Unopened 1986 Super Mario Bros. NES Game Fetches Record $3M At Auction

A vintage Super Mario Bros. cartridge released in 1986 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) just shattered the record for the most expensive video game ever sold, having fetched $3 million at auction. That sum, which includes a 25% buyer's premium fee, is $1 million higher than the previous record when the same game sold for $2 million.

Heritage Auctions brokered the record sale for what it describes as the "finest known copy" around and the "the Holy Grail of video game collecting." The reason for the hyperbole is not only because the game remains sealed after four decades, but it also bears a gloss sticker that is still intact.

"The gloss sticker format was adopted in early 1986 after the short-lived matte sticker (exclusively featured on launch copies from Nintendo's October 1985 test market). With no known first-production examples in sealed condition, this is the earliest confirmed sealed copy of the groundbreaking game," Heritage Auction states.

Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. in 1985. The version that just sold for an enormous sum is a second production run that came out in 1986 with the aforementioned sticker swap and bears a "breathtaking" Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) 9.6 A++ rating. That means it is in near mint condition. According to Heritage Auctions, only three sealed second-production copies with the gloss sticker are known to exist, and this one is the highest-rated of the trio.

"This specific variant has never appeared in a public auction in sealed condition, underscoring just how elusive it is. The closest parallel is the widely publicized 2019 private sale of the Wata 9.4 A++ second-production copy, a landmark transaction that became the first six-figure video game sale and permanently shifted perceptions of what historically important games could command," Heritage Auction states.

Original Super Mario Bros. cartridges for the NES have commanded big sums when still sealed, like in 2019 when a copy sold for $100,150 at auction. However, only three have sold a million dollars or more (as far as we're aware), this being one of them.

As if the game itself is not enough of a collector's piece, the auction also includes a launch edition NES Control Deck console that was released in the Los Angeles test market era, and it too is in box and unused with all original contents. That's where this game comes from—it was bundled inside and stayed untouched for 40 years.

To put the auction price into perspective, the original NES bundle hit store shelves for $149.99 in 1985, which adjusted for inflation is a little over $450 today.

Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions