When Nintendo released the Game Boy in 1989, it unleashed one of the most successful handheld video game consoles of all time. Despite its monochrome dot-matrix display, the system flourished thanks to its low cost, long battery life, and an extensive library of excellent games. Nintendo continued producing the Game Boy and Game Boy Color until 2003, selling nearly 120 million units capable of playing nearly 2,000 games. We looked at the numbers, identified the 10 best-selling games on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color, and arranged them from fewest to most sales.
Nintendo released Super Mario Bros. Deluxe in 1999 for the Game Boy Color, and while it may look like a brand new game, it’s not. Instead, it’s pretty much an unaltered port of Super Mario Bros., which was released on the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985. It did come with one bonus: an unlockable version of the Japanese sequel, Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, which was deemed too difficult for the North American market, so Super Mario Bros. 2 was released in its stead. It also included additional modes and collectibles, so Super Mario Bros. Deluxe offered upgrades over the original. It sold well, moving over 5 million copies.
The very first game in the Kirby franchise, Kirby’s Dream Land, arrived on the Game Boy in 1992, introducing the character and many of the series’ tropes. The side-scrolling action-platformer was an instant success, largely due to its simple gameplay and unique design, which drew in players who loved the concept and the titular character. The success of Kirby’s Dream Land launched a franchise that continues to this day, and it all started with a Game Boy cartridge. In terms of sales, Kirby’s Dream Land was the best-selling title in the franchise for three decades, having moved 5.1 million copies until it was unseated by 2022’s Kirby and the Forgotten Land.
Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3 is the third game in the Mario Land series, though it takes the antagonist from its predecessor and makes him the player character. In it, Wario travels around an island to find enough treasure to buy his own castle. The game’s success solidified Wario as a bankable character, launching a franchise built around him, and several sequels and spin-offs followed. Critics praised the game’s level design and aesthetics, and it’s one of the more popular entries in the Wario Land line of games, having sold around 5.2 million copies on the Game Boy.
Back in the 1990s and early aughts, it wasn’t uncommon to find digital pinball games, and several great ones were released for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color. One of the best was Pokémon Pinball, which took the standard digital pinball format and remade it with everything Pokémon related. The ball is a Pokéball, and the playfield is filled to the brim with as many Pokémon references as were digitally possible. It featured a Pokédex that built up over time between saves, and the goal was to collect all 151 Pokémon, so it was more than a standard pin. The game was popular, spawning a sequel, and it sold over 5.3 million copies.
If there’s one thing that the Game Boy was great at, it was puzzle games. Sitting there playing a puzzle game was absolutely perfect for the handheld device, as you could do it for hours, and one of the best was Dr. Mario. It was first released on the NES before finding its way to the Game Boy, where it continued to succeed. The game is relatively simple as a falling block puzzle; the player needs to align the capsule colors to remove them and destroy viruses. It gets progressively more difficult as you go, and the gameplay is addictive. Dr. Mario was successful on the Game Boy, selling over 5.34 million copies.
The second title in the Wario Land franchise, Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, sees Mario attempt to reclaim his island from Wario. The game is significantly more advanced than its predecessor, as it incorporates several innovations from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World that weren’t present in Super Mario Land, making it a more dynamic title. The game was a huge success that solidified the new Mario IP on the handheld device, guaranteeing a sequel, and it was re-released on multiple platforms over the years. On the Game Boy, Nintendo sold 11.2 million copies, though it was a pack-in game for a time.
When the Game Boy launched in 1989, it came with four launch titles, one of which was Super Mario Land. It was the first handheld game in the Super Mario franchise, modeled after Super Mario Bros., though it’s a completely different game. In it, the player takes Mario through 12 levels to rescue Princess Daisy from Tatanga in Sarasaland. The game was a massive success, helping bring players over from their home consoles to the handheld, and while it was comparatively short, it was nonetheless addictive. It was a pack-in game for a short time, which helped boost its numbers, and Nintendo sold over 18.1 million copies of Super Mario Land.
The Pokémon franchise debuted on the Game Boy and became a massive success, building one of the biggest gaming franchises of all time. Pokémon Generation II saw the release of three games, two of which were released concurrently: Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver. The new titles introduced 100 new species of Pokémon, and players could trade between the games to fill up their Pokédex to complete them because you “gotta catch ‘em all!” Pokémon Gold and Silver sold 23.7 million copies, and if you include Pokémon Crystal, released the following year, that number jumps to 30 million.
When Nintendo released the Game Boy, it included Tetris as its first pack-in game, and that was probably one of the company’s best decisions it ever made. Tetris is not only one of the best-selling games on the handheld system, but it’s also the best-selling game in history. Across its many versions, Tetris has sold over 520 million copies, a number no game comes close to matching. The highly addictive puzzle game originated in the Soviet Union. It made its way to North America, where its addictive nature took hold, driving sales and making the Game Boy a smashing success. It sold incredibly well, as a pack-in title, and later as an individual game, moving some 35 million copies.
The best-selling games on the Game Boy are, of course, the first-generation Pokémon titles: Pokémon Red, Green, and Blue. They were released together in 1996, taking the world by storm and introducing North American and other markets to their highly addictive gameplay, enticing players to catch all 151 Pokémon, either through battles or trading. The first-generation Pokémon games are among the most influential and important handheld titles in gaming history, and they sold impressively well. Combined, they sold around 31.3 million copies. If you include Pokémon Yellow, which was released nearly two years later, the total number of Generation I Pokémon game sales jumps to 45.9 million.
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