Terraria outsells Super Mario Bros., ranks as 8th best-selling game of all time

Bottom line: Terraria, the 2011 action-adventure sandbox, now ranks among the top 10 best-selling video games of all time. The game is so popular, in fact, that it managed to edge out one of the most recognizable titles in gaming history.

In a recent State of the Game address, developer Re-Logic noted it has been "some time" since their last sales update. This was done on purpose, we're told, as the team was waiting to pass a popular title "about a plumber and his brother trying to save a princess from this dragon-turtle thing." Perhaps you have heard of it?

Re-Logic is of course referring to the original Super Mario Bros., which currently sits at 58 million units sold since its launch on the original Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1985. That's good for ninth place among the top 10 best-selling games ever. Terraria, however, sits just ahead of Mario with 58.7 million units sold to date. Impressive.

It wouldn't be super surprising to see Terraria climb a couple more spots in the coming years, but it is unlikely to ever crack the top three. As of writing, Minecraft holds the number one position with 300 million copies sold followed by Grand Theft Auto V at 200 million unit sales and Tetris at 100 million units sold.

Terraria has been compared to a 2D version of Minecraft, but really it is a lot more than that as its sales can attest to. How – and even why – you play the game is totally up to you; exploring on your own time, building, and leveraging the crafting system is arguably just as much fun as progressing through the game and fighting bosses as intended.

Terraria also has a wonderful soundtrack and an attractive price. The game normally sells for $9.99 but can regularly be found for around half that during a Steam or GOG sale. Content updates are free, meaning the game won't be a constant drain on your wallet. And given its age, virtually any modern computer should be able to run it without issue.

Permalink to story:

Terraria outsells Super Mario Bros., ranks as 8th best-selling game of all time

It's an okay game. I tend to find myself exploring more than anything....eventually getting into spots that my weak weapons/armor/pick can't do much for me and I die.

I'd much rather play a game like 7D2D - even though it's drastically changed over all the years of the updates/tweaking and so on. But, Terraria is okay for a little time killing here and there.

I don't think it is a good comparison to be honest. Super Mario is generally locked to Nintendo hardware, Terraria is not. So the barrier to play the game is much lower for the latter. The next thing is the cost. On sale, Terraria cost sub 5 bucks. Super Mario, will cost a lot more if we factor in inflation. So the profit margin is significantly higher for Mario than Terraria. Finally, Terraria have been around for a number of years. You can say the same for Super Mario, but with the console discontinued and replaced, you can play this game anymore unless through some emulator. But I would think sales of the first Super Mario will plunge to 0 or near 0 at that point when the console got discontinued. This is not a problem for Terraria because it is available on multiple platforms, and I believe PC is the main driver for their sales. Hence, it is not surprising it will outsell Super Mario easily.