The Mario franchise has sold 893.5 million games worldwide since 1983, more than any other video game franchise ever tracked (Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe alone has moved 71.08 million copies on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s best-selling first-party game of all time as of March 31, 2026 (Nintendo IR). The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed 1,360,783,214 dollars worldwide in 2023, still the highest-grossing video game film ever made (Box Office Mojo), and its 2026 sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, has already added another 1.011 billion dollars at the global box office (Box Office Mojo, via Deadline reporting). This roundup pulls every figure from Nintendo’s own investor relations disclosures, Box Office Mojo’s box office ledgers, Rotten Tomatoes’ review aggregation, and Wikipedia’s sourced data pages to map where the 40-plus-year-old plumber franchise stands today.
TL;DR
- Total Mario franchise sales: 893.5 million units since 1983, the best-selling video game franchise ever tracked (Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises).
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 71.08 million copies sold on Switch, Nintendo’s best-selling game of all time (Nintendo IR, as of March 31, 2026).
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023): 1,360,783,214 dollars worldwide, still the highest-grossing video game film ever (Box Office Mojo).
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026): 1.011 billion dollars worldwide, the second-highest-grossing video game film ever (Box Office Mojo, via Deadline).
- Mario Kart franchise: 206 million copies sold across eleven mainline entries, the best-selling racing game series in history (Wikipedia, Mario Kart).
- Nintendo Switch 2 hardware: 19.86 million units sold worldwide through March 31, 2026 (Nintendo IR).
- Estimated total Mario franchise revenue: 9.74 billion dollars across games, box office, and home media (Wikipedia, List of highest-grossing media franchises).
- Super Mario Run: 384.4 million lifetime downloads but only 96.6 million dollars in revenue, a roughly 3 to 5 percent paid-conversion rate (Wikipedia, via Sensor Tower).
- Mario Kart Tour: over 200 million downloads and over 200 million dollars in revenue within its first 18 months (Wikipedia, via Sensor Tower).
- Super Nintendo World has opened in four locations worldwide since 2021, with the Japan land alone costing roughly 351 million dollars to build (Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World).
- Charles Martinet voiced Mario in over 100 titles across 32 years, from 1991 to 2023, and holds a Guinness World Record for it (Wikipedia, Charles Martinet).
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie holds a 95% Rotten Tomatoes audience score against a 59% critics score, one of the widest gaps of any 2023 blockbuster (Rotten Tomatoes).
1. Franchise-Wide Sales and Market Position
Nearly 900 million units puts Mario in a category by itself: no other video game franchise, not Tetris, not Pokemon, not Call of Duty, has matched its combined output across four-plus decades. The full Mario franchise, spanning Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Party, and every spinoff, has sold 893.5 million units since 1983, the highest total of any video game franchise Wikipedia’s sales-tracking page has compiled. Revenue tells a slightly different story than volume: Wikipedia’s franchise-revenue estimate of 9.74 billion dollars puts Mario well behind character-licensing giants whose totals lean on merchandise and theme parks rather than software sales. Games still do the heavy lifting for Mario specifically, accounting for roughly three-quarters of that estimated total.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total Mario franchise units sold (all sub-series, since 1983) | 893.5 million | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises |
| Franchise rank among all video game franchises | #1 (best-selling ever) | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises |
| Super Mario platforming sub-series units sold (as of 2023) | 430+ million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
| Mario Kart sub-series units sold | 206 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart |
| Mario Party sub-series units sold | 60 million | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises |
| Estimated total franchise revenue (games + box office + home media) | 9.74 billion dollars | Wikipedia, List of highest-grossing media franchises |
| Video game revenue share of total franchise revenue | ~75% (7.33 billion dollars) | Wikipedia, List of highest-grossing media franchises |
| UK adults who recognize the Mario franchise (2021) | 91% | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
Outlier note: the 60 million Mario Party figure and 206 million Mario Kart figure come from two different Wikipedia pages updated on different schedules; the Mario Kart-specific page’s total is the more recent of the two, since it accounts for Mario Kart World’s 2025 launch. For comparison against another top-selling franchise built on lighter, systems-driven gameplay, see our Sims statistics roundup.
