LogFAQs > #979295739

Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario 64
Mario Kart 64
New Super Mario Bros.

First, I don't really buy into raw sales numbers as an absolute metric when you're comparing across console generations as distant as these. Mario Kart 8 is the best selling Mario game because the video game industry and its audience have grown in orders of magnitude in the last 15 years, but that doesn't necessarily align with impact; Mario Party 8 outsold the first Super Smash Bros. game, but you wouldn't put that up on a "Party Games Mount Rushmore."

Mario Kart 64 doesn't have quite the same proportional attach rate that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe does - ~30% compared to 8's ~42% - but I think it's important to acknowledge two things. First, the significance of lineage and influence, obviously, but also the fact that Mario Kart 64 is basically the birth of four player couch co-op and a precursor to the entire party game subgenre. It was inescapable during its time in a way that I don't feel 8 really is. Despite its sales, I don't think 8 is even the Switch's preeminent party game, SSBU has a much greater cultural presence.

As for New Super Mario Bros., the first NSMB game came out in 2006. It was the best selling DS game, and each subsequent entry (barring the port of U) was also a top 5 selling game on its respective console. I know I dismissed raw sales numbers earlier, but taken as a trend, between this and its continued presence in Super Mario Maker, NSMB has been one of the strongest major presences in the Mario franchise for close to 20 years. It outsold contemporaneous 3D Mario games. An entire generation has had these games as a major reference point for what Mario is.