Best-Selling Video Games of All Time: Full Ranked List (2026)

Over 350 million people own a copy of Minecraft. GTA V has been in the charts for 12 consecutive years. Tetris has sold across 40 years and half a billion units. These aren’t just popular games — they’re cultural phenomena that have outsold most films, albums, and books ever made.

Below is the complete ranked list of the best-selling video games of all time, using verified sales data from developer disclosures and Wikipedia’s sourced records. We’ve split out individual releases from franchise totals, and added a UK angle — because two of the top four were made about ten minutes from Princes Street.

What Counts as “Best-Selling”?

The Top 25 Best-Selling Video Games of All Time

Sales figures sourced from developer announcements, publisher earnings reports, and Wikipedia’s cited records as of 2026. Some figures are rounded to the nearest million.

#1 — Minecraft (350 Million Copies)

Minecraft is the best-selling video game ever made — and it isn’t particularly close. Released in 2011 by Swedish developer Mojang, it has sold 350 million copies across PC, console, mobile, and tablet. No other single game comes within 120 million of it.

What makes Minecraft’s numbers so unusual is that they keep growing. Microsoft acquired Mojang in 2014 for $2.5 billion (roughly £1.96 billion), a figure that looked steep at the time. Twelve years on, with 140 million monthly active players and counting, it looks like one of the shrewdest purchases in tech history.

Available on every major platform — PC, PS5, Xbox, Switch, iOS, Android — Minecraft crosses every demographic. It’s the game parents buy for their children, which their children’s children will probably also play.

#2 — Grand Theft Auto V (230 Million Copies)

Grand Theft Auto V launched in September 2013 and has never left the charts. At 230 million copies sold, it is the second best-selling individual video game release in history — and it was made less than a mile from Edinburgh’s Meadows.

Rockstar North, based on Buccleuch Street in Edinburgh, led development on GTA V alongside Rockstar’s New York studio. The game has generated over $8 billion in revenue, more than the majority of Hollywood blockbusters. It has been released on five separate console generations: PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PS5/Xbox Series X.

The longevity is remarkable. GTA Online — the multiplayer component launched alongside the main game — continues to pull in millions of players and generates ongoing revenue through in-game purchases. GTA VI, also in development at Rockstar North, is one of the most anticipated games ever made.

#3 — Tetris (520 Million — All Versions)

Tetris was created in 1984 by Alexey Pajitnov, a computer scientist at the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre in Moscow. It was never supposed to leave the Soviet Union. Within two years, bootleg copies were circulating across Europe, and by 1989 it was the pack-in game for Nintendo’s Game Boy — one of the most successful hardware bundles ever sold.

Across all versions, Tetris has sold 520 million copies. The EA mobile edition alone cleared 100 million before EA lost the licence in 2020. The game has appeared on every platform ever made, from the original Electronika 60 to the PS5. No game has been ported more times. No game has lasted longer in continuous commercial release.

#4 — Red Dead Redemption 2 (85 Million Copies)

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the second Rockstar North game in the top four. Released in October 2018, it sold 17 million copies in its first three days — at the time, the second-largest opening weekend in entertainment history behind only GTA V itself.

The game has since reached 85 million copies across PS4, Xbox One, PC, and PS5/Xbox Series via backwards compatibility. It stands as one of the most technically ambitious games ever made, with a reported development cost of over $500 million. The return on that investment has been considerable.

#5–10 — Nintendo’s Dominance

Four of the next six best-selling individual games are Nintendo titles. The one outlier in pure sales terms is PUBG — and the one that surprises most people is Terraria.

#5 — Wii Sports

Nintendo EAD · Wii · 2006

82.9 million copies

Bundled with the Wii console in most markets, Wii Sports introduced millions of non-gamers to video games. Its bowling and tennis modes became the gateway drug for an entire generation of casual players. The 82.9 million figure covers all copies — bundled and standalone.

#6 — Mario Kart 8 / Deluxe

Nintendo · Wii U / Switch · 2014 / 2017

79.54 million copies

Originally released on the failed Wii U in 2014, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was repackaged for the Switch in 2017 and became the console’s best-selling game. Combined across both versions: 79.54 million copies sold — making it the best-selling racing game of all time.

#7 — PUBG: Battlegrounds

Krafton · Multi-platform · 2017

75 million copies

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds invented the battle royale genre as a commercial category. Before Fortnite went free-to-play, PUBG was the benchmark. It has sold 75 million paid copies across PC, Xbox, and PlayStation — not counting the free mobile version, which has over 1 billion downloads.

#8 — Terraria

Re-Logic · Multi-platform · 2011

70 million copies

Terraria was created by a two-person team and sold for $9.99 on Steam in 2011. It has since sold 70 million copies across all platforms. A 2D sandbox survival game made by Re-Logic outselling some of the most expensive games ever produced is one of the industry’s most remarkable stories.

#9 — The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

CD Projekt Red · Multi-platform · 2015

65 million copies

CD Projekt Red’s RPG masterpiece has sold 65 million copies — a figure that has continued climbing a decade after release, boosted by the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher series. It remains the benchmark for open-world RPG design and proof that a studio outside the US and Japan can compete at the highest level.

#10 — Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo · Multi-platform · 1985

58 million copies

The original Super Mario Bros., launched in 1985, has sold 58 million copies across the NES, SNES re-releases, Game Boy Color, and virtual console downloads. It is the game that saved the video game industry after the 1983 crash and introduced Mario — Nintendo’s most valuable IP — to the world.

#11–25 — The Rest of the Top 25

The bottom half of the top 25 mixes indie hits, Nintendo evergreens, franchise shooters, and one remarkable 2023 newcomer.

Best-Selling Game Franchises (Total Sales)

Individual game sales tell one story. Franchise totals tell another. When you add up every mainline entry, spin-off, and re-release, the numbers get considerably larger.

Made in the UK — British Games Behind the Numbers

Two of the four best-selling individual video games in history were made in Edinburgh. That’s not a coincidence — the UK has produced some of the most commercially successful game studios ever built.

• GTA V (230m copies) — Rockstar North, Buccleuch Street, Edinburgh
• Red Dead Redemption 2 (85m copies) — co-developed by Rockstar North, Edinburgh
• Lemmings — DMA Design, Dundee / Edinburgh (1991); 15m+ copies, invented the puzzle-strategy genre
• Grand Theft Auto (original) — DMA Design, Edinburgh (1997); invented the GTA formula
• GoldenEye 007 — Rare Ltd, Twycross, England (1997); 8m copies on N64, defined console FPS
• Donkey Kong Country — Rare Ltd, England (1994); 9.3m copies, pioneered pre-rendered 3D graphics
• Tomb Raider — Core Design, Derby (1996); launched one of gaming’s most iconic franchises
• Fable — Lionhead Studios, Guildford (2004); 3.5m copies, spawned two sequels

The UK gaming industry generated £7.1 billion in 2023, employing over 76,000 people across more than 2,500 studios. Scotland alone accounts for a disproportionate share of that output — largely because of what Rockstar North continues to produce on Buccleuch Street.

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