Gaming has always existed in an industry obsessed with numbers. Sega vs. Nintendo defined a generation in the ’90s, while today’s relatively tame console wars and Circan’s monthly reports keep sales numbers at the forefront of gaming discussions. New monetization models require recent metrics for success — monthly energetic users, player retention rates, game revenue, etc. — but one of the industry’s biggest questions remains: What are the best-selling video games of all time?
To answer that question, we set out to compile the most thorough list possible by contacting publishers and digging through financial reports, press articles, interviews, and more. The result is the following list of the ten best-selling video games of all time.
A few notes to start with:
- Games added to bundles count towards overall sales, given that most of the games on this list were once bundled with a console.
- Free downloads do not count toward sales, which excludes massively successful games like Fortnite and League of Legends from this type of list.
- Due to a lack of available sales data, we were unable to include some games that could have been included on this list. For example, we reached out to Activision-Blizzard for updated sales data for Diablo 3 (30 million units sold in June 2015) and the Call of Duty series, but did not receive updated information to include those games on this list.
10. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – over 50 million
The Witcher 3 was added to that list in May 2023, when CD Projekt Red announced that its groundbreaking RPG had surpassed 50 million copies sold. Total sales for the Witcher series have surpassed 75 million.
The developer is currently working on several recent games in the Witcher series, including The Witcher 4 and a remake of The Witcher 1.
9. Terrariums – 58.7 million
Perhaps the biggest surprise on this list is Terrariumsa hit 2D sandbox game from developer Re-Logic. As of June 2024, 58.7 million copies of Terraria have been sold developerwith 32 million coming from PCs alone.
8. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 60 million
After years of silence about Skyrim’s sales numbers, Bethesda’s Todd Howard revealed in June 2023 that the RPG had sold over 60 million copies since its 2011 release. “Here we sit, 12 years after Skyrim came out,” Howard told IGN. “We’re looking at a game that’s sold over 60 million copies, and all those people that played it… are still playing it.”
Check out our guide every edition of Skyrim.
7. Red Dead Redemption 2 – 64 million
The most recently released game to make it into the top ten is Red Dead Redemption 2Rockstar’s Western epic has sold “almost” 64 million copies as of March 2024, according to publisher Take-Two’s latest financial report. reportIn total, the series has sold over 89 million copies, putting the original Red Dead’s total sales at around 25 million.
6. Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe – 70.43 million
As of March 31, 2024, nearly 62 million copies have been sold. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe remains the best-selling game on Switch, according to Nintendo. Adding in sales of the original Wii U version brings that number to over 70 million, making it the sixth best-selling game of all time.
5. PUBG – 75 million
Considering the pivotal role it has played in the growing popularity of battle royale games over the past five years, it should come as no surprise that PUBG was a huge sales success. Krafton’s innovative director, Dave Curd, said Edge PUBG has sold 75 million copies by December 2021. This will likely be the final sales tally for this shooter, as free game a month later, in January 2022
While free downloads on mobile devices do not count towards total sales, it is worth noting that PUBG Mobile was downloaded over 1 billion times as of March 2021
4. Wii Sports – 82.9 million
According to official Nintendo sales figures, Wii Sports is the company’s best-selling game. While most of the entries on this list were bundled with the console at some point, Wii Sports was bundled with the Wii in nearly all territories at launch. It has sold nearly 83 million copies, making it the best-selling single-platform exclusive of all time.
3. Grand Theft Auto V – 200 million
Grand Theft Auto 5 is the best-selling console/PC game of all time (the top two entries on that list are mobile versions). Rockstar’s ambitious open-world adventure has reached 200 million copies sold by the end of March 2024. That number includes the game’s total sales across three generations of consoles and PC.
GTA 5 was the fastest-released entertainment game in the world to reach $1 billion in retail sales — and has since earned praise from Rockstar and Take-Two billions more, making it the highest grossing entertainment version wheneverat least in 2018. Total sales of the series amounted to 425 million copies.
Rockstar is currently working on GTA 6, which is scheduled to be released in fall 2025.
2. Minecraft – 300 million
Minecraft By October 2023, more than 300 million copies have been sold, Mojang announced during this year’s Minecraft Live (via Windows Central). This number includes all sales in Minecraft many platforms. From movie, Netflix, Educationtoy, and numerous other completed or in-progress projects, Minecraft has transcended the boundaries of the medium in a way that few other games before it have.
1. Tetris – 520 million
It’s unthreatening to say that this is the most timeless video game ever made. Tetris ranks high on the all-time bestseller list, selling 520 million copies, according to data Tetris CompanyThis figure includes sales across all available platforms, with the majority coming from mobile devices (425 million paid mobile download (as of 2014, according to Henk Rogers, managing director of The Tetris Company).
Tetris was originally released for the Elektronika 60 computer developed in the Soviet Union, and variations of the classic puzzle game have since been created for over 50 different platforms. Notably, it helped launch the Game Boy, which eventually sold 35 million units of Nintendo’s portable console.
New versions of this classic keep coming out: Tetris effect:Connected brought this puzzle game to current-gen consoles, adding an emotional twist to it, and most recently, in 2020, SEGA released Puyo Puyo Tetris 2.
