10) New Super Mario Bros. – 30.8 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
The remarkable popularity of the DS handheld consoles over the years has seen several franchises record notable success, and New Super Mario Bros. is one such example. Nintendo’s first big return to a 2D side-scrolling Mario game generated huge levels of interest when it launched back in 2006. As in, nearly one million copies sold in Japan alone in its first few days! Its total makes it more than any 3D entry in the series and not far off the best selling in the entire franchise.
9) Pokemon Red and Blue – 31 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
The original incarnation of one of gaming’s most popular franchises, Pokemon Red and Blue completely took the world by storm back in 1998. In combination with the anime TV series and trading cards, Pokefever swept the globe and quickly became the reason to own a GameBoy (assuming you didn’t have one already). Decades later, Pokemon is still immensely popular, but nothing is likely to wrestle away its crown anytime soon.
8) PlayerUknown’s Battlegrounds – 34 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
It might have only been a fully released game for less than four months, but PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has already steamrolled its way into this elite list of best selling games. The Battle Royale genre has actually been around for some time as a modification of games such as Arma 3 and H1Z1, but PUBG polished the formula to create the ultimate experience from the ground up, and its popularity has been unprecedented.
In fact, it might very well go down as a seminal video game for its influence in reshaping the multiplayer gaming ecosystem. Battle Royale fever has since seen dozens of games copy the concept to try and cash in on the buzz. PUBG, however, remains the definitive experience, and certainly the best selling. It has recorded a whopping 30 million on PC and 4 million on Xbox One.
7) Overwatch – 35 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
Blizzard has a reputation for quality video games, and the developer totally nailed it with Overwatch. The past five years have seen a wave of hero shooters, but Overwatch finds a near-perfect balance between awesome shooting mechanics and objective gameplay.
Add to the mix a colorful cast of interesting characters and you’ve got a recipe for a stonewall success, which is exactly what Overwatch has become. Its 35 million units sold is incredibly impressive considering it was released just two years ago. Given that it’s fast becoming one of the most popular esports on the planet, expect this FPS to stick around for years to come.
6) Mario Kart Wii – 37 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
The most successful spin-off of all time, Mario Kart is an ever-popular force in video gaming. Throughout the years, each Nintendo console has had its own version of the game, and none of them have ever failed to sell in droves. It should come as little surprise that the best selling of them all is on Nintendo’s most popular console.
But ironically, Mario Kart Wii was actually one of the most poorly received titles in the series from a critical perspective. The track selection, poor AI, and lack of free-for-all battle mode didn’t impress, and the game sits on just an 82 Metacritic average. Still, the classic combination of Nintendo’s iconic characters and hilarious karting action made for a multiplayer experience that totally dominated households for an entire console generation.
5) Super Mario Bros. – 40.2 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
The first Super Mario Bros. might not be the best game in the series, but it’s the one most people think of when they see video gaming’s most recognizable character. Actually, even just hearing that music and those sound effects are enough; it transcends the medium as one of pop-culture’s entertainment icons. The 1985 game was first released on (and bundled with) the influential NES system, but subsequent remakes have been made available on Game Boy and DS systems, as well as featuring on virtual console for the Wii and Wii U home console. As a result of both its status in entertainment legend and its availability on various platforms over the years, Super Mario Bros. is the oldest and best selling game in the series.
4) Wii Sports – 82 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
Wii Sports makes this list on a bit of a technicality. While nobody would deny that the many different sports experiences of the Wii’s pack-in game were super fun, there’s also no way it would have ever sold so well without being bundled with the console.
That all being said, given that the Wii’s novelty motion controls made it appealing to a massive casual audience, Wii Sports may well have been the definitive experience on the console for many. The 82 million units sold is well short of the 100 million total Wii units sold due to the fact that the game was not bundled with the console in Japan or South Korea.
3) Grand Theft Auto V – 90 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
Grand Theft Auto V is a phenomenon; an anomaly that continues to rewire our definition of what a truly successful video game is. Five years after its first release on previous generation hardware, GTA V still regularly appears in NPD and European top 10 sales charts.
Its online mode continues to rake in inordinate amounts of money, and the developer Rockstar keeps making brilliant content to support the enormous community of players. It’s little wonder we haven’t seen or heard anything about a sequel title with numbers that now exceed a mind-bending 90 million units sold.
2) Minecraft – 144 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
Speaking of a phenomenon, Minecraft has forged a legacy for itself so big that it hasn’t just become the Lego of video games, it’s so big that it actually sits beside Lego as a cornerstone of modern entertainment. Adults and children alike have flocked to this digital space to unleash their creative juices, as well as enjoy the hundreds of mods and different content modes that constantly reinvent what sort of experiences Minecraft delivers.
What’s so amazing about this global success is that Minecraft has done it all without peripherals and spin-offs. Unlike Pokemon, there’s no TV series or playing cards. And it doesn’t have the collective weight of dozens of titles or the gift of a dominating console platform as did Mario. Minecraft is just a very good game, and people can’t get enough of it.
1) Tetris – 495 Million Units Sold
The 10 Best Selling Games of All Time
Candy Crush might be the modern era’s go-to brain teaser puzzle game, but Tetris reigned supreme for nearly three decades before it. The first video game to ever be exported from the USSR to the USA, Tetris exploded in popularity and has since been made available on virtually every gaming platform.
It first set the world on fire when it was made available for Nintendo’s handheld console, Game Boy, back in 1989, selling 35 million units in total. But while those numbers put both Tetris and the Game Boy on the map in the early nineties, the game has since found a new lease of life on mobile. Over 425 million units have now been sold on mobile, making it the best selling paid game on the platform. That truly mammoth figure means Tetris easily trumps even its closest rivals as the best selling game of all time.
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