You could look in the Mr pinball price guides. It gives estimated numbers based on the serial numbers. Usually accurate to within 10 pins.

Stern Does not release this info, the say Seal clubber said would be the only way I know of.

Based on interviews I have heard (not any number data), Simpsons was the biggest seller, followed by Lord, then Pirates. I think AC/DC might give them a run for their money, all models included.

Here's the Stern numbers I have come up with based on serials, talking with other collectors and entering my own serials over the years... Keep in mind these are NOT official and do NOT include LE or any other such runs.

Removed: Updated Spiderman as the 3rd highest produced game.

Newer games are just too early to tell on most titles but so far it looks like there are at least over 500 Tron Pros that were made up to this date.

I know many have said Simpsons outproduced LOTR but I really think many (even employees at Stern) just presume this because there were MANY MORE RUNS of Simpsons than LOTR.

The estimated LOTR runs were (7 RUNS TOTAL):
1600-2000-500-500-250-150-150 in that order... adds up to 5150

For TSPP, the run estimations are as follows (13 RUNS TOTAL):
600-500-200-300-400-600-500-300-300-250-250-50-100 in that order... adds up to 4400

I have arranged these in order of how many games were estimated to have been produced:

5150 LOTR
500 LOTR LE
4400 TSPP
4380 POTC
3760 Spiderman
400 Spiderman Black
2650 Monopoly
2300 Nascar
? Striker Extreme
2000 Playboy
2000 Sharky's Shootout
1500 Austin Powers
1400 Batman: DK
1300 Roller Coaster Tycoon
1200 Sopranos
1200 High Roller Casino
1200 Ripley's
1000 Iron Man
1000 Avatar Pro
250 Avatar LE
1000 T3
1000 Big Buck Hunter
1000 Shrek
800 Family Guy
720 World Poker Tour
450 Elvis
250 Elvis Gold
? Rolling Stones LE
400 Rolling Stones Pro
400 Wheel of Fortune
400 Indiana Jones
300 C.S.I.
250-400 NBA
200 "24"
200 Gran Prix
85? NFL Footbal (All Teams)

Total is over 44,000.

*South Park (NOT Sega, just Stern runs)-2500?
This title and Harley are left out because it's really not possible to know how many games were made AFTER Stern officially took over production of the game.

_{Post edited by snyper2099 : corrected "3RD"}

I believe SM was quite a bit higher than 2200, but less than TSPP.

My potc had a production sticker in the 3800 area.
Elvis also in the 3k range.
IM was close to 1k
These are just my printed numbers will check t3 tonight

Each Stern has a production number if you pop the playfield and look to your left under the pf to the left of the flipper mech.

Here is a list of all the Stern's, I plugged in the above numbers, can anyone post the known LE numbers.

Also heard reports IronMan was around the 1100 ????

1999 Harley-Davidson®

2000 Striker Xtreme
2000 Sharkey's Shootout

500 x 2001 High Roller Casino
800 x 2001 Austin Powers™
2650 x 2001 Monopoly™
2001 NFL

600 x 2002 Playboy®
1300 x 2002 RollerCoaster Tycoon

4400 x 2003 The Simpsons Pinball Party
1000 x 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
5150 x 2003 The Lord of the Rings

450 x 2004 Elvis®
700 x 2004 Ripley's Believe It or Not!®

2005-01 Grand Prix
1200 x 2005 The Sopranos®
650 x 2005 NASCAR®

720 x 2006 World Poker Tour™
1600 x 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean

2200 x 2007 Spider-Man
2007 Black Spider-Man™
2007 Dale Jr.
700 x 2007 Family Guy
160 x 2007 Wheel Of Fortune

250 x 2008 Batman The Dark Knight
700 x 2008 CSI
400 x 2008 Indiana Jones
50 x 2008 Shrek™ Stern

250 x 2009 NBA
200 x 2009 TV Series 24

250 x 2010-01 Big Buck Hunter Pro
1100 x 2010 Iron Man
2010 Iron Man Classic Non-Commercial
2010 Avatar
250 x 2010 Avatar Limited Edition

