The 10 Most Expensive Video Games Ever Sold
#10: Contra
A term you’re gonna hear a lot on this list is “WATA score”. WATA are the leaders in collectible video game grading and certification, and it’s their graders that decide a games WATA score based on the condition of the box, seal, cartridge, and all other elements to the games quality. A WATA score of 9.8 is essentially the highest score available to a retro game, it’s rare and it’s difficult, and one copy of Contra on the NES was awarded this incredibly rare 9.8, and managed to sell for $150,000. The rarity of this particular cartridge is what awarded it such a high sale price. I mean, most games have imperfections straight off the assembly line, so to score a 10 is near impossible.
#9: Twisted Metal
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This game is in somewhat of a renaissance thanks to the Twisted Metal series dropping, but let’s jump WAY back to 1995 when the first copies of Twisted Metal on the PS1 were printed. The longbox was the original style of release for PS1 games, and lasted less than a year before the more well known CD cases were released. In fact, it came in a ridged longbox, which was only used on roughly 49 PS1 games before it was discontinued. But for the low, low price of $156,000, somebody was able to get one of these rare copies of Twisted Metal, with a WATA score of 9.6!
#8: Super Mario Bros. 3
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Another equal sale equal to a whopping $156,000. Now for a price tag like this, you’d expect a 9.6 or a 9.8, but this copy of Super Mario Bros. 3 scored a 9.2 .. Don’t get us wrong this is a great score, but the price tag comes from a very VERY rare imperfection. Some initial copies of the game went out before the box art was fixed, and in these very rare initial copies, the word “BROS” is printed on the left side of the cartridge where it obscures Mario’s hand, aesthetically it’s just a tiny bit off. The more well known version has the “BROS” just above Mario’s head, where it fits much nicer. This copy had an incredible score for a very rare version of the cartridge, and that’s why you could LITERALLY pay The Roots to play your birthday party, or rent a private plane 3 times, for the same price this game went for. I looked up both those facts, and I'm not lying.
#7: Final Fantasy
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Price tag doesn’t just come down to quality, it also comes down to rarity. If two different games score a 9.8, but one of them has 10 other copies of their game that ALSO scored a 9.8, while the other is the only 9.8 to exist, well then OBVIOUSLY the single 9.8 is going to sell for significantly more. For $204,000, a copy of Final Fantasy on the NES was sold that had a 9.8 WATA score. There are no other copies of Final Fantasy that have sold with a higher score than this, in fact there are no copies of Final Fantasy for auction at this point in time with a similar score at all. It’s a very real possibility that this might be the last good-condition copy of the beginning of one of the most popular game series of all time.
#6: Resident Evil
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Another of our infamous ridged long box games sold for a whopping $264,000! The game was Resident Evil, the classic that launched a beloved series, and this particular sale set a record as the most expensive Playstation game to ever be sold. For a copy of Resident Evil in the ridged longbox to be in your possession, means you have one of the first production printings of this brilliant game. It’s so rare in fact, that it’s known there are less than 10 copies of it in the entire world, and with a WATA score of 9.6 … Wow, this is a rare piece.
#5: Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out
Let’s cut to the chase, this game is brutal! But is it $312,000 brutal? Apparently so. This infamous NES title sold two high price versions in the same year in 2021, the first was with a WATA score of 9.6 unsealed, then came the big daddy 6 months later. Completely sealed, and with a WATA score of 9.8, this copy of Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out sold for that brutal 312K price, and became the only copy of this game to achieve this score. It’s so well preserved in fact, that to the untrained eye, it looks like it has come straight off the shelf.
#4: Sonic the Hedgehog
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When people think SEGA they think Sonic. When the SEGA Genesis dropped, Sonic was not only one of the best games on the console, but probably the most famous. Surprisingly though, getting your hands on an original copy of Sonic the Hedgehog on the SEGA genesis today, is a pretty difficult task. That’s why for an arguably lower score than other games that sell at this amount, a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog with a WATA score of 9.4, sold for an outrageous $420,000. The game is completely sealed, and in great nick, but $420,000??? You could buy an apartment with that money!
#3: The Legend of Zelda
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Hold onto your hats kids, because we are taking a massive leap in price tag by doubling our previous entry, and heading straight to $870,000! The Legend of Zelda on the NES is a historical gaming collectible, in any condition, in anyone's hands. This particular copy of The Legend of Zelda that almost sold for 1 million dollars, had only a WATA score of 9.0. This version (known as the No Rev-A Cartridge) was on sale for only 2 months when the game first released. Is there a big difference? It had 5 screws in it, instead of 3. To the average person that is no big deal, but to a collector, that means that this copy of The Legend of Zelda is AS CLOSE to the original version of the game as they will probably ever get, and in the best condition they’ll probably ever see.
#2: Super Mario 64
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Super Mario 64 has a significant amount of cultural weight, and this is something that does come into play when price is decided. The game revolutionized platformers, and was the first 3D rendering of Mario that players had ever seen. This particular copy of Super Mario 64 on the Nintendo 64, is the highest WATA scored version of the game known to exist. Coming in at an incredible 9.8, and totally sealed, this 25 year old game (that looks like it just came off the production line) sold for a teenie tiny $1.56 million … that. Is. So. Much. Money.
#1: Super Mario Bros.
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Arguably the greatest video game of all time, was Super Mario Bros. on the NES. This game revolutionized the console, and industry, and created the most famous videogame character to ever exist. With a WATA score of (you guessed it) 9.8, and completely sealed, one copy of Super Mario Bros (that is believed to be one of the first ever printed) sold at auction, to an anonymous seller, for $2 million. For my Australian brothers and sisters, that’s more than $3 million. For my beautiful brits, that’s 1.5 million Pound. For my Denmark homies, that’s over 13 million Danish Krones.
