Top 10 Best-Selling GameCube Games - Sales
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 October 2015 / 75,313 Views
Over the last month we have taken a look at the top 10 best-selling games for the original PlayStation, the Nintendo 64, the PlayStation 2, and the original Xbox. Today, it's the turn of Nintendo's fourth home console, the GameCube.
Nintendo's fourth home console consistently lagged behind its biggest rival, the PlayStation 2, however it sold nearly as well as Microsoft's Xbox and outsold it in Japan. The GameCube sold 21.74 million units in its lifetime.
Looking at the regional breakdown we can see that its strongest region by far was North America. It sold 12.55 million units there, almost 58% of its total. The console also managed to shift 4.44 million units in Europe, 4.04 million units in Japan, and only a combined 0.71 million units across the rest of the world.
While the GameCube only had a modest install base of 21.74 million, 13 games for the console nonetheless managed to sell over two million units, and three even managed to comfortably clear the five million mark. Below we've compiled a list of the top 10 best-selling GameCube games:
10th. Mario Party 4 - 2.47 Million
9th. Pokémon Colosseum - 2.54 Million
8th. Sonic Adventure 2 Battle - 2.56 Million
7th. Metroid Prime - 2.82 Million
6th. Animal Crossing - 3.15 Million
5th. Luigi's Mansion - 3.60 Million
4th. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker - 4.60 Million
3rd. Super Mario Sunshine - 6.31 Million
2nd. Mario Kart: Double Dash!! - 6.95 Million
1st. Super Smash Bros. Melee - 7.07 Million
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A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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GameCube! I love this little system. So many memories.
This was their last core console. NES-Gamecube era was the Yamauchi era. After that, the company went into a different philosophy based on blue oceans etc. I'm hopeful that they're going to return to that way of thinking under new management.
keep the denial. all nintendo consoles are "core consoles".
Wii has more core GREAT games published by Nintendo than GameCube, so "different philosophy", my ass...
Preach on brother!! Gamecube is by far my favorite Nintendo console! So many amazing games. Resident evil remake, re zero, tales of symphonia, Luigi's mansion, Mario sunshine, resident evil 4, viewtiful Joe, wave race blue storm, smash bros melee, Mario kart double dash, etc.
Gamecube for life!!!!
Its also their worst selling console after Wii U.
Wii U also have good number of core games.
Motion controls were a gimmick, but I thought that "casual" and "core" gaming argument had already died out finally. Wii had it's issues, but it also had some of the best games of the generation. And quite frankly, many games that topped Nintendo's own output on N64 or Gamecube, such as but not limited to: Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Kart Wii (in spite of the fucking BIKES), Excite Truck, Punch Out, Super Paper Mario, Wario Land, Kirby: Return to Dreamland, DKCR, Sin & Punishment 2, NSMB Wii, Metroid Prime 3/Trilogy, etc.
It also had a lot of third party exclusives which honestly top just about any such exclusives that N64 or GC got, including but not limited to: Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, No More Heroes, de Blob, Red Steel 2, The Last Story, Pandora's Tower, Lost in Shadow, RE: Umbrella Chronicles, Muramasa: The Demon Blade, Little King's Story, A Boy and His Blob (remake), Mushroom Men, Fragile Dreams, Rune Factory Frontier, Monster Hunter Tri, etc.
Mind you, I still maintain that NES was the best console ever made, with SNES as a very close second. And N64 and GC had some great games. But while it DID have the motion control "fad" (though certain games like Wii Sports were indeed fun, and the IR pointer controls were far superior for FPS and arcade shooter games), the Wii still had a lot of great games of it's own. For that matter, while it certainly needs a lot MORE of them, so has Wii U.
that's a great post devilrising, everyone overlooks the games on the wii because they are too focused on the motion controls. I would have put the exact same order as you. Wii can't top NES or SNES but it had better 3rd party support than any of the others and the 1st party games were top notch
It's a crime that Path of Radiance isn't on here... Why didn't more people buy it?! T_T And Eternal Darkness too...
