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Shared Universe

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Cleveland, Stan and Peter pointing guns at each other.

"You think you're the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you've become part of a bigger universe. You just don't know it yet."
— Nick Fury, Iron Man

When The 'Verse is shaped by multiple creators writing independently, such as how many different comic book titles can be set in a collective continuity. This makes it easy to have a Crossover. In contrast, a single TV series with multiple writers is just the Verse with subcontractors. Likewise, when different continuities by the same author are tied together later by an Intercontinuity Crossover, that's Canon Welding.

As a rule, simply having a Crossover is not enough to qualify as a Shared Universe, as those tend to be standalone stories and have no further connections beyond that. Major events should be referenced across the different projects or characters are mentioned as having their own adventures somewhere else.

The nature of the Shared Universe — multiple independent creators creating one continuity — can easily lead to a Continuity Snarl if it lasts a long time and the different creators don't take care to keep things straight. If a Shared Universe starts relying too heavily on continuity, especially if it's obscure or too reliant on each work in the Verse, a Continuity Lock-Out may occur. When creators disagree on the direction the Verse should take, they may fight Armed with Canon. If some corners of the continuity are "off limits" to some characters to avoid theme-drift or plot derailing, then Superman Stays Out of Gotham.

When they go back centuries, and even further and further, long before copyrights and trademarks, the Shared Universe turns into one or more actual mythologies. Compare with The 'Verse, Expanded Universe, Canon. Contrast with Shout-Out.

When two works are considered to share a universe by the fandom, see Fanon Welding. Not to be confused with Public Domain Canon Welding, which is when an official work uses Public Domain assets and presents it as a Shared Universe.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • A truly bizarre case is GaoGaiGar and Betterman, which take place in the same universe despite the former being a Super Robot Reconstruction and the latter a Real Robot horror series. The two even have an official crossover novel.
  • Both Cat's Eye and City Hunter (both created by Tsukasa Hojo) have referenced each other's protagonists at times, implying they're set in the same universe. The Kisugi sisters (protagonists of Cat's Eye) eventually showed up in City Hunter: Shinjuku Private Eyes.
  • Cromartie High School and Di Gi Charat.
  • Dragon Ball: Dragon Ball, Dr. Slump, and Jaco the Galactic Patrolman (plus its short spin-off Sachie-chan Guu!) share a universe; the main characters from all three series even met each other in a filler episode of Dragon Ball Super. Neko Majin is set here, though its parodic nature makes it canon status dubious, and Pola and Roid, Tomato, Girl Detective, Jiya, and Wonder Island all connect to Dr. Slump via cameos, placing them here too. Various other limited series and one-shots from Toriyama such as Cashman are possibilities given the vast scope of universe and very similar designs for technology and characters, but that could just be Toriyama recycling (like how Satan in Sand Land happens to look exactly like Dabra from Dragon Ball).
  • The Yu-Gi-Oh! universe consisting of the NAS adaptation and at least some of its spinoffs.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler and Seiyu's Life!.
  • Case Closed and Magic Kaito exist in the same universe. In fact Kaito Kid is a reoccurring nemesis for Shinchi Kudo/Conan Edogawa, and is even his Evil Twin of sorts. Technically Yaiba would be in the same universe too, although that's more of a Show Within a Show.
  • Teasing Master Takagi-san and Fudatsuki no Kyouko-chan by the same author are in a shared universe. Mina, Sanae, and Yukari from Ashita wa Doyoubi make cameos in one chapter of Fudatsuki no Kyouko-chan, while Mina Hibino herself is likely related to Haruka Hibino from Kyouko-chan.
  • Sword Art Online and Sword Art Online: Alternative Gun Gale Online exist in the same universe and occur alongside each other, only focusing on different sets of characters. However the events from Sword Art Online are constantly mentioned in Gun Gale Online. Accel World appears to exist in the same universe too, but it's set 21 years in the future from SAO so it's a lot less apparent.
  • Oreimo and Eromanga Sensei take place in the same universe. Not surprising, as they're both written by the same author. It wasn't too obvious in the beginning, but was made very clear when Kyousuke, Kirino, Kuroneko, and Saori make a cameo in Episode 11 of Eromanga Sensei.
  • Leiji Matsumoto has a connected universe too — of a sorts, since continuity has never been his thing. But you get Harlock showing up on the Galaxy Express, Cosmo Warrior Zero saw the hunt for Harlock from the other side. Yamato would have had a Harlock encounter, but it was cut for time (but the Yamato has shown up in the background in some of Harlock).
  • How Heavy Are the Dumbbells You Lift? and Kengan Ashura.
  • Implied in Isekai Quartet, Aqua figures out that Ainz, Subaru and Tanya all hail from Japan just like Kazuma, suggesting they all come from the same world.
  • Burn The Witch (2018) and Bleach take place in the same world. They're more connected than you'd think, as Wing Bind is revealed at the end of the pilot to be an English branch of Soul Society.
  • Takuma Yokota has established a shared universe between his various series starting with the short story Koganeiro and continuing with the serialized series Sesuji wo Pin! and Shudan! which contain grown up versions of the characters from Koganeiro as supporting characters. The Story Between a Dumb Prefect and a JK with an Inappropriate Skirt Length is also confirmed as taking place in the same universe when Michikage and Naomi from Sesuji are brought in as professional dancers to help with the school's cultural festival.

    Comic Books 
  • The Amalgam universe, a short-lived crossover between DC and Marvel. It had several canonical crossovers and a few characters who break the fourth wall in a way that essentially links the two universes.
  • Archie Comics, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Josie and the Pussycats are all a part of one Archie universe and frequently crossover.
  • DC Comics:
    • The DCU is an example of this, with multiple monthly titles who might not even have the same creative team month to month. Quite frequently, certain characters will make appearances in each other's books, and that's not getting into the numerous Crisis Crossovers.
    • The Elseworld titles Batman: Two Faces (a retelling of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde where Bruce Wayne is Dr. Jekyll and the Joker is Mr. Hyde) and The Superman Monster (a retelling of Frankenstein where Lex Luthor plays the part of Victor Frankenstein with Superman serving as the monster he creates) are indicated to take place in the same continuity, as both stories have a Framing Device of Commissioner James Gordon and Peregrine White exchanging tales.
    • All of the Hanna-Barbera Beyond comics were originally intended to be an example of this, though this quickly fell by the wayside as each new creative team and book ignored this idea in favor of freely doing their own standalone takes on their given properties.
  • DC Thomson comics, particularly The Beano, do this constantly. For added parental bonuses, there are also cameos of characters from discontinued comic strips (or even comic books!) that appear as well for a brief gag or for nostalgia purposes.
  • The action heroes of Future Quest are part of a multiverse, though it is shown that Jonny Quest, Birdman and Mightor exist in the same Earth.
  • Image Comics has had a handful of examples:
    • Virtually all of the early Image Comics titles were set in the same universe, with the stars of any given book often making guest appearances in another or ahving their origins tied to characters from other series. Spawn's killer, for example, is Chapel from Youngblood. However, one of the core ideas of the company was and always has been creator ownership. This caused a Continuity Snarl no less than twice; Once, when Rob Liefeld picked up his characters and left to create Awesome Comics, necessitating that Spawn's killer be retconned to be Jessica Priest, and again when Jim Lee took his properties and made his Wildstorm Studios into a DC imprint, which required an entire crossover, Shattered Image, to excise the Wild Storm characters from continuity.
    • Invincible shoulders a lot of weight when it comes to establishing a larger Image universe. Big events (like the funeral of the Guardians of the Globe or the Invincible War) feature just about anyone who's anyone in the company at the time. At one point Mark was even a member of the Pact, a team consisting of him, Zephyr Noble, Firebreather, and Shadow Hawk.
  • Judge Dredd and its spinoffs share a universe with Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, Harlem Heroes and their respective spinoffs. Earlier stories also suggested that Invasion!/Savage, ABC Warriors, Ro Busters and Flesh were part of this universe, but these have subsequently been retconned out.
  • Marvel Comics has created several universes that are extensively contributed to by multiple writers. Some were always connected to other settings via The Multiverse - and a few had connections added retrospectively.
  • The Massive-Verse, primarily published through Image Comicsnote , is a shared universe that began with Radiant Black in 2021 before formally launching in 2022 with a one-shot crossing the three characters over, and its second series, Rogue Sun, launching after. All three of its primary creators are fans of Sentai who have worked on licensed comics for Sentai properties, and it is a big part of the visual design of the universe.
  • Ninja High School and Gold Digger loosely share a universe and occasionally engage in crossovers or use each other's villains.
  • Revolution has establishing the Hasbro Comic Universe at its core; Transformers, G.I. Joe, M.A.S.K., Action Man, Micronauts (IDW) and ROM (the latter two separate from their older Marvel histories). In addition, Word of God has Jem in the same universe, just not in the crossover because slice of life music and armed men and metal aliens do not mix well, and also that My Little Pony isn't a part of it (yet).