2. Best-Selling Mario Games by Platform
Nintendo’s own investor relations disclosures give the cleanest picture of individual title performance, and they show the Switch generation alone outselling entire prior console eras. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s 71.08 million units make it not just the best-selling Mario game ever, but one of the best-selling video games of any kind on any platform, full stop. The original NES Super Mario Bros. still anchors the franchise’s legacy figure: 40.23 million units as a standalone cartridge, or 58 million once re-releases like Super Mario All-Stars are folded in under Wikipedia’s combined-count methodology.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) | 71.08 million | Nintendo IR, Top Selling Title Sales Units |
| Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) | 30.50 million | Nintendo IR |
| Super Mario Party (Switch) | 21.32 million | Nintendo IR |
| New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (Switch) | 18.96 million | Nintendo IR |
| Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) | 17.44 million | Wikipedia, List of best-selling Nintendo Switch video games |
| Super Mario Bros. (NES, original cartridge) | 40.23 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
| New Super Mario Bros. (DS) | 30.80 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
| New Super Mario Bros. Wii | 30.32 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
Outlier note: Super Mario Bros.’s combined re-release count of 58 million ranks it 10th on Wikipedia’s overall List of best-selling video games, a figure most Nintendo IR disclosures do not report as a single combined line. For how another blockbuster Switch-native franchise’s numbers compare, see our Monster Hunter statistics roundup.
3. Mario Kart: The Best-Selling Racing Franchise Ever
Racing games rarely reach Mario Kart’s scale, and the series has now spent three decades pulling ahead of every rival in the genre. Mario Kart’s eleven mainline entries have sold a combined 206 million copies, making it the best-selling racing game franchise in history, according to Wikipedia’s tracking page. Mario Kart World’s Japan launch reinforced how fast the newest entry is moving: 782,566 physical copies sold in its first four days there, the franchise’s fastest start in that market to date. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s US performance was similarly front-loaded, with 459,000 units sold in a single day at launch.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Mario Kart total franchise sales (11 mainline games) | 206 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) | 71.08 million | Nintendo IR |
| Mario Kart 8 + Deluxe combined (Wii U + Switch) | ~79.5 million (5th best-selling video game of all time) | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video games |
| Mario Kart World (Switch 2) | 14.70 million | Nintendo IR |
| Mario Kart Wii | 37.38 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart |
| Mario Kart DS | 23.60 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart |
| Mario Kart 7 (3DS) | 18.99 million | Nintendo IR, 3DS Top Selling Titles |
| Mario Kart 8 (Wii U, standalone) | 8.46 million | Nintendo IR, Wii U Top Selling Titles |
Outlier note: Mario Kart World’s Japan four-day tally of 782,566 physical copies and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s US one-day figure of 459,000 units are launch-window snapshots rather than lifetime totals, cited here to show how front-loaded Mario Kart sales tend to be at release.
4. The Super Mario Movies: Box Office Records
Two films, two separate runs past the billion-dollar mark: no other video game franchise has managed that even once, and Mario has now done it in back-to-back theatrical outings three years apart. The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s 1,360,783,214 dollar worldwide total remains the single highest-grossing video game film ever made, even after its sequel’s own billion-dollar run in 2026 (Box Office Mojo). The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossed 1 billion dollars worldwide on June 7, 2026, faster than most animated tentpoles manage, and its 372.6 million dollar global opening weekend across 80 markets was the biggest opening of any film released in 2026. Critical reception for the franchise has stayed oddly split: the first film sits at 59% on Rotten Tomatoes’ critic Tomatometer against a 95% audience score from more than 10,000 verified ratings, one of the widest critic-audience gaps of any 2023 studio release.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) budget | 100 million dollars | Box Office Mojo |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie worldwide gross | 1,360,783,214 dollars | Box Office Mojo |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie domestic gross | 574,934,330 dollars | Box Office Mojo |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie opening weekend (domestic, 3-day) | 146,361,865 dollars | Box Office Mojo |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) budget | 110 million dollars | Wikipedia, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie worldwide gross | 1.011 billion dollars | Wikipedia, via Deadline reporting |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie domestic gross | 430 million dollars | Wikipedia, via Deadline reporting |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie global opening weekend (80 markets) | 372.6 million dollars | Wikipedia, via Deadline reporting |
Outlier note: Deadline estimated the first film’s net profit at roughly 559 million dollars, ranking it the single most valuable blockbuster of 2023, and the film logged 80 million Netflix views between January and June 2024, its fourth-most-watched title for that half-year window (Wikipedia, The Super Mario Bros. Movie). Fans recreating Mario’s and Luigi’s movie lines for parody videos or fan dubs typically reach for real-time voice cloning software rather than impersonating Chris Pratt’s or Charles Martinet’s delivery by ear.
5. Mobile Mario: Super Mario Run and Mario Kart Tour
Nintendo’s two Mario mobile releases took opposite approaches to monetization, and the download-to-revenue gap between them shows exactly why. Super Mario Run’s premium unlock model drew 384.4 million lifetime downloads but converted only 3 to 5 percent of players into payers, leaving it at 96.6 million dollars in total revenue, Nintendo’s fifth highest-grossing mobile title overall. Mario Kart Tour, built free-to-play from the start, out-earned Super Mario Run’s entire multi-year total within roughly its first month, pulling in 37.4 million dollars in its first 30 days alone against 123.9 million downloads.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Super Mario Run first-day downloads (Dec 15, 2016) | 2.85 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario Run |
| Super Mario Run first-week downloads | 50+ million | Wikipedia, Super Mario Run |
| Super Mario Run lifetime downloads (2025 checkpoint) | 384.4 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario Run |
| Super Mario Run lifetime revenue (2025 checkpoint) | 96.6 million dollars | Wikipedia, Super Mario Run |
| Mario Kart Tour first-week downloads | 90.1 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart Tour, via Sensor Tower |
| Mario Kart Tour lifetime downloads / revenue (April 2021 checkpoint) | 200+ million downloads, 200+ million dollars revenue | Wikipedia, Mario Kart Tour, via Sensor Tower |
Note: Mario Kart Tour’s lifetime download and revenue figures date to an April 2021 checkpoint, the most recent publicly disclosed total; neither Nintendo nor Sensor Tower has published an updated cumulative figure since.
6. Beyond the Games: Theme Parks, Voice Acting, and Culture
Mario’s reach past the screen has expanded fast in the last five years, with four physical theme park lands opening on three continents and a three-decade voice-acting run finally passing to a new performer. Universal has opened Super Nintendo World in four locations since March 2021, starting with a roughly 351 million dollar investment in the original Osaka land alone. On the voice side, Charles Martinet’s 32-year run as Mario, from 1991 to 2023 across more than 100 titles, earned him a Guinness World Record for the most video game voice-over roles by a single performer for one character; Kevin Afghani has voiced Mario and Luigi in games since Super Mario Bros. Wonder (2023), while Chris Pratt has voiced Mario in both animated films.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Super Nintendo World Japan construction investment | ~40 billion yen (~351 million dollars) | Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World |
| Universal Studios Japan (Osaka) land opening | March 18, 2021 | Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World |
| Universal Studios Hollywood land opening | February 17, 2023 | Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World |
| Universal Epic Universe (Orlando) land opening | May 22, 2025 | Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World |
| Charles Martinet years voicing Mario | 32 years (1991-2023) across 100+ titles | Wikipedia, Charles Martinet |
| Charles Martinet Guinness World Record | Most video game voice-over roles by one person, single character | Wikipedia, Charles Martinet, via Guinness World Records |
Streamers who build soundboards around three-plus decades of Mario catchphrases, from “Wahoo!” to “It’s-a me, Mario!”, often lean on tools like VoxBooster’s streamer voice effects to trigger character-style lines live rather than clipping audio manually.
