What are the top 10 most popular video games ever

The top 10 best selling video games ever are:
Wii Sports
Super Mario Bros
Pokemon Red/Green/Blue
Tetris
Duck Hunt
Wii Play
Sonic 2
Mario Kart Wii
Nintendogs
Mario & Sonic At The Olympic Games

Entertainment Weekly magazine (2008)- NEW
Issue 1,000
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 4 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991 5 Guitar Hero Harmonix 2005 6 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 7 Super Mario Kart Nintendo 1992 8 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 9 Grand Theft Auto 4 Rockstar Games ???? 10 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998
IGN.com (2007)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 2 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 3 Civilization II Microprose 1996 4 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 5 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 6 Half-Life 2 Valve 2004 7 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 8 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 9 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 10 Resident Evil 4 Capcom 2005
Yahoo! UK & Ireland Games (2006)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 2 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 3 Pokemon Nintendo 1995 4 Pro Evolution Soccer 4 Konami 2004 5 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 6 Monkey Island 2 Lucas Arts 1990 7 Super Mario Kart Nintendo 1992 8 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 9 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 10 Elite Acornsoft 1984
Famitsu readers' poll (2006)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Final Fantasy X Squaresoft 2001 3 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 3 Dragon Warrior III Enix 1988 4 Dragon Warrior VIII Enix 2004 5 Machi Chunsoft 1998 8 Final Fantasy II (IV) Squaresoft 1991 7 Tactics Ogre Quest 1997 6 Final Fantasy III (Japan) Nintendo 1990 9 Dragon Warrior VII Enix 2000 10 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998
Note: Famitsu is a Japanese magazine.
IGN readers' poll (2006)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 2 Chrono Trigger Squaresoft 1995 3 Resident Evil 4 Capcom 2005 4 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 5 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 6 Soul Caliber Namco 1998 7 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 8 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 9 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998 10 Metal Gear: Solid 3 Konami 2004
Note: This is IGN's second reader's poll. They also did a poll in 2005 (included below), as well as editor's choice lists in 2005 and 2003 (also listed below).
Nintendo Power (2006)
issue 200
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 2 Resident Evil 4 Capcom 2005 3 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 4 Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker Nintendo 2003 5 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 6 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 7 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986 8 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991 9 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 10 Metroid Prime Nintendo 2002
Note: This is Nintendo Power's second list. They also made a list in 2005 (included below).
Electronic Gaming Monthly (2005)
issue 200
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 2 Pac Man Namco 1980 3 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 4 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 5 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986 6 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 7 Space Invaders Taito 1978 8 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 9 Grand Theft Auto 3 Rockstar Games 2001 10 Pong Atari 1972
Note: This is EGM's third list. They also made a list in 2002 and 1997 (included below).
GamePro magazine (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Resident Evil 4 Capcom 2005 2 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 3 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 4 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 5 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 6 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 7 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 8 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998 9 Halo 2 Bungie Studios 2004 10 Super Smash Brothers: Melee Nintendo 2001
Thejadedgamer.net (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 2 Megaman 2 Capcom 1989 3 Katamari Damacy Namco 2004 4 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 5 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 6 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 7 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Konami 1997 8 Pirates! Microprose
1987 9 Civilization II Microprose 1996 10 Baldur's Gate Interplay 1998
Gamefaqs.com reader's poll (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 Chrono Trigger Squaresoft 1995 4 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 5 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 6 Super Smash Brothers: Melee Nintendo 2001 7 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 8 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998 9 Halo 2 Bungie Studios 2004 10 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994
IGN.com (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 4 Civilization II Microprose 1996 5 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 6 Pirates! Microprose
1987 7 StarCraft Blizzard 1998 8 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 9 Star Wars: TIE Fighter LucasArts 1995 10 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994
Note: This is IGN's second list. They also made a list in 2003 (included below).
