Developed and first introduced in 1985, exactly 35 years ago, the Super Mario franchise to this day has established itself as one of the biggest and most influential in the world. The fact that the franchise is in the existence for almost four-decade is impressive, and even today in the era of modern real-life games like Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto with impressive graphics and rich story, this childlike game with a simple premise, and even simplest mechanics is managed to be welly well received, both financially and critically.

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Super Mario is, including both games and other merchandise, the highest-earning game franchise in the world with millions of copies of games sold worldwide, and below are the ten best selling.

10 Super Mario Land: 18.14 Million Copies

Super Mario Land is a side-scrolling platform video game published in 1989 as the launch game for Nintendos then-new platform - Game Boy. The game is played similarly to the first Super Mario game - Super Mario Bros. It was however adapted to the new handheld console, with various changes, with the fact that the game is played in black and white, is, if not the biggest, then definitely the most visible.

Thanks to the success of Game Boy, Super Mario Land managed to sell 18.14 million copies, an impressive achievement for a handheld game. The game was critically and, obviously commercial success.

9 Mario Kart 7: 18.92 Million Copies

Mario Kart 7 is a kart racing game published for Nintendo 3DS. The gameplay of the game is similar to the other Mario Kart games where the players race against each other in a go-kart.

The game features sixteen playable Mario characters with Wiggler, Hony Queen, Lakitu, and Metal Mario being new to the series. The game also features four singleplayer modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Balloon Battle, and Coin Runners. The multiplayer mode is also available and supports up to eight players. Mario Kart 7 managed to sell 18.92 million copies on Nintendo 3DS.

8 Super Mario Odyssey: 18.99 Million Copies

Super Mario Odyssey is a platform game published for Nintendo Switch in 2017. In the game, Mario is on a journey with Cappy to once again save the princess Peach from Bowser. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with Metacritic ranking it as the fifth highest-rated game of all time.

In the first three days of its release, the game managed to sell 2 million copies, with 500 000 of them being sold in Japan. In Europe and the United States, it became the fastest-selling Super Mario game ever. Till today, Super Mario Odyssey sold 18.99 million copies, which makes it one of the best selling switch games.

7 Super Mario World: 20.61 Million Copies

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Published in 1990 on Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Mario World was largely responsible for popularising the Nintendos console at that time. Often considered as the best video game of all time, Super Mario World sold 20.61 million copies, making it the best selling SNES game.

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The player is able to control Mario or Luigi on a journey to save Princess Toadstool from Bowser, and it also introduced Yoshi for the first time. The game was later re-released on different occasions most notably as a port for Game Boy advance and as a special version of Super Mario All-Stars.

6 Mario Kart DS: 23.6 Million Copies

Mario Kart DS is another racing game on the list, and as the name says it was published on Nintendo DS. The gameplay is pretty similar to other Super Mario kart games, where the player races against others, in both singleplayer or multiplayer mode, as one of the twelve playable characters from the Mario series.

On Nintendo dual screen the game is divided into the upper screen where the action is shown, and the lower screen for a tactical preview. With 23.6 million copies sold worldwide, it is the third best selling game for Nintendo DS and the sixth best selling game on this list. Sales were impressive as well reception - the game holds a 91 rating on Metacritic.

5 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 28.99 Million Copies

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is like the previous entry a kart racing video game. It was published in 2014 for Wii U and later received an enhanced version for Switch. The game features anti-gravity racing, a new addition t0 the series that allows players to drive on walls and ceilings.

Like in the previous installments the singleplayer and multiplayer modes are present, with 32 tracks available for the race and an additional 16 as downloadable content. Both commercial and critical success the game sold 28.99 million copies making it the best selling game for Wii U and Switch

4 New Super Mario Bros. Wii: 30.32 Million Copies

New Super Mario Bros. Wii is a side-scrolling game published in 2009, obviously for Wii. In the game, Mario travels across eight worlds to save Princess Peach from Bowser. The game sold 900 000 units in the first four days of release in Japan, while simultaneously doubling the sales of the console.

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In the first year of its release, the game sold 10 million units, making it the fastest single-system game in history. New Super Mario Bros. Wii sold 30.32 million copies which makes it the fourth bestselling Wii game as well the fourth bestselling game on this list.

3 New Super Mario Bros.: 30.8 Million Copies

New Super Mario Bros. is like the previous game on the list a side-scrolling game but for Nintendo DS. Both games are pretty similar in gameplay and presentation but adapted to their respective platforms, considering how different they are in hardware.

In Japan, 480 000 copies were sold on the day of its release, with numbers reaching 900 000 in the next four days. The sales of the game were also strong elsewhere in the world. With 30.8 million copies sold, New Super Mario Bros. is the best selling Nintendo DS game and the third best selling Super Mario game.

2 Mario Kart Wii: 37.38 Million Copies

Sales of Mario Kart Wii are really impressive, with 37.38 million copies sold worldwide the game stands as one of the best selling video games of all times, as well being the second best selling game for Nintendo Wii and also the second best selling Super Mario game on this list.

The game had a strong lunch in Japan with 300,000 copies sold on the day of its release and ended the week with over a million copies sold. The sales were strong elsewhere and the game was the bestselling game in the UK in the week of its release, while in the USA was in second place behind Grand Theft Auto IV.

1 Super Mario Bros.: 40.24 Million Copies

Super Mario Bros. is the game that started all. It was one of the first games published by Nintendo and later managed to spawn a multimedia franchise consisting of, aside from games, series, books, films, and other merchandise.

Published in 1985 it is considered to be one of the best games of all time and is also partially responsible for a videogame industry revival after the 1983 crash. It furthermore managed to popularize the sidescrolling platform genre. The sales of the game were high, reaching 40.24 million copies which make Super Mario Bros. the best-selling Super Mario game.

NEXT: The 10 Best Games In The Super Mario Franchise Ranked (According To Metacritic)