Hey guys!. In this post, I’ll be discussing a list of Top 10 Best Selling Video Games Of All Time. The gaming industry is one of the biggest entertainment industries in the world right now. It has seen its fair share of ups and downs but it has always risen back up. After the recent pandemic forcing people to stay at home, gaming has become as profitable as movies themselves as more people joined the hobby! A few years ago, saying that would sound ridiculous – but gaming is so powerful today that this exponential growth will only make you think of the word ‘inevitable’. While thousands of different games sell a lot every year, a few of them sell so much that they break records in the world of entertainment. Today, we’re going to take a look at the top 10 best-selling video games of all time! Let’s get started.
10. Pac-Man Units Sold: 39,498,000 (39.5 million)
Pac-Man is a game that everyone has played and is familiar with – even if they’re not a gamer. Originally released in the 1980s, the game remains one of the most influential video games ever made and has seen dozens of sequels and spin-offs through time. While the franchise is not seeing too many releases these days in general, the original release is still going strong thanks to its multi-platform ports and remasters. The game has generated over $14 billion dollars in revenue and has a total of 39.5 million sales for the first game alone.
9. Tetris (GameBoy/NES) Units Sold: 43,000,000 (43 million)
The original Tetris game released by Nintendo in 1989 for the Gameboy and Nintendo Entertainment System consoles is sitting on 43 million sales alone. The game defined the genre and got millions of people hooked in making perfect layers of the good old blocks, paving the way for hundreds of knock-offs and evolutions of the format. Without counting inflation, the game generated a total of $699.65 million dollars in revenue – which was insane for its time and still a massive number to look at.
8. Wii Fit & Plus Units Sold: 43,800,000 (43.8 million)
The Nintendo Wii was unstoppable and offered players unique controls that still haven’t been topped by another console. Whether it was children, teenagers, or adults, everyone found different ways to have fun and all relied on the special games that utilized the console’s sensor potential to its peak. The Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus resonated with audiences of every type and is even used in hospitals and old folks’ homes in 2021 as a way to keep people entertained in a healthy way! The game is sitting at 43.8 million units sold and is sitting at a total revenue of $1.26 billion dollars, making it one of the highest grossing video games to be released by Nintendo.
7. Pokemon Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow Units Sold: 47,520,000 (47.5 million)
The very first generation of Pokemon video games is also the most sold one. Despite being on only the original Gameboy and Gameboy Color platforms, the Red, Green, Blue, and Yellow variations ended up selling a total of 47.5 million units! It’s an insanely huge number of games to be sold, especially in the 90s – but considering how good the games were it’s not too much of a surprise. These games generated over 2 billion dollars in revenue before adjusting the amount for inflation, and a little fun fact about the Pokemon franchise is that it has made over $92 billion dollars of revenue in general as of 2019.
6. Super Mario Bros. Units Sold: 48,240,000 (48.2 million)
The original Super Mario Bros. is often cited as the first game ever played on the Nintendo Entertainment System by millions of gamers – and it has been ported on almost every Nintendo gaming console to ever exist. With so much influence in the video game industry and within the lives of gamers, it’s no surprise that the game sold 48.2 million units alone. Not only that, but even without inflation the game generated $2.6 billion dollars in revenue for Nintendo and set them on the map as one of the biggest game developers at the time.
5. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Units Sold: 70,000,000 (70 million)
A lot of the games in the list so far have been out for decades – but here’s a game that defied all odds and reached the number 5 spot in the year of 2017. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, better known as PUBG, made headlines as the biggest battle-royale game as soon as it came out and managed to sell a total of 70 million units over time. PUBG managed to generate a revenue of roughly $800 million dollars by the end of 2019 and that does not even include the $3.5 billion dollars made by the free-to-play Mobile version of the game!
4. Wii Sports Units Sold: 82,900,000 (82.9 million)
If you thought the sales of the Wii Fit and Wii Fit Plus were insane – then you’ll be surprised further by the whopping 82.9 million units sold by the Wii Sports title also released on the same video game console. It’s not only the best-selling video game of all time for the Nintendo Wii, but also the highest selling video game ever made for any Nintendo console as a whole. It generated a total of $5.19 billion in revenue – which isn’t surprising considering how innovative the game for its time and it was appropriate for any age that you can think of!
3. Tetris (Mobile) Units Sold: 100,000,000 (100 million)
I know what you’re thinking – ‘I swear I saw this game on number 9 of this post!’ Well, that’s true but this is a different game. While on number 7, we had Tetris made by Nintendo, this is the Tetris game made by EA that was released in September 2006. The two games may share the same puzzle format, but they are not at all related. And it’s crazy that the same type of game made it on the list twice, because all of the other games are quite different from each other. Either way, Tetris Mobile sold a whopping 100 million units throughout its release cycle – which makes it the third most-sold video game of all time and it earned a total revenue of $532 million dollars. It’s one of the most profitable games for EA and that’s a big achievement considering how many big franchises they still handle in 2021.
2. Grand Theft Auto V Units Sold: 135,000,000 (135 million)
Now here’s a name that everyone knows. If you’re a gamer, you know it as one of the best open-world sandbox action games to play. If you’re not a gamer, you probably think it makes your kids violent! But one way or another – you know of Grand Theft Auto and its never-ending success. The latest game in the series, Grand Theft Auto V, has made a total of 135 million sales since its release in 2013. Thanks to the units sold and thousands of in-game purchases being made everyday in its Online mode – the game is sitting at a revenue of over $6 billion dollars!
1. Minecraft Units Sold: 200,000,000 (200 million)
You may have expected this name to come up here, or you might be shocked to see it. But whether you love the game or hate it – it is the number 1 game to rule them all. Minecraft has sold over 200 million units since its initial release in 2011 – making it the most sold video game of all time as of 2021. The game appeals to players of all ages and allows them to have an extremely immersive and customizable sandbox to play with. The game continues to grow every day and it’s definitely here to stay as thousands of gamers continue to buy it every week. It’s hard to know a proper figure of total revenue made for the game due to how many platforms it is released on and the fact Microsoft and Mojang did not reveal an official figure in recent times – but Microsoft purchased the game from its original developer for a large amount of $2.5 billion dollars. For a game that sold for an amount that big… all the money it made before and after that sale combined must be much bigger to justify the purchase. So, to make a rough guess if we calculate its average price in revenue – we’re looking at around 10 billion dollars at the very least!
That is it from today’s post on Top 10 Best Selling Video Games Of All Time. If you do not agree with the points in the post and have some of your own opinions, share them with us in the comments section down below.
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