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Pictured left to right:Markus Persson andAlexey Pajitnov, creators ofMinecraft andTetris, respectively. Critics have debated which of these games should be classified as the best-selling video game, mainly due to definitional disputes surroundingTetris, makingMinecraft easier to classify as such.[1][2][3]
This is a list of the best-sellingvideo games worldwide, ranked up to 50th place by reportedsoftware unit sales. The best-selling video game to date is determined to beMinecraft, a 2011 multi-platformsandbox game created byMarkus Persson and developed byMojang Studios. In October 2023, it became the first video game to sell over 300 million copies.[2] Its closest competitor is a title fromRockstar Games,Grand Theft Auto V, which is the only other video game to have reached both 100 and 200 million copies. The best-selling single-platform game isWii Sports, with nearly 83 million sales for theWii console.[a] BeforeMinecraft, the record for best-selling video game was successively held by twoNintendo titles:Super Mario Bros. andWii Sports.[4]
Although some publications, includingIGN andGameSpot, have favouredTetris overMinecraft for being the best-selling video game by combining sales of all its different versions,[5][6] other sources, including theBBC andGuinness World Records, have analysed this case and rejected the aggregation of allTetris releases as a single title, causing disagreement over its identification.[2][3] The 1998 gameSnake is estimated to have shipped on over 400 million devices,[7] but is not listed as it was pre-installed and freely accessible onNokia mobile phones. Another sales issue involvesThe Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which game directorTodd Howard claims has sold over 60 million copies,[8] is deemed contentious due to Howard's history of making exaggerated statements about his games for promotional purposes.[9]
For this list, standard re-releases,remasters and enhanced versions of games are considered iterative updates to the original, thus their sales are combined. In contrast,remakes generally contain significant deviations from the original and are considered separate products.[10] Likewise,expansion packs are not combined with the base game to avoid inflating sales figures. Additionally, titles with unique release structures are classified based on their specific publishing context. Other metrics, such as "players" or "installs", typically refer to active users engaging with the game rather than sales, thus are not listed; even for paid games, these metrics could include free trials or other free promotions and cannot reliably be substituted for sales figures.[11][12] Paid bundled titles are also included in this list; their sales often benefit from being packaged with other products, typically at a discounted price.[13]
The listed developers and publishers correspond to each game's original release, and release years refer only to the first full public launch, excluding any pre-release stages. Rankings serve solely for numbering purposes and are not meant to be precise, reflecting the list's limited scope because there is no credible, comprehensive sales-tracking source for the video game industry,[14] unlike forfilms, which have box office tracking sites such asBox Office Mojo andThe Numbers. Tied ranks are resolved using thestandard competition ranking method, in which entries with equal figures share the same rank and following ranks are increased based on the number of tied entries.
^abWii Sports wasbundled with theWii console in all regions except Japan.[19] Nintendo includes those bundles in the overall sales figure.[20]
^AlthoughMinecraft was first publicly available on May 17, 2009,[15] and the full release on November 18, 2011, the game first accepted pre-orders on June 13, 2009, so it started accumulating sales at that time.[16]
^Monster Hunter: World sold 21.8million units, while theIceborne Master Edition—which includes both the base game and itsexpansion pack,Iceborne—helped total sales reach 29.1million units.[47]
^Duck Hunt required theNES Zapper accessory for its function and was paired with it.
^Phasmophobia enteredEarly Access in September 2020 on PC throughSteam, and 2024 on console. As of November 2025,Phasmophobia remains in Early Access.[53][54]
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