As reported by the New York Times, collectibles company announced on August 6 that a vintage Super Mario Bros. game has been sold for $2 million, breaking the record for the most expensive video game ever sold. Last week, this record was held and set by the Super Mario 64 title as an unopened cartridge copy of the game was sold for $1.56 million. Now, its reign at the top comes to an end as the vintage Super Mario Bros. comes in to steal the world record.
According to Rob Petrozzo, one of the founders of the collectibles site, Rally, who had the game in their possession, said that an anonymous buyer had made the transaction. He also stated that the 1985 Super Mario Bros. game, which was made for Nintendo’s original console, has never been opened, a rarity that is hard to come across. Rally bought the 1985 Super Mario Bros. for $140,000 back in April 2020 and unlike Super Mario 64, this game wasn’t sold at an auction. Rally likes to buy physical copies of collectibles while inviting others to “invest” in shares of an individual item, like Super Mario Bros. When anyone tries to buy an item from Rally, Petrozzo must go to its investors, and as a collective, they decide whether the offer is worth it or not. Last year, investors denied a $300,000 offer that was made for Super Mario Bros.
Petrozzo believes this is just the beginning, with two original Nintendo games being sold for a high asking price, the collectibles owner feels that many more people will start investing money in games and things that make them feel “nostalgic” about their childhood. This hypothesis is proving to be true as we keep getting more and more news about unopened Nintendo games setting the world record for “most expensive video game ever sold.”