Mario gave a healthy injection of life to the gaming industry in 1985 with the first Super Mario Bros. on the Famicom (NES) in Japan. Since then, Mario has introduced many new consoles and has pushed tech-forward into the 3D space and even jumped into space itself.
There’s hardly a more rich and historically significant legacy than Mario in gaming, so collectors have naturally held great interest in the storied franchise. Here are 10 of the rarest and most expensive Mario games that will empty your pockets.
Like our previous lists, PriceCharting is the source used for new and used game values. We’re ranking these Mario gems using the New Price listings, from lowest to highest. We include the average used price as well based on the “Loose Price” from PriceCharting. Console bundles are not included since they typically top these lists and skew individual game values.
10. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island (SNES)
$1,156 New | $38.86 Used
Nintendo’s follow-up to Super Mario World didn’t come until the Super Nintendo was four years old. The game is titled Super Mario World 2 despite not starring Mario as the main character. This title was contentious to players since Yoshi’s Island is a prequel to existing Mario games and only featured Mario as a baby. regardless, Nintendo considers it as Super Mario World 2, and its quality certainly reflects that.
The title is not the only thing that put some players off of Yoshi’s Island. The Super Nintendo was nearing the end of its life cycle when Super Mario World 2 was released. Some players were already fixated on Nintendo’s leap to 3D with the upcoming Nintendo 64, and as a result, Yoshi’s Island became one of a handful of games to become somewhat rare and underrated.
Despite the name confusion and release so close to Nintendo’s new 3D console, Yoshi’s Island remains one of the most beloved Mario games. Yoshi’s Island’s quality can be attributed to Nintendo EAD spending a full 4 years to develop the game, an unprecedented development cycle back then. Now, sealed copies of this Super Nintendo classic fetch a premium with recent sales eclipsing $1,000.
9. Mario Kart 64 [Player’s Choice]
$1,189 New | $39.75 Used
Releasing at the dawn of 1997 in America, Mario Kart 64 realized Nintendo’s push for 3D in high-octane kart racing form. The Nintendo 64’s emphasis on multiplayer games introduced four controller slots to consoles for the first time. Every 90s kid remembers just how fun get-togethers were with all the four-player party games the Nintendo 64 had in its lineup.
As such, the console capable of rendering 3D environments and four simultaneous players sold remarkably well. Mario Kart 64 would go on to hold the number two position in terms of Nintendo 64 game sales with a whopping 10 million units sold as of November 2023. But there’s one edition of the game that became a bit less common.
Player’s Choice was a label Nintendo used to advertise games that sold the most copies on the console. As such, these copies often came later in the console’s life cycle after the initial fervor of the game died down. The relative scarcity of Mario Kart 64 Player’s Choice Edition help make it one of the most expensive Mario games with a recent example being sold for $2,500 in April 2023.
8. Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
$1,700 New | $18.44 Used
The West didn’t get Super Mario Bros. 3 until early 1990, a full year and a half after the initial Japanese release of the game. Despite being released close to the new Super Nintendo console, Super Mario Bros. 3 proved to be one of the all-time greats in terms of quality and sales.
Super Mario Bros. 3 marked the moment the series came into its own. It firmly takes everything that came before and does a masterclass with it. Levels no longer followed each other in a locked linear pattern. Mario 3 instead gave players a lively overworld dotted with branching paths and hidden secrets. The explorative nature of Super Mario Bros. 3 became a definitive carryover for the games that followed, including the wildly popular Super Mario World.
Because of its reputation as one of the all-time greats in the series and its progressive popularity in the West, North American sealed copies of Super Mario Bros. 3 fetch the highest price of them all.
7. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (SNES)
$1,916 New | $89.99 Used
Releasing just four months before the Nintendo 64 console was the new Mario RPG co-developed by SquareSoft on the Super Nintendo. Everything about this game was bizarre and amazing in equal measure. This would mark the first time Nintendo collaborated with RPG giant Square while they were at the height of their craft.
Because of the late release and the unconventional genre coming from Nintendo, Super Mario RPG became a very rare and hot item on the collecting scene. This is one of those games that even sells well used. If you have a beat-up old copy of this game for Super Nintendo lying in a closet like I do, you could easily get $100 for it.
The new Super Mario RPG Remake of the same game has since boosted awareness of the old Super Nintendo classic. Now, sales for the game are projected to increase even more than they were before. A new copy of the SNES game sold for $1,532 the same month the Remake was released.
6. Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
$2,375 New | $21.92 Used
Super Mario Bros. 2 was actually based on a prototype tech demo for the Family Computer Disk System. Presented at the Yume Kōjō ’87 media technology expo, Doki Doki Panic used festival theming for the characters and environments. Super Mario Bros. 2 would develop from this prototype, eschewing the difficulty of Lost Levels and creating a much more polished and unique game.
Like most video games released before the year 2000, the true sequel to the first Super Mario Bros. came to the West after its initial Japanese launch. Today, English versions of Super Mario Bros. 2 sell for over $2,000, granted it’s a sealed copy of the game. Out of all the games on this list, Super Mario Bros. 2 has been one of the most consistent sellers with continuous sales at the thousand-dollar mark month after month.
5. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
$2,557 New | $32.36 Used
Long considered one of the most revolutionary games of all time, Super Mario 64 launched with the forward-thinking Nintendo 64. Super Mario 64 rendered complex platforming stages in full 3D and yet somehow still retained that Nintendo quality we’ve come to rely on.
Well, collectors love it just as much as we gamers do, as the English edition has become one of the most valuable Mario games. A bit part of the reason for its high value can be attributed to the simple fact that Mario’s first foray into 3D generated much hype and popularity. Super Mario 64 is the best-selling game on the Nintendo 64 console, and finding a sealed copy is like running into a gold mine today.
4. Mario Bros. Arcade Classic Series (NES)
$3,259 New | $32.02 Used
The original Mario Bros. on the Atari 2600 wasn’t the revolutionary hit that Super Mario Bros. would go on to be, but it was still popular. Mario Bros. wasn’t a platformer at all, but rather a bout of combat in a vertical arena. Versions of Mario Bros. would be included in many Nintendo games to come such as the Mario All Stars version of Super Mario. Bros 3.
While the original Atari Mario Bros. is worth a pretty penny averaging around $800 for a new copy, its NES sibling version would go on to be truly valuable. The Nintendo Entertainment System released a series of classic arcade games with touched-up visuals and controls titled the Arcade Classic Series. Mario Bros. was one such game to grace the lineup and has since rocketed in value becoming the fourth highest-selling Mario game on the market.
3. Super Mario Bros. YM-901 (Game & Watch)
$3,487 New | $750 Used
This one’s wild. Most gamers today know Game & Watch from Smash Bros. The odd character’s stilted movements echo the hardware it was based on. Game & Watch was a portable machine used to play first-party arcade games with a watch built in to tell time and set alarms to. It became a hot seller in Japan due to the nature of commuting and the need for handheld devices.
Game & Watch was usually packed with just one or two games installed, which entailed many many versions tailored for specific games. One particularly popular Game & Watch title was Super Mario Bros. No, not that Super Mario Bros., a completely unique Game & Watch version with all the stilted animation and quirkiness that comes with it. It’s a completely different game from the classic we’ve come to know, as can be seen in this playthrough of the game:
Super Mario Bros. for the Game & Watch still retained that eight world platforming structure the original had, but everything from platforms to Mario himself was designed in the Game & Watch style. The YM-901 release of Super Mario Bros. had a unique yellow “Mr. Famicom” game case with googly eyes on the front. Only 10,000 of these limited edition Game & Watch copies were printed, and could only be obtained by winning Nintendo’s Japanese raffles from 1987.
2. Super Mario Bros. (NES)
$3,692 New | $13.33 Used
The game that legitimized video gaming as a thing, Super Mario. Bros single-handedly saved the gaming crash of the 80s. It was one of the first platforming games to connect dozens of unique levels across a single campaign. Most games up to that point were known for their brevity and short-term playability from the arcade format. Super Mario Bros. gave players a lengthy game with unique design from start to finish right from the comfort of their home.
This popularity would continue on into the 2000s when the earliest sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. was sold for a whopping $2 million on the Pawn Stars show. While that $2 million price was in fact an anomaly based on the first edition grading of the cartridge, sealed copies of the game still sell well over $3,000. As of 2023, NES copies of English versions of Super Mario Bros. sell for $3,500 new.
1. Super Mario World (SNES)
$4,200 New | $16.50 Used
Super Mario World introduced the world to the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1991 as a launch title. The game would outsell every video game at the time. Not only has Super Mario World stood the test of time on the resell market, but it’s held up as one of the best platforming games of all time.
Whether it’s because of its popularity on the Super Nintendo, or because Super Mario World is still highly regarded as the best Mario game today, copies sell for insanely high amounts new. Super Mario World is a very rare game to find unopened because it was such a darn fun game that demanded to be played. Because of this, the discrepancy between new and used prices is laughably wide. Used copies of Super Mario World can be found in every retro game store imaginable fetching prices as low as $15, yet sealed copies remain a distant dream for collectors demanding $4,000 and up.
That sums up the top 10 rarest and most expensive Mario games we’ll never get our hands on. What are some valuable games you own? Check out our other rare games lists here on Twinfinite.
