History Main / StoppedNumberingSequels

* ''Film/MissionImpossible'' had two numbered sequels (''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleIII III]]''), and then just appropriate subtitles moving forward (''[[Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol Ghost Protocol]]'', ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation Rogue Nation]]'', and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleFallout Fallout]]''). Then there’s ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReconkingPartOne Dead Reckoning Part One]]'', which adds more complications.

* ''Film/MissionImpossible'' had two numbered sequels (''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleIII III]]''), and then just appropriate subtitles moving forward (''[[Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol Ghost Protocol]]'', ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation Rogue Nation]]'', and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleFallout Fallout]]''). Then there’s ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleDeadReconkingPartOne Dead Reckoning Part One]]'', which adds
More complications.

* ''Film/MissionImpossible'' had two numbered sequels (''Film/MissionImpossibleII'' and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleIII III]]''), and then just appropriate subtitles moving forward (''[[Film/MissionImpossibleGhostProtocol Ghost Protocol]]'', ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleRogueNation Rogue Nation]]'', and ''[[Film/MissionImpossibleFallout Fallout]]'').

** And ''then'' the 2018 ''Film/{{Halloween|2018}}'' film goes back to square one again.

** Played with ''Film/TheFateOfTheFurious'', which would be an ordinary straight example if it wasn't intended to play on "fate" rhyming with "eight." The next mainline sequel would be simply ''Film/{{F9}}''.

* A minimalist example: ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' was followed by just '''one''' numbered sequel, ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon2'', before adopting this trope for its third installment, ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld''.

** The films from ''Film/SawII'' to ''Film/SawVI'' all have roman numerals in their titles matching their correspondent entry number. The next film after ''Saw VI'' is instead titled ''Film/Saw3D'' (or ''Saw: The Final Chapter'' in its home video release). The two following films, ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' and ''[[Film/Spiral2021 Spiral]]'', followed this new "format" suit with the use of completely different titles (with "Saw" being relegated to a subtitle for the latter film: ''From the Book of Saw'').

** The films from ''Film/SawII'' to ''Film/SawVI'' all have roman numerals in their titles matching their correspondent entry number. The next film after ''Saw VI'' is instead titled ''Film/Saw3D'' (or ''Saw: The Final Chapter'' in its home video releases). The two following films, ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' and ''[[Film/Spiral2021 Spiral]]'', followed this new "format" suit with the use of completely different titles (with "Saw" being relegated to a subtitle for the latter film: ''From the Book of Saw'').

[[folder:TV]]
* The early seasons of the US edition of ''Series/BigBrother'' were numbered for each season, starting with the 2nd Season titled as ''Big Brother 2''. The First Season (which was also referred to as ''Big Brother 2000'') was later retroactively referred to as ''Big Brother 1''. ''Big Brother 7'' & ''Big Brother 9'' were both considered special editions of the game, and thus added an additional subtitle to those seasons (''Big Brother 7 All-Stars'' and ''Big Brother 9 'Til Death Do You Part''). However, this stopped starting with the Eleventh Season, where the show was simplified back to ''Big Brother''. While the show would keep the regular title into the 2010s and 2020s (only changing the name for the spin-offs and for the Twenty-Third Season, which was another ''All-Stars'' Season), the Big Brother fan community still uses the old title format for the later seasons, such as the recent Twenty-Fourth Season of Big Brother, referred to as ''Big Brother 24'' or ''BB 24'' for short.
* Normally, at the start of an episode of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', announcer Johnny Gilbert will state how many days the returning champion has been reigning ("…whose ''x'' day cash winnings total ''y'' dollars…"). When Ken Jennings went on his hot streak, they eventually stopped declaring how many days he'd been champion (he made it to 74 before losing his 75th game). The practice resumed once Jennings was defeated.
* After 30 installments of Wrestling/{{Wrestlemania}}, the WWE simply quit numbering the event going forward. Now simply calling every following rendition 'Wrestlemania'. Despite this, fans still refer to them by number and even WWE staff will still slip up from time to time.
[[/folder]]

* The ''Franchise/MortalKombat'' sequels went from ''VideoGame/MortalKombatII'' to ''VideoGame/MortalKombat4'' and after that (when the series no longer had arcade releases) we got ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatDeadlyAlliance Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance]]'' (the fifth game, which featured a bloodied "V" as part of its logo), ''VideoGame/MortalKombatDeception'' (sixth) and ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombatArmageddon Mortal Kombat: Armageddon]]'' (seventh). After a crossover (''VideoGame/MortalKombatVsDCUniverse'') and an in-continuity reboot ([[RecycledTitle simply titled]] ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat2011 Mortal Kombat]]'', just like the original), the series went back to having numbered titles with ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' and ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11''.

