Top Selling 8-bit games

[Jeff-20]

I am curious to know which games of the 8-bit error sold the most copies... I have found very little research on this. I am interested in units sold as well as money generated.

[MegaDrive20XX]

I am curious to know which games of the 8-bit error sold the most copies... I have found very little research on this. I am interested in units sold as well as money generated.

8-bit "era"....and no it wasn't a mistake....it was just one of the finest eras

but I'd say Super Mario Bros. (that's the first one btw) takes the cake

Number wise, I don't know it off the top of my head

[jslithy]

Super Mario Bros. (40 million units sold) is the best selling game because it was included with the system. The best selling 8-bit game not packed in with a system was Super Mario 3 (17 million).

[Jeff-20]

What about the 2600 games. What would be the top sellers? Are you counting the pack-in games as sells? Yes, the 8-bit ERROR (sic) ;)

[Ed Oscuro]

Super Mario Bros. (40 million units sold) is the best selling game because it was included with the system. The best selling 8-bit game not packed in with a system was Super Mario 3 (17 million).
I believe SMB 3 was packed in with the NES later on for a while...actually, I recall seeing a boxed set for that. Surely not all of them were sold that way, though!

[RCM]

I wonder how well the "real" Super Mario Bros. 2 sold in Japan.

THE ONE, THE ONLY- RCM

[GobopopRevisited]

I thought SMB sold upwords of 65 million units??
Tetris (Game Boy... its 8 bit) is the second best selling game of all time with like 43 Million units (I believe)


I believe SMB 3 was packed in with the NES later on for a while...actually, I recall seeing a boxed set for that. Surely not all of them were sold that way, though!

Yeah, My copy of SMB3 came with my NES.

[Jeff-20]

so how close do the atari vcs games come in comparison? Pitfall? Pacman? Space Invaders? Kaboom?

[EricRyan34]

Super Mario Brothers 3 is the best-selling game of all time

[imanerd0011]

I have heard that SMB was the best selling game of all time with over 40 million sales, and that SMB 3 has sold around 18 million. I also read that the Legend of Zelda sold around 6 million, and that Tetris sold very very well for the Gameboy.

[Sebastian]

Super Mario Brothers 3 is the best-selling game of all time

Isn't "the sims" the best selling game now? and wasn't it Mystic before? O_O

[SkiDragon]

I want to know how well some of these really high number from the past stack up against some numbers from the present, like for Halo and GTA, etc. I can stack them, I just dont know the numbers.

[swlovinist]

I had this conversation with Zach a while back, and confirmed, it was Super Mario Bros. 3. Super Mario Bros I do believe is third.


And as for the past numbers stacking up to the new games.....the past kicks the living shit out of the new games number wise.......as there was not three systems out doing well.........there was one, the NES(that is before the Genesis)

[Sothy]

I wonder how well phalanx sold seeing as it was an R-type like shooter game with a picture of an old hillbilly on the cover playing a banjo.

[Dimitri]

I wonder how well phalanx sold seeing as it was an R-type like shooter game with a picture of an old hillbilly on the cover playing a banjo.

I know the hillbilly would have been reason enough for me to buy it. Hell, it still would be today! LOL

Seriously, though, are there any hard numbers on some of the really big modern games? Grand Theft Auto? Gran Turismo? Final Fantasy? I can't imagine there being THAT big a gap seeing as how video games themselves are far more mainstream nowadays than back in the '80s...

[Cauterize]

so how close do the atari vcs games come in comparison? Pitfall? Pacman? Space Invaders? Kaboom?

Welll... there are a LOT of Combat carts around!

[Ernster]

I dont think Sims is the best selling game ever...maybe if u add the million different versions and upgrade packs...well I hope its not anyway :(

[Jibbajaba]

so how close do the atari vcs games come in comparison? Pitfall? Pacman? Space Invaders? Kaboom?

Welll... there are a LOT of Combat carts around!

I see at least as many copies of Combat in the wild as I do of anything else.

Why, Combat??? Why?!?!?

Chris

[JJNova]

I dont think Sims is the best selling game ever...maybe if u add the million different versions and upgrade packs...well I hope its not anyway :(

Sims is the largest selling PC game, with around 7 million copies sold. With expansion packs included, The unit count is above 14 million. And that was in 2003

[lendelin]

I am curious to know which games of the 8-bit error sold the most copies... I have found very little research on this. I am interested in units sold as well as money generated.

The bad news is that there are no reliable sales data for this time period, just broad numbers you can find over time in videogame mags and books for best-selling games...and the broad numbers, uncertainty and speculation is reflected in this thread. It was a different time compared to today when we have the NPD group and others.

I tried to find out sales data for the NES Final Fantasy a couple of weeks ago...zilch! We know the game didn't sell well (like Dragon Warrior), but what does this mean exactly compared to other games? How did the most successful sports games do compared to bestsellers of other genres like adventure and shmups? All very important Qs which are unanswered.

It is bothersome because without these data you can't reason well for the development of genres over time and their market shares, and many other important probs and Qs cannot be tackled...what's left so far are educated speculations and poor substitutes like estimates of production runs or the number of releases for each genre.

