NPD Group games industry analyst Mat Piscatella has been posting top 10 lists of the all-time best-selling games for historic consoles, and, as part of that, we can now see what had proven most popular on the Nintendo 64 in the United States.
That being said, the chart, ranked on dollar sales from January 1995 until September 2018, holds few surprises. Dominated by first-party games, it is the Mushroom Kingdom adventure and launch game Super Mario 64 that took the prize, with GoldenEye 007, Mario Kart 64, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Pokémon Stadium rounding out the top five.
In fact, nearly every game that made it onto the list was published by Nintendo, even Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire that starred mercenary Dash Rendar as he looked to help Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leia from Prince Xizor.
It was Rare that had published Diddy Kong Racing, which had challenged players to outrace the intergalactic pig-wizard, Wizpig.
1. Super Mario 64
2. GoldenEye 007
3. Mario Kart 64
4. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
5. Pokémon Stadium
6. Donkey Kong 64
7. Star Fox 64
8. Super Smash Bros.
9. Diddy Kong Racing
10. Star Wars: Shadow of the Empire