    Comic Strips 
  • Safe Havens and On the Fastrack, both comics done by Bill Holbrook, take place in the same universe and have on occasion crossed over with each other (a major point being Fastrack funding the mission to Mars Samantha of Safe Havens is planning). This has actually been downplayed in recent years, especially since it's been hinted the comics don't take place at the same time (a 2020 comic in Fastrack implies the mission to Mars hadn't happened yet, while the 2020 Havens comics has the crew on their return trip from Mars).
  • Little Orphan Annie and Dick Tracy, given how the Fully Absorbed Finale of the first was handled.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animation 

    Film — Live-Action 

    Literature 
  • Cthulhu Mythos: A famous and early example of this; professional fanfiction set in his world is not only published, but was also acknowledged and supported by Lovecraft before his death.
    • Originally the stories of Conan the Barbarian shared the same universe with the Cthulhu myths, since Robert E. Howard and Lovecraft were great friends, although currently, apparently for legal reasons, this is no longer possible.
  • The Wild Cards Super Hero books were designed as Shared Universe Anthologies from the ground up.
  • Bordertown is a city between the "real world" and Faerie. It was originally created by Terri Windling, but Emma Bull, Will Shetterly, Charles de Lint and several other writers have written stories set there.
  • 1632 was originally to be a one-off novel, but due to favorable fan response went beyond that, later expanding into The Grantville Gazette, one of whose main goals is to give previously unknown authors a way to be published, and paid for their work at professional rates instead of less generous fanzine ones. Unlike with many anthologies, the contributions from other authors affect the "main" story line works. There are very few aspects that are truly forbidden to these authors, primarily those where it would interfere with the prerogatives of Eric Flint, the series creator.
  • Thieves' World was a dark fantasy Shared Universe created by Robert Asprin in the late 1970s. It had contributors like Poul Anderson, John Brunner and Marion Zimmer Bradley and generated 12 anthlogies of short stories, seven official novels and a bunch of roleplaying adaptations before writing stopped in 1989, with a short revival in the early 2000's. It preemptively dealt with Continuity Snarl with a preface framing story about an old timer talking to a new arrival in the city about how one should not believe everything in the stories one hears, as everyone spins the stories to fit their agendas, to make themselves sound more important in a good story, or less to blame in a bad one, and two people telling the same story may have wildly different variations.
  • Unwoven Literary Universe: Monarch One, the High School AU of the Unwoven Fragment (read: sub-series) was fully integrated into the series starting with Unwoven 2019. The same book also confirmed that Anthropomorphized was set in the same universe as well.
  • The universe of the Bolo super-tanks, originally by Keith Laumer, has been shared by everyone from John Ringo to Mercedes Lackey.
  • The Russian Death Zone series is worked on by several known Russian sci-fi authors and is loosely based on the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games. Unfortunately, this tends to create certain lapses in continuity. For example, in Andrey Livadny's novels, the Order is portrayed as a rational group that believes in the existence of an otherdimentional point known as the Node based purely on empirical evidence. In Roman Glushkov's books, they are fanatics spouting religious nonsense about the Holy Node before sacrificing themselves for the cause. It could be explained that these are different members of the Order interpreting their teachings, if they were not using the same characters.
    • Other major differences involve the very nature of the Zones. For example, in Livadny's novels, there is no plant or animal life in the Zones, as anything exposed to the scorgs gets "upgraded" (i.e. it becomes a weird mix of flesh and metal bearing little resemblance to the original). Rust by Aleksey Kalugin shows the Moscow Zone full of plant and, occasionally, animal life with only a few examples of bio-tech mixes. Kalugin's nanobots (the word "scorgs" is never mentioned) only care about consuming metal and reanimating machines.
  • The Liavek anthology series- stories by several different authors, set in and around the city of Liavek. Apparently the setting started out as a RPG invented by Will Shetterly for his writer's group, The Scribblies; they later fleshed out the setting and produced five volumes of short stories (and a few poems). Two of the authors, John M. Ford and Pamela Dean, later wrote more stories in the same universe.
  • The Midnight Rose collective, a group of British SF writers, published several shared-universe anthologies in the early 1990s, with settings including Temps (tongue-in-cheek superhero stories) and The Weerde (shape-shifting aliens are the source of all the world's myths and conspiracies). Contributors included Stephen Baxter, Neil Gaiman, Mary Gentle, David Langford, Kim Newman, and Charles Stross.
  • Merovingen Nights was an anthology series set on the planet Merovingen, in an islolated corner of C. J. Cherryh's Alliance/Union universe.
  • Heroes in Hell was an anthology series with a concept similar to Riverworld: all the dead wind up together in Hell, where they pick up where they left off when still alive.
  • The universe of the Malazan Book of the Fallen was jointly created by Steven Erikson and Ian Cameron Esslemont, and both authors have written their own novels for the setting. This setting is home to:
    • The Malazan Book of the Fallen: Erikson. The main ten-novel sequence comprised of three major Rotating Arcs that eventually converge into a central Myth Arc dealing with the Crippled God.note 
    • Tales from the Malazan Empire: Esslemont. Six loosely-connected novels that deal with events not part of the Malazan Book of the Fallen's major arcs, though they are very significant to the broader world and sometimes pick up lingering threads from the other series.note 
    • The Tales of Bauchelain and Korbal Broach: Erikson. A series of largely satirical novellas chronicling the misadventures of a pair of eccentric, homicidal necromancers and their put-upon manservant.note 
    • The Kharkanas Trilogy: Erikson. A Prequel in the Lost Age trilogy primarily dealing with the Tiste and the civil war that led them to become sundered into the Tiste Andii, Tiste Edur and Tiste Liosan peoples and led them to invading the main world of the series. note 
    • The Path to Ascendancy: Esslemont. Prequel series (initially a trilogy, later expanded to a projected six novels) chronicling the early adventures of Kellanved and Dancer and how they would eventually come to found the Malazan Empire. note 
    • Witness Trilogy: Erikson. Sequel Series to the Book of the Fallen picking up some time after it ends and focusing on the aftermath of its events, in particular the legacy of Karsa Orlong. note 
  • The '80s Magic in Ithkar anthologies were more of a shared setting; all the stories started with the setting of Ithkar Fair, detailed in the anthology prologues, but other than that each author's stories were free-standing, sharing no characters, events, or settings beyond those established in the prologues. Most notably, one story ended with the Fair being shut down due to plague; this was not reflected in any of the others.
  • The SporeWiki Fiction Universe began life as a Spore fan fiction continuity but eventually separated itself. It's shared between multiple writers and is open to anyone willing to write for it.
  • Galactic Crucibles, which also originated as Spore fan fiction, is a shared Space Opera universe between numerous authors with a large focus on worldbuilding. Interestingly enough, it is implied to be part of the same multiverse as the SporeWiki Fiction Universe.
  • As well as the The Infernal Devices prequel series, The Mortal Instruments is said to be set in the same universe as the Modern Faerie Tales by Holly Black. Val and Luis from Valiant are the homeless kids Clary sees in the first book and Simon listens to Stepping Razor, Ellen's band from Tithe.
