Super Mario Bros., Wii Sports, GTA, Pokémon and 13 more individual games: the full 41-year race for the best-selling video game of all time, month by month, from 1985 to 2026.
Chapters
0:00 Super Mario Bros. sets the record (1985)
3:02 A new record holder (2009)
4:12 Minecraft fully releases (2011)
6:11 The record changes hands again (2015)
8:06 Battle royale era (2018)
13:00 Final ranking
What is measured
• Total copies sold by title, cumulative, worldwide, all platforms and re-releases of the same game combined (e.g. Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe count together).
• Figures are estimates built from dated publisher and press milestones, interpolated month by month. Tetris is excluded from the chart: its public figures mix incompatible physical and mobile-download counts.
• Games not yet released show as zero until their debut; the eventual all-time leader is deliberately hidden until it takes the record on screen.
Sources
• Nintendo quarterly investor-relations reports (via Wayback Machine)
• Take-Two Interactive / Rockstar Games SEC 8-K filings
• Official press releases: Bethesda Softworks, Mojang / Microsoft, Krafton, Curve Games
• Specialized gaming press citing publisher figures (see fontes.md for every dated source)
Credits
Game logos and publisher logos:
17 game logos: Wikimedia Commons and Logopedia (trademarks of their owners).
6 publisher/developer logos: Wikimedia Commons.
Gameplay and trailer excerpts (five seconds each, muted, editorial use):
• The Video Game Vault: An Archivist’s Journey — youtu.be/9apBq90IaQM
• IGN — youtu.be/yOzcbtsw_pQ
• wishroom — youtu.be/jUnFmf4yhvY
• TodoNintendo — youtu.be/zqaPFAZS1K8
• Nintendo Life — youtu.be/iM82yuZRMWo
• Nintendo Life — youtu.be/E1s6WJLQhBg
• Bethesda Softworks UK — youtu.be/6umhTJQltak
• Minecraft — youtu.be/MmB9b5njVbA
• Rockstar Games — youtu.be/hvoD7ehZPcM
• No Brakes Games — youtu.be/-Edk59BqSEU
• Nintendo of America — youtu.be/1rPxiXXxftE
• Nintendo of America — youtu.be/tKlRN2YpxRE
• PlayStation Europe — youtu.be/Zi2hMMVpS64
• PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS — youtu.be/JVBTAM7B57Q
• Super Smash Bros. — youtu.be/EXnbMp1yr1k
• Rockstar Games — youtu.be/HVRzx17WHVk
• Nintendo of America — youtu.be/_3YNL0OWio0
• PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS — youtu.be/c215QLferhs
• Collin — youtu.be/GF-Bc3XBC3c
• Chris VHS&DVD Enterprises — youtu.be/npzsLFjeD8s
• Pii89 — youtu.be/rLl9XBg7wSs
• Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers — youtu.be/GuXwMHF9y1Y
• GameSpot — youtu.be/vk-R_8i5jpI
• The Official Pokémon YouTube channel — youtu.be/rIpAiBStRys
• Rockstar Games — youtu.be/3DBrG2YjqQA
• Minecraft — youtu.be/1DhWXAiNgfQ
• PlayStation — youtu.be/xQT-O1nMSBU
• Rockstar Games — youtu.be/paIqUG80yzY
• PUBG — youtu.be/URBy9t6e8rY
• Minecraft — youtu.be/_Ylc8tC7RrQ
• Video Game Commercials — youtu.be/rHnFVyUs-P0
• xRavenXP — youtu.be/Cf5aXOBon0E
• Music: ‘Legacy’ by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au; Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0; “Five Armies” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• SFX: Kenney (CC0), https://kenney.nl/assets/interface-sounds
Names, photos, logos and flags are used editorially for identification, commentary and education. No sponsorship or affiliation is implied. Data reflects the cited sources and may be revised by their publishers.
Which of these games did you play first? Tell us in the comments.
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#VideoGames #Nintendo #DataVisualization
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