A copy of a game that once cost roughly $50 at a store just sold for $3 million, and the strange part is that nobody ever opened it.
It Was the Original Super Mario Bros.
The cartridge was a 1985 Nintendo release of Super Mario Bros., one of the most recognizable video games ever made. What made this particular copy extraordinary was its condition and original packaging.
It Was Still Factory Sealed
The game had never been opened or played. Its original packaging remained intact, preserving the cartridge almost exactly as it would have appeared on a store shelf decades ago.
Collectors Care About Tiny Details
The copy received the highest possible grade from Wata Games, a major video-game grading company. For collectors, details such as packaging type, seals, labels and overall condition can dramatically affect value.
The Price Was $3 Million
The game sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions in June 2026, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a video game at auction.
Why Would Anyone Pay That Much?
The buyer wasn’t really paying for the game itself. Millions of copies of Super Mario Bros. were produced. The value came from an exceptionally preserved example of an iconic piece of gaming history.
Someone Had to Resist Playing It
That’s arguably the strangest part. The cartridge represented a game designed to be opened, inserted into a console and played—yet preserving it untouched for roughly four decades turned it into something worth millions.