  • The Ur-Example of a Shared Universe book is The Bible, although it is chiefly notable as an object lesson in the importance of having an editor.
  • Rick Riordan's various mythology series The Camp Half-Blood Series (actually three different series), The Kane Chronicles, and Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard all take place within the same universe, the Riordanverse. The Kane Chronicles contains several hints towards this end, culminating in a crossover. Magnus Chase is actually Annabeth Chase's cousin. This usually doesn't affect the series much, as by-and-large the various gods and mythologies avoid interaction in a sort of deliberate Mutual Masquerade, but later books tend more and more towards inter-connectivity, with characters from one series showing up in another.
    • This is currently set to be averted with the 'Rick Riordan Presents' series of books, which while edited by Riordan and using similar themes will not be explicitly in the same universe, at least at the start.
  • Philip Jose Farmer's "Doc Savage" books have a number of other writers' fictional characters exist in the same continuum, using the device of a comet that struck a group of people leaving a party, resulting in their offspring becoming many famous characters from fiction. Since many of these creations were still covered by copyright at the time, one wonders how he got away with it!
  • As mentioned below in Multiple Media, the Dungeons & Dragons setting Forgotten Realms is notable for having over 70 novel series all set in the same world with minimal Continuity Snarl. The Other Wiki has a page
  • Stephen King is fairly notorious for this amongst fans of his work, with nearly all of his novels containing either major or minor references to each other and sharing the overall connection of The Dark Tower series. It's recently further expanded to include references to the works of his son Joe Hill.
  • Isaacs Universe is a shared setting created by Isaac Asimov in the 1990s, totaling five books. Three volumes were anthologies of short stories edited by Martin H. Greenberg (contributing authors included Poul Anderson, David Brin, Hal Clement, George Alec Effinger, Karen Haber, Janet Kagan, Rebecca Ore, Robert Sheckley, Robert Silverberg, Allen Steele, Harry Turtledove, and Lawrence Watt-Evans). The novels Fossil by Hal Clement and Murder At The Galactic Writers Society by Janet Asimov are also set in the same setting.
  • Every Bret Easton Ellis book shares the same world, with old characters making appearances in later books. For example, in The Rules of Attraction, one of the main characters is Sean Bateman; his brother, Patrick Bateman, has a chapter in the book and later became the main character in American Psycho, where Sean had a minor appearance. Story of My Life by Ellis's friend Jay McInerney is also set in this world, due to the appearance of the protagonist Alison Poole in Glamorama as Victor's girlfriend.
  • The anthology series Tales From The Year Between sets each of its volumes in a new universe; each of its worlds is created from scratch by the contributors of that volume, and is then owned jointly by all contributors. Any one of the people who helped create the world is permitted to write their own work within it, with no need to go through the official volumes.
  • The short story "Time and Time Again" by H. Beam Piper, in which the 43-year-old Allan Hartley's mind is sent back in time to his 13-year-old self's body in 1945, is set in the same universe as two later Piper works, "The Mercenaries" and "Day of the Moron". Both stories, which take place in 1965 and 1968 respectively, refer to President Blake Hartley, indicating that Allan's plan to get his father elected in 1960 was successful and an Alternate Timeline was created. In "Time and Time Again", Allan planned to raise capital for his father's campaigns by using his knowledge of future developments in chemistry to establish a company that will overshadow IG Farben. "The Mercenaries" reveals that Blake served as the President of the chemical company Associated Enterprises before his election but the real power lay with Allan. Kato Sugihara speculates that the same is true with respect to the government.
  • "He Walked Around the Horses" by H. Beam Piper, in which Benjamin Bathurst slipped into an Alternate Universe in which the American and French Revolutions never happened, is set in the same universe (or rather multiverse) as Piper's Paratime series. The first official Paratime story "Police Operation" features an implicit reference to the events of "He Walked Around the Horses", describing the situation but not mentioning Bathurst by name. In that story, Tortha Karf says, "I picked up a fellow on the Fourth Level, just about where you're operating, and dragged him a couple of hundred parayears. I went back to find him and return him to his own time-line, but before I could locate him, he'd been arrested by the local authorities as a suspicious character, and got himself shot trying to escape. I felt badly about that."
  • "Fear Street" by R. L. Stine is an anthology of 100+ standalone novels - barring the occasional sequel or trilogy - that nonetheless all take place in the same town, allowing characters and locations will recur over multiple books. Some of the most fully realized characters never starred in their own book, but had minor appearances in enough books to make up for it.
  • Many of Gabriel García Márquez's works are set in or around the fictional city of Macondo, somewhere in Colombia.
  • Frost Dancers is implied to be in a shared universe with a previous book called Hunter's Moon (1989). In that book, foxes believe in a predator afterlife called the Perfect Here. In Frost Dancers, it's said that the spirits of predators like stouts try to tempt recently deceased hares to go to Perfect Here with them. If hares go with them, they're forced to feed predators for all eternity.
  • The works of Arthur Machen are implied to all share a universe, though it's never made explicit, but rather hinted at by the recurring locales (Edwardian London or the English countryside— or both) and references to Mr. Dyson, his most recurring character who starred in multiple short stories and a novel.
  • George MacDonald Fraser's novels Black Ajax and Mr American explicitly take part in the same universe as his most famous creation, Flashman, which in turn takes place in the same universe as Tom Brown's Schooldays. In addition, Flashman himself encounters Colonel Sebastian Moran (one of Sherlock Holmes's adversaries) in Flashman and the Tiger, resulting in an alternative perspective of "The Adventure of the Empty House" - implying that Holmes's cases take place in the same universe as Flashy's many misadventures. This gets more complicated when you factor in the Holmes continuation novel The Seven-Per-Cent Solution, in which Holmes and Watson encounter the hero of The Prisoner of Zenda which is explicitly stated to be a work of fiction in the Flashman universe (the result of Flashy drunkenly retelling the events of Royal Flash to a journalist called 'Hawkins').
  • Chronicles of Narnia: Thanks to a single throwaway line, we know that the series take place in the same universe as the Sherlock Holmes stories. In The Magician's Nephew, which is chronologically the first story in the series, the narrator mentions that the events of the book were happening at the same time that Mr. Sherlock Holmes was still taking cases in Baker Street.
  • Initially, The Never Mythos and The Kindness of Devils were two separate franchises that had no relation to one another short of a Shout-Out here and there. Eventually, the authors decided to combine both franchises into The Neverkind Saga, and various crossovers involving characters from both series' happen quite often.
  • Whateley Universe: There are about a dozen authors writing about twice that many main characters. And that doesn't count the Fan Fic.
  • Xanadu (Storyverse): The setting was designed for any author to write stories for, and most stories are written by different people. It's also common for other authors' stories to reference each other, although one of the setting's rules prohibits major events that other author would be obligated to include in order to limit constraints on new stories.

