How did Super Mario Bros. change video gaming?

For almost three decades, the original Super Mario Bros. was the best selling video game of all time on a single platform (surpassed by Wii Sports) selling over 40 million copies, not including remakes and re-releases on other Nintendo consoles. read more

That being said, probably the most important impact Super Mario Bros. had was helping bring much needed life back into a video game industry that had just suffered a massive crash from 1983 to 1985. In that short amount of time, revenues of video game companies went from a few billion to barely a hundred million as a result of, among other things, consumers' loss of faith in the quality of video games. read more

Nintendo began combining Super Mario Bros. on a cartridge with Duck Hunt and bundling it with the NES to help promote sales. People would buy the NES just to play Super Mario Bros. Between sales as a standalone game and when bundled with the system, Super Mario Bros. became the all-time best selling video game for nearly 24 years with a total of 40,241 million NES versions sold worldwide. read more

24. The Super Mario bros series is in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful gaming franchise of all time. It now boasts global sales of over 240 million units. 25. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games. read more