Highest-Graded Super Mario Bros. Sells for Record $3 Million at Heritage Auctions

The PSA 9.6 A++ copy of ‘the Honus Wagner of video game collecting’ hammers the previous record by $1 million in historic June 12 bidding session DOWNLOAD DIGITAL PRESS KIT DALLAS, Texas (June 12, 2026) — The highest-graded copy of the earliest sealed edition of Super Mario Bros., the iconic game whose popularity established Nintendo’s dominance in home console gaming in the 1980s, sold for $3 million on Friday afternoon in the first session of Heritage Auctions’ June 12–13 Video Games Signature® Auction, hammering the previous $2 million record set in a 2021 private sale. “It is only appropriate that the most significant video game in the world should bring the more impressive result in the history of the hobby,” says Evan Masingill, Heritage’s Consignment Director for Video Games. “The remarkable back story — it was just discovered a few months ago inside a brand-new Control Deck NES console bundle, meaning it has not been touched for nearly 40 years — makes the result even more impressive.” Bearing the coveted gloss sticker adopted in early 1986, it is the earliest confirmed sealed copy of the most important game cartridge in history. It is one of only three known sealed copies from this second-production run — a variant that has never appeared in a public auction in sealed condition. Of the three known sealed copies, this is the finest, with a PSA 9.6 A++ grade. The others are VGA 80 and Wata 9.4 A++. The auction continues at 4 p.m. Central Time Saturday with the Signature® Internet Session. Once complete, images and information about all lots in the auction can be found at HA.com/7453. Heritage Auctions is the largest fine art and collectibles auction house founded in the United States, and the world's largest collectibles auctioneer. Heritage maintains offices in New York, Dallas, Beverly Hills, Chicago, Palm Beach, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Heritage also enjoys the highest Online traffic and dollar volume of any auction house on earth (source: SimilarWeb and Hiscox Report). The Internet's most popular auction-house website, HA.com, has more than 1,750,000 registered bidder-members and searchable free archives of 6,000,000 past auction records with prices realized, descriptions and enlargeable photos. Reproduction rights routinely granted to media for photo credit. For breaking stories, follow us: HA.com/Facebook and HA.com/Twitter . Link to this release or view prior press releases . Hi-Res images available: Jesse Hughey, Public Relations Specialist 214-409-1376; JesseH@HA.com