List of best-selling video games
This is a list of video games that have sold the highest number of software units worldwide. The best-selling video game to date is Minecraft, a sandbox game released by Mojang in May 2009 for a wide range of PC, mobile and console platforms, selling more than 238 million copies across all platforms. Grand Theft Auto V and EA's Tetris are the only other known video games to have sold over 100 million copies. The best-selling game on a single platform is Wii Sports, with nearly 83 million sales for the Wii console.
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Among the top 50 best-selling video games on this list, over half were developed or published by Nintendo, including six of the top ten; four Nintendo titles were published with their affiliate, The Pokémon Company. Other publishers with multiple entries in the top 50 include Activision and Rockstar Games with five games each, Electronic Arts with three games, and Namco Bandai with two games. Nintendo EAD is the developer with the most games in the top 50, with thirteen titles on the list, followed by Game Freak with six Pokémon games. The oldest game in the top 50 is Pac-Man, which was released in May 1980 and most recent is Animal Crossing: New Horizons which was released in March 2020.
Games reported on by player count instead of official sales figures, such as registered accounts, subscriptions, or free-to-play ownership, are included on the list of most-played video games by player count instead. For the best-selling video game franchises, see this list. Games reported on by gross revenue are included on the list of highest-grossing arcade games and list of highest-grossing mobile games.
List
See also
Notes
- Only developers and publishers for the original release of each game are listed, except where noted otherwise.
- The original PC version sold over 33 million units, as of November 2019.[1]
- Including paid mobile game downloads.
- Although Minecraft was first publicly available on May 17, 2009,[2] and the full release on November 18, 2011, the game first accepted pre-orders on June 13, 2009, so it started accumulating sales at that time.[3]
- Mobile, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable
- Originally released on NES and arcade platforms.
- Super Mario Bros. sold more than 50 million units worldwide up until 1996.[11] 660,000 units were later sold on Wii Virtual Console,[12] Super Mario Bros. Deluxe version sold 5.07 million units on Game Boy Color, and Classic NES Series port sold 2.27 million units on Game Boy Advance.[13]
- Mario Kart 8 sold 8.46 million units[14] and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 43.35 million units.[15]
- Red, Green, Blue and Yellow versions sold 46.02 million units on Game Boy,[16][17] and 1.5 million units on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.[18]
- Tetris (NES) / Tetris (Game Boy)
- Tetris (Game Boy) sold 35 million cartridges.[19] Tetris (NES) sold 8 million cartridges.[20]
- Pac-Man:
- Arcade video game version (1980) – 400,000 arcade cabinets[21]
- Atari 2600 version (1982) – 8,095,586 game cartridges (7,956,413 by 1983,[22] 139,173 between 1986 and 1990)[23]
- Pac-Man Nelsonic Game Watch (1982) – 500,000+ units[24]
- Coleco tabletop version (1982) – 1.5 million units[25]
- Family Computer (Famicom) and Famicom Mini (Game Boy Advance) versions – 598,679 cartridges in Japan[26][27]
- Game Boy Advance re-release (2004) – 400,000 cartridges in North America[28]
- Atari 5200 version – 35,011 cartridges (between 1986 and 1988)[23]
- Atari XE computer version – 42,359 copies (between 1986 and 1990)[23]
- Thunder Mountain's home computer budget release (1986) – 500,000+ copies[29]
- Mobile phone version – 30 million+ paid downloads[30]
- Gold and Silver versions sold 23.1 million units[17] and Crystal version sold 6.39 million units on Game Boy Color.[38]
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold 25.80 million units on Nintendo Switch,[15] and 1.69 million units on Wii U.[41]
- Super Mario World sold 20.61 million units on Super Nintendo Entertainment System[42] and 362,500 units on Wii Virtual Console,[12] and Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2 sold 5.69 million units on Game Boy Advance.[42]
- Sun and Moon sold 16.27 million units and Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon sold 9.04 million units.[45]
- Diamond and Pearl versions sold 17.67 million units,[33] and Platinum version sold 7.06 million units.[47]
- Super Mario Bros. 3 sold 18 million units on Nintendo Entertainment System[48] and 1 million units on Wii Virtual Console,[12] and Super Mario Advance 4: Super Mario Bros. 3 sold 5.4 million units on Game Boy Advance.[13]
- Sonic the Hedgehog sold 15 million units on Sega Genesis,[51] 482,960 units on Xbox Live Arcade,[52] 8 million paid mobile downloads up until 2008,[53] and over 500,000 paid Android downloads between 2013 and 2016.[54]
- Ruby and Sapphire versions sold 16.22 million units[56] and Emerald version sold 6.32 million units on Game Boy Advance.[57]
References
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- Arts, Electronic. "Tetris". Electronic Arts Inc. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
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Nintendo's first U.S. home videogame console, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) was released in 1985 with Mario starring in Super Mario Bros. The legendary title has gone on to sell more than 50 million units worldwide.
- Hatfield, Daemon (February 23, 2010). "WiiWare, Virtual Console Sales Exposed". IGN. Archived from the original on March 23, 2019. Retrieved January 27, 2019.
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- Director/Producer: Magnus Temple; Executive Producer: Nick Southgate (2004). "Tetris: From Russia With Love". BBC Four. Event occurs at 51:23. BBC. BBC Four. Archived from the original on January 1, 2016. Retrieved May 12, 2020.
The real winners were Nintendo. To date, Nintendo dealers across the world have sold 8 million Tetris cartridges on the Nintendo Entertainment system.
- Kao, John J. (1989). Entrepreneurship, creativity & organization: text, cases & readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. p. 45. ISBN 0-13-283011-6.
Estimates counted 7 billion coins that by 1982 had been inserted into some 400,000 Pac Man machines worldwide, equal to one game of Pac Man for every person on earth. US domestic revenues from games and licensing of the Pac Man image for T-shirts, pop songs, to wastepaper baskets, etc. exceeded $1 billion.
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