    Live-Action TV 

    Multiple Media 

    Radio 

    Tabletop Games 
  • Subverted by Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000; they were long rumored to exist within the same universe and galaxy, Fantasy's planet being a single planet existing outside the scope of the galactic warfare of the wider galaxy of the 40k setting. A common theory was that Sigmar, founder of the Empire in Warhammer Fantasy and somewhat of a demigod was a Primarch, one of the God-Emperor of Mankind's genetic sons who was somehow lost on the planet. This theory had hints going for it in the very earliest editions of 40k, but the pointlesness of it (mainly the fact that it renders all the epic struggles of Fantasy irrelevant) as well as the variety of continuity issues it caused (such as it being stated or shown multiple times in no uncertain terms that the Chaos Gods were badly struggling to take a single preindustrial planet in Fantasy) saw any connection being dropped. The End Times books indisputably joss any theorized connection through their brief look at the wider universe and the Realm of Chaos.
    • Subverted again in the End Times campaign of Warhammer Fantasy, a group of heroes venture into the Realm of Chaos and encounter a "silvery knight speaking a strange accent", hinted as being Grand Master Kaldor Draigo, a Space Marine lost on the Warp in the 40k setting. This turned out to be a Relictor Stormcast Eternal from Age of Sigmar, the sequel to Warhammer Fantasy. The Realm of Chaos does mess with time after all
  • Twilight: 2000 and 2300 AD both share the same historical background, with World War III taking place in the late '90s. Twilight: 2000 is in the immediate aftermath, and 2300 AD says what happened during the next 300 years of human history. Although it would be fun to contemplate a group of grizzled WWIII veterans encountering the Kafer from 2300, there weren't any crossovers in the printed adventures, and the two systems had incompatible game mechanics.
  • Earthdawn and Shadowrun, both by FASA, are also set in the same universe. Earthdawn is said to be the Fourth World, while Shadowrun is the Sixth, several thousand years later. There are shared characters between the two games, including several dragons and a few immortal elves. Shadowrun has been hinting for some time in its Meta Plot that the Horrors, the primary adversaries in Earthdawn, will soon return to destroy the world. The ties were much stronger when FASA was producing both games, and were downplayed after FASA folded.

    Toys 
  • Hasbro toylines:
    • The Action Figure File Card for the C.O.P.S. (1988) character Checkpoint established that his father was a member of an US Army special force unit active throughout the 80's and gave him the name "Wayne R. Sneeden III", the same name as G.I. Joe's Beachhead. The toy bios for COPS were written by Larry Hama, who also wrote most of the character profiles and Marvel comic book issues of G.I. Joe A Real American Hero.
    • The GI Joe 25th Anniversary toyline featured a figure named "Specialist Trakker" whose bio established MASK and VENOM as divisions of GI Joe and Cobra. This is a case of Retroactive Continuity as MASK was made when Kenner was still a competitor to Hasbro and thus was obviously not made with the idea of slotting it in the GI Joe universe.
  • All LEGO® play themes take place in the same shared universe, some examples.
    • Johnny Thunder from Adventures is the grandfather of Josh Thunder from Dino and shows up in LEGO Universe.
    • Solomon Blaze, the leader of Blue team from Galaxy Squad is later the leader of the Ultra Agents.
    • According to LEGO Group, Ogel (the main villian of Alpha Team) is a direct descendant of Vladek, the main villain of the Knight's Kingdom II series. Although this seemingly conflicts with previous lore stating that he is some form of immortal being who has been around forever.
    • Chima is one of the 14 (formerly 16) realms of Ninjago.
    • Alien Conquest links together the plots of Pharaoh's Quest and Atlantis (which in itself featured characters from LEGO Power Miners).