[JJNova]

I tried to find out sales data for the NES Final Fantasy a couple of weeks ago...zilch! We know the game didn't sell well (like Dragon Warrior), but what does this mean exactly compared to other games?

That's odd, considering that Final Fantasy was THE game that pulled Squaresoft out of debt. Henceforth the title of the game. It was the Final game Square was supposed to develop before closing their doors, but the game sold so well that the company remained, and grew to be the leader in RPG production. Due, in my opinion, mostly to riding FInal Fantasy's curt-tails long enough to establish other games.

[Damon Plus]

I dont think Sims is the best selling game ever...maybe if u add the million different versions and upgrade packs...well I hope its not anyway :(

Sims is the largest selling PC game, with around 7 million copies sold. With expansion packs included, The unit count is above 14 million. And that was in 2003

But then you should count all of the mario games

[GarrettCRW]

I tried to find out sales data for the NES Final Fantasy a couple of weeks ago...zilch! We know the game didn't sell well (like Dragon Warrior), but what does this mean exactly compared to other games?

That's odd, considering that Final Fantasy was THE game that pulled Squaresoft out of debt. Henceforth the title of the game. It was the Final game Square was supposed to develop before closing their doors, but the game sold so well that the company remained, and grew to be the leader in RPG production. Due, in my opinion, mostly to riding FInal Fantasy's curt-tails long enough to establish other games.

Yes, but in America, Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior sold poorly and, to put it mildly, released well after the "sell-by" date for most games. Japan was on the third FF game in '90, and the first issue of Nintendo Power (published nearly a year before Dragon Warrior's release in the US) told us about the mob scene surrounding the release of Dragon Quest *3*. (DW was so old that Nintendo ordered Enix to give the game a graphical upgrade, which added stuff like the shorelines and such.)

[wberdan]

I tried to find out sales data for the NES Final Fantasy a couple of weeks ago...zilch! We know the game didn't sell well (like Dragon Warrior), but what does this mean exactly compared to other games?

That's odd, considering that Final Fantasy was THE game that pulled Squaresoft out of debt. Henceforth the title of the game. It was the Final game Square was supposed to develop before closing their doors, but the game sold so well that the company remained, and grew to be the leader in RPG production. Due, in my opinion, mostly to riding FInal Fantasy's curt-tails long enough to establish other games.

Yes, but in America, Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior sold poorly and, to put it mildly, released well after the "sell-by" date for most games. Japan was on the third FF game in '90, and the first issue of Nintendo Power (published nearly a year before Dragon Warrior's release in the US) told us about the mob scene surrounding the release of Dragon Quest *3*. (DW was so old that Nintendo ordered Enix to give the game a graphical upgrade, which added stuff like the shorelines and such.)

i cant believe this-
if these games didnt sell well, there wouldnt be one of each nearly ever game store i go to


willie

[Ed Oscuro]

Japan was on the third FF game by '90...and when was FF1 released in the states? Go figure.

[JJNova]

Yes, but in America, Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior sold poorly and, to put it mildly, released well after the "sell-by" date for most games.

*slaps everyone with a large trout for not specifying United States*

[Jorpho]

And thus Squaresoft thought it would be a good idea to release Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (or "Final Fantasy USA"), and some have strong opinions about how that turned out.

[lendelin]

When I said both games, DW and FF, sold poorly, I should have added 'in the United States.' I thought that is a given. As GarretCRW pointed out, you have to distinguish between Japan and the US.

In Japan both games were HUGE bestsellers, so huge that FF in 1990 in Japan was on the second sequel when the first FF for the NES was released. FF made Square financially sound for years to come. Dragon Warrior started the craze in Japan in 1986, it was also already three years old when it was released in the US.

In the US it was a completely different story. Both games were hyped and got a incredible marketing push by Nintendo (both Enix and Square wouldn't take the risk to rlease the games in the US) in Nintendo Power. The Dragon Warrior coverage in NP spans 8 months, more than 30 pages, a bonus startegy guide, and the marketing still failed. DW undersold. It undersold so terribly that NP gave away a copy of the game with extra goodies for a one year subscription to NP. 400 000 to 500 000 subscribers made use of the offer; that is the reason, wberdan, that the game is so common today. It is the most widesperad NES-RPG today.

FF got even a bigger marketing push by NP. 6 months of coverage, around 30 pages, three contests, and a great strategy guide (NP#17). It still undersold. Exact numbers aren't available. NP delivers a careful indicator that the game did poorly. The American sequel, FF II for the SNES, didn't get any extra coverage. The game was sold as one game among many others. It was on the cover of NP #30, got a ten page introduction, no maps, no guide. The poor coverage was clearly the result of lowered expectations based on the sales figures of FF.

Again...in Japan it is very different. In the US console-RPGs had a very rocky road to become established. Their establishment took basically until the FF VII release with the aggressive marketing strategy by Sony with paper and TV ads.

[lendelin]

Yes, but in America, Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior sold poorly and, to put it mildly, released well after the "sell-by" date for most games.

*slaps everyone with a large trout for not specifying United States*

*slaps JJNova for not reading carefully* :) ;)

I read my first post again. It states that I couldn't find exact sales figures for the "NES (!!) Final Fantasy," not Famicom!