July 11, 2022, 2:00 pm | Read time: 6 minutes
The prices for retro video games have skyrocketed over the past decade. Games for classic consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) have become a good investment. Now there’s a new leader among the world’s most valuable video games!
When a copy of “Super Mario Bros.” for the NES was auctioned for $114,000 in July 2020, TECHBOOK predicted that the million-dollar mark would be reached sooner or later. This happened in the summer of 2021. Shortly thereafter, even the two-million-dollar mark was surpassed. This time, not at an auction.
Overview
Rank 1: “Super Mario Bros.” for $2 Million
A copy of the NES classic “Super Mario Bros” was sold for $2 million (about 1.7 million euros) in August 2021, as reported by the “New York Times.” An anonymous buyer transferred the amount for the video game to the company “Rally.” This company buys valuable collectibles and allows individuals to purchase shares in them. When an offer comes in for one of the collectibles, the owners vote on whether to sell. In 2020, they rejected an offer of $300,000 for “Super Mario Bros.” At $2 million, they sold.
It is an unopened, originally sealed copy of the 1985 video game milestone.
Rank 2: “Super Mario 64” breaks the million mark significantly
That was quick! Just two days after a copy of “The Legend of Zelda” fetched $870,000 at auction, setting a new world record, it was broken again. This time by a game for the Nintendo 64. A sealed copy of “Super Mario 64” in nearly perfect condition from 1996 broke the million-dollar barrier for the first time–and by a significant margin. The game brought in $1,560,000 (about 1,310,000 euros) at a Heritage Auctions sale, as announced by the auction house. It is apparently not a special edition, but rather the commercially available game from the ’90s in the U.S. version. Also remarkable: Until now, games for the slightly older NES always fetched record sums.
“Super Mario 64” was the first game in which Nintendo’s plumber jumped through the game world in 3D. It was also the best-selling game for the N64.
Rank 3: “The Legend of Zelda” for $870,000
The auction house Heritage Auctions auctioned the NES game “The Legend of Zelda” for an incredible $870,000 on July 9, 2021. The game dates back to 1987 and is still sealed. According to the auction house, the condition is practically factory new. What a sum for a single video game! “The Legend of Zelda,” like “Super Mario Bros.,” is one of the absolute classics for the Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES. What makes the game special, besides its condition, is the fact that it is one of the earliest productions. It was manufactured for only a few months in late 1987 before being replaced by another version in 1988.
Rank 4: “Super Mario Bros.” for $660,000
The NES game “Super Mario Bros.” also went for an enormous sum in 2021. In April, it was auctioned for $660,000. The jump-‘n’-run game celebrated its 35th anniversary in Europe that same year and sold over 40 million copies worldwide. But how can a game that millions of people owned and still own fetch $660,000 at auction? It is an originally sealed copy of the game, in nearly flawless condition. The packaging type was also used only for a short time, making the game even rarer.
The story behind the game’s discovery is curious. The game was purchased for Christmas in 1986 but forgotten in a drawer. It lay there for all those years and matured into an absolute gem. Incidentally, the buyer of the game is unknown.
Super Mario Game Auctioned for $3 Million
Nintendo Confirms Live-Action Adaptation of Video Game Classic ‘Zelda’
Rank 5: “Super Mario Bros. 3” for $156,000
Another Super Mario Bros. game went under the hammer for $156,000 at an auction in the U.S. The responsible auction house in Dallas, Heritage Auctions, confirmed this at the time–incidentally, the same auction house as the current record.
Super Mario Bros. 3 was released in early 1990 for the NES in the U.S. and is also considered a milestone in video game history. The jump-‘n’-run featuring the animated plumber Mario sold over 17 million copies. It is the best-selling video game not sold with a console. The auctioned copy is from the first production run, which exists in only small numbers. The game is also still sealed, and the condition is nearly perfect.
Even back then, the game’s value increased significantly. The jump from $100,150 to $114,000 was remarkable. But years later, Super Mario Bros. 3 and the new copy of Super Mario Bros. surpassed the record by a long shot!
The Retro Market is Booming
Whether Nintendo, Sony, Atari, or Sega–everything is collected. The main thing is that the video games, consoles, and accessories are old and rare. On eBay, old games are already fetching top prices, and the trend continues year after year. Not only well-known consoles like the Super Nintendo or the Atari 2600 are popular collectibles. Even flopped and thus rare devices like Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, a failed foray into the VR world in 1995, are on the wish lists of retro enthusiasts. The latter goes for several hundred euros at auctions.
Collectors are not only after cartridges, discs, and hardware but also the associated cardboard sleeves and packaging. For example, Nintendo only switched to plastic cases with the release of the GameCube in 2001. Before that, there were cardboard packages, which often ended up in the trash or were poorly treated. This makes them rare and therefore valuable. So, if you have a rare game with the original cardboard packaging in good condition, you can achieve a much higher selling price. It gets even more interesting if they are still originally sealed and have never been opened.
TECHBOOK editorial director Andreas Filbig also owns a few old NES games and a console. In the following video, he showcased some treasures:
Fans also love promotional copies, test devices for retailers, prototypes, and other games and consoles that never hit the open market. These can fetch four- or even five-figure sums in euros. This includes the long-time most valuable game in the world, Nintendo World Championship, which was given to the winners of a 1990 competition in a quantity of 26. A buyer valued it at $100,088 (approximately 88,800 euros).