    Video Games 
  • Various id Software developers have repeatedly confirmed that the Doomguy/Doom Slayer of Doom fame is the son of Commander Keen and great-grandson of William "B.J." Blazkowicz from the Wolfenstein series, thus putting those three franchises in the same universe. You can find quite a few Easter eggs in-game to support this as well. The codices in the 2016 reboot and Eternal also introduced the ideas of The Multiverse, time travel, other heroes with crusades against Hell, and time passing non-linearly in the infinite stretches of Hell, which (along with other hints such as the presence of the Soul Cube and the password to unlock Doom II being "FLYNNTAGGART") effectively serves to canonize the seemingly contradictory plots of various Doom media, as well as the Doom Slayer's guest appearances in other games.
  • Grand Theft Auto, Bully, and Manhunt (all developed by Rockstar Games) take place within the same universe, as confirmed by overlapping references like place names, vehicles and fictional brands. Although the HD series exists in a different universe than the Trilogy, both Carcer City and the Bullworth Academy were referenced in Grand Theft Auto V. GTA V also mentioned Jack Marston's memoirs as an in-universe history book, which doesn't confirm that Red Dead is set in the same universe as well (since, for example, Red Dead uses real-world names for certain locations that are fictionized in Grand Theft Auto, such as "New York (City)" instead of "Liberty (City)" or "California" instead of "San Andreas"), but might imply that Jack Marston finally got over his grief and found success in his dreams of being a writer.
  • Half-Life, Portal, and Counter-Strike (or at least the GoldSrc games) share a universe. Portal includes references to Black Mesa and the Combine throughout the first and second games, while Counter-Strike shares a lot of assets with the first Half-Life (including Black Mesa branded containers, scientists, and cars) in both the original game and the Condition Zero standalone expansion pack on part of originally being a mod. Condition Zero throws in a few pieces of Black Mesa's fictional tech in its single player levels, such as their auto-turrets and M23B laser mines. There's also the fact that CS was originally bundled with HL in retail (the original came with the first game, and the Source remake was bundled with the second) and originally titled Half-Life: Counter-Strike, while Portal was bundled with Half-Life 2's episodic expansions as part of the Orange Box (Portal 2 was sold standalone).
    • Team Fortress Classic, another game derived from a Half-Life mod, was heavily implied to be in this universe for much the same reasons as Counter-Strike (though a slightly weaker case since it never carried the Half-Life brand, despite being bundled with it in some packs and sporting the lambda logo on its box art). The "Hunted" map, for instance, is the Black Mesa facility. This was going to be made explicitly canon with an expansion pack at one point, but the project was canceled 60% of the way through. In 2016, Team Fortress Classic was folded into the Team Fortress 2 universe instead, via comic.
    • An Easter Egg in Half-Life: Alyx indicates that Team Fortress is an in-universe fictional franchise within the Half-Life universe.
  • Suda51's No More Heroes, Killer is Dead, Killer7, Lollipop Chainsaw and The Silver Case officially share the same universe. The connection is made during several scenes in Travis Strikes Again; such as the introduction featuring Dan Smith telling Bad-Man where to find Travis, Kamui Uehara assisting Travis in locating the Death Balls, Travis meeting Mondo on a hunt for Dracula. A scene in The Silver Case: 25th Ward has someone describe a "Mr. TD" riding a motorcycle with a talking cat looking for a sphere. For extra content, Shadows of the Damned is also a popular game in-verse.
  • Cing's adventure games Another Code and Hotel Dusk: Room 215 (and their respective sequels) take place in the same universe, but are otherwise unrelated.
  • The Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong series exist in the same universe, by virtue of sharing a common first game. Additionally, due to first appearing in Super Mario World and Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins respectively, the Yoshi's Island, Wario Land, and WarioWare series are also part of the expanded Super Mario universe, though in a very loose technicality for the latter two, as unlike the Yoshi and Donkey Kong universes which have a great presence in Mario games & spinoffs, the Wario universes have minimal to no presence in the Mario series outside of Wario himself.
    • When Rare was still developing games for Nintendo, Diddy Kong Racing meant that Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day were also (very tenuously) connected, but it's no longer the case since Rare was sold to Microsoft.
    • The WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven series are heavily hinted to exist in the same universe: Orbulon's minions, the Space Bunnies, appear in the original Rhythm Tengoku, a child version of Young Cricket is playable in a minigame in Rhythm Heaven Fever (and is confirmed when the second player shows up for his WarioWare Gold trailer) , and Rhythm Heaven Megamix features two unlockable sets starring the Warioware cast. In turn, Game & Wario feature multiple background appearances by Rhythm Heaven characters throughout its cutscenes.
    • Mario and Donkey Kong both appear in the Punch-Out!! games, the former as the referee in Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (and all subsequent re-releases) and the latter as a secret challenger in both Last Stand Mode and Exhibition Mode in the Wii installment.
    • Many other Nintendo games have references to each other that imply they share a universe. There are many examples of minor enemies from one game series having appearances in other games, although often with the names changed. For example, The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening has several enemies from the Mario games though that particular title has the justification that it takes place in a dream world. Although several other Nintendo games have the other games existing as games in their universe. For most games, the degree to which they are connected is left unclear.
  • Over the years Capcom has created a hefty shared universe between several of their Arcade/retro franchises, all centered around Street Fighter:
    • The first, and most obvious one, was Final Fight. Since it started off as a sequel to the original 1987 Street Fighter game (even briefly going by the name Street Fighter '89), it makes sense that a few characters from the original Final Fight (namely Guy, Sodom, Rolento, Cody and years later Maki) would eventually appear as fighters in the Street Fighter Alpha series, with stages and endings featuring cameos by other characters. Andore appears in Street Fighter III under the name of "Hugo", with Poison acting as his manager. Both Guy and Cody returned in Super Street Fighter IV, with Hugo and Rolento later returning in Ultra Street Fighter IV with Poison as a newcomer (all three being ported from Street Fighter X Tekken). Street Fighter V saw the addition of Abigail, a Head Swap of the Andore family and the original game's penultimate boss, and Lucia, one of the playable characters in Final Fight 3. With the central hub of Street Fighter 6's World Tour Mode now taking place entirely through Metro City, everything has come full circle.
    • This has gone the other way as well, as Chun-Li makes a cameo in Stage 1 of Final Fight 2 and Cammy is a secret challenger at the Fight Club in Final Fight: Streetwise (Several fans also believe that The Ghost, another pit fighter, is Joe due to their similar appearances and fighting styles.)
    • Saturday Night Slam Masters started out being connected to Final Fight at first with Haggar being part of its roster, but it still featured a few cameos of Street Fighter characters in stage backgrounds (Chun-Li and Honda in the original; Zangief, Honda and Balrog in Ring of Destruction). In Street Fighter the series got small mentions, however, such as Hugo's ending in 2nd Impact namedropping some Slam Masters wrestlers as rivals for Hugo, or Zangief's Street Fighter V DLC costume "The Gief" including some references to the series in his win quotes. Supplemental materials for both series, however, provide much clearer canonical ties like that Birdie and Titanic Tim were close friends who eventually formed a tag team called the "500 Trillion Powers", El Stingray and El Fuerte shared a Lucha Libre mentor named Meteorito Jr., and Yoko Harmageddon, Rainbow Mika's mentor and trainer, was forced to retire after sustaining a Career-Ending Injury in the ring against Black Widow.