IGN readers' poll (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Resident Evil 4 Capcom 2005 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Ubisoft 2005 4 Chrono Trigger Squaresoft 1995 5 Half-Life 2 Valve 2004 6 God of War Sony 2005 7 Metal Gear: Solid 3 Konami 2004 8 Soul Caliber Namco 1998 9 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar 2004 10 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992
The Age newspaper / LiveWire (2005)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 The Sims 2 Maxis 2005 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 Half-Life 2 Valve 2004 4 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 5 Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Rockstar Games 2004 6 Halo 2 Bungie Studios 2004 7 Gran Turismo 4 Polyphony Digital 2005 8 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 9 Ico Sony 2001 10 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998
Edge magazine (2004)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 2 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 3 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 4 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 5 Gran Turismo Polyphony Digital 1998 6 Quake II id
1997 7 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 8 Street Fighter II (Turbo) Capcom 1991 9 Half-Life Valve / Sierra 1998 10 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991
Retrogamer magazine (2004)*
issue 9
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Elite Acornsoft 1984 2 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991 3 Manic Miner Bug-Byte 1983 4 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 5 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 6 Space Invaders Taito 1978 7 Jet Set Willy Software 1984 8 Sensible Soccer Sensible 1992 9 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 10 Pac Man Namco 1980
* Retro Gamer Issue 1 also featured a "Top 100" list, though this one was actually 10 distinct "Top 10" lists segregated by platform.
IGN.com (2003)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 3 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 4 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 5 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 6 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 7 StarCraft Blizzard 1998 8 X-COM: UFO Defense Mythos Games 1994 9 Final Fantasy II (IV) Squaresoft 1991 10 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991
Entertainment Weekly / GF (2003)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 2 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 3 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 4 Grand Theft Auto 3 Rockstar Games 2001 5 Madden 2003 Electronic Arts 2002 6 Half-Life Valve / Sierra 1998 7 The Sims Maxis 2000 8 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 9 StarCraft Blizzard 1998 10 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991
Note: Number 9 on this list was actually "Warcraft / Starcraft" which is kind of cheating since they are two different games.
Dorkclub.com (2003)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 2 Chrono Trigger Squaresoft 1995 3 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998 4 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 5 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 6 Half-Life Valve / Sierra 1998 7 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 8 Super Smash Brothers: Melee Nintendo 2001 9 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 10 Earthbound Nintendo 1995
Electronic Gaming Monthly (2002)
issue 150
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 2 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 3 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 4 Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Konami 1997 5 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 6 Soul Caliber Namco 1998 7 Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask Nintendo 2000 8 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 9 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 10 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991
Note: This is EGM's second list. They also made a list in 1997 (included below).
GameSpy.com (2001)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 2 Half-Life Valve / Sierra 1998 3 Warcraft 2 Blizzard 1995 4 Civilization Microprose 1991 5 Quake id / GT Interactive 1996 6 Diablo Blizzard 1996 7 Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar Origin 1985 8 Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss Origin / Blue Sky 1992 9 StarCraft Blizzard 1998 10 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986
Game Informer magazine (2001)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986 2 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 3 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 4 Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 Activision 2000 5 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 6 Metroid Nintendo 1986 7 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 8 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 9 Ms. Pac-Man Namco 1981 10 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997
GameSpot.com (2001)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Final Fantasy VII Squaresoft 1997 2 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 3 Resident Evil Capcom 1996 4 Virtua Racing Sega 1992 5 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 6 Dragon Warrior Enix 1986 7 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 8 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986 9 Double Dragon Taito 1987 10 Commando Capcom 1985
Note: List was formally "most influencial" games of all time.
Computer and Video Games magazine (2001)
(I've had to piece this list together through second-hand sources. Please help me fill in the blanks)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 2 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 3 ? 4 ? 5 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 6 Super Mario Kart Nintendo 1992 7 Super Mario World Nintendo 1991 8 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 9 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 10 ?
GamesRadar.com (2000)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 2 Metal Gear: Solid Konami 1998 3 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 4 DOOM id / GT Interactive 1993 5 Civilization 2 Microprose 1996 6 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 7 StarCraft Blizzard 1998 8 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 9 Resident Evil: Code Veronica Capcom 2000 10 Street Fighter II (Turbo) Capcom 1991
Note: With the exception of SMB, GamesRadar recognized entire "franchises" in their list. The specific games mentioned are the ones the authors note as the "bests" of the series.