** The films from ''Film/SawII'' to ''Film/SawVI'' all have roman numerals in their titles matching their correspondent entry number. The next film after ''Saw VI'' is instead titled ''Film/Saw3D'' (or ''Saw: The Final Chapter'' in its home video releases). The two following films, ''Film/{{Jigsaw}}'' and ''[[Film/Spiral2021 Spiral]]'', followed this new "format" suit with the use of completely different titles.

[[caption-width-right:350:TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Repton}}''. The first three games had no particular setting, so the next three dropped the numbering in favour of titles that advertised the fact that Repton was now going [[RecycledINSPACE around the world and through time]]. Next comes ''[[OddlyNamedSequel Repton Infinity]]'', which includes a subgame called ''Repton 4'', but later, an unrelated game was converted into a Repton game and titled ''EGO: Repton 4''. In addition, ''Repton: The Lost Realms'' had ''Repton 4'' as a working title, but when the game was finally released, it was unclear whether the number should be moved to 5 or even 6, and so the numbering was dropped altogether.

* ''SoldierOfFortune: Payback'' was produced by a budget-title[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}} developer and its plot is completely unrelated to the first two (numbered) games.
* ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog'' series. ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' is named as such simply for in-universe chronology reasons and [[{{Retraux}} because it's in the style of the original numbered games]].

* The early seasons of the US edition of ''Series/BigBrother'' were numbered for each season, starting with the 2nd Season titled as ''Big Brother 2''. The First Season (which was also referred to as ''Big Brother 2000'') was later retroactively referred to as ''Big Brother 1''. ''Big Brother 7'' & ''Big Brother 9'' were both considered special editions of the game, and thus added an additional subtitle to those seasons (''Big Brother 7 All-Stars'' and ''Big Brother 9 'Til Death Do You Part''). However, this stopped starting with the Eleventh Season, where the show was simplified back to ''Big Brother''. While the show would keep the regular title into the 2010s and 2020s (only changing the name for the spin-offs and for the Twenty-Third Season, which was another ''All-Stars'' Season), the Big Brother fan community still uses the old title format for the later seasons, such as the recent Twenty-Fourth Season of Big Brother, referred to as ''Big Brother 24'' or ''Bb24'' for short.

* The early seasons of the US edition of ''Series/BigBrother'' were numbered for each season, starting with the 2nd Season titled as ''Big Brother 2''. The First Season (which was also referred to as ''Big Brother 2000'') was later retroactively referred to as ''Big Brother 1''. ''Big Brother 7'' & ''Big Brother 9'' were both considered special editions of the game, and thus added an additional subtitle to those seasons (''Big Brother 7 All-Stars'' and ''Big Brother 9 'Til Death Do You Part''). However, this stopped starting with the Eleventh Season, where the show was simplified back to ''Big Brother''. While the show would keep the regular title into the 2010s and 2020s (only changing the name for the spin-offs and for the Twenty-Third Season, which was another ''All-Stars'' Season), the Big Brother fan community still uses the old title format for the later seasons, such as the recent Twenty-Fourth Season of Big Brother, referred to as ''Big Brother 24'' or ''BB24'' for short.

* Normally, at the start of an episode of ''Series/{{Jeopardy}}'', announcer Johnny Gilbert will state how many days the returning champion has been reigning ("…whose ''x'' day cash winnings total ''y'' dollars…"). When Ken Jennings went on his hot streak, they eventually stopped declaring how many days he'd been champion (he made it to 74 before losing his 75th game). The practice resumed once Jennings was defeated.

* After 30 installments of Wrestling/{{Wrestlemania}}, the WWE simply quit numbering the event going forward. Now simply calling every following rendition 'Wrestlemania'. Despite this, fans still refer to them by number and even WWE staff will still slip up from time to time.