    • Captain Commando has no direct ties with Street Fighter, but instead to Final Fight:it takes place in a futuristic version of Metro City, a sculpt of Mike Haggar is featured in the game as an bonus item, and Ginzu the Ninja is a practitioner of Bushinryu just like Guy, and backstory material indicates his father, Gou, is Guy's successor as 40th Grandmaster. Street Fighter IV sort of brought some minor connection through C.Viper, whose moves and techniques are copied from Captain Commando himself and she uses a powered suit that fans like to theorize is a predecessor/prototype of the Captain's armor. Although the Shadaloo Research website's bio on Ibuki's friend Yuta Homura implies Captain Commando exists as a video game, it is worth noting Street Fighter 6 director Takayuki Nakayama has stated in twitter that Ginzu's father Gou is Kimberly's senpai as Guy's student, so it is very possible he may show up in World Tour mode.
    • Rival Schools has Sakura appear in the first game as an unlockable Guest Fighter (with in-game lore and promotional artwork establishing Sakky as being Childhood Friends with Hinata and Natsu), and Hinata's uniform being based on Ibuki's school uniform as seen in her III ending (the implication being the two went to the same high school). School Life Simulator in the PlayStation port furthered this by establishing Hinata picked up her fighting skills from correspondence courses sold by Ken (thus explaining her Shotoclone credentials), whereas Chairperson has documents about Saikyo—yes, that Saikyo—she uses to train the player avatar. In addition, it's implied that Ran may be related to Dan himself, both sharing the last name of Hibiki. Most of these details were dropped in Project Justice and the Hinata/Ibuki connection was ignored in Street Fighter IV when Ibuki's high school turned out to be other than Taiyo High, which plus the detail Sakura's blood type was different in Rival Schools, left people wondering if the two series were truly set in the same world. This all changed with Street Fighter V, first when Hinata and Tiffany made background cameos in the Kanzuki's Beach stage, then followed by Akira joining the fray in the game's fifth wave of DLC, with the producer and director directly stating both series do indeed take place in the same world.
    • Strider was introduced into the mythos with Season 2 of Street Fighter V with its inclusion of Zeku, Guy's master and the preceding grandmaster of the Bushin style. His design and moveset contain numerous allusions to Strider Hiryu, "Original Strider" is an unlockable title of his, and he even name drops the Strider organization in his story, all of which suggest Zeku founded the Striders or was otherwise heavily involved with the organization's inception.
    • Forgotten Worlds is not really confirmed, but heavily implied by the Final Fight character Two-P. Two-P was originally designed to resemble the Forgotten Words 2nd player character (hence his name, "Two-P" = Player Two). What started as a cool nod in the design has grown into the implication the two characters are one and the same, with Two.P having total amnesia of his past and having lots of littles nods to the Forgotten Worlds character like having one of his lines as his catchphrase, being good with heavy weapons and disliking earthworms and lizards (which appears as enemies in the first stages of Forgotten Worlds).
    • Street Fighter V director Takayuki Nakayama has stated in the design notes of Menat that her crystal ball is "a product of a god-beast believed to have once protected the phantom desert kingdom of Alanbird". Alanbird is the Japanese name of Sangypt, one of the countries in Red Earth, and the god-beast is implied to be the game's boss character Ravange/Secmeto.
    • There's also Akuma's appearance in Tekken 7. See below for more details.
  • A few other Capcom titles have their own shared continuity, though not necessarily with Street Fighter or any of its related series. note 
    • Dino Crisis has several crates featuring the Umbrella Corporation logo. Furthermore, light gun shooter Gaiden Game Dino Stalker is actually the third installment of Resident Evil's spin-off series Gun Survivor, featuring Umbrella Easter Eggs in the form of the "Woman Drawing Water" statue seen in the Spencer Mansion's exhibition room and an abandoned Umbrella building.
    • Dino Crisis may or may not have ties to Ace Attorney of all games; Shu Takumi wrote the scenario of the first game before going on to serve as the second game's director and then work on Ace Attorney, while the setting of original Dino Crisis, the Borginian Republic/Republic of Borginia, is mentioned several times through the AA series.
    • The dog that you can rescue from a bear trap early on in Resident Evil 4? None other than Hewie from sister Survival Horror game Haunting Ground.
    • The Red Arremer clan from Ghosts 'n Goblins has appeared in some of Capcom's earlier titles, establishing a small universe of sorts: they appear in Higemaru Makaijima along a whole island of enemies from the game (plus a Red Arremer is revealed as the Final Boss), they also appear as enemies in Black Tiger and other creatures appear in The King of Dragons.
  • The Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series both take place in the same universe (owing to being developed by Tecmo/Team Ninja), complete with having characters originating in one becoming plot-integral in the other. Most notably (see the entry in Canon Welding for more examples), Ryu first crossed over to DOA and canonically won the second tournament, followed by Ayane playing a supporting role in the second Ninja Gaiden trilogy, with Kasumi making brief cameo appearances in Sigma 2 before becoming a playable character herself in 3: Razor's Edge. Of course, characters will change looks to match the art style of the respective games. Fellow Tecmo IP Fatal Frame is also in this shared universe due to Ayane's side story in Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water, and Nioh turned out to be a prequel to Ninja Gaiden, as an ancestor of Ryu named Jin Hayabusa appears in the lategame mission.
  • While Koei's Warriors Orochi was made to confirm that its series Dynasty Warriors and Samurai Warriors take place in the same universe, the second trailer of Warriors Orochi 3 more or less confirms that Koei's other games (Warriors: Legends of Troy and Bladestorm The Hundred Years War) also are part of this setting due to the presence of Achilles and Jeanne D'Arc. It also confirms that its business partner Tecmo's series Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive (see directly above) take place there due to the presence of Ryu Hayabusa, Ayane, Momiji and later Kasumi. Naotora Ii would later cross over to DOA, making an appearance in Dead or Alive 5 Last Round.
  • The Ultima series features references to the Wing Commander series. In Ultima I there were spaceships that in Ultima VII: The Black Gate was explained to be the spaceship of the Kilrathi.
    • Origin seemed to be trying to establish this in all of their mid-90s games- in addition to the connections between Wing Commander and Ultima, the manual for Wing Commander Arena has, among other things, an advertisement for a No Remorse movie.
  • The United Galaxy Space Force, UGSF Series for short, links 30 Namco games such as Galaxian, Galaga, Bosconian, and Dig Dug into the same universe, even having a clear timeline.
    • Dig Dug, Baraduke (or Alien Sector if you prefer), and Mr. Driller are set in the same world, by virtue of Taizo Hori and Toby "Kissy" Masuyo being the parents of Susumu, Ataru, and Taiyo Hori (the first of the three being The Hero of the Mr. Driller series) and the events of the first Dig Dug being referenced directly in Mr. Driller (as the "Dig Dug Incident").
    • Additionally, Pookas often show up in Pac-Man titles, despite the Pac-Man universe not being anywhere in the UGSF timeline, although considering the number of elements that overlap in Namco games in general (the Special Flag from Rally-X showing up in several other games for instance), this may just be more of a tribute rather than an actual connection.
  • EVE Online and the FPS DUST 514 are part of the same universe...literally. Players can accept contracts and do missions for the player-run companies of EVE Online, and even form their own corporations that EVE Online players are able to join.
  • The Science Adventure Series consisting of Chaos;Head, Steins;Gate, Robotics;Notes, and Chaos;Child occur in the same universe. These stories take place several years apart from each other, though there are several scenes in each that make references to the others.
  • The presence of both Seath the Scaleless and Patches the Hyena (as well as some other recurring characters and elements) seem to indicate that Dark Souls shares the same world and universe as the King's Field series and Demon's Souls. With Patches returning as Patches the Spider, as well as the presence of the Moonlight Greatsword, Bloodborne seems to be connected as well. Likely the only reason the connection between Demon's Souls, Bloodborne and Dark Souls wasn't made explicit is because the former two IPs technically belong to Sony, not FromSoftware.