Summary: Super Mario by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Total Mario franchise units sold (since 1983) | 893.5 million | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises |
| Super Mario platforming sub-series units sold | 430+ million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
| Mario Kart sub-series units sold | 206 million | Wikipedia, Mario Kart |
| Mario Party sub-series units sold | 60 million | Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises |
| Estimated total franchise revenue | 9.74 billion dollars | Wikipedia, List of highest-grossing media franchises |
| Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch) sales | 71.08 million | Nintendo IR |
| Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) sales | 30.50 million | Nintendo IR |
| Super Mario Bros. (NES) sales, standalone cartridge | 40.23 million | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
| Mario Kart World (Switch 2) sales | 14.70 million | Nintendo IR |
| Nintendo Switch 2 hardware sold (through Mar 31, 2026) | 19.86 million | Nintendo IR |
| Nintendo Switch hardware sold (lifetime) | 155.92 million | Nintendo IR |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) worldwide gross | 1,360,783,214 dollars | Box Office Mojo |
| The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) worldwide gross | 1.011 billion dollars | Box Office Mojo, via Deadline |
| The Super Mario Bros. Movie Rotten Tomatoes critic / audience score | 59% / 95% | Rotten Tomatoes |
| Super Mario Run lifetime downloads / revenue | 384.4 million / 96.6 million dollars | Wikipedia, Super Mario Run |
| Mario Kart Tour lifetime downloads / revenue (Apr 2021) | 200+ million / 200+ million dollars | Wikipedia, Mario Kart Tour |
| Super Nintendo World Japan investment | ~351 million dollars | Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World |
| Charles Martinet’s years voicing Mario | 32 years, 100+ titles | Wikipedia, Charles Martinet |
| UK adult recognition of Mario franchise | 91% | Wikipedia, Super Mario |
Methodology and Sources
Data was gathered directly from Nintendo’s official investor relations software-sales disclosures, Box Office Mojo’s box office ledgers, Rotten Tomatoes’ review aggregation, and Wikipedia’s sourced data-tracking pages, cross-referencing overlapping figures across two or more sources where possible and flagging any metric with no update in the last three years as the most recent available.
- Nintendo IR, Top Selling Title Sales Units (index)
- Nintendo IR, Nintendo Switch Top Selling Titles
- Nintendo IR, Nintendo 3DS Top Selling Titles
- Nintendo IR, Wii U Top Selling Titles
- Nintendo IR, Dedicated Video Game Platform Hardware and Software Sales
- Box Office Mojo, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Rotten Tomatoes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Wikipedia, Super Mario
- Wikipedia, List of best-selling video game franchises
- Wikipedia, List of best-selling video games
- Wikipedia, List of best-selling Nintendo Switch video games
- Wikipedia, List of highest-grossing media franchises
- Wikipedia, Mario Kart
- Wikipedia, The Super Mario Bros. Movie
- Wikipedia, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie
- Wikipedia, Super Nintendo World
- Wikipedia, Mario Kart Tour
- Wikipedia, Super Mario Run
- Wikipedia, Charles Martinet
Data watch: Nintendo updates its Top Selling Title Sales Units disclosure quarterly alongside its earnings calendar, with the next refresh expected covering Q2 FY2027; Box Office Mojo and Rotten Tomatoes update box office and review figures continuously; Wikipedia’s sales-tracking pages are typically revised within weeks of each new Nintendo IR release.
Last updated: July 24, 2026. We review and update this page quarterly as new data is published.