The 50 Most Frequently Graded Video Games
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{Note: For brief introductions to sealed-and-graded video game collecting, see here and here. I also recommend Gamer Stonks for top-notch market analyses and GetTheGreg Games for the friendliest, most helpful flesh-and-blood guide those new to this particular hobby could want.}
Collecting sealed and graded video games began around 2008, when the first game-grading company, VGA, was founded, but it didn’t really take off until the founding of the second such company WATA, in 2018. And when the pandemic hit in early 2020, the cost of graded video games skyrocketed, as presaged by this New York Times report that wrote on rising interest in this collectibles market just days before the pandemic.
Things have since calmed down quite a bit—thankfully, given the preposterous “high” of an only sort-of uncommon mint Super Mario 64 selling for $1.5 million—but I’m still fascinated by the subject as a GenX-er who (a) grew up playing the Atari 2600, NES, and SNES, (b) intermittently went down the gaming rabbit-hole with the PS1 and PS2 some years later, and (c) is interested in video game preservation. Indeed, while there are plenty of collectors, investors, and even speculators in the video game collecting hobby (including its “sealed-and-graded” or “new” sector, its “complete-in-box” or “CIB” or “used” graded sector, and its “ungraded” or “raw” sector), one thing many of these individuals have in common in an interest in ensuring that the physical products that brought joy to so many of us back in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s do not vanish entirely.
And that’s a real risk. If you absolutely adore the Nintendo Entertainment System game library as I do, you might be surprised to learn that many, many games for that system are on right on the cusp of vanishing in used (let alone new) condition. It’s for this reason that even certain complete-in-box NES games—games that have been opened and therefore cannot be deemed new—now fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars at auction, even before they’ve been graded. While of course there’ll always be those who scoff at collecting games on the presumption that the art component of video games is only to be found in their code (in which case must only be preserved digitally for play on “emulators”), those of us old enough to be a bit saddened to know that video gaming will soon be an all-digital hobby deem the original boxes, manuals, and cartridges for the oldest video game consoles to be works of art in their own right.
And if you’ve seen any of them, you could hardly doubt it.
From a certain view, it makes no sense that collecting sealed and grading video games is either (a) such a niche hobby, or (b) controversial (which it is, both among those who consider it trivial and those who see no point in grading the condition of at least these art objects). After all, the video game industry is the most lucrative entertainment industry on Earth; gaming is one of only a small number of eminently internationally translatable art practices and languages (and, again, far more popular than nearly all others, such as painting and sculpture, with perhaps only music as a legitimate rival); preserving history is a personal and institutional mission in every culture extant; and pop art is now, finally, recognized as a legitimate substrata of the art-collecting world.
Encapsulating video games in plastic doesn’t make them unplayable, as virtually every video game ever made is right now either available for purchase or has already been made available to the public in the form of a digital “ROM.” Nor can it be said that collecting ungraded video games is somehow “purer” than collecting graded games on the argument that the former can still be played on their original hardware; were this the only interest non-graded game collectors had in gaming or collecting, they would collect only loose cartridges—not the marketing materials and explanatory documents that have accompanied all physical products in the video game market for decades. So why do even those with no interest in grading their video game collections also collect boxes and manuals? Because, simply put, many of them are beautiful and, whether it makes much sense to anyone else or not, many of us have lots of nostalgia tied to them.
And they’re central to the history of the modern era.
Many people respond viscerally—with great emotion—at the sight of a Super Mario Bros. 3 cardboard box, say, or games from the Sonic the Hedgehog series. And why not? These items have been mission-critical to the childhood and even adult joy of tens or even hundreds of millions of people worldwide over the last four decades.
They matter not just in the abstract, but as tangible cultural landmarks reasonably deemed art objects.
With all that in mind, I decided to use the available public data to track which vintage and modern games that collectors who get their games graded are most enthusiastic about buying, grading, and/or collecting—whether in new-and-sealed condition or unsealed-and-used condition (the latter a much more affordable hobby for the average person, with the added benefit of opening up the hobby to many rare but wonderful vintage video games that just no longer exist anywhere in new-and-sealed condition).