* A RunningGag in ''Podcast/WeHateMovies'' is that Steve Sadjak hates this trope so much that, in the unlikely event he ever gets elected to the United States Senate, he will outright introduce legislation requiring movie studios to make every installment of a franchise a NumberedSequel paired with a subtitle, irrespective of {{Continuity Reboot}}s or how confusing or unwieldy this gets. So, for example, ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' would become ''Batman 5: The Dark Knight'', ''Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom'' would become ''Film/JurassicPark 5: Film/JurassicWorld 2: Fallen Kingdom'', and ''Film/TheAvengers2012'' would become ''Film/IronMan 3: Film/{{Hulk}} 3: Film/CaptainAmerica 2: Film/{{Thor}} 2: The Avengers''. (Which would then presumably make the actual ''Film/IronMan3'' technically ''Iron Man 4: Iron Man 3''.)

* Only ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland2LeChucksRevenge'' is numbered in the ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' series. The others are just called ''VideoGame/TheCurseOfMonkeyIsland'', ''VideoGame/EscapeFromMonkeyIsland'' and ''VideoGame/TalesOfMonkeyIsland''. Justified as FanonDiscontinuity by many, since creator Ron Gilbert planned a trilogy but left Creator/LucasArts after the second. The third game had to retcon some things in order to tie in the plot. Ron Gilbert remains interested in some day releasing "the real Monkey Island 3" (his words). If it is ever made, it is unknown how it will fit into the chronology.

* Especially among video games, the franchise may have GaidenGame subseries. However, then it can easily be DoubleSubverted, depending on situation.

* The ''Anime/LupinIII'' TV shows has went back and forth between using numbered title and not. The second series, which aired from 1977 to 1980 and lasted 155 episodes, was not numbered as a sequel, as it wasn't intended to be a direct continuation of the much shorter-lived 1971 series that only lasted 21 episodes, and thus the two shows were nicknamed after the color of Lupin's jacket. Thus the first series is often called the "Green Jacket" series and the second series is the "Red Jacket". However, the third series from 1984 is officially titled ''Lupin III Part 3''. The fourth series from 2015 originally aired in Japan simply as ''Lupin III'', but later DVD and Blu-ray releases added the "Part 4" to the title. The 2018 series was called ''Lupin III Part 5''.

* ''Fanfic/VowOfNudity'': After posting Haara's sixth story (as well as an [[EpisodeZeroTheBeginning "episode zero"]] prequel), the auther went back and removed all the numbers from the story titles.

** Alien is singular for the first, third, fourth and "seventh" installments, plural in the [[Film/{{Aliens}} second]] and "eighth", and numbered for 3 ''only'' (where it is the fifth film).
** Predator is always singular except for the "ninth" installment, and only numbered for 2 (the second Predator movie, but retroactively the fourth in the ''Franchise/AlienVsPredator'' franchise due to the inclusion of a xenomorph skull at the end). The franchise itself stopped numbering with ''Film/{{Predators}}'' in 2010.

** And in Britain ''Fast Five'' was renamed ''Fast & Furious 5'', presumably because the marketers were concerned that people would see the pictures of Vin Diesel in a big car and not be able to work out which series the movie was part of.

** Though usually listed with numbers on video boxes, posters and such, the [[Film/FridayThe13thTheFinalChapter fourth]] and [[Film/FridayThe13thPartVANewBeginning fifth]] ''Friday the 13th'' movies already didn't technically have numbers in their titles (none were shown in the onscreen title cards). On the other hand, ''Film/JasonX'' does resume the count for one entry, which makes this franchise a improbably genuine ZigZaggedTrope.

** Then the sixth movie, which was originally called ''Halloween 666'', ended up being called ''Halloween 6: the Curse of Michael Myers'' in its producer's cut and just ''Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers'' in its theatrical cut, ending the numbering.

** ''Film/HighlanderIIITheSorcerer'' was released as ''Highlander: The Final Dimension'' in North America, without any numbering on its title. Justified, as the numbered title implied that it was a continuation of the infamous ''Film/HighlanderIITheQuickening'', when it's really an alternate sequel to the first movie.

