Key Takeaways
- Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies thanks to its accessibility and endless replayability.
- Grand Theft Auto V has sold over 200 million copies, setting a record for the games and media industry.
- Wii Sports became a massive phenomenon, selling 82.9 million copies, outselling any other game on the Wii console.
Game sales are usually very predictable: they spike for the first week or two, then drop off significantly. The next big match is coming Some games may become popular again through sales and bundles. DLC later Most games are lucky to even get a good initial sale, competing with every other game on the market. But there are exceptions. Very big, very popular, very groundbreaking games. Seems to keep selling .
How many copies a game needs to sell to be considered a success depends on a variety of factors, but it’s true that every developer wants to sell as many copies as possible. Sure, free games are a relatively new element that’s changing how we look at profits, but the same basic logic applies: more players means more money. But with so many games being released all the time, which games are outselling the rest? Is it the classic games that have been building sales for decades, or the newer hits that have capitalized on a larger gaming fanbase? Let’s take a look at the best-selling games of all time and see which ones make the cut.
Free games are not included in this list as we do not have sales data for them.
1 Minecraft has sold over 350 million copies
Don’t doubt the power of this blocky sandbox game
For a game with simple graphics and no real story, selling 350 million copies is an incredible achievement.
Everyone knows that Minecraft is a big game, but once you see how big it is, it still blows your mind. Selling 350 million copies for a game with simple graphics and no real story is an incredible feat. But in reality, these two things are the main reasons for the game’s success. The game can be played on any PC, console, or even phone, so anyone can play it instantly, and since there is no strict storyline, you can play it practically forever. The sandbox nature of the game, where you can use your imagination to create and craft pretty much anything, has led to dozens of official updates and thousands of community-created mods. There are undoubtedly millions of people who have bought Minecraft two, three, or even more times, and there are schools that use it for educational purposes, but the numbers are still staggering.
2 Grand Theft Auto V brought over 200 million players to Los Santos
If GTA 6 lives up to expectations, its sales potential will be astronomical.
Since GTA 3, every new installment has broken cultural records. And I’m not just talking about games. Every major GTA has broken every record for the amount of money any medium made at the time of release, including movies. Of course, it helps that the game costs a lot more than a movie ticket, but not many movies can say they sold 200 million tickets. This is even more impressive when you consider that unlike Minecraft, GTA V is rated M, so it’s not easily accessible to many younger gamers. But the game started on PS3 and 360, was ported to PS4 and Xbox One, and now to PS5 and Series X consoles, so gamers who were too young at the time of release have plenty of time to buy and play it as adults. Now, we’ll just have to wait and see if GTA 6 can take its predecessor’s place.
3 Wii Sports may have been a bundled game, but it would still have sold 82.9 million units.
Everyone, from kids to grandparents, loved Wii Sports.
Usually, games that come bundled with a console don’t even make the top 10 list of the console’s best-selling games, but not Wii Sports. It’s fair to say that if you buy Wii Sports, it just happens to come bundled with your Wii, not the other way around. The intuitive nature of the motion controls and understanding how Sports works makes it a game that anyone can play, regardless of age or gender. It was such a phenomenon that most people who bought a Wii continued to play Wii Sports without bothering to buy another game. Unfortunately, subsequent versions of the series were not as successful as the first version.
Related
Should Nintendo implement a trophy/achievement system on the Switch 2?
It’s amazing to think that achievements have been around since 2005. Xbox introduced the concept of completing in-game tasks to contribute to a “leadership” across gamers, and it quickly became addictive. Past games had a similar idea of ​​unlocking new characters, costumes, modes, etc. by completing various challenges, but achievements were different. Achievements were something everyone could see as a badge of honor, or proof of overall achievement in the game. PlayStation realized the potential and shortly thereafter created its own version, Trophies, with its own twist. Trophies were categorized by rarity rather than contributing to a total number, and the coveted Platinum was reserved for players dedicated enough to earn all the other trophies. Nintendo, on the other hand, has never entertained the idea of ​​an achievement or trophy system. The Wii could never retroactively add something like that like the PS3 could, but neither the WiiU nor the Switch give players any form of sense of accomplishment.
4 PUBG: Battlegrounds introduced battle royale gaming to over 75 million players
The name change is odd, but the player numbers speak for themselves.
Originally called Player Unknown’s Battle Grounds as a mod for Arma 2, the game quickly gained popularity as the first large-scale battle royale game and was soon released as a standalone. Sure, it wasn’t the first game in the genre, but it was the first with such a large and addictive gameplay loop. Then came Fortnite, which took a bit of PUBG’s place with its own version that was more stable and polished, but it was also free, so it doesn’t qualify for this list. Nevertheless, the later renamed PUBG: Battlegrounds is still a regular in Steam’s top 10 most played games and will likely remain there for some time to come.
5 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is unstoppable with 71,360,000 racers
It was in decline on the Wii U, but was given new life on the Switch
Everyone knew Mario Kart 8 was great from the day it was released. However, very few people got to play it because it was released on Nintendo’s least popular console, the Wii U. They could have left it there and made a sequel for the Switch, but Nintendo knew it was a gold mine and wasn’t going to let it pass them by. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came to the Switch early on and has rarely been outside the top 20 best-selling games of the month since. And that was before Nintendo bothered to add DLC. Mario Kart 8 isn’t technically a bundled game for the Switch, but you’d be forgiven for thinking so based on sales.
