List of best-selling Nintendo video games

This article is about Nintendo-specific best-sellers. For the broader topic, see List of best-selling video games.

This list covers the best-selling video games by Nintendo that have sold at least 20 million units. Sales figures are compiled from publicly available reports and may not account for every possible release or sales update. For this reason, the order of the games is not indicative of sales ranking but reflects the available, well-documented information. The best-selling Nintendo video game is reported to be Wii Sports, selling over 82 million units. It was released for the Wii console and was bundled with it in most regions outside of Japan.[1][2]

Analysis

Background

Nintendo is well-known for bundling its games with consoles, for instance, Wii Sports with the Wii, Super Mario Bros. with the Nintendo Entertainment System, and Tetris with the Game Boy. Nintendo is regarded as one of the few gaming companies that consistently publishes detailed financial information about its video games. Unlike many other companies in the video game industry, which may release only selective figures or provide limited insights into their sales performance, Nintendo has regularly disclosed explicit data through its quarterly and annual reports.[3][4]

Shigeru Miyamoto, a long-standing figure at Nintendo, stated on the company's behalf that a game should only be considered fully successful once it approaches the 30 million sales milestone.[5] Besides the sales data provided directly by Nintendo, the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA), a Japanese organization that reports on the broader national video game industry,[6] also known to have published sales data for Nintendo titles.[7]

Retrospective

In 2009, according to a video games-related website, Destructoid, deciding the best-selling title between Wii Sports and Super Mario Bros. was controversial. They also contacted Nintendo for confirmation but received no explicit response.[8] Around the same year, sales tracking website VGChartz published a list of the top ten best-selling video games, with reporters from TechRadar and CNET observing that Wii Sports had surpassed Super Mario Bros. as the best-seller.[9][10] However, VGChartz has been deemed questionable for the estimation it provides.[11] Additionally, Nintendo did not confirm the sales data reported by VGChartz.[12][13]

Satoru Iwata, then-president of Nintendo, revealed in an interview of Iwata Asks that Super Mario Bros. was the company's best-selling title for over two decades until it was surpassed by Wii Sports, although he was hesitant about the fact that Wii Sports sales were dependent on bundles.[14] Matt Peckham, a journalist associated with the news outlet ABC News, likewise expressed concerns regarding the manner in which Wii Sports was marketed and sold and how it differs from other games.[15] Further emphasizing this bundling issue, gaming website GameSpot has used its own methodology to exclude Wii Sports and instead have it replaced by Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch for the top spot in their list of ten best-selling Nintendo titles from March 2024.[16] For reference, in May 2014, Bloomberg Originals published a YouTube list ranking the five best-selling Nintendo games from lowest to highest: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Wii Sports Resort, Mario Kart Wii, Super Mario Bros., and Wii Sports.[17]

The decision to make Wii Sports a free pack-in game for the Wii console was strongly advocated by Nintendo's former president, Reggie Fils-Aimé, during the system's development. Fils-Aimé argued internally with Miyamoto that the Wii was intended to appeal not only to experienced players but also to new audiences, and that Wii Sports could serve as an accessible introduction to gaming. He emphasized that the game made effective use of the Wii Remote and was based on activities familiar to a global audience, making the software an ideal demonstration of the console's core features. Miyamoto initially opposed the proposal, citing Nintendo's reluctance to distribute software for free and the effort required to develop such content. Fils-Aimé countered by noting that Nintendo had previously bundled software with hardware, such as with the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, when it aligned with strategic goals. He ultimately convinced Miyamoto that including Wii Sports would add immediate value to the hardware experience and provide a common point of reference for new users upon setup.[18]

In April 2022, Aaron Greenbaum, a journalist from the Den of Geek website, wrote an article titled "Why Wii Sports Is the Best-Selling Nintendo Game Ever". In that article, he examined Wii Sports sales and the strategy that was used to sell it. According to Greenbaum, half of the game's sales were from North America, including 41 million copies of the game that were sold in the United States, in comparison to the Wii console's 45 million units. However, in Japan, where the game was not bundled with the console, it sold far fewer copies: 3.77 million compared to the console's 12.7 million units. Greenbaum argued that the game would not have sold that well if it was sold separately, although he praised the game's accessibility for a broader audience, making it the worthy killer app for the console.[2]

List

Below is a list of Nintendo video games that have exceeded a minimum of 20 million units. Sales figures are presented on a platform-by-platform basis, consistent with Nintendo's standard reporting practices. For example, if the same game is released on multiple systems, sales for each platform are counted individually rather than combined.

