A cartridge of Super Mario 64 sells at auction for $1.56 million, sets world record for most expensive game ever

A cartridge of Nintendo’s classic video game “Super Mario 64” set a world record Sunday, selling at auction for $1.56 million. The sale, the first ever of a game cartridge to surpass $1 million, came just two days after a sealed copy of “The Legend of Zelda” – made for the old Nintendo NES console – sold for a then-record of $870,000.

🎉#HERITAGELIVE #WORLDRECORD!! Super Mario 64 - Wata 9.8 A++ Sealed, N64 Nintendo 1996 USA just sold for $1,560,000 at #HeritageAuctions, smashing previous mark of $870K, set Friday at Heritage for The Legend of Zelda! https://t.co/SUgiijkkzL#SuperMario #Nintendo #N64 #WATA pic.twitter.com/rHpTuZl95l

— Heritage Auctions (@HeritageAuction) July 11, 2021

Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, which handled both sales, has not identified the buyers. Before Friday, the record for a video game auction was the sale in April of a 1986 “Super Mario Bros” cartridge: it went for $660,000. Retro video games have become increasingly popular among nostalgic collectors in recent years, driving up prices for old-school consoles and cartridges at auctions. The past year has seen record prices not only for video games but also for Pokémon cards and for the digital collectibles known as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). Also read: Zoë Roth, known for featuring in ‘Disaster Girl’ meme, sells its NFT for $500,000 The more things change, the more they stay the same: A short story about art and NFTs Explainer: As international market for it booms, what determines the price of an NFT artwork?