250 x 2011 The Rolling Stones
2011 The Rolling Stones (Limited Edition)
2011 Transformers™ (Pro)
250 x 2011 Transformers™ Autobot Crimson Limited Edition
250 x 2011 Transformers™ Decepticon Violet Limited Edition
500 x 2011 Transformers™ Limited Edition ("Combo")
2011 TRON: Legacy
400 x 2011 TRON: Legacy (Limited Edition)

2012 AC/DC (Pro)
2012 AC/DC (Premium)
250 x 2012 AC/DC Back In Black Limited Edition
250 x 2012 AC/DC Let There Be Rock Limited Edition
2012 X-Men Pro Stern
2012 X-Men Magneto LE
2012 X-Men Wolverine LE
250 x 2012 The Avengers - Hulk LE
250 x 2012 The Avengers - Blue LE

2013 The Avengers - Pro

Tron LE was 400

Transformers LE were 250 each Autobot and Decepticon, and 500 Combo

Avatae LE were 250 (I think?)

Later,
EV

WOW, I have one of the only 50 Sherks made. I would have thought there where more of them.

Hey Snyper2099,

I really appreciate you sharing your effort but your numbers don't match up very well with Mr. Pinball Price Guide. I wonder how they came up with theirs.

They have POTC in the #3 slot with 4050 units made and Monopoly at 3850.

Probably not fair to Dana so I won't post their other stats. Buy the guide if you are interested.

Tom

Another source says 600 Shrek's were made.

I feel most of the above is low. I've heard close to 10K Simpsons were made and near 7K Lords. This was from interviews with Stern employees.

Yeah those numbers are way off. POTC is ~7k ...Family Guy is ~2500, Elvis is ~4k or so, Spidey is about ~4500

yet another 800

Yup POTC is 7500, Spidey, LOTR, TSPP 6k+ those quoted figures are very low

Yeah, has to be more than 50 shreks. When I was in Florida this summer I think I saw about 7 of them. 3 at Seaworld alone.

Yeah, it was in production for 2 or 3 years...those numbers are insane.

A guy inAus has games with Playfield no:
CSI 672
& IM 759

done some research and many of these numbers match up when cross referenced at different sources
but would be interested how they match up to the Pinball Price Guide
600 x 1999 Harley-Davidson®

2000 Striker Xtreme
2000 Sharkey's Shootout

2500 x 2001 High Roller Casino
800 x 2001 Austin Powers™
3850 x 2001 Monopoly™
2001 NFL

1400 x 2002 Playboy®
1300 x 2002 RollerCoaster Tycoon

5900 x 2003 The Simpsons Pinball Party
2500 x 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
5817 x 2003 The Lord of the Rings
500 x 2003 The Lord of the Rings (Gold Limited Edition)

3500 x 2004 Elvis®
2750 x 2004 Ripley's Believe It or Not!®

500 x 2005-01 Grand Prix
3500 x 2005 The Sopranos®
3500 x 2005 NASCAR®

3000 x 2006 World Poker Tour™
6400 x 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean

4600 x 2007 Spider-Man
500 x 2007 Black Spider-Man™
600 x 2007 Dale Jr.
2500 x 2007 Family Guy
1000 x 2007 Wheel Of Fortune

3500 x 2008 Batman The Dark Knight
1000 x 2008 CSI
2500 x 2008 Indiana Jones
1200 x 2008 Shrek™ Stern

250 x 2009 NBA
1200 x 2009 TV Series 24

250 x 2010-01 Big Buck Hunter Pro
48 x Batman Dark Knight Non Commercial Home Version
800 x 2010 Iron Man
2010 Iron Man Classic Non-Commercial Home Version
2010 Avatar
250 x 2010 Avatar Limited Edition

2011 The Rolling Stones
350 x 2011 The Rolling Stones (Limited Edition)
2011 Transformers™ (Pro)
125 x 2011 Transformers™ Autobot Crimson Limited Edition
125 x 2011 Transformers™ Decepticon Violet Limited Edition
500 x 2011 Transformers™ Limited Edition ("Combo")
2011 TRON: Legacy
400 x 2011 TRON: Legacy (Limited Edition)