  • Brøderbund Software tried to work the Bungeling Empire into most of its early 1980s action games. Choplifter! and Lode Runner had it All There in the Manual; Raid on Bungeling Bay had it in the title but wasn't really a sequel to anything. Then, Lode Runner is revealed to be connected to Bomberman by the ending of the NES version of the latter.
  • Space Harrier is set in the Fantasy Zone; several Fantasy Zone games reference it to various degrees. The culmination of this was the unreleased crossover game Space Fantasy Zone.
  • Marathon takes place in the same universe as Pathways into Darkness, and possibly Halo. There is even a terminal in the first Marathon game (which is a historical record) that talks about the events of Pathways.
  • The entire premise of the Reality-On-The-Norm project. It is a shared universe set around the eponymous City of Adventure.
  • The Tom Clancy series games (Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and H.A.W.X.) share a single universe, and often have crossover cameos with each other.
    • This is particular apparent between the Ghost Recon and H.A.W.X. games - multiple missions in the latter have the player supporting Ghost teams, and (plot inconsistencies aside due to them coming out two years apart) Ghost Recon: Future Soldier depicts the same conflict as in H.A.W.X. 2. There's also Ghost Recon 2's plot kicking off from the sinking of the USS Clarence E. Walsh, an event depicted about halfway through Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, and both Future Soldier and H.A.W.X. 2 mention Voron, the Russian equivalent of Third Echelon from Conviction.
    • Rainbow Six, the original Tom Clancy game, may also be part of the shared universe - Vegas 2 has one mission in which you receive support from an "NSA Agent" who dresses very similarly to Sam Fisher.
  • This easter egg from Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag heavily suggests that Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Watch_Dogs share a universe. Considering that ACIV's MacGuffin would be of tremendous use in Watch_Dogs, this is unsurprising.
    • Oliver Garneau from Black Flag's Frame Narrative leaves for Chicago (where Watch_Dogs is set) during the game. In Watch_Dogs, Aiden kills him as part of an optional side mission under mysterious orders from "The Brotherhood." There are also several references to Abstergo Industries, and, at one point, a child can be found playing Assassin's Creed III: Liberation, which is a video game produced by Abstergo Entertainment in-universe.
    • One mission in Far Cry 3, which discusses "strange scientists" and "genetic memories", takes you to an abandoned Abstergo laboratory, placing this game and Far Cry 4 in the same universe as Assassin's Creed and Watch Dogs. This extends to Far Cry 2 which is definitely set in the same universe as 3 and 4, due to them sharing characters and references, but whether the original or the fifth entry are still in the universe is yet to be seen. The world goes through a nuclear apocalypse at the end of 5, that is expanded upon in Far Cry: New Dawn; if that doesn't happen in the mainline Far Cry, Watch Dog, and Assassin's Creed franchises then it seems that 5 branched off into an Alternate Continuity.
      • The console-only remake of the first game, Far Cry Instincts, deviates from the PC-only original in several ways, in both gameplay and continuity. It was followed by two (also console-only) sequels, Far Cry Instincts: Evolution and Far Cry Instincts: Predator. The Instincts sub-series somewhat ties itself to Far Cry 2, as it has Jack Carver acting as an arms dealer, increasing the evidence for the theory that he is in fact the Jackal from Far Cry 2 (see also: the Jackal and Instincts!Jack both being former U.S. Army, while OG!Jack was former U.S. Navy). Due to Crytek leaving after the first game and not being present for the sequels or console ports, a common fan theory is that Far Cry is in the same universe as Crysis while Far Cry: Instincts in a different timeline acts as the start of Ubisoft's Far Cry/Watch Dogs/Assassin's Creed universe.
    • Rayman and Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon are also video games in-universe, presumably by Abstergo Entertainment.
  • Mega Man (Classic), X, Zero, ZX, and Legends, are all on the same timeline despite the tone reaching further and further away from the original series with each new series.
  • According to a 1982 issue of Electronic Games magazine, Robotron: 2084 takes place in the same universe as Defender and Stargate (aka Defender II). The hardly released Blaster is a sequel to Robotron.
  • Harvest Moon has a vague continuity, not helped by the amount of reusing the same characters. It has been proven that some games share a universe though:
  • Downfall (2009) and The Cat Lady share a universe. The 2016 remake of Downfall make this even more obvious, having The Cat Lady herself, Susan Ashworth, show up at the end. This indicates that Downfall takes place sometime after the events in The Cat Lady.
  • Although it's a crossover game, Namco × Capcom is a special case. The game itself has a world with the settings and characters of several contemporary Namco (Tekken, Wonder Momo, .hack, etc.), Capcom (Street Fighter, Resident Evil, Dead Rising, etc.), and as Project × Zone shows up, even Sega (Fighting Vipers, Dynamite Cop, etc.) and Nintendo (Fire Emblem and Xenoblade Chronicles) properties co-existing, and implies that Xenosaga is its future. Crossover shenanigans involve other universes, then the main characters from the game (and Xenosaga) appeared in the Endless Frontier games, which is a side realm of the Super Robot Wars: Original Generation universe. This came back when characters from the Frontier and OG universes appeared in Project X Zone, then went back to Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers discussing their appearance in the previous game.
  • BioShock, which has ties to Gone Home, with one of the SNES game cartridges you can find in Sam's room being Super Spitfire, which references a minigame called Spitfire in BioShock 2: Minerva's Den, which the developers of Gone Home previously worked on, and from there to Firewatch, with one of the novels you can find in the caches being a copy of The Accidental Savior, the novel written by the protagonist's father in Gone Home. Also implied by this interview with Fullbright co-founder Steve Gaynor.
    Steve Gaynor has previously stated that the developer "very lightly implies" that Gone Home takes place in the same reality as BioShock. Gaynor's team has also inserted a small reference to Firewatch into the console version of its game.
  • Through Canon Welding, and Akuma's Guest Fighter status, it's suggested that Tekken and Street Fighter are set in the same universe (or, at the very least, a version of Street Fighter exists in the Tekken universe). Likewise, with Geese Howard making an appearance as DLC, Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters can be lumped in there as well. You can probably also lump in Final Fantasy XV as well due to Noctis making an appearance as a Guest Fighter.
  • Like Capcom above, SNK is no slouch when it comes to inter-title continuity.
    • Several of SNK's properties are set in the same universe, if The King of Fighters is any indication. The King of Fighters XIV backtracks slightly with its Another World Team (consisting of Samurai Shodown's Nakoruru accompanied by Mui Mui and Love Heart, respectively from the pachinko games Dragon Gal and Sky Love, all drawn into the KOF world because of a rift between dimensions), suggesting that the various SNK titles that may or may not fit neatly into the KOF continuity exist as part of a greater multiverse.
    • KOF itself is an Alternate Continuity of the joint Art of Fighting/Fatal Fury timeline by virtue of Geese Howard being Killed Off for Real in 1995's Real Bout Fatal Fury but sporadically appearing in KOF alive and well starting the following year. There's also the decade or so gap between AOF and FF, reflected by a younger Geese serving as the True Final Boss of Art of Fighting 2, an older Ryo Sakazaki appearing in the PlayStation port of Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition as Mr. Karate II, and one of Ryo's students (Marco Rodriguez/Khushnood Butt) being included as part of the Garou: Mark of the Wolves roster. Classic SNK wrestling game 3 Count Bout is also connected, as Big Bomberder is a tag partner of Raiden, is shown squaring off with Big Bear (Raiden's Face persona) in artwork for Fatal Fury Special, and is mentioned in Raiden's profile story for KOF XII.