🟧 Atari
🟪 Coleco
⬜️ Intellivision
🟨 NEC
🟥 Nintendo
⬛️ Sony
🟦 Sega
🟩 Microsoft
(with rank, company, title, number of graded games and console)
🔰 #01 | ⬛️ | Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (1,040), PS2
🔰 #02 | ⬛️ | Grand Theft Auto III (924), PS2
🔰 #03 | ⬛️ | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (915), PS2
🔰 #04 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (707), Wii-U
🔰 #05 | 🟩 | Halo 2 (459), Xbox
🔰 #06 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (394), Switch
🔰 #07 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. 3 (358), NES
🔰 #08 | ⬜️ | Donkey King (345), Intellivision
🔰 #09 | 🟩 | Halo: Combat Evolved (335), Xbox
🔰 #10 | 🟥 | Super Mario Galaxy (310), Wii
🔰 #11 | 🟥 | Super Smash Bros. Brawl (300), Wii
🔰 #12 | 🟩 | Halo 3 (283), Xbox 360
🔰 #13 | 🟩 | Halo 4 (281), Xbox 360
🔰 #14 | 🟥 | F-Zero (261), SNES
🔰 #15 | 🟥 | Super Mario Galaxy 2 (256), Wii
🔰 #16 | 🟧 | Space Invaders (250), Atari 2600
🔰 #17 | 🟥 | Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition (249), Game Boy
🔰 #18 | 🟩 | Minecraft (248), Xbox 360
🔰 #19 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (243), N64
🔰 #20 | 🟥 | Gauntlet Legends (238), N64
🔰 #21 | 🟧 | Ms. Pac-Man (233), Atari 2600
🔰 #22 | ⬛️ | The Last of Us (216), PS3
🔰 #22 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. (216), NES
🔰 #24 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask (215), N64
🔰 #25 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda (202), NES
🔰 #26 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (200), Gamecube
🔰 #27 | 🟥 | Perfect Dark (199), N64
🔰 #28 | 🟧 | E.T. (195), Atari 2600
🔰 #29 | 🟥 | Pokémon Blue (194), Game Boy
🔰 #30 | 🟩 | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (192), Xbox 360
🔰 #31 | ⬛️ | Final Fantasy IX (191), PS1
🔰 #32 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (188), Wii
🔰 #33 | 🟥 | Pokémon Red (187), Game Boy
🔰 #34 | ⬛️ | Kingdom Hearts II (180), PS2
🔰 #35 | 🟥 | Super Mario 3D All-Stars (177), Switch
🔰 #36 | 🟥 | Mario Kart Wii (176), Wii
🔰 #37 | 🟩 | Grand Theft Auto V (175), Xbox 360
🔰 #38 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (171), Gamecube
🔰 #39 | ⬛️ | Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Battle 22 (170), PS1
🔰 #39 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. 2 (170), NES
🔰 #41 | 🟧 | Raiders of the Lost Ark (169), Atari 2600
🔰 #42 | 🟥 | Pokémon Gold (163), Game Boy Color
🔰 #43 | 🟥 | Super Mario Odyssey (161), Switch
🔰 #43 | 🟥 | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (161), NES
🔰 #45 | 🟧 | Asteroids (159), Atari 2600
🔰 #45 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (159), SNES
🔰 #47 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (158), Wii
🔰 #47 | 🟥 | Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (158), Switch
🔰 #49 | ⬛️ | NBA 07: Featuring the Life, Vol. 2 (156), PS2
🔰 #50 | ⬛️ | Final Fantasy VII (154), PS1
🔰 #50 | ⬛️ | Final Fantasy XII (154), PS2
🔰 #52 | 🟥 | Super Smash Bros. Melee (153), Gamecube
🔰 #53 | 🟥 | Super Mario 64 (152), N64
🔰 #54 | ⬛️ | Call of Duty: Finest Hour (150), PS2
🔰 #55 | ⬛️ | Kingdom Hearts (148), PS2
🔰 #56 | 🟥 | GoldenEye 007 (146), N64
🔰 #57 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Collector’s Edition (145), Gamecube
🔰 #57 | 🟧 | Pac-Man (145), Atari 2600
🔰 #57 | 🟥 | Pokémon Silver (145), Game Boy Color
🔰 #60 | 🟦 | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (144), Sega Genesis
🔰 #61 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (142), Wii-U
🔰 #62 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Master’s Quest (141), Gamecube
🔰 #63 | 🟥 | New Super Mario Bros. Wii (140), Wii
🔰 #63 | 🟥 | Street Fighter II (140), SNES
🔰 #NR | 🟨 | Bonk’s Adventure (26), NEC Turbografx 16
🔰 #NR | 🟪 | Centipede (17), ColecoVision
🔰 #NR | 🟨 | Cosmic Fantasy 2 (14), NEC Turbografx CD
🔰 #NR | 🟪 | Cabbage Patch Kids: Adventures in the Park (12), ColecoVision
(with rank, company, title, number of graded games and console)
🔰 #01 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. 3 (438), NES
🔰 #02 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. (427), NES
🔰 #03 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda (297), NES
🔰 #04 | 🟥 | Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! (251), NES
🔰 #05 | 🟥 | Super Mario Bros. 2 (191), NES
🔰 #06 | 🟥 | Duck Hunt (119), NES
🔰 #07 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (113), N64
🔰 #08 | 🟥 | Gyromite (98), NES
🔰 #09 | 🟥 | Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (91), NES
🔰 #10 | 🟥 | Super Mario 64 (89), N64
🔰 #11 | 🟥 | Chrono Trigger (85), SNES
🔰 #11 | 🟥 | Metroid (85), NES
🔰 #13 | 🟥 | The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (84), SNES
🔰 #14 | 🟦 | Sonic the Hedgehog (82), Sega Genesis
🔰 #15 | 🟥 | Mario Bros. (75), NES
🔰 #NR | 🟧 | Superman (38), Atari 2600
Click below to get seven free days of access to the twelve sections and over 200 reports at Retro.
While you may not like all—or perhaps even many—of these covers, reviewing them may give you an idea of why video game collectors who love these games and their cover art might want to purchase, grade, and display these games at home as (pop) art objects.
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