Best nintendo system for me, Pokemon XD, Paper Mario, Super Mario Sunshine, Metroid Prime 1 and 2, my god so many awesome games.
Too bad the best game on the system, Paper Mario TTYD didn't make the list.
I agree, TTYD is still an amazing game! I just wish Nintendo would make another good Paper Mario game! :(
Resident Evil 4 didn't even make the list. How sad. No wonder they ported it to every machine in existence.
Resident Evil 4? Best game on the console and it sells less than 2 million. No wonder the console died. Not surprised to see smash number 1 though. Since thats the only game i have over 10k hours play in.
Seeing Metroid Prime in 7th place I don't know why Nintendo hasn't done more games for the series on the Wii U...
7 million copies of melee sold and it still goes for 60-70$ on eBay. Glad I got mine early
It's a testament to the GC's strong, underrated library that so many great titles aren't even represented the top 10 in sales... games like Paper Mario: TTYD, Rogue Squadron II, Pikmin 1+2, RE4, F-Zero GX, Super Monkey Ball 1 + 2, the Prince of Persia Trilogy, Timesplitters 2 + 3, Eternal Darkness and so many others.
For Shame that Paper Mario TTYD isnt on this list.
GameCube. Loved this console so much & games you mentioned best-selling list, these were my collection(Resident Evil remake instead of Pokemon) way back in early 2000s. Oh glory nostalgic!
Never been a Nintendo system with more games that I loved!
Such a phenomenal system
Yeah fun system. Loved the RE games.
Good memories on this console I had.
Easily in my top three consoles ever with ps2, gamecube and dreamcast being the three.
Gamecube forever!!!!!
Melee definitely deserved to be #1. One of the best party games of its time and even to this day, one of the most competitive, popular, and longest-lasting fighting game.
The GameCube has some really good games, so great to see them sell well, despite the lack of good console sales
The best console hands down. Nothing else beats it.
Even when the Gamecube it self wasn't selling many units, their software sales were very strong, same with the Wii U really. Just now it's 2015 and Nintendo can do more than just sell hardware and software which is what's helped them go back to gaining profit and not losing it. Nintendo's messed up with their home console, but tbh they've done a great job getting themselves out of the red. I think they continued to make losses throughout the entire 6th generation. At least they don't have to worry too much financially for the time being so there's no need to rush their next consoles out. They can spent this time making sure they get it right.
The only game I don't own on that list is the Sonic game. The other 9 are fantastic games.
Great list thats my thinking aswell
I've owned a N64, GC, Wii and Wii U and I can honsestly say that to me after the GC Nintendo went downwards. Wii was okay it had metroid 3, the galaxies, ssb and mkwii which where all great games and 2 very good zelda titles. As for Wii U I obviously very much enjoyed MK8, SSBWii U, Bayo 2, SM3dW and I liked Pikmin 3, W101 and SMBU but it is far inferior to GC or Wii line-up.
No eternal darkness? that game was very good. I remember playing it and saying "WTF is going on" since play it not knowing anything about the game. At that time, I didn't have internet yet.
Ahhh. So many memories. Countless thousands of hours on Melee and Double Dash!! Sunshine was the game that took me forever to beat.
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle, my favorite Sonic game!! Lots of fun and enjoyment from Luigi's Mansion! So many games played and memories from that purple lunchbox!
I have my Gamecube set up in my kitchen, great little system.
Love the GameCube! Great design and mighty graphics for its day. Resident Evil 4 still ranks as one of the best games of all time IMO.
Man, the GameCube was great. It was the first Nintendo home console my brother and I have ever gotten.
And you wonder why third party publishers drop support.
It's sad because the GC had GREAT 3rd party support as compared to the N64, but because of the low, Nintendo-centric install base many games didn't sell nearly as well as their PS2 / Xbox counterparts despite being the same or better quality in some cases.
Because Nintendo first party competence is just too much for third parties.