    • The Fu'un Series (Savage Reign and its sequel Kizuna Encounter) is suggested to take place in the far future of Fatal Fury due to the setting (Jipang City is implied to be a futuristic/rebuilt Southtown), a young Chung Paifu receiving his hat from none other than Terry (referred to only as "the Legendary Wolf"), and Kim Sue Il being Ambiguously Related to Kim Kaphwan (presumably his descendant). Max Eagle, another one of the playable fighters, works for the SWF (Southtown Wrestling Federation) first mentioned in 3 Count Bout.
    • Buriki One exists in a version of the Fatal Fury timeline; the game marks the first appearance of the Ryo Sakazaki incarnation of Mr. Karate and Seo Yong Song is established as a pupil of Kim Kaphwan. note 
    • In a non-fighting game example, Metal Slug has featured Ralf and Clark from Ikari Warriors (in their KOF designs) as playable characters since the sixth installment. In return, Fio was a Secret Character in KOF Maximum Impact 2 (one of two Alternate Continuities to the mainline KOF games) and explicitly recognizes her comrades-in-arms. Fellow soldier of fortune Leona (also from The King of Fighters) later appeared in Metal Slug XX, the Updated Re-release of 7, and Metal Slug Attack would eventually complete the set by adding in Heidern and Whip (along with many other KOF characters as playable units).
    • Psycho Soldier is a loose sequel to the events of Athena, featuring the goddess's descendant/reincarnation Athena Asamiya (another character who became a KOF staple). In an interesting aversion, neither The King of Fighters nor the direct sequel to Athena (Athena: Full Throttle) clarify whether or not the goddess Athena is related to Gaia, who is established as the mother of Orochi in KOF lore, like in the source material.
  • The connections between Saints Row and Volition's other big franchise, Red Faction, have waned and strengthened throughout the years, primarily revolving around the villainous Mega-Corp named Ultor, which is the driving force behind the colonization of Mars in RF. As early as the original Saints Row, the city of Stilwater hosted the Ultor Dome, featuring the Ultor corporate logos, and Ultor became a major power in the city by Saints Row 2. Although it had merged with the 3rd Street Saints by Saints Row: The Third, weakening the connection; despite an audio cameo by Shaundi in Red Faction: Guerrilla, which seems to be the Saints Row 2 version of her (granted Guerrilla came out before Saints Row 3 and it's developments), there are no mentions of the Saints as an organization. However one of SR 3's two endings reinforced it again by having the main characters star in a movie about Mars, meaning that SR!Ultor does have some interest in the Red Planet. And then it went right out of the window when the entire planet of Earth was blown up by the invading aliens in Saints Row IV (it is very much intact in RF). However, the shared universe, or rather, shared multiverse was reestablished by Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell and Agents of Mayhem, as the former had an ending that erased the Saints' entire timeline via Cosmic Retcon, and the latter established it as canon. AoM contains passing references to Ultor, so it presumably never gets bogged down in Stilwater in this timeline and eventually reaches Mars.
  • Easter eggs suggest that Dragon Age is a video game franchise in the universe of Mass Effect. Evidence for this include the Blood Dragon Armor in Mass Effect 3 being modeled after a suit from Dragon Age (complete with the series logo on the chest) and a statue of a Dragon Age ogre being seen in Donovan Hock's vault. Also, in Dragon Age: Inquisition, a krogan's head can be seen in the room of hunting trophies at Halamshiral Palace; apparently a krogan ended up on Thedas at some point and was killed and taxidermied.
  • Hitman and Kane & Lynch. The titular duo from the latter makes a cameo appearance in Hitman: Absolution, after being seen on newspapers in Hitman: Blood Money. You can kill them.
  • The Soul Series takes place in the distant past of the Tekken series. The links between the two have been minimal (the most critical one being the presence of a man named "Yoshimitsu" leading a group of ninjas called the "Manji" in both, the one in Soulcalibur being the 16th century ancestor of the one who comes from Tekken) but exist in the same reality.
  • Some of Wadjet Eye Games creations are confirmed to be set in a shared universe.
  • The Infocom Zork text adventures are set in the same universe as the Enchanter trilogy (Enchanter, Sorcerrer, Spellbreaker). The Enchanter Trilogy has fewer Zorkisms, but if you enter a pitch black place, you are still likely to be eaten by a Grue if you don't turn on a light source. The game Starcross also has the Grue reference in both the story and the stock warning about entering a dark place. Starcross is a futuristic Science Fiction game that is played straight and its inclusion in the Zorkian universe is incongruous, despite the fact that a grue is seen in the space zoo. Game reviewers such as Digital Antiquarian have theorized that this might be due to laziness on the programmer's part as they could have simply changed the code to remove the "grue" reference or change the light source limitation.
  • Although most Disney worlds depicted in Kingdom Hearts are alternate universe versions of the original properties they represent, Word of God states that the staff of Pixar worked with Tetsuya Nomura to fit the storylines of the Pixar worlds in Kingdom Hearts III into the continuity of the original films, and that as far as Pixar is concerned the events of the Toy Box world is "Toy Story 2.5", meaning that the Toy Story films canonically take place within the universe of Kingdom Hearts. The same is likely true of Monstropolis and Monsters, Inc., albeit without the same explicit Word of God.
  • Telltale Games' The Walking Dead (Telltale) takes place in the same universe as the comic. Several characters from the comic series make appearances in supporting roles (or playable, in Michonne's case), but sadly don't stick around for very long. These cameos include Hershel and Shawn Greene, Glenn, Michonne, her daughters, Pete, Siddiq, and Paul "Jesus" Monroe. Lilly was originally intended to be the same Lilly from the comic and Season One was meant to be her origin story, until The Road to Woodbury threw a wrench into that.
  • While they don't share a single universe, Mortal Kombat seems to share to be connected to the same multiverse as DC Comics (or at least video games based on DC properties). This started with the direct crossover game, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, and continued on to Mortal Kombat repeatedly providing Guest Fighters for DC's Injustice series, which is also made by Mortal Kombat's creators. Injustice would then return the favor with the Joker's inclusion as a guest fighter in Mortal Kombat 11. There are even hints (admittedly of questionable canonicity) that the cosmic forces at work in each respective series may be playing a part in the other.
  • Thanks to the appearance of Imran Zakhaev in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and its integration with the gameplay and lore of Warzone, Black Ops is set in the same continuity as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). Season 2 even centers around Woods and his team attempting to rescue Adler, who is being flown in to Verdansk. With the release of Call of Duty: Vanguard, itself a sequel to Call of Duty: WWII, both games are now canon to this overarching Call of Duty universe.
  • Several, possibly all, of the different franchises created by Elephant Games are confirmed to take place in the same universe. This is most evidently confirmed by the Crisis Crossover series Detectives United, but there are also instances of games in one series referencing the events or characters of another, such as Alice Gray (in the Grim Tales series) calling James Blackthorne (from the Haunted Hotel games) "Uncle James."
  • It's at least somewhat implied through shared naming conventions that the Azure Striker Gunvolt Series and Gal*Gun take place in the same universe. Also, if you count Mighty Gunvolt Burst as canon, Mighty No. 9 is also included. Luminous Avenger iX 2 seems to imply that a version of the Blaster Master Zero trilogy (and the Metafight saga by extension) is also canon to the Gunvolt universe in a fashion.
  • CyberConnect2's Little Tail Bronx universe is comprised of the Tail Concerto and Solatorobo action games, along with the Mamoru-kun educational browser game and the now-defunct Little Tail Story mobile RPG (both of which were Japan-exclusive). The Fuga: Melodies of Steel series of tactical RPGs takes place several centuries prior to any of these other games, and is set in the same location as Solatorobo.

    Visual Novels 
  • School Days, its sequels, and several other related visual novels are all part of a shared setting called the 0verflow Universe. Nearly every character is part of the same Tangled Family Tree, due to the actions of a certain serial womanizer/rapist.

    Web Animation 

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Shared World

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