Nintendorks.com (2000)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 2 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 3 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 4 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 5 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 6 Legend of Zelda Nintendo 1986 7 Super Mario Kart Nintendo 1992 8 Super Mario Bros. Nintendo 1985 9 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 10 Punch-Out! Nintendo 1987
Note: List was limited to games appearing on Nintendo platforms.
Next Generation magazine (1999)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Nintendo 1998 2 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 3 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 4 Civilization Microprose 1991 5 Quake II id 1996 6 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 7 Super Mario Kart Nintendo 1992 8 Virtua Fighter 2 Sega 1995 9 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 10 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997
Note: In this list Next Gen has made my life difficult by identifying four "series" in their top 10 (#1 is the "Zelda series," #3 is the "Mario series," #4 is the "Civilization series," and #6 is the "Metroid series"). To keep this list in the style of all the others, I have thus tampered with it, and inserted games from each series which I think they would be statistically most likely to have chosen as the "best" game of each franchise.
Note 2: This is Next Generation''s second list. They also made a list in 1996 (included below).
Electronic Gaming Monthly (1997)
issue 100
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 2 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 3 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 4 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 5 Street Fighter II (Turbo) Capcom 1991 6 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 7 Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island Nintendo 1995 8 Contra III: The Alien Wars Konami 1992 9 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 10 Saturn Bomberman Hudson Soft 1997
Nintendo Power magazine (1997)
issue 100
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 2 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Nintendo 1992 3 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 4 Mario Kart 64 Nintendo 1997 5 Super Mario Bros. 3 Nintendo 1990 6 Super Metroid Nintendo 1994 7 Goldeneye 007 Rare 1997 8 Final Fantasy II (IV) Squaresoft 1991 9 Final Fantasy III (VI) Squaresoft 1994 10 Street Fighter II (Turbo) Capcom 1991
Note: List was limited to games appearing on Nintendo platforms.
Next Generation magazine (1996)
Rank Title Publisher Year 1 Super Mario 64 Nintendo 1996 2 Tetris Alexey Pajitnov 1987 3 Super Bomberman 2 Hudson Soft 1994 4 Civilization Microprose 1991 5
Super Mario Bros.
Nintendo 1985 6 Virtua Fighter 2 Sega 1995 7 Street Fighter II Capcom 1991 8 Lemmings Psygnosis 1990 9 Quake id / GT Interactive 1996 10 Warcraft 2 Blizzard 1995
Note: Number 5 on this list was actually the "Mario series," which was an odd choice, since presumably Super Mario 64 is part of the "Mario series" as well.
Overall
Assuming these lists represent voices of authority in the gaming community, we can easily make a cumulative list averaging out the most universally popular games. I'm not smart enough to do mathematical averages of rank, but based on sheer popularity (as defined by appearing on 14 or more lists, ie: at least 50%), the top five games of all time seem to be:
1 Super Mario 64 (19 out of 28 lists) 67% 2 Tetris (appears on 18 out of the 28) 64% 2 Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (18 out of 28) 64% 3 Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (15 out of 28) 53% 4 Street Fighter II (14 out of 28) 50%
As you can see, it's very close. Every time I update this list with a new chart number the top five fluctuates.
Other popular titles:
Goldeneye 007 (11 out of 27) Super Mario Bros. (10 out of 27) Super Metroid (9 out of 27) Final Fantasy III / VI (9 out of 27) Final Fantasy VII (7 out of 27)
Platform totals
1 PC (21 games) 2 Super Nintendo (11) 3 Multiple (10) 3 PlayStation 2 (10) 4 NES (9) 5 PlayStation (7) 6 Nintendo GameCube (5) 6 Arcade (5) 7 Nintendo 64 (4) 8 Sega Saturn (2) 8 X Box (2) 9 Sega Dreamcast (1) 9 Game Boy (1)