Ever since the character’s solo debut in Super Mario Bros., 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario games have sold over 600 million copies as of 2019. It’s by far the highest-selling video game franchise of all-time and is theꦓ ninth highest-grossiꦏng media franchise ever. That level of success will probably never be reached by any other video game.
Just because a game has Mario’s name on it, doesn’t mean it’ll be a big seller though (at least by Nintendo standards). Throughout the years, there have been plenty of Bob-ombs over the years in the Mario series. Tennis outings, educational games, and games on n🔯on-Nintendo platforms ꦦhave all led to poor sales.
What are these poor-selling games, and what are the Mario games that sold the most?
10 ⛄ Worst: Hotel Mario - Less than 1 Million
Not only one of the worst Mario games of all-time, but Hotel Mario is also one of the worst-selling. Created as part of the Nintendo/Philips deal for the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Philips CD-i, Hotel Mario is an arcade 🧔puzzle game where Mario has to close a bunch of d🌼oors to prevent Koopas from coming into the hotel.
While we don’t know the exact sales figures, we do know that the CD-i is one of the lowest-selling game consoles ever, selling only one million units in its eight-year production cycle. Even if every CD-i owner had a copy of Hotel Mario, that would still make it one of the worst-selling Mario games.
9 Best: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ♚- 24 Million
It should come as little surprise that one of the five best-selling Mario games is a co-op party game for one of the best-selling consoles ever. That’s why Mario Kart 8 Deluxe comes in our list, selling 24.7 million units according to Nintendo. That’s pretty incredible considering Deluxe is little mor𓃲eꦿ than the Wii U version of the game with a shinier coat of paint.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is also the last 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart game to release, despite coming out in 2017 (and being a re-release of an even older game). That has no doubt helped catapult it up the sales charts over the years as Mario fans grow tired of waiting for a new kart racer.
8 Worst: Mario Clash - Less than 700,000 🔜
Mario Clash is an often forgotten Mario game, partly because of its poor reception, but mostly because it’s exclusive to the Virtual Boy. Much like with Hotel Mario, we don’t know how many copies the game sold, however, using the same logic, we know only about 700,000 Virtual Boys were ever sold, making Mario Clash the first Mario game on our list to sell lꦏess than on✃e million units.
The game is a 3D take on the original Mario Bros. 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:arcade game, with the player moving between background and foreground platforms to take out Koopas. In the pantheon of bad Mario game🌌s, it's n🅘ot the worst, but the awful reputation of the console it’s on leaves a bad stench on it regardless.
7 Best: New Sup𝔍er Mario Bros. Wii - 30.3 Million
The only thing surprising about New Super Mario Bros. Wii being on this list is that it's perhaps not higher. Being the only mainline Mario game on the fourth▨ highest-selling console of all-time creates high expectations, and those expectations were met.
Delivering an updated take on the classic formula, the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:New Super Mario Bros. games brought in new and old audiences alike. They each had mass-market appeal and seeing as how this version was on the Wii, it’s no wonder it sold to the tune of 30.3 mil𝐆lion copies according to Nintendo.
6 Worst: Mario Teaches Typing - 500,💮000 ꦰ
Mario Teaches Typing might have the most interesting backstory of any Mario game. It was the first in a line of edutainment games featuring the classic Italian plumber. It was the first to feature Charles Martinet’s voice as Mario. It was developed by Interplay, the creators of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Fallout, Planetscape, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Icewind Dale. It’s also one of the worst-selling Mario games of all-time and is༺ widely regarded as one of the worst, too.
According to a developer who worked on the game, Mario Teaches Typing only sold around 500,000 copies. That’s pretty low considering Mario had just hit mainstream success, and♍ kid-focused edutainment games were in their prime.
5 ꩵ Best: New🧜 Super Mario Bros. - 30.8 Million
The original New Super Mario Bros. on the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo DS was a bit of a revelation. It was the first time Nintendo went back to that classic 2D gameplay that started the Mario series. Nintendo hyped iꦍt up as a return to form of sorts, marketing the game to both new and old players while💙 pitching it as the reason to get a DS.
That promotion worked. In its lifetime, New Super Mario Bros. sold over 30.8 million copies and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:countless DS’ over the years. It became itsꩲ own mini-franchise and likely introduced Mario to a whole new audience.
4 Worst: D🅰ance Dance Revolution: Mario Mi🍬x - 470,000
Combining 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dance Dance Revolution and Mario may seem like an odd idea until you step back and think about the bigger picture. Dance Dance Revolution was, at the time, hugely popular in Japan. Plus, Nintendo is always trying out n🎶ew ideas.
By that logic, you could see why Nintendo and Konami (who own the rights to DDR) would collaborate. They created Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix, and it was a disaster. Despite the popularity of both properties, Mario Mix only sold 470,000 copies on the Gamecube, and we never saw another Nintendo-themed DDR game again.
3 Be𒆙st: Mario Kart W📖ii - 37 Million
The same logic that skyrocketed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe up the charts also boosted Mario Kart Wii: take an immensely popular mult🐷iplayer series and stick it on one of the most successful consoles of all-time, and you’re bound to get a lot of s▨ales.
Mario Kart Wii, thanks to the wide audience of the Wii and Wii Wheel accessory launched just for this game, catapulted up the sales charts. Throughout its lifetime, it sold over 37 million copies, becoming the second-highest selling Mario game.
2 Worst: Mario & Luig♌i: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey - 100,000
The worst-selling Mario games generally tend to also be the worst, but that’s not the case with this particular game. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey is a remake of the third in the popular 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario & Luigi series, widely viewed as the best game of the bunch.
Unfortunately for developer AlphaDream, it quickly became apparent that Bowser’s Inside Story + Bowser Jr.’s Journey would be the worst-selling Mario game, selling less than 100,000 copies in its first two weeks. Sales were so bad AlphaDream would go out of business months later, taking the Mario & Luigi series with them.
1 Best: Super Mario Bros. - 40 Mꦏillion
In what shouldn’t come as a surprise, the highest-selling Mario game is the original, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Super Mario Bros. Released on the Famicom in Japan in 1985, in North America on the NES later that🧸 year, and in Europe in 1987,🌜 the original side-scroller not only established Nintendo as one of the best video game studios in the world but saved the North American games market from a two-year-long crash.
It’s safe to say that without Super Mario Bros., gaming wouldn’t be what it is today. Video games may not be nearly as popular as they are now, and Mario certainly wouldn’t be the international icon he is now. The 40 million copies that Famicom and NES gam𒁏e sold is mind-boggling but well deserved.