2012 AC/DC (Pro)
2012 AC/DC (Premium)
300 x 2012 AC/DC Back In Black Limited Edition
200 x 2012 AC/DC Let There Be Rock Limited Edition
2012 X-Men Pro Stern
250 x 2012 X-Men Magneto LE
300 x 2012 X-Men Wolverine LE
250 x 2012 The Avengers - Hulk LE
250 x 2012 The Avengers - Blue LE

2013 The Avengers - Pro

Means nothing, the playfield production number stickers you guys speak of is only a play field number, not a GAME... If Stern receives 500 damaged or unusable play fields, they don't start those numbers over. They are NOT an indication of anything really. I have seen Stern throw out 100's of unusable playfields. Then people pick them out of the trash and resell them as "new" rare art variations.

If there are 3K Elvis' where the hell are they? There should be a larger range in the serial number database than what is listed. Elvis sold VERY poorly!

Also with Shrek, there is no way in hell there are 600 of them. Most distributors sold 3-5 of them on average. There is very little data for this particular title so 50 based on serials alone is really all I had to go on. There are probably more like 200 but just no evidence to support that number.

On the others saying there are 7K POTC, where are the serials for them in the database? Those numbers just do not add up. One person says 4050 is correct, one says over 7K. Whatever floats your boat...these numbers mean nothing unless you base them on some type of evidence. It is known that Stern says whetever people want to hear. They aren't going to say "We don't realease production numbers and then, oh wait, we made over 4,000 Pirates because that's how many Disney allowed us to make. That is all B.S.!

Everyone throwing numbers out should really look hard at the serials database... you aren't going to find 7K POTC's listed there.

One challenge is that all playfields are NOT used in a game. Also, Stern has always picked up the GAME serials with a new game where they left off with the previously produced game, so it is hard to compile concrete data on these matters.

Stern serial numbers were discussed on Pinside about six months ago. I dug up my old post (numbers reflect six months ago):

Dennis Nordman said that there were close to 10,000 POTC's made.

I think I read somewhere that Dennis had mentioned POTC did 6,000 units. Steve Ritchie has confirmed FG was 700 (Stern ordered parts for 1,200 games. To find a good use for the remainingparts the Shrek LE of 500 units was initiated)

And I recall someone else saying that by the time Shrek was ready, they'd used up all the FG parts building actual FGs.

I've stated this before....here it is again. Steve's story was from around August of '07. They had built 700 Family Guys AT THAT TIME. The game picked up popularity and remained in production until the end of '09 (maybe a few were made at the start of '10). They ended up making over 2000 Family Guys.

Fact. Let this 700 Family Guys story DIE NOW. Thank you.

Thanks for clearing that up

I laughed out loud when I read this! Proves you can't trust anything a Stern employee says.

No they are not, Stern has inflated production and sales numbers for years.

Note: I have added rough estimates for:
Avatar-1000
Gran Prix-200
NFL Footbal-85
Striker Extreme-250
Sharky's Shootout-250

Harley davidson numbers would be split between Sega and Stern as well as 3 different "editions" so they have not been included to avoid that fiasco.

A common misconception is that there were 10k+ TSPP's produced.

Here are the TSPP runs from Mr. Pinball's Price Guide - which I consider to be the most reliable source of information:

Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2003/02 ~2,850
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2003/10 600
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2004/05 ~500
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2005/06 ~400
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2005/11 ~400
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2006/06 ~350
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2006/10 ~350
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2007/07 ~350
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2008/11 30
Simpsons Pinball Party, The STP 2009/12 ~70

I also want to state I am only trying to put the info out there and help the situation... Estimated numbers can be wrong for a number of reasons but I am trying to not just go from Stern quotes and word of mouth. I realize sometimes that is all you have though.

Added:

*South Park (both Sega+Stern)-2500

Why not provide serial #'s and production dates from everyone who can provide it from their games and then figure it out . it looks like stern uses continual numbers from one game to the next production of a new game.