* ''Franchise/JurassicPark'' skipped numbering on [[Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark the second film]] and added it for the [[Film/JurassicParkIII third film]]. The number was once again ommited for the [[Film/JurassicWorld fourth film]] and [[Film/JurassicWorldFallenKingdom its]] [[Film/JurassicWorldDominion sequels]].

* ''Film/PoliceAcademy'' series. The seventh installment officially doesn't have number as a title.

* ''Franchise/{{Rocky}}'' series. Justified because there was over 15 year hiatus between ''Film/RockyV'' and ''Film/RockyBalboa''. Plus [[BroadStrokes a lot of stuff]] in ''Film/RockyV'' did not happen.

* ''Film/TheTexasChainsawMassacre'' series stopped its numbering after [[Film/LeatherfaceTheTexasChainsawMassacreIII the third film]], which is fitting because not many wants to remember [[Film/TexasChainsawMassacreTheNextGeneration the fourth film]].
* ''Film/UniversalSoldier'' tried its luck with two numbered and subtitled direct to video sequels first, them dropped the numbering but not the subtitles for a new shot at a theatrical part two. The next installment rebooted the series again as a new part two, but kept the same naming convention, as did the part following that one. The full lineup is now: ''Universal Soldier'', ''Universal Soldier II: Brothers in Arms'', ''Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business'', ''Film/UniversalSoldierTheReturn'', ''Film/UniversalSoldierRegeneration'' and ''Film/UniversalSoldierDayOfReckoning'' (also known as ''Universal Soldier: A New Dimension'').

* Many novel series start of with subtitles like, "The Second Novel of X Series" before switching to "A Novel of X Series". Sometimes there's a reason for this: The second novel gets labeled as such so it's easier to identify the sequel when it first comes out, while subsequent books are not necessarily set in stone in terms of numbering or continuity.

* ''Literature/UncleJohnsBathroomReader'' broke free of the "Uncle John's ''Nth'' Bathroom Reader" naming scheme after the 7th book, instead opting for subtle ToiletHumor ("Uncle John's All Purpose Extra Strength Bathroom Reader"), AlliterativeTitle, or a PunBasedTitle.

* Mostly averted by Music/{{Chicago}}, who only once before their 20th album (which, oddly, is named "Twenty 1") broke their numbering sequence, with ''Hot Streets.'' (which would have been XII otherwise). Since then about the only exceptions have been Christmas albums and legacy releases, though their 2022 effort ''Born for This Moment'' has no number either.

* A retroactive example happened with the sequel to ''VideoGame/Battlezone1998'', which was firstly released in 1999 as ''Battlezone II: Combat Commander''. When Creator/{{Rebellion}} went onto developing a remaster for that sequel, they dropped the numeral and released it in 2018 as ''Battlezone: Combat Commander''.

* ''VideoGame/BioShock1'', ''VideoGame/BioShock2'', ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite''. Though in this case it's more to separate ''Infinite'' from the Rapture storyline.

** The original ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaI'' was followed by ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIISimonsQuest'' and ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIIDraculasCurse'', all three on the NES, and ''VideoGame/SuperCastlevaniaIV'' on the Super NES. The sequels stopped using numerals afterward when they started appeared on non-Nintendo consoles, particularly with ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaBloodlines'' on the Genesis.
** ''Castevania II: Simon's Quest'' was titled ''Dracula II: Noroi no Fūin'' in Japan and was the only one of the above sequels with a numbered title. ''Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse'' is otherwise known as ''Akumajō Densetsu'' (although it had the {{working title}} of "''Dracula III''"), while ''Super Castlevania IV'' is simply titled ''[[RecycledTitle Akumajō Dracula]]'' (same name as the first Famicom game). While ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaRondoOfBlood Akumajō Dracula X: Chi no Rondo]]'' was technically the tenth installment, the "X" on the title is a letter and not a number (and the title would be reused years later for a [[VideoGame/CastlevaniaSymphonyOfTheNight direct sequel]]).
** ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaTheAdventure'' had its own numbered sequel, ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaIIBelmontsRevenge'', both being Game Boy games. As a result, ''Castlevania II'' could refer to either, ''Simon's Quest'' on the NES or ''Belmont's Revenge'' on the Game Boy. There's less ambiguity with the Japanese titles, as the two games were part of a side-series titled ''Dracula Densetsu'' and ''Dracula Densetsu II'' respectively.

