Video games have all the time existed in a numbers-obsessed business. Sega vs. Nintendo outlined a technology within the ’90s, whereas as we speak’s comparatively delicate console wars and month-to-month NPD reviews preserve gross sales figures close to the forefront of games-related dialogue. New monetization fashions require new metrics for achievement — month-to-month lively customers, participant retention charges, in-game income, and many others. — however one of many business’s greatest questions stays: What are the best-selling video video games of all time?
To reply this query, we got down to compile essentially the most correct listing doable by reaching out to publishers and digging by means of monetary reviews, information tales, interviews, and extra. The result’s the next listing of the ten best-selling video video games of all time.
Some notes up entrance:
Pack-in video games are counted towards gross sales totals, contemplating most video games on this listing had been, at one level, bundled with a console.Free downloads should not counted as gross sales, which excludes massively profitable video games like Fortnite and League of Legends from an inventory like this.As a result of an absence of accessible gross sales knowledge, we couldn’t embody sure video games which will belong on this listing. For instance, we reached out to Activision-Blizzard looking for up to date gross sales numbers for Diablo 3 (30 million items bought as of June 2015) and the Name of Responsibility franchise however didn’t obtain up to date data to incorporate these video games on this listing.
Simply Exterior the Prime 10
13. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 44.79 million
12. Pokemon Gen 1 – 47 million
11. Tremendous Mario Bros. – 48 million
10. Overwatch – 50 million
Blizzard’s hero shooter Overwatch bought 50 million copies, in line with a Bloomberg report revealed in April 2022. Overwatch elevated the hero shooter style with sensible recreation design, thoughtfully crafted heroes, and continued esports assist. In October of 2022, Overwatch was changed by its free-to-play sequel, Overwatch 2.
Preliminary Launch Date: Could 24, 2016 | Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Swap, PC | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 10
9. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 50 million+
The Witcher 3 was added to this listing in Could 2023 when CD Projekt Crimson introduced its seminal RPG handed 50 million copies bought. Complete gross sales for The Witcher sequence sit at over 75 million.
The developer is now engaged on a number of video games new Witcher video games, together with The Witcher 4 and a Witcher 1 remake.
Preliminary Launch Date: Could 18, 2015 | Platforms: PS5, Xbox Sequence X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Swap, PC | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9.3
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 60 million+
After years of silence relating to Skyrim’s gross sales numbers, Bethesda’s Todd Howard revealed in June 2023 that the RPG has bought over 60 million items because it was first launched in 2011. “We’re sitting right here, it’s 12 years after Skyrim,” Howard informed IGN. “We’re taking a look at a recreation that has over 60 million copies, and all these individuals taking part in… they’re nonetheless taking part in it.”
Preliminary Launch Date: November 11, 2011 | Platforms: PS5, Xbox Sequence X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Swap, Xbox 360, PS3, PC | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9.5
7. Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2 – 61 million+
Essentially the most just lately launched recreation to earn a spot within the high ten is Crimson Lifeless Redemption 2. Rockstar’s western epic bought over 61 million copies by means of December 2023, in line with writer Take-Two’s newest monetary report.
Preliminary Launch Date: October 26, 2018 | Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 10
6. Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe – 69.04 million
With over 60 million copies bought as of December 31, 2023, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Swap recreation, in line with Nintendo. Consider gross sales of the unique Wii U launch and that complete rises to over 69 million, good for the sixth-best-selling recreation of all time.
Preliminary Launch Date: Could 29, 2014 | Platforms: Swap, Wii U | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9.3 (Deluxe)
5. PUBG – 75 million
Given its essential position within the rising recognition of battle royale video games during the last 5 years, it’s unsurprising that PUBG has been such a large gross sales success. Krafton inventive director Dave Curd informed The Verge it has bought 75 million copies of PUBG as of December 2021. That can doubtless be the shooter’s closing gross sales tally, because it went free to play a month later in January 2022.
Whereas free cellular downloads do not rely towards its gross sales complete, it is value noting PUBG Cell had been downloaded over 1 billion instances as of March 2021.
Preliminary Launch Date: March 23, 2017 (Early Entry) | Platforms: PS5, PS4, Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9.5
4. Wii Sports activities – 82.9 million
Based on Nintendo’s official gross sales figures, Wii Sports activities is the corporate’s best-selling recreation ever. Whereas most entries on this listing had been bundled with a console in some unspecified time in the future, Wii Sports activities was bundled with the Wii in practically all territories at launch. At practically 83 million copies bought, it’s the top-selling single-platform unique of all time.
Preliminary Launch Date: November 19, 2006 | Platform: Wii | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 7.5
3. Grand Theft Auto V – 195 million+
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling console/PC-only recreation of all time (the highest two entries on this listing have cellular variations). Gross sales of Rockstar’s most formidable GTA but surpassed 195 million items as of December 2023. That quantity compiles the sport’s gross sales totals from throughout three console generations and PC between 2013 and 2022.
GTA 5 was the quickest leisure launch from any medium to succeed in $1 billion in retail gross sales — and it’s since earned Rockstar and Take-Two billions extra, making it essentially the most worthwhile leisure launch ever, a minimum of as of 2018. Complete gross sales for the franchise sit at 420 million items bought.
Rockstar is now in growth on GTA 6.
Preliminary Launch Date: September 17, 2013 | Platforms: PS5, PS4, PS3, Xbox Sequence X|S, Xbox One, Xbox 360, PC | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 10
2. Minecraft – 300 million+
Minecraft has bought over 300 million copies as of October 2023, Mojang introduced throughout this 12 months’s Minecraft Reside (by way of Home windows Central). That determine captures the gross sales complete throughout Minecraft’s many platforms. With movie, Netflix, schooling, toy, and lots of different tasks accomplished or within the works, Minecraft has transcended the medium in a means few others have earlier than it.
Preliminary Launch Date: Could 17, 2009 (Traditional Model) | Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Swap, Wii U, 3DS, PC, VR, Cell, Others | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9
1. Tetris – 520 million
Arguably essentially the most timeless online game ever created, Tetris sits comfortably atop the listing of all-time bestsellers with 520 million copies bought, in line with The Tetris Firm. That quantity contains gross sales throughout all accessible platforms, with the bulk coming from cellular (425 million paid cellular downloads as of 2014, in line with Henk Rogers, The Tetris Firm’s managing director).
Tetris was initially launched for the Soviet Union-developed Elektronika 60 pc, and variations of the traditional puzzler have since been made for over 50 totally different platforms. Notably, it helped launch the Sport Boy to success, finally promoting 35 million copies on Nintendo’s handheld console.
Fashionable variations of the traditional are nonetheless being launched: Tetris Impact: Linked introduced the puzzler to current-gen consoles with an emotional twist, whereas most just lately, in 2020, SEGA launched Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
Preliminary Launch Date: June 6, 1984 (Elektronika 60, USSR) | Platforms: Most | IGN’s Evaluation Rating: 9