While many people first discovered the Shin Megami Tensei series through Persona, the Shin Megami Tensei games are very different from the more modern school-life setting of Persona. It's even more interesting to know that Persona is actually a subseries of Shin Megami Tensei.
There are many mainline Shin Megami Tensei games, but there are also just as many subseries, and countless games within each subseries. It's a very large series, with almost every game developed by Atlus being part of it. Let's try to figure out how many games there are.
How many mainline Shin Megami Tensei games exist?
The Megami Tensei games started all the way back in 1987, as video game adaptations of Aya Nishitani's Digital Devil story book. Since then, they have become a series in their own right, based on his books. Let's take a look at each of the mainline games below.
Game | Year | Platforms |
|---|
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei | 1987 | Famicom |
Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei 2 | 1990 | Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei | 1992 | Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei 2 | 1994 | Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei If... | 1994 | Super Famicom |
Shin Megami Tensei: Nine | 2002 | Xbox |
Shin Megami Tensei 3: Nocturne | 2003 | PS2 |
Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine | 2007 | PC |
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey | 2009 | DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 4 | 2013 | 3DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 4: Apocalypse | 2016 | |
Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux | 2017 | 3DS |
Shin Megami Tensei 5 | 2021 | Switch |
Shin Megami Tensei 5: Vengeance | 2024 | PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series, Switch |
If we count all the different versions of these games, that would be a total of 14 games. The original two Digital Devil Story games later got a combined remake for the SNES, exclusively in Japan.
The number of games in the series skyrockets when you consider the spin-off games.
How many Shin Megami Tensei spin-offs are there?
14 mainline games is a pretty impressive number. Of course, any big series will have a lot of spin-offs. It's not unusual for the number of spin-offs to be more than the number of mainline games. But in the case of Shin Megami Tensei, the numbers are just crazy. Almost everything Atlus has made is part of the series, and they've made a lot of games.
Because there are so many games, re-releases, mobile games, and regional exclusives, we've decided to list each subseries and the number of games in them instead. It's simply too many to list in one article.
Subseries | Number Of Games | First Release | Latest Release |
|---|
Last Bible | 5 | Revelations: The Demon Slayer (1992) | Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible Special (1995) |
Majin Tensei | 3 | Majin Tensei (1994) | Ronde (1997) |
Devil Summoner | 5 | Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Summoner (1995) | Soul Hackers 2 (2022) |
Persona | 17 (international releases) | Revelations: Persona (1996) | Persona 3 Reload (2024) |
Devil Children | 7 | Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children - Black Book and Red Book (2000) | Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children -Messiah Riser (2004) |
Digital Devil Saga | 2 | Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga (2004) | Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga 2 (2005) |
Devil Survivor | 4 | Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor (2009) | Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor 2 Record Breaker (2015) |
No associated subseries | 39 | N/A | N/A |
The Shin Megami Tensei series is very large, with seven dedicated subseries and 82 games across them. Most of these titles have released internationally, but few are still available legally.
What is the total number of Shin Megami Tensei games?
The Shin Megami Tensei series is very large, with many people believing Persona is the only major subseries. But Atlus has created many different types of games within the series, giving them a lot of creative freedom.
In total, there are 96 games in the series. Only 14 are from the main series, which means spin-offs make up over 80% of the entire series. This large number of spin-offs explains why they have such dedicated fanbases.
