The sale of the unopened, pristine copy of the game shattered a record made just days ago by the sale of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda for $870,000.
During its initial release in 1996, Nintendo’s Super Mario 64, one of the first games produced for Nintendo 64, would have gone for about $60. On Sunday, an unopened, near-pristine copy of the game was sold for $1.56 million at auction.
“I was blindsided, to be quite honest with you,” said Valarie McLeckie, the consignment director for video games at Heritage Auctions, where the game was sold, according to the New York Times.
With an opening bid of $330,000, the game ultimately went to an anonymous buyer for $1.3 million, who paid an extra 20% buyer’s premium, bringing the total price to $1.56 million.
The game was the first to feature Mario in 3D, Heritage Auctions said in a statement.
The purchase shattered the record for the sale of a single video game – a record that was made just days before when a copy of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda from 1987 sold at the same auction house for $870,000.
Before that, Heritage Auctions sold an unopened copy of Super Mario Bros from 1986 for $660,000 in April, which also set records at the time.
