Super Mario Bros.

Game · 1985–1995

40.24 million

Super Mario Bros. sold approximately 40.24 million copies on the NES — the best-selling game of the 8-bit era and the best-selling single-platform title in history until Wii Sports surpassed it in 2009.

Super Mario Bros. was bundled with the NES across North America and Europe for most of its commercial life, which accounts for the majority of its sales volume; the figure includes both standalone purchases and pack-in units. The game was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka in 1985 and established the side-scrolling platform game as the defining NES genre. Its combination of accessible controls, escalating difficulty, and hidden secrets created a design language that hundreds of subsequent games replicated. The bundled-sale figures are contested by some analysts who distinguish "sold" from "in-box," but Nintendo's official figure of 40.24 million is the most widely cited.

In Context:

Bundled with the NES for most of its North American commercial life — most units sold as pack-in
Held the best-selling single-game record for over two decades until Wii Sports (82.9M)
Sequel Super Mario Bros. 3 sold 17.28 million copies — strong standalone sales without a bundle
The Mario franchise total exceeds 800 million units across all titles as of the mid-2020s

Key Facts:

Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka; released Japan September 1985
North American and European sales largely driven by NES hardware bundles
Official Nintendo figure: 40.24 million copies sold
Established the platform game vocabulary that defined the NES era