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This is a list of video games for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color video game consoles that have sold or shipped at least one million copies, including games whose sales figures were published, and games which received the Player's Choice label for selling a million units. The best-selling game on the Game Boy and Game Boy Color is Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow , which released in 1996 and sold over 46 million units worldwide. [1] [2] The second best-selling title is Tetris ; first released in Japan on June 14, 1989, Tetris was often bundled with the original Game Boy and went on to sell in excess of 35 million units worldwide. [3] It is followed by the best-selling Game Boy Color game, Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal , which sold over 29 million units in total. [2] The top five is rounded out by the platform's first Super Mario game, Super Mario Land , which sold over 18 million units worldwide, [4] and Dr. Mario with over 5.34 million units sold. [5]
There are a total of 67 Game Boy and Game Boy Color games on the list which are confirmed to have sold or shipped at least one million units. Of these, 20 were developed by internal Nintendo development divisions. Other developers with the most million-selling games include Capcom with seven games, as well as Game Freak, Rare, and Tose with five games each in the list of 66. Of the 66 games on this list, 48 were published in one or more regions by Nintendo. Other publishers with multiple million-selling games include Konami with three games and Bandai and Enix with two games each. The most popular franchises on Game Boy and Game Boy Color include Pokémon (84.54 million combined units), Tetris (38.12 million combined units), Super Mario (34.39 million combined units), Donkey Kong (12.55 million combined units), and Kirby (10.91 million combined units).
† | Game was bundled with Game Boy or Game Boy Color consoles during its lifetime |
The Game Boy Advance (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2001, and in mainland China as iQue Game Boy Advance on June 8, 2004.
The Game Boy Color is an 8-bit handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998, and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and part of its product line. Compared to the original, the Game Boy Color features a color TFT screen rather than monochrome, a processor that operates twice as fast, and four times as much memory. It retains backward compatibility with games initially developed for its predecessor. However, reviewers considered these improvements insufficient to justify Nintendo's releasing it as a separate product.
Super Mario Bros. 3 is a 1988 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). It was released for home consoles in Japan on October 23, 1988, in North America on February 12, 1990 and in Europe on August 29, 1991. It was developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development, led by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka.
Pokémon Red Version and Pokémon Blue Version are 1996 role-playing video games (RPGs) developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. They are the first installments of the Pokémon video game series. They were first released in Japan in 1996 as Pocket Monsters Red and Pocket Monsters Green, with the special edition Pocket Monsters Blue released in Japan later that year. The games were released as Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue in North America and Australia in 1998 and Europe in 1999. Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue combined Red, Green and Blue for release outside of Japan.
2003 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Tony Hawk's Underground, Madden NFL 2004, NBA Live 2004, ESPN NBA Basketball, Saya no Uta: The Song of Saya, Final Fantasy X-2, Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Sonic Heroes, Postal 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, and WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain. New intellectual properties included Beyond Good & Evil, Boktai: The Sun is in Your Hand, Call of Duty, Disgaea, Drakengard, Manhunt, PlanetSide, TrackMania, True Crime: Streets of LA, and Viewtiful Joe.
1990 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Dr. Mario, Dragon Quest IV, Final Fantasy III, Phantasy Star II, and Super Mario World, along with new titles such as Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and Magic Sword. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were Final Fight in Japan and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the United States. The year's best‑selling system was the Game Boy, while the year's best-selling home video game was Super Mario Bros. 3 for the Nintendo Entertainment System.
1988 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest III, Super Contra, Super Mario Bros. 2, Mega Man 2, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, and Super Mario Bros. 3, along with new titles such as Assault, Altered Beast, Capcom Bowling, Ninja Gaiden, RoboCop, Winning Run and Chase H.Q.
Pokémon is a series of video games developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo and The Pokémon Company under the Pokémon media franchise. It was created by Satoshi Tajiri with assistance from Ken Sugimori, the first games, Pocket Monsters Red and Green, were released in 1996 in Japan for the Game Boy, later released outside of Japan as Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version. The main series of role-playing video games (RPGs), referred as the "core series" by their developers, has continued on each generation of Nintendo's handhelds. The most recently released core series games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, were released on November 18, 2022, for the Nintendo Switch.
Tetris is a puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy in 1989. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. A Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console version of Tetris was released in December 2011, lacking multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Switch Online service in February 2023.
The Game Boy is a handheld game console developed by Nintendo, launched in the Japanese home market on April 21, 1989, followed by North America and Europe later that year. Following the success of the Game & Watch single-game handhelds, Nintendo developed the Game Boy to be more like a portable console, with interchangeable cartridges. The concept proved highly successful and the Game Boy became a cultural icon of the 1990s.
The Japanese multinational consumer electronics company Nintendo has developed seven home video game consoles and multiple portable consoles for use with external media, as well as dedicated consoles and other hardware for their consoles. As of September 30, 2021, in addition to Nintendo Switch, Nintendo has sold over 863.07 million hardware units.
Pokémon Crystal Version is a role-playing video game developed by Game Freak and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Color in Japan in 2000 and internationally in 2001. The game is an enhanced edition of the 1999 titles Pokémon Gold and Silver and the final of the second generation of games in the Pokémon franchise. Crystal featured several additions to the core gameplay of its predecessors, including additional story elements, a new Battle Tower area, the option to play as a female character, animation of Pokémon sprites during battles, and other minor fixes and improvements. The Japanese version of the game also utilized the capabilities of the Mobile System GB, a peripheral that allowed players to trade and battle over cell phones and a paid subscription service. These enhancements were enabled by the improved capabilities of the Game Boy Color, consequently it was the first game in the series to not be compatible with the Game Boy.
Acclaim also released Game Gear and Game Boy versions of Mortal Kombat. Amazingly, Acclaim sold 1 million copies of the Game Boy cartridge.