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?

[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!

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.