Best selling video game ever? Not orig. Mario Bros. anymore

[Flip]

http://videogames.yahoo.com/feature/wii ... er/1276855

[Eric]

It still amuses me that you follow Yahoo news.

[Flip]

It still amuses me that you follow Yahoo news.

Ha, i really only check their front page, not the actual games section.

[Zeus]

I thought Tetris for GB was selling more? Guess not.

It's "sort of" a game and SMB will always be better

[SineSwiper]

<big>Best selling <strike>video game</strike> console that included a game ever?</big>

[Blotus]

<big>Best selling <strike>video game</strike> console that included a game ever?</big>

SMB was the same.

But I'm pretty sure in 20 years we're not going to be seeing this game heralded in the way SMB is.

[SineSwiper]

SMB was the same.

That's my point. Why bother with this "contest" when the results are rigged?

[Tessian]

I say if the customer didn't buy that game explicitly (as in bundled with anything like a console or other game) then those sales numbers should be disqualified from being taken into account for things like this. Nobody in the US bought Wii Sports, they bought the Wii that happened to come with the game.

The game is packaged to give the bundle greater value and intice people to buy the bundle; obviously it works rather well, but the price you pay then is the game doesn't get to be counted as selling X units that were part of the bundle. It skews the results completely.

[Lox]

Wii Sports would have sold really well regardless of being packaged with the Wii, I think. It's a 1st-party product. It's simple. It's fun (imo). And it probably would have been priced a little under a normal game.

Granted, I agree with you, Tessian. I think counting bundled games skews the numbers, but I think it would have sold really well no matter what. Maybe not this well but well nonetheless.

[Kupek]

There are two questions: "Which game do the most people have?" and "Which game that require independent purchase do the most people have?" I think both are valid.

[Zeus]

I'm willing to bet that the unending popularity of the Wii is MOSTLY due to Wii Sports. The fact that it's included with the system makes it that much more of a must-have for the people who are keeping the system out-of-stock everywhere.

But there is some validity to the whole bundled vs unbundled argument. I would prefer a distinction. If I'm not mistaken, SMB3 still holds or was recently surpassed (not sure by which game - don't think it was Halo 3 or GTA 4 - and I'm relatively certain Mario 64 did not pass it) as the best selling non-bundled game of all time in terms of both units and gross revenue. In Game Over, Sheff mentioned that it had grossed $770 million worldwide over its sales life. That's nuts

[Tessian]

I'm not saying that you shouldn't bundle games with a system-- I agree with Zeus that Wii Sports coming with the console definitely improved its value, but I think a tradeoff for that is then you can't include them in sales figures independently. It's "Wii console + Wii Sports" sales , not the "Wii Sports" sales.

[Julius Seeker]

The top selling non-bundled game is Wii Play; for anyone interested.

[Blotus]

The top selling non-bundled game is Wii Play; for anyone interested.

That's a wiimote pack-in.

[Julius Seeker]

It`s not a console pack in. If people only wanted an extra Wiimote, then they wouldn`t have spent 70 bucks on Wii Play.

[SineSwiper]

The top selling non-bundled game is Wii Play; for anyone interested.

That still doesn't count. Bundled with a Wii remote. I'm talking about games that were made for the game itself, not to sell a system.

Also, you're wrong. The top selling game is sadly Pokémon Red/Blue/Green, then Nintendogs, then SMB3, and then Wii Play is #4, but it still doesn't count. If you count Pokemon and Nintendogs as 3 and 5 seperate games, then SMB3 would win out. If we count PCs, then The Sims would still beat Wii Play.

[Julius Seeker]

The top selling non-bundled game is Wii Play; for anyone interested.

That still doesn't count. Bundled with a Wii remote. I'm talking about games that were made for the game itself, not to sell a system.

Also, you're wrong. The top selling game is sadly Pokémon Red/Blue/Green, then Nintendogs, then SMB3, and then Wii Play is #4, but it still doesn't count. If you count Pokemon and Nintendogs as 3 and 5 seperate games, then SMB3 would win out. If we count PCs, then The Sims would still beat Wii Play.

