launched in September on the PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable and has gathered only 309,000 units across all platforms so far. With Nitro coming out on November 3 and Need for Speed World Online announced for next year, it seems like Most Wanted was a one-time hit.