A Sealed 1985 Super Mario Bros. Just Sold for $3 Million and Took the Title of Most Expensive Video Game Ever

Bidders drove one exceptional sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. to a final price of $3 million during Heritage Auctions’ Video Games Signature event on June 12. The result cleared the previous high mark by a full million dollars and established a new record for any video game sold at public auction. Heritage presented the cartridge as lot 28025 in its June 12–13 sale. Professional graders at PSA assigned it a 9.6 A++ rating, the strongest score this particular variant has received. The copy carries Nintendo’s gloss sticker seal, a detail that places it in the second production run from early 1986.

Nintendo began distributing the NES and its launch software in late 1985. Some of the first sealed copies used a gloss sticker to seal the box, rather than the shrink wrap that became popular later. The boxes from the second batch, with the sticker seal, are the first known sealed Super Mario Bros. There have never been any confirmed public collections with sealed copies from the first production run.

There are only three known examples of this specific gloss sticker and second-production version, and this one is most likely the highest graded. What makes it even more rare is that it is the first time a sealed copy of this particular seal type has been sold in a public auction. According to accounts, this book was only recently made available to collectors, and its sealed state has greatly enhanced the bid. Last year, Heritage sold another unopened Super Mario Bros. for a cool $660,000. The only distinction was that each came from a different production run.

The previous record of $2 million was set by a separate sealed Super Mario Bros with hangtab packaging, was sold in 2021 via a fractional ownership agreement. Earlier this year, a sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sold for an incredible $1.56 million. And now comes this new record, which easily outperforms all past sales.

This sale was just one part of a much more comprehensive Heritage auction, which included a host of rare sealed NES titles from the original black box era, as well as hangtab versions of some of the all-time favorites. The overall sale has now garnered nearly $4.8 million, with another sealed Super Mario Bros earning $575,000, highlighting how prices can vary depending on production specifications and condition.

When it comes to exceptionally rare items, condition is paramount. The glossy sticker seal reveals the cardboard surface and black cover, thus minor dents, creases, or wear can eliminate a copy from consideration for a high grade. That’s not all; collectors have discovered that even little variations in seal type, box construction, and manufacturing run can make the difference between a fine sealed copy and an extremely valuable one. As long as Mario is popular, serious purchasers will continue to buy rare sealed copies, making them long-term investments.
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