The Best-Selling Games on the GameCube

Nintendo has always been a company that’s done its own thing, and nowhere was that more clear than with the launch of the GameCube. The Nintendo 64 had been the last bastion of cartridge-based gaming in the home console market as every other manufacturer switched to disc-based games, and it maintained a strong second place in the 5th generation despite those limitations. Switching to discs for its 6th-gen console meant that Nintendo was finally catching up with its competitors, but it still managed to walk a different path through the use of mini-DVD optical media. While it was a very clear third place in terms of power when compared to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the GameCube’s strength was in its excellent library of first-party titles, almost all of which rank as the system’s best-selling games.

• Release Date — December 2, 2006
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 1.43 million units

As one of the final major first-party releases for the GameCube, it makes sense that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would end up being one of the system’s best-selling games. Interestingly enough, a lot of players actually preferred the GameCube version because of its more standard control scheme, as opposed to the Wii version’s motion controls. Even though the GameCube version sold only a fraction of what