Some points to note regarding the list: while Tetris for the Game Boy is listed with sales of 30.26 million units, some sources estimate its total sales to be between 35 million and 40 million.[19][20] Additionally, while New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U with over 5 million units and its Deluxe version on the Nintendo Switch with over 18 million units collectively complete the requirement of 20 million units, neither version individually meets the platform-specific threshold required for inclusion in this list.[21][22] Lastly, Pokémon games, developed by the Game Freak company, are released differently compared to other games listed here, typically in paired versions. Examples include Pokémon Red and Blue, and Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. This release strategy has been attributed to an effort to compete with the Super Mario series, according to Miyamoto.[23]

Nintendo's best-selling titles (figures reported up to December 2025)

Title Sales
(millions) 		Genre Platform Release
year 		Developer(s) Publisher(s) Ref.
Wii Sports 82.90 Sports simulation Wii 2006 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe 70.59 Kart racing Switch 2017 Nintendo EPD Nintendo [22]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons 49.32 Social simulation Switch 2020 Nintendo EPD Nintendo [22]
Super Mario Bros. 40.24 Platformer NES 1985 Nintendo R&D4 Nintendo [24]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 37.44 Fighting Switch 2018 Bandai Namco Studios / Sora Ltd Nintendo [22]
Mario Kart Wii 37.38 Kart racing Wii 2008 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 33.64 Action-adventure Switch 2017 Nintendo EPD Nintendo [22]
Wii Sports Resort 33.14 Sports simulation Wii 2009 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Pokémon Red/Green/Blue 31.40 Role-playing Game Boy 1996 Game Freak Nintendo [25]
New Super Mario Bros. 30.80 Platformer DS 2006 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
New Super Mario Bros. Wii 30.32 Platformer Wii 2009 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Super Mario Odyssey 30.27 Platformer Switch 2017 Nintendo EPD Nintendo [22]
Tetris 30.26 Puzzle Game Boy 1989 Nintendo R&D1 Nintendo [26]
Duck Hunt 28.31 Light-gun shooter NES 1984 Nintendo R&D1 / Intelligent Systems Nintendo [24]
Pokémon Scarlet/Violet 28.08 Role-playing Switch 2022 Game Freak Nintendo / The Pokémon Company [22]
Wii Play 28.02 Party Wii 2006 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Pokémon Sword/Shield 27.08 Role-playing Switch 2019 Game Freak Nintendo / The Pokémon Company [22]
Nintendogs 23.96 Pet-raising simulation DS 2005 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Pokémon Gold/Silver 23.73 Role-playing GBC 1999 Game Freak Nintendo [27]
Mario Kart DS 23.60 Kart racing DS 2005 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Wii Fit 22.67 Exergaming Wii 2007 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 22.40 Action-adventure Switch 2023 Nintendo EPD Nintendo [22]
Super Mario Party 21.28 Party Switch 2018 NDcube Nintendo [22]
Wii Fit Plus 21.13 Exergaming Wii 2009 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [21]
Super Mario World 20.61 Platformer SNES 1990 Nintendo EAD Nintendo [28]

See also

References

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  2. ^ a b Greenbaum, Aaron (April 29, 2022). "Why Wii Sports Is the Best-Selling Nintendo Game Ever". Den of Geek. DoG Tech LLC. Archived from the original on April 29, 2022. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
  3. ^ MacDonald, Keza (April 3, 2024). "Pushing Buttons: When we don't know the true sales figures for consoles, players lose out". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. Archived from the original on April 10, 2024. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
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