List of best-selling video games

This is a list of fifty video games that have verifiably sold the highest number of software units worldwide. The best-selling video game to date is Minecraft, a 2011 multi-platform sandbox game released by Mojang. As of October 2023, it became the first video game to sell over 300 million copies. Its closest competitor, Grand Theft Auto V, is the only other video game to have reached both 100 and 200 million copies. The best-selling single-platform game is Wii Sports, with nearly 83 million sales exclusively for the Wii console. Three of the most represented video game franchises on this list feature Pokémon, Mario, and Call of Duty.

In certain instances, Tetris is often considered the best-selling video game as opposed to Minecraft. The inconsistency originates from the differentiation between standalone game releases and the comprehensive Tetris franchise as a whole. According to The Tetris Company, the sales figures are attributed to the franchise altogether. Another sales issue involves The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which game director Todd Howard claims has sold over 60 million copies, can be deemed contentious due to Howard's history of making exaggerated statements about his games. The 2000 video game The Sims, published by Electronic Arts, is frequently reported as having sold 100 million copies. However, this sales figure is disputed due to ambiguous phrasing from the official source: "The first game from The Sims was sold in 2000 and has gone on to become the best-selling PC game franchise of all time".

Snake, a 1998 game released on Nokia 6110, is estimated to have shipped on over 400 million devices, is not classified among the best-selling video games as it was pre-installed and freely accessible on Nokia mobile phones. As a result, it does not meet the criteria for inclusion in sales-based rankings, despite its extensive distribution. Other metrics, such as "players", typically refer to the number of active users engaging with the game, rather than the actual sales. Even for paid games, this metric reflects user activity and engagement as opposed to commercial success regarding units sold.

For this list, enhanced versions like Pokémon Yellow or Wii Fit Plus, along with expansion packs, are considered iterative updates to the original games and are designed to coexist with them. Therefore, combining their sales provides a more complete impression of the game's overall growth. In contrast, remakes and remasters are standalone releases aimed at new audiences and updated to meet modern technological standards. Reporting their sales separately ensures an accurate representation of their performance and avoids inflating legacy figures.