The Best Selling Video Games of All Time

“Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe” Licensed Under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Video games are now more of a decentralized activity than ever before. Not only have the number of options to choose from increased, the breadth of ways you can play different games has made the ultra-successes tougher to track. 

Sure, it is incredible that you can play pretty much any game, retro or otherwise, from whatever type of device you prefer.

At the same time, people can easily get nostalgic for the days when they’d head to the store, perhaps even waiting in a souped-up line, to purchase their latest favorite release. Back then, popularity was measured in “units”—physical purchases.

Now, they are gauged through downloads and streams as well. And just to be clear, there’s no denying the convenience of that, either. 

Still, when you start running through the best-selling video games of all time, regardless of the era, you can see that retro franchises and purchases continue to hold their own. That makes sense.

Especially these days. Nostalgia is becoming its own industry across all forms of entertainment and media. That is why you can access retro games so easily. It’s also why entire amusement parks or amusement-park sections still get themed after them.

Or why movies are made based on their storylines. Heck, as SportsBettingSites.com’s extensive catalog of reviews for mobile betting sites shows, it’s even why online gaming operators theme casino-style options after retro video games. 

Yet, the enduring impact and iconicism of retro video games is most evident when looking at overall popularity. All you have to do is see how many familiar titles crack the all-time best-sellers list to understand why. 

7. Red Dead Redemption 2 

Units Sold: 64 million

Release Date: October 26, 2018

Consoles/Mediums: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia

At first glance, the year 2018 doesn’t seem that long ago. Then, however, you realize it’s close to a decade in the past. 

Oddly enough, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the most recently released game to crack the top seven.

Even more impressively, its 64 million units sold more than doubled up the inaugural Red Dead’s sales, which clocked in around 25 million units.

6. Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe

Units Sold: 70.4 million

Release Date: May 29, 2014

Consoles/Mediums: Switch, WII U

You just knew a Mario Kart iteration was going to make this list. How could it not? It is built around one of the most iconic video game characters, and its racing format is perhaps the most popular spin-off from that character’s canon. 

Color us a tad surprised that a post-millennia edition is the one that made it. We thought it’d be an even more vintage iteration. 

Then again, this is where the power of accessibility comes in. And to this day, the WII U console in particular has never even come close to housing a game with this volume of sales, according to Nintendo itself.

5. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Units Sold: 75 million

Release Date: March 23, 2017

Consoles/Mediums:PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia

A wide release across so many consoles helped juice the sales for PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. Well that, and a truly fierce marketing campaign.

The real kicker, though? PUBG would probably rocket even further up this list had it not been converted into a free-to-play option back in 2022. As a reminder, free downloads don’t count towards units sold.

Even so, PUBG has been downloaded billionsof times since going free-to-play, according to data from IGN.

4. Wii Sports

“Wii Sports cover” Licensed Under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0

Units Sold: 82.9 million

Release Date: November 19, 2006

Consoles/Mediums: Wii

Ah, the game that truly started it all for the Wii console. It is tough to overstate just how integral Wii Sports’ release and widespread use was and remains to the landscape of video games.

At the time, all of the motion sensors involved were considered not just avant garde, but a patented risk. It turns out stepping on that limb paid off. 

To this day, Wii Sports remains Nintendo’s most purchased game of all time.

3. Grand Theft Auto 5

Units Sold: 200+ million

Release Date: September 17, 2013

Consoles/Mediums: PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC

Grand Theft Auto is perhaps the second or third most popular video game franchise of all time.

As many lookbacks across the internet have noted, Grand Theft Auto 5, in particular, is the best-selling console- and PC-exclusive game of all time. The next two titles you are about to see have mobile versions that count toward their units sold.

While there is no denying GTA5’s cultural impact, its release in 2013 also came amid a perfect storm of circumstances.

Sure, the absence of mobile-device options repress its sales. But it was ahead of its time in terms of accessibility, because of how many versions PlayStation and Xbox consoles it was retrofitted for.

2. Minecraft

Units Sold: 300+ million

Release Date: May 17, 2009

Consoles/Mediums: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Switch, Wii U, 3DS, PC, VR, Mobile

Raise your hand if you feel like Minecraft has actually been around since the 1990s and wasn’t released nearly a decade into the 21st century. Here’s hoping mine isn’t the only one in the air.

Unlike other classic games on this list, the developers (Mojang Studios) and publishers (Xbox Game Studios) reformatted Minecraft’s release to make it compatible not only with mobile devices but virtual reality systems.

Tack on the fact this franchise was ahead of the retrofit-for-PC trend, and it’s no wonder it grabs the No. 2 spot. 

1. Tetris

“Game Boy and Tetris” Licensed Under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Units Sold: 520 million

Release Date: June 6, 1984

Consoles/Mediums: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Switch, Wii U, 3DS, PC, VR, Mobile

Tetris is the most prevalent example of a retro game that has endeared itself to modern uses. Of the 520 million units sold, 425 million apparently came from mobile-device purchases. That is more than 80 percent of its total sales!

Considering that mobile gaming wasn’t even kind of on the horizon when Tetris got released over 40 years ago, this is nothing short of incredible.

What’s more, even as more contemporary versions of the game get released, the original editions continue to reign supreme.