Video games have at all times existed in a numbers-obsessed trade. Sega vs. Nintendo outlined a technology within the ’90s, whereas right now’s comparatively gentle console wars and month-to-month Circana experiences hold gross sales figures close to the forefront of games-related dialogue. New monetization fashions require new metrics for achievement — month-to-month energetic customers, participant retention charges, in-game income, and many others. — however one of many trade’s largest 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 checklist doable by reaching out to publishers and digging by way of monetary experiences, information tales, interviews, and extra. The result’s the next checklist 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 checklist had been, at one level, bundled with a console.
- Free downloads are usually not counted as gross sales, which excludes massively profitable video games like Fortnite and League of Legends from an inventory like this.
- On account of an absence of accessible gross sales knowledge, we couldn’t embody sure video games which will belong on this checklist. For instance, we reached out to Activision-Blizzard searching for up to date gross sales numbers for Diablo 3 (30 million items bought as of June 2015) and the Name of Obligation franchise however didn’t obtain up to date data to incorporate these video games on this checklist.
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – 50 million+
The Witcher 3 was added to this checklist in Could 2023 when CD Projekt Pink introduced its seminal RPG handed 50 million copies bought. Whole 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.
9. Terraria – 58.7 million
Maybe the largest shock on this checklist is Terraria, the hit 2D sandbox sport from developer Re-Logic. As of June 2024, 58.7 million copies of Terraria have been bought, in response to the developer, with 32 million on PC alone.
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 a sport that has over 60 million copies, and all these folks enjoying… they’re nonetheless enjoying it.”
See our information to each Skyrim version.
7. Pink Useless Redemption 2 – 64 million
Probably the most just lately launched sport to earn a spot within the prime ten is Pink Useless Redemption 2. Rockstar’s western epic has bought “practically” 64 million copies by way of March 2024, in response to writer Take-Two’s newest monetary report. The sequence has collectively bought over 89 million items, placing the unique Pink Useless’s gross sales whole round 25 million.
6. Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe – 70.43 million
With practically 62 million copies bought as of March 31, 2024, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe stays the best-selling Swap sport, in response to Nintendo. Consider gross sales of the unique Wii U launch and that whole rises to over 70 million, good for the sixth-best-selling sport of all time.
5. PUBG – 75 million
Given its important function within the rising reputation of battle royale video games during the last 5 years, it’s unsurprising that PUBG has been such an enormous 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 last gross sales tally, because it went free to play a month later in January 2022.
Whereas free cell downloads do not rely towards its gross sales whole, it is value noting PUBG Cell had been downloaded over 1 billion occasions as of March 2021.
4. Wii Sports activities – 82.9 million
In line with Nintendo’s official gross sales figures, Wii Sports activities is the corporate’s best-selling sport ever. Whereas most entries on this checklist had been bundled with a console sooner or later, 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.
3. Grand Theft Auto V – 200 million+
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling console/PC-only sport of all time (the highest two entries on this checklist have cell variations). Gross sales of Rockstar’s formidable open-world journey handed 200 million items by the top of July 2024. That quantity compiles the sport’s gross sales totals throughout three console generations and PC.
GTA 5 was the quickest leisure launch from any medium to achieve $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, at the least as of 2018. Whole gross sales for the franchise sit at 430 million items bought.
Rockstar is now in improvement on GTA 6, due out Fall 2025.
2. Minecraft – 300 million
Minecraft has bought over 300 million copies as of October 2023, Mojang introduced throughout this yr’s Minecraft Stay (through Home windows Central). That determine captures the gross sales whole throughout Minecraft’s many platforms. With movie, Netflix, training, toy, and plenty of different tasks accomplished or within the works, Minecraft has transcended the medium in a manner few others have earlier than it.
1. Tetris – 520 million
Arguably essentially the most timeless online game ever created, Tetris sits comfortably atop the checklist of all-time bestsellers with 520 million copies bought, in response to The Tetris Firm. That quantity contains gross sales throughout all out there platforms, with the bulk coming from cell (425 million paid cell downloads as of 2014, in response to 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 completely different platforms. Notably, it helped launch the Sport Boy to success, finally promoting 35 million copies on Nintendo’s handheld console.
Trendy 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.