* ''{{VideoGame/Contra}}'' sequels were never really numbered, aside from ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' for the SNES, which was the third game on home consoles following the first two NES games, and that was just the American title (in Japan, it was known as ''Contra Spirits''). However, the second NES game was not titled "Contra II", but ''Super C'' (which itself was loosely based on ''Super Contra'', the arcade sequel to ''Contra''). ''Operation C'', a Game Boy sequel to ''Super C'', was also released prior to ''Contra III'', but was not counted among this numbering due to Konami of America at the time numbering their portable games separately, as reflected by the fact that the later Game Boy port of ''Contra III'' was simply titled ''Contra: The Alien Wars'' without the number. Ironically, an official ''Contra 4'' would released years later on the Nintendo DS as a direct sequel to ''Contra III'', after several unnumbered sequels on home consoles such as ''Contra: Hard Corps'' on the Genesis and ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' on the [=PS2=].

* The ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' series never really had a numbering convention when ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' released, although players did tend to use numbers to refer to the older games in the series until the 2016 entry came along; simply titled ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2016 HITMAN]]'' with no subtitle or numbering. This was followed by two sequels; a different ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2 HITMAN 2]]'' in 2018, and a different ''[[VideoGame/Hitman3 HITMAN III]]'' in 2021. So now the numbering is important to consider, and players moved onto using the subtitles to refer to the old games. The latter three games would later get merged into one homogeneous thing, and be known as the ''VideoGame/WorldOfAssassinationTrilogy'' to further differentiate them from the legacy games.

* Though ''Ruins Chaser'' was meant to be titled as ''VideoGame/{{Lufia}} III'', the game that came out after it was cancelled was simply ''VideoGame/LufiaTheLegendReturns''. Then again, ''[[VideoGame/LufiaIIRiseOfTheSinistrals Lufia II]]'' was a {{Prequel}} to the first game...

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' was going to be titled ''Metal Gear Solid 5'' at one point, in order to emphasize series's creator Creator/HideoKojima's full involvement as both, writer and director, and constrast it with the previous PSP entry ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'', which he only worked on as a producer, but Creator/{{Konami}} was hesitant to use a numbered title on a PSP game after having released all the previous numbered ''MGS'' entries on home consoles. The game's plot and play mechanics does set up what later became the official ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidV'', which itself was split into two installments (the stand-alone prologue ''Ground Zeroes'' and the main story ''The Phantom Pain'').

* The third game in the ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' series, ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'', doesn't use a number. The debut trailer jokingly hints that this is because of the nearly decade long gap between the second and third game's releases. Ironically, the fourth game would be announced under the name ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'' not long after, reintroducing the numbering.

* ''Franchise/RatchetAndClank'' [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zags]] this trope to hell and back once you compare the regions. Officially, the original NTSC titles for ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankGoingCommando Going Commando]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankUpYourArsenal Up Your Arseanal]]'' don't have numbers in them, just the visual motif in their logo designs. The Japanese versions and certain PAL versions however ''do'' include the number, and in Japan the numbering continues through to [[VideoGame/RatchetDeadlocked "Ratchet & Clank 4"]] and [[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankSizeMatters "Ratchet & Clank 5"]]. Lastly, the Japanese title for ''[[VideoGame/RatchetAndClankFutureACrackInTime A Crack in Time]]'' begins with "Ratchet & Clank Future 2." (Which makes ''Quest for Booty''...?)

** ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilVillage'' is the eighth main instalment in the series and a direct sequel to ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard'', but doesn't feature the number 8 in its title, instead highlighting the first four letters in 'village' to form the Roman numeral VIII. ''Resident Evil 7'' did something similar with its own logo by having the Roman numeral VII highlighted on the word "evil" instead of being written with an actual numeral, but the title is still written as ''Resident Evil 7'' in plain text.
* The ''Franchise/SilentHill'' series tacked on a subtitle for the fourth game, and dropped the numbers afterward once they started being outsourced to western developers.

