As of March 2011, the series has collectively sold 89 million copies worldwide across both the platform games and spin-offs.

It also features a large cast of other characters such as Doctor Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik, Miles "Tails" Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog, and the Chao creatures.

Bundled alongside a remaster of Sonic Generations as Sonic X Shadow Generations[76] A falling block puzzle video game, it became available for download in Japan in 1991 and in Brazil in 1995 on Sega Meganet, a Japan-exclusive Sega Mega Drive add-on released in 1990 and later released in Brazil in 1995 that enabled players to download a select library of games via dial-up internet.

Sonic the Hedgehog, controlled by the player, must arrange randomly selected falling clusters of shapes of the same variety to align on a grid in order to erase them.

The general aim for all game-modes is to align two or more of identical shapes in any fashion as long as they lie adjacent to each other inside a 13x7 grid.