If people only wanted an extra Wiimote, then they wouldn`t have spent 70 bucks on Wii Play.

And also, I'm not wrong:

The Top 3

1. Wii Play 20.12M
2. Super Mario Bros 3 17.28M
3. The Sims 16.08M

If you want to count the Pokemon and Nintendog games (with multiple versions of each making the total), then Wii Play is fourth but will likely reach 2nd.

1. Pokemon Red/Green/Blue 31.38M
2. Pokemon Gold/Silver 23.11M
3. Nintendogs 21.54M

[Blotus]

Wiimote pack-in.

[SineSwiper]

If people only wanted an extra Wiimote, then they wouldn`t have spent 70 bucks on Wii Play.

Well, it was also a crappy sequel to Wii Sports. Wii Sports is actually pretty good, but Wii Play sucks. Besides, have you priced extra Wiimotes? They cost about 60 bucks, so it was worth the extra 10 to get the game.

You're right about the sales figures. My quotes were about 9 months old and Wii Play is still making money. However, NSMB has made 18.4M, so if we count the DS, it would win out on the non-bundled question. Brain Training has made 16.7M.

Actually, there's a lot of surprise winners from the portables:

1. Pokemon Red / Green / Blue 31.38m
2. Tetris (GB) 30.26m
3. Pokemon Gold / Silver 23.11m
4. Nintendogs 21.54m
5. New Super Mario Bros. 18.35m
6. Super Mario Land 18.14m
7. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 17.64m
8. Pokemon Diamond / Pearl 17.34m
9. Super Mario Bros. 3 17.28m
10. Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day 16.73m
11. The Sims 16.08m

Of course, the bundleware would go in there, too, but I took them out: Wii Sports, SMB, Duck Hunt, SMW, and Wii Play. Source

[Lox]

Well, for one, in the US, Wii Play was only $50 so it was only $10 more than a Wiimote alone. I can see many, many people (including myself) saying "well, for $10, I might as well give it a try since I need a 2nd Wiimote anyway." Second, at the time Wii Play came out, it was very hard to find a Wiimote by itself anywhere around here. I imagine it was the same in other places so the choice was either a Wiimote with Wii Play or no Wiimote at all.

The only game I liked in Wii Play was the mini-tank game. That was really, really fun. I would kill for a WiiWare version of that with tons of levels, an online multiplayer mode, and a level creator.

Price sources:

Wiimote: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Product ... t_id=63933
Wii Play: http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/Product ... t_id=12598

[Zeus]

Wii Play is a $15 game. Don't count

[Julius Seeker]

Sine: Tetris, Mario Land, San Andreas, and NSMB were all packed with consoles/handhelds.

If the Pokemon games and Nintendogs were broken up, and Wii Play not included, that would make Mario 3 still #1. I actually still play and enjoy that one =)

[Zeus]

Sine: Tetris, Mario Land, San Andreas, and NSMB were all packed with consoles/handhelds.

If the Pokemon games and Nintendogs were broken up, and Wii Play not included, that would make Mario 3 still #1. I actually still play and enjoy that one =)

When was San Andreas packaged?

[SineSwiper]

And NSMB, for that manner? I don't even remember any game packaged with the NDS.

[Zeus]

And NSMB, for that maTTer? I don't even remember any game packaged with the NDS.

New SMB is currently packaged in a limited edition DS bundle with the Mario Red DS. But only in the same manner as Phantom Hourglass was last year with a pretty limited supply

[Julius Seeker]

I could have sworn that San Andreas was packaged, I recall considering getting that before its launch, but I ended up getting my slimline later. I am not sure the extent of Mario Land or NSB. Well, either way, it's one of the games being discussed unless Pokemon Blue accounted for 60% of the sales of the first gen Pokemon titles or something.

[Zeus]

I could have sworn that San Andreas was packaged, I recall considering getting that before its launch, but I ended up getting my slimline later. I am not sure the extent of Mario Land or NSB. Well, either way, it's one of the games being discussed unless Pokemon Blue accounted for 60% of the sales of the first gen Pokemon titles or something.

I think Yellow actually outsold Blue. It capitalized incredibly on Pickachu's popularity and may still hold the record for games in that series as individual titles.

