Wii Have a New All-Time Best Selling Video Game!

Heavy hitters abound on the short list of Best Selling video games of all time. Familiar Nintendo names like Super Mario Brothers and Tetris abound on the top ten list of best selling video games. As of their Dec. ’08 tally, the number crunchers at VG Chartz have recently reported that a new game has moved into first place.

The traditional best-seller of all time was a video game that was first released way back in 1985, Super Mario Brothers. It came bundled with the historic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) consoles that were released between 1985 and 1987 across Japan, US and Europe. Back in those days nobody would have mistaken a video game console system a as Home Theater peripheral - my, how times have changed.

You’ve got to hand it to Nintendo, its games literally own the top ten list of all time best sellers. Super Mario Brothers sold 40.24 million copies since its mid-80s release. But it’s only taken Wii Sports a mere two years to top it.

Yes, Wii Sports – it’s the game that revolutionized how video games are played and turned the current generation of video game consoles on its ear. It topped 40.24 Mill as of last month and shows no sign of slowing down.

One side note may sully the numbers posted by VG Chartz for top video game sales. The top two spots are games that came bundled with their respective video game systems. Anyone who owns a Wii got recorded as buying a copy of Wii Sports (except in Japan) simply because it comes with the game. The same is true for Super Mario Brothers when your parents bought that NES back in the day.

VG Chartz struggled with adding these games to their tally. The conclusion they come to is that bundling is an integral part of successful sales because it ads value to the console itself and isn’t simply given away.

That said, you can expect Wii Sports to continue its climb deep into the #1 spot for the foreseeable future as Wii sales continue to top the current generation of game systems.