* Narrowly averted by ''VideoGame/TheSims4''. It was originally conceived as an MMO titled ''The Sims Olympus'' before gears changed late in development to turn it into a single player game akin to previous entries in the series.
* ''SoldierOfFortune: Payback'' was produced by a budget-title[=/=]UsefulNotes/{{shovelware}} developer, and its plot is completely unrelated to the first two (numbered) games.

* Tulsa, Oklahoma radio hosts Brent Douglas and Phil Stone created the Radio/RoyDMercer character for the purpose of {{Prank Call}}s which they would play on-air. These skits became so popular that they started releasing them on Capitol Records in TheNineties. The first seven compilations were simply titled after Roy's CatchPhrase: ''How Big a Boy Are Ya?'' Seven volumes of ''How Big a Boy Are Ya?'' were released before they broke away fom the volume numbers and gave each subsequent album its own title.

* Requels, where the original movies are part of the continuity, but characters from original movies are reduced to cameos in favour of a new cast of characters as a soft reboot, will often use the same title as 5he original movie.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty 2'', ''3'', ''4: VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', then ''Call of Duty: World at War'', ''Modern Warfare 2'' (which actually dropped the Call of Duty name in some places), ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOps Black Ops]]'', ''Modern Warfare 3'', ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsII Black Ops 2]]'', ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyGhosts Ghosts]]'', ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare Advanced Warfare]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/CallOfDutyBlackOpsIII Black Ops 3]]''.

* The VideoGame/{{Hitman}} series never really had a numbering convention when ''VideoGame/HitmanCodename47'' released, although players did tend to use numbers to refer to the older games in the series until the 2016 entry came along; simply titled ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2016 HITMAN]]'' with no subtitle or numbering. This was followed by two sequels; a different ''[[VideoGame/Hitman2 HITMAN 2]]'' in 2018, and a different ''[[VideoGame/Hitman3 HITMAN III]]'' in 2021. So now the numbering is important to consider, and players moved onto using the subtitles to refer to the old games. The latter three games would later get merged into one homogeneous thing, and be known as the ''VideoGame/WorldOfAssassinationTrilogy'' to further differentiate them from the legacy games.

* Played with for the ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'' series. ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'' was followed by only one explicitly numbered sequel, ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'', but games would continue to number themselves in either the opening titles ("[[VideoGame/SuperMetroid Metroid 3]]" and "[[VideoGame/MetroidFusion Metroid 4]]") or have promotional material emphasizing the numbering ("[[VideoGame/MetroidDread Metroid 5]]"). The main entries of the ''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeTrilogy'' avert this trope completely, leaving the only games in the franchise that aren't numbered being the [[GaidenGame interquel side-stories]] (''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters'', ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'') and {{SpinOff}}s (''VideoGame/MetroidPrimeFederationForce'').

** Predator is always singular except for the "ninth" installment, and only numbered for 2 (the fourth film overall). The franchise itself stopped numbering with ''Film/{{Predators}}'' in 2010.

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' had ''Night of the Living Dummy'' books 1-3, then ''Bride of the Living Dummy, Slappy's Nightmare, Revenge of the Living Dummy'' and ''Son of Slappy.''

* Music/LedZeppelin: ''[[Music/LedZeppelin1969 Led Zeppelin]]'' (sometimes called ''Led Zeppelin I''), ''Music/LedZeppelinII'', ''Music/LedZeppelinIII'' and, depending on your point of view, the untitled fourth album (usually called ''Music/LedZeppelinIV''. The fifth album is called ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly'', braking the numbering.

* Music/LedZeppelin: ''Music/LedZeppelinI'', ''Music/LedZeppelinII'', ''Music/LedZeppelinIII'' and, depending on your point of view, the untitled fourth album (usually called ''Music/LedZeppelinIV''. The fifth album is called ''Music/HousesOfTheHoly'', braking the numbering.

* New wave band Music/DanielAmos created a series of four linked concept albums. They all had different titles, but the first three had the subtitle, ''The Alarma Chronicles Volume [number]''. However, the final album, ''Music/FearfulSymmetry'', dropped the subtitle. In fact, it didn't mention ''The Alarma Chronicles'' anywhere on the front or back cover.