NSMB was only packaged this past November with the Mario Red DS which you can still find in some stores. I'm 100% certain of that. So it doesn't really count unless you're counting Phantom Hourglass, Brain Age 2, or Nintendogs as well. I wouldn't consider limited-run pack-ins to have skewed the figures significantly to discuss.

San Andreas just sold that many goddamn copies. It was never officially packaged by Sony with the PS2 but that don't mean the individual retailers didn't do it themselves. They do that all the time but it's not really a pack-in.

[SineSwiper]

Vice City is further down on the list, so I believe that it sold that much. Surprised that GTA4 didn't sell as much as those two.

And if you remove 1-6 from my list above, due to bundling and individual combining, that would leave San Andreas as the winner.

EDIT: GTA4 got split, due to nearly equal sales on PS3 and 360. Which also means that the XBox had some of San Andreas, too. Not much, but enough to add it higher to the top. That would put it above NSMB's sales.

The same for The Sims' console sales. The Sims has 19.68M to GTA:SA's 19.57M. That's not including all of the numerous sequels. Guitar Hero get's up there, too. GH3:LoR gets 14.04M total.

[Zeus]

Vice City is further down on the list, so I believe that it sold that much. Surprised that GTA4 didn't sell as much as those two.

And if you remove 1-6 from my list above, due to bundling and individual combining, that would leave San Andreas as the winner.

EDIT: GTA4 got split, due to nearly equal sales on PS3 and 360. Which also means that the XBox had some of San Andreas, too. Not much, but enough to add it higher to the top. That would put it above NSMB's sales.

The same for The Sims' console sales. The Sims has 19.68M to GTA:SA's 19.57M. That's not including all of the numerous sequels. Guitar Hero get's up there, too. GH3:LoR gets 14.04M total.

Of 1-6 on your list, only Tetris is a true pack-in. The others are not except in very limited runs for some. But the Pokemon and Nintendogs games have multiple versions so that's a bit cheating since many buy more than one version. They should really get split IMO.

They should sum up multi-platform releases since so many are multi now. It just makes sense.

Expansions should not get added to the total since they're selling to the same audience.

[Flip]

They should sum up multi-platform releases since so many are multi now. It just makes sense.

Especially with all these re-releases we are seeing nowadays. I think it should add to the total if it is essentially the same game. Which means you cant add up all the GH's since they have different content, but you could add the SNES and DS Crono Trigger.

[Julius Seeker]

Mario 3 would be back in first if you include multi-platform releases: Wii and Mario Advance 4 sales push the total up to 24 million, but it can be taken further as well if you include Mario Allstars which sold an additional 10.5 million, pushing the title to 34.5 - higher than Pokemon.

Speaking of Chrono Trigger, the DS version is proof that sometimes ports and remakes are a great thing; personally, I always support them. Chrono Trigger on SNES sold 220K (NA market) in it's lifetime, the DS version has sold 320K so far in 5 weeks, this is a more than 13 year old game.

[Flip]

Ive been replaying CT on the SNES and am having a great time. Its funny how in the past you used to know a game through and through, but still get surprised by a few details when you play it later.

[Zeus]

Compilations never count. Neither do remakes. It has to be a port with just some small extra stuff (like a dungeon). I wouldn't add Maverick Hunter X to the SNES Mega Man X for total sales and neither would I for the Mega Man X Collection. If you start doing that, Pac Man and Ms Pac Man have been released SO many times on the Namco collections they would have sold a billion copies by now.

But VC downloads? I'd add them up. It's basically like re-releasing the cartridge. And the GBA version of SMB? That should be included. It sold something like 3 to 4 million worldwide, too

[SineSwiper]

I played CT on the PS2, actually.

[Julius Seeker]

Mario 3 has sold 1.7m on VC, and 5.2 million on GBA. Actually, that comes to 24.2 million.

[SineSwiper]

Heh, can somebody recompile the list then?

[Zeus]

Heh, can somebody recompile the list then?

You'd have to have an agreement on what gets included, first.

[Blotus]

Heh, can somebody recompile the list then?

You'd have to have an agreement on what gets included, first.

lulz