Available here for years:
http://www.ipsnd.net/

50 Shrek? Wrong! I've seen more than 10 Shrek alone on route!

Dana's guide shows this production on Shrek:

Shrek STP 2008/03 ~250
Shrek STP 2009/01 ~250
Shrek STP 2009/11 ~100

Interesting, that would put it at 5900. If correct, that would make it more than LOTR...

So have I... I tried to keep numbers pulled out of my ass out of the estimations above.

I know it's wrong but what else is there to go on? Stern usually makes at LEAST 200 games per run however, this is a unique scenario since it uses a lot of the same hardware as Family Guy.

There is more Shreks in the Pinside database than your estimated run total.

39 Pinsiders have this game in their collections.
34 Pinsiders have this game on their wishlist.
76 public locations known where you can play this machine.

That's that primary reason I changed it in my original post.

So if you update the list again, move the year to the end of the line -- its kinda hard to read with it right next to the production number estimate.

I find it hard to believe that I own one of only 160 WOF s

Mr Pinball lists production at approx 2000.

No way. This game came out at the same time as P2K and out earned the crap out of it...it was an insanely popular earner and license. Gotta be way more than that.

Your list is a fiasco. 250 Strikers!? I've seen SO MANY of these...this was still made when arcades were relevant...I've seen them all over and multiples at every auction. There are thousands of Strikers, at least. Def more than 250 Sharkey's. More than 1000 Avatars as well.

There are many Southparks maybe the highest of them all the pins made by Stern if you count Sega days. The pin sure did earn. I ws lucky to find one in Nashville about a year ago from John H.

Shrek was a closeout 3500 new in box bought 4 of them wish I had more now but not as good of a deal as Ripleys.

Picture_274.jpg SP_serial_number_side.JPG SP_serial_number_upclose.jpg SP_top_serial_number.JPG

I love how everyone offers their criticisms but really don't seem to want to offer and real information.

I typed the Striker numbers wrong... There do in fact look to be more than 1000 Strikers. I see them for sale everywhere as well but the reason is it's a really crappy title.

I changed Sharky's to 2000. I must have missed a zero. Guys, you have to start somewhere... I made mistakes in my original calculations and am taking peoples advice and suggestions to make the list better. Thank you to those that offered suggestions.

It's a great effort on a difficult task with little or no info available. Please continue to adjust the list, and don't get too discouraged. I think people like to chime in, because it is an interesting topic. Hey, we know it's not going to be perfect, but its fun to talk about, and speculate about the numbers.

I have changed a lot of numbers that just made no sense. I recalculated using a different formula. If any numbers in my original post #5 still look crazy, please let me know.

I have received some additional information about Shrek... Looks like there may have been as many as 1000 made. The problem is, that a lot of the serial numbers for Shrek and a few other games are intertwined. I'm considering grouping FG+Shrek as one title.

There is no way in hell THAT number is anywhere close.

It looks more like 400 WOF's after I re-evaluated the 3 serial #'s lists I have compiled.

That myth has been propagated for years. Steve wasn't working for Stern then and he was just repeating numbers Jack had thrown out earlier in the same thread.

[email protected]> wrote in message:

Families who didn’t want their kids to be playing games in their
basement with farting and puking spoke out by not buying FG. We sold
700. He ordered parts for 1200!!

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.pinball/msg/42e432ec7c6160c9

It wasn't even close to August '07 and it wasn't Steve who gave those numbers. Shrek wasn't built until March of '08. See the link above. That whole thread was heated. I wouldn't put too much faith in anything said in that thread. Especially production numbers. Gary Stern did not post in that thread.

The only Stern numbers I put any faith in is Boston pinball. There it shows that 52 FGY's have sold in the last 6+ years and 24 Shrek's. Considering Shrek came out 14 months after FGY, this suggests to me that there were at least twice as many FGY's built than Shrek's. Assuming anything beyond that is pure speculation. Time spent 'In Production' on their website means nothing. The website obviously doesn't get updated as often as it should.

These threads are stupid. Gary Stern learned a long time ago not to release production numbers to anyone. The time he spent in law school didn't go to waste. I know the internet is a great place to speculate, but these threads never prove anything. I feel like going to the mall now.