Skylanders franchise has generated more than $1.5 billion worldwide life-to-date

Skylanders Giants is the number one, best-selling console and hand-held video game year-to-date overall in dollars, including toys and accessories, in the both the US and Europe, according Activision citing internal, NPD and GfK Media figures.

The title also remains the "biggest kids' videogame launch" in the last 12 months in both regions, and in its first two weeks, Skylanders Giants sold more than 500,000 Starter Packs and Portal Owner Packs globally.

Additionally, according to figures, Skylanders figures are "expected to have outsold the top action-figure properties" in both regions for the first eight months of the year.

Life-to-date, the Skylanders franchise has generated more than $1.5 billion in worldwide retail sales.

"Skylanders is the biggest video game including toys and accessories and the biggest action figure line in the industry in the U.S. and Europe so far this year. Skylanders Giants also delivered the biggest kid's video game launch of the last 12 months1," said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision publishing.

"We've accomplished this unmatched level of success by consistently delivering magic to our passionate, young fans. And the best is yet to come. With next month's release of Skylanders Swap Force , we will take this category that we've pioneered to a new level of innovation and creativity."

Skylanders Spyro's Adventure and Skylanders Giants were developed by Toys For Bob, and Skylanders Swap Force is being developed by Vicarious Visions.

Skylanders Swap Force will arrive in North America and Australia on October 16 and in Europe on October 18 for 3DS, PS3, Wii, Wii U, and Xbox 360. A release date for the PS4 and Xbox One versions are to be announced at a later date.

Vicarious Visions is handling the PS4 version, Beenox the Wii version, and n-Space the 3DS version.