Popular racing series Need for Speed has now sold over 100m copies worldwide, publisher EA has revealed, elevating it into an elite group of super-franchises.

“Less than a handful of franchises up until now have reached that milestone, and we're honoured actually,” EA’s VP of global marketing Keith Munro told Videogamer.

“We really have to thank our fans. Especially those guys that buy our game or buy Need for Speed every year. We're very excited, but we really just need to thank our fans.”

Munro went on to defend the series’ latest instalment, Need for Speed: Shift, which has come under some fire for failing to trouble North America’s September software charts.

“I think Need for Speed: Shift's done pretty much what we had expected,” he added. “As you know, it's the first Need for Speed game in many years to launch into the September window, traditionally we launch in November, the holiday window.

“We're actually pretty proud of the numbers it's done, because it launched into a different window. We're typically the holiday racing title, so there's a lot of retraining that has to be done to make people aware of our launch.

"It's actually hitting a similar number for the days in the market in North America as what we shipped last year, in the holiday window, which is a much higher sales period. So it's not that concerning actually to us and as I said earlier, it's meeting our expectations.

“Down the road we will be evaluating the performance of Shift. We want to be having a lot of conversations with consumers about what they loved and what they would change, and there is definitely potential for us to consider sequeling that title.”