Minecraft surpassed Tetris as best seller of all time... or did it?
At 170 million units sold, it didn't look like Tetris was ever going to get dethroned as the grand champion of video game sales, but alas, it has been done.
Full disclosure: This did NOT just happen. It was several months ago by many estimations and to be fair it is not an exact science and the end result doesn't even matter anyway. It's just a list and now Minecraft is on the top of it.
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If you look at any professional publication there is always a tinge of doubt or at least uncertainty when claiming that MC is now number one... normally they say something like "Minecraft MAY have surpassed Tetris...."
The reason behind this is that Tetris has been released so many different times under different licenses and companies and various platforms that it would be immensely complicated to compile all that data. Plus, are we counting the endless array of Minecraft add-ons in the sales figures? It's all too complicated and in the end it doesn't really matter.
There are rumblings on places like reddit suggesting that if we were to compile ALL formats that Tetris has ever been sold under, that their actual sales figures are something like 430+ million units. I have no idea where this data comes from and in the end I don't really care.
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Based on some people's figures, and they don't really provide any sort of link or reference to how it is that they are coming up with these numbers, Tetris is still well beyond Minecraft in sales. The thing that gets me about this chart that is often referenced is that the link that it claims as a source actually has Minecraft in the number one spot. Then at the same source it briefly states "some figures have Tetris in the 425 million range." Plus, the source is Wikipedia and that can be edited by anyone who wants to do so.
Whatever! At the end of the day the sales figures for both of these titles is insane and a massive success story for sure. I am old enough to remember the addiction we all had to the Game Boy version of Tetris and how that song that never changed is stuck in my head anytime i choose to think about it.
I have also never played Minecraft, not even for a minute.
Hi @gooddream
My two daughters are fans of that game. Minecraft
However, I'm staying with Super Mario.
Damn...
Where’s Sonic, Cruisin USA or Street Fighter 2!?!?
I guess arcade doesn’t count but I would assume one SEGA hit would make the list 😞
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sonic had around 24 million in sales, but this was just the original. I too am surprised that SF2 isn't on the list.
SEGA 😕😞😢😭
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I remember I used to play tetris during my childhood, that puzzle kinda game was really interesting.
Good to know it. Will fortnite make the list in a few years?
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Fortnite is free, isnt' it?
:D Long live minecraft! (or "maincra" as it is called in my country as a joke) hahahaha I think it's a matter of epochs. Just as the tetris is in your heart because you played it as a boy, the boys of now have minecraft in theirs!
I like both (although I get bullying from my friends for just knowing how to play well "the sims" which is not even on the list, so I'm not the right person to comment hahaha).
The Sims 🙌🏽😀
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lovely minecraft 😁
I grew up with Super Mario as my number 1 on the super nintendo followed by civilisation II on the pc, but I have to say that having played minecraft, it deserves EVERYTHING it gets, it really is one of the most incredible works of art and I think it has changed the gamescape for ever more. It certainly blew my mind and nothing has quite emulated it for sheer creative simplicity. Having said all that, Im competely in love with Dreams for the PS4 now.....which is technically more of a development software than a game but in my opinion is the greatest creative digital tool Ive ever had the pleasure of working with (coming form the point of view of someone who would love to code but simply doesnt have the technical affinity or the patience!)
One more thing; The sales period of Tetris is much more longer than Minecraft. It was produced in 90s, perhaps earlier.
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Definitely earlier 😆
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I get the draw of Minecraft, but I have never been able to throw myself into it like a lot of people do. I am really impressed about the effort and creativity it inspires in a lot of kids. I have seen students make some amazing projects using Minecraft that really push the barriers of creativity.
Tetris was a pack-in game for a lot of Game Boys, so a lot of the sales could be attributed to that, although the game itself wasn't exclusive to the Game Boy, but on the other hand, it likely (as a standalone game) caused a lot of people to purchase one, as playing games on the move was quite a huge thing at the time of release, though nowadays, it's pretty much a given!
Of course, Tetris does have a much broader appeal than Minecraft (which I like), as it appealed to a lot of casual and non-gamers; it pretty much had the rare thing where anyone could pick up and play it, which is why it's so popular, and has seen multiple iterations. I'd put Tetris up there with Pong, as one of the most important video games in history.