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List of best-selling video games

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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

This is a list of fifty video games that have verifiably sold the highest number of software units worldwide. The best-selling video game to date is Minecraft, a 2011 multi-platform sandbox game released by Mojang. In October 2023, it became the first video game to sell over 300 million copies.[1] Its closest competitor, Grand Theft Auto V, is the only other video game to have reached both 100 and 200 million copies. The best-selling single-platform game is Wii Sports, with nearly 83 million sales exclusively for the Wii console. Three of the most represented video game franchises on this list feature Pokémon, Mario, and Call of Duty.

In certain instances, Tetris is often considered the best-selling video game as opposed to Minecraft.[2][3] The inconsistency originates from the differentiation between standalone game releases and the comprehensive Tetris franchise as a whole.[1][4] According to The Tetris Company, the sales figures are attributed to the franchise altogether.[5] Another sales issue involves The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which game director Todd Howard claims has sold over 60 million copies,[6] can be deemed contentious due to Howard's history of making exaggerated statements about his games.[7] The 2000 video game The Sims, published by Electronic Arts, is frequently reported as having sold 100 million copies.[8][9][10] However, this sales figure is disputed due to ambiguous phrasing from the official source: "The first game from The Sims was sold in 2000 and has gone on to become the best-selling PC game franchise of all time".[11]

Snake, a 1998 game released on Nokia 6110, is estimated to have shipped on over 400 million devices,[12] is not classified among the best-selling video games as it was pre-installed and freely accessible on Nokia mobile phones. As a result, it does not meet the criteria for inclusion in sales-based rankings, despite its extensive distribution. Other metrics, such as "players", typically refer to the number of active users engaging with the game, rather than the actual sales. Even for paid games, this metric reflects user activity and engagement as opposed to commercial success regarding units sold.[13][14]

For this list, enhanced versions like Pokémon Yellow or Wii Fit Plus, along with expansion packs,[a] are considered iterative updates to the original games and are designed to coexist with them. Therefore, combining their sales provides a more complete impression of the game's overall growth. In contrast, remakes and remasters are standalone releases aimed at new audiences and updated to meet modern technological standards.[15] Reporting their sales separately ensures an accurate representation of their performance and avoids inflating legacy figures.

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Notes

  1. Sales of expansion packs are only included with those of the original game when they are explicitly specified in the reported totals.
  2. Only developers and publishers for the original release of each game are listed, except where noted otherwise.
  3. Although Minecraft was first publicly available on May 17, 2009,[16] and the full release on November 18, 2011, the game first accepted pre-orders on June 13, 2009, so it started accumulating sales at that time.[17]
  4. As of October 2023, Ark: Survival Evolved had sold over 76 million copies.[21] An additional 745,000 units were sold throughout the fourth quarter of 2023, followed by 2.3 million more in 2024.[22]
  5. Mario Kart 8 sold 8.46 million units[23] and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe sold 68.86 million units.[24]
  6. Red and Blue versions sold 60 million units and the Yellow version sold 14.64 million units on Game Boy,[25][26] and all versions sold a combined 1.5 million units on Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console.[27]
  7. Wii Fit sold 22.67 million units and Wii Fit Plus sold 21.13 million units.[20]
  8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sold 33.04 million units on Nintendo Switch,[24] and 1.70 million units on Wii U.[44]
  9. Gold and Silver versions sold 23.73 million units[48] and the Crystal version sold 6.39 million units.[49]
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References

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