A new high-water mark

The retro game market has a new record, and it is a big one. A factory-sealed copy of Super Mario Bros. for the NES sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions' Video Games Signature Auction, held June 12 to 13, 2026. It is the highest price ever paid for a video game at auction, breaking the prior record of $2 million, set by a 2021 private sale, by a full million dollars.

The copy graded PSA 9.6 A++ and featured an early gloss sticker-seal variant. According to the auction, it stayed sealed for roughly 40 years after being discovered inside an unused NES Control Deck bundle, a preservation story that helps explain the eye-watering price.

Context for the boom

The sale did not happen in a vacuum. Heritage Auctions reported a record $1.4 billion in total sales across the first half of 2026, evidence of a collectibles market running hot. A few benchmark sales put the Mario figure in perspective:

Super Mario 64 sold for $1.56 million in 2021.
The Legend of Zelda reached $870,000 that same year.
A sealed, top-graded copy of Fortnite's rare physical release sold for $42,500, more than doubling its prior record.

That Fortnite result is telling: demand is not limited to 1980s cartridges but is spreading into modern-era sealed games too.

What it signals for collectors

A $3 million game sends a clear message about where the hobby's ceiling sits. Grading, provenance, and seal variants now drive valuations the way they long have in coins and comics, and a pristine copy with a documented history commands a premium that ordinary loose cartridges never will.

For everyday collectors, the record is more aspirational than actionable. The vast majority of retro games remain affordable, and the seven-figure headlines apply only to a tiny sliver of perfectly preserved, high-grade copies. Still, the trend is worth understanding, because it shapes how the market prices condition and rarity across the board.

The buyer and seller were not disclosed, keeping some mystery around the transaction. What is clear is that sealed, top-grade classics have become a genuine asset class, and Super Mario Bros., fittingly, sits at the very top of it.