Best selling video game of all time?

[thop]

Is there any chart, preferably by system and country/region (EU, JP, US) available for anything like this? I only found one of the US (since 1995) and JP but not the EU. Also the US one doesn't include GB/NES/SNES and SEGA.

US TOP5 (since PSX)

N64 - Super Mario 64 -- 5.94
PS2 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City -- 5.81
GBC - Pokemon Yellow -- 5.10
PS2 - Grand Theft Auto 3 -- 5.24
GBC - Pokemon Blue -- 5.02

JP TOP5

FC - Super Mario Bros. -- 6.28
GB - Tetris -- 4.23
PS - Dragon Quest VII: Soldiers from Eden -- 4.06
GB - Super Mario Land -- 4.10
FC - Super Mario Bros. 3 -- 3.84

Anyway the clear winner is ... MARIO I know that SM64 sold more then 10,000,000 copies worldwide! I'd really like to know how much the original SMB sold worldwide.

What was also interesting is Pokemon. Nintendo really likes to milk those kids Just look at the following numbers (first JP then US):

GB - Pocket Monster (Green, Red, Blue) -- 8.00
GB - Pocket Monster Silver -- 3.51
GB - Pocket Monster Gold -- 3.40
GB - Pocket Monster Crystal -- 2.40
GB - Pocket Monster Yellow -- 2.16
GBA - Pocket Monster Sapphire -- 2.23
GBA - Pocket Monster Ruby -- 2.23
GBA - Pokemon Fire Red / Leaf Green -- 1.80

GBC - Pokemon Yellow -- 5.10
GBC - Pokemon Blue -- 5.02
GBC - Pokemon Red -- 4.83
GBC - Pokemon Silver -- 3.85
GBC - Pokemon Gold -- 3.75
GBC - Pokemon Crystal -- 1.65
GBA - Pokemon Ruby -- 1.89

All those editions are more or less the same game AFAIK. It's mind boggling!

 

[David_South#1]

It doesn't matter what nation you're in.
Tetris owns the record. (60 million copies.) 8)


Don't get flipped out by Mario. Its sales were bundled with the console.
(Same as tetris on Gameboy.)

You do have a really good question though.

 

[zurich]

I'd be more interested in what the best selling FRANCHISE of all time worldwide was..

I think it'd be a toss up between Mario Bros (strictly speaking, Mario, Mario 2/3, Super Mario World, Mario 64, Mario Sunshine), Zelda, Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, and frighteningly enough - Pokemon.

 

[David_South#1]

Oi, I've been struck.

Pokemoin is no joke when it comes to that category.
(They probably own it.)

There are many loyal series gamers.
But pokemon had more new series in a shorter time for higher sales.
Some of those games were even released at the same time.

 

[clem64]

I remember hearing that the original SMB for NES sold around 42 million copies worldwide. But yeah, it was bundled with the system so that explains it.

Did tetris really sell 60 million?

 

[David_South#1]

I've got G4+TechTV on my tV listings.

I was watching a few days ago. They had a one hour special on the History of Tetris. It seems that when all the different versions and releases were accounted for an estimated 60 million have been distributed.

I think it was something like 12 million on just the Gamboy series of platforms.

 

[ERP]

The Sims as a franchise is at totally silly numbers aswell >50 Million I believe.

 

[Deepak]

Pacman??

Seriously I think we should count games from NES era and excluding handhelds.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

I reckon Elite on the BBC Micro deserves to be up on the list. According to this article they acheived almost 100% market saturation, and lets face it that game rocked!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,1064107,00.html

CC

 

[cthellis42]

Smells like you're using MagicBox charts. ...which is good, since I don't offhand know of better ones TO use. (Short of shelling out thousands of dollars for many official reports.)

 

[Phil]

Strange. I was pretty sure I just read something about GT3 and 36 million. Perhaps it was the franchise (GT1+GT2+GT3+GT3:Concept)?

 

[PC-Engine]

Strange. I was pretty sure I just read something about GT3 and 36 million. Perhaps it was the franchise (GT1+GT2+GT3+GT3:Concept)?

That number has to be the franchise. For that number to be true for just GT3, one out of every two PS2 owner would have to own GT3

 

[London Geezer]

Strange. I was pretty sure I just read something about GT3 and 36 million. Perhaps it was the franchise (GT1+GT2+GT3+GT3:Concept)?

GT3 itself didn't sell that much. I'm sure the whole franchise did though.

I think the best selling franchise has to be Mario. I mean, how many games have featured Mario? :|

 

[max-pain]

http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/driving/granturismo4/factsheet_6098469.html

FRANCHISE STATISTICS:

North American sales:

* Gran Turismo (May 1998 release): more than 3.9 million;
* Gran Turismo2 (December 1999 release): more than 3.8 million;
* Gran Turismo 3 A-spec (July 2001 release): more than 6 million (Includes GT3 Racing Pack)

Worldwide sales:

* Gran Turismo: more than 10.8 million;
* Gran Turismo 2: more than 9 million;
* Gran Turismo 3 A-spec: more than 12.9 million (Includes GT3 Racing Pack)

 

[thop]

Yeah i'm using the charts from http://www.the-magicbox.com since i don't know of any other. I think they are fairly accurate though.

 

[wazoo]

the best selling franchise is Mario with over 160M copies worldwide.

Second is Pokemon with more than 80M worldwide.

The race for third place is more difficult, between Dragon quest, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy and Zelda, all between 40 and 50M.

After that, you've got a lots of franchise in the 20-30M, From Madden to Tomb Raider, Crash Bandicoot, etc

Tetris sold 20M worldwide.

and Elite sold 100K

 

[wco81]

EA claims Madden has sold 37 million, over 5 million last year alone.

They don't have to rebuild a new game from scratch for every 4-6 years and they put out a release every year.

 

[Evil_Cloud]

EA claims Madden has sold 37 million, over 5 million last year alone.

They don't have to rebuild a new game from scratch for every 4-6 years and they put out a release every year.

I wonder what an impact 'online updates' on sport games will have on yearly updates...

 

[wco81]

There are no online updates.

EA does roster updates until about January for their football game. Then nothing the rest of the year.

Now fans could do a roster update reflecting all the player transactions since the last season of the NFL but it's not that easy to distribute. And I'm thinking that's no accident either.

But EA does maintain a big development staff and they put them to work, crafting features which a lot of people would say are not enough to justify the price of a new game. Then they add filler like "Create a Fan" for Madden 2005 and virtual ESPN personalities for ESPN NFL 2K5.

 

[Teasy]

Best selling ever? How about best ever?:

http://www.gamefaqs.com/poll/spr04_bracket.html

You can vote on the front page (ATM its Zelda: WW vs Metroid Prime).