Unopened NES Super Mario Bros. Copy Sells for $3 Million, Setting New Record
The sale breaks the previous record of $660,000 set by the same auction house in 2021, but public distrust from a 2021-2022 class-action lawsuit alleging price manipulation casts doubt on the legitimacy of the new high.
Key Facts
- An unopened NES Super Mario Bros. copy sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions, the highest price ever paid for a video game.
- The copy has a glossy sticker packaging seal used only briefly in early 1986 before Nintendo switched to shrink-wrap; only three such copies are known to exist.
- The lot included an original NES console in its box, and the game received a PSA grade of 9.6 A++.
- The sale broke the previous record of $660,000 set by the same auction house in 2021.
- Skepticism online references a 2021-2022 class-action lawsuit alleging Heritage Auctions, grading service Wata Games, and collectors conspired to inflate retro game prices.
Reporting from 1 source: Game Spark.
An unopened copy of the NES game Super Mario Bros. sold at Heritage Auctions for $3 million (about 480 million yen), the highest price ever paid for a video game. The sale has drawn skepticism online due to past allegations of market manipulation involving the auction house and grading service Wata Games.
The copy sold for $3 million is an unopened NES Super Mario Bros. with a glossy sticker, a packaging seal used only briefly in early 1986 before Nintendo switched to shrink-wrap. Heritage Auctions said only three such copies are known to exist, and this one received a PSA grade of 9.6 A++. The lot also included an original NES console in its box. On Reddit and Kotaku, commenters have expressed skepticism, pointing to a 2021-2022 class-action lawsuit that accused Wata Games, Heritage Auctions, and certain collectors of conspiring to inflate retro game prices through fraudulent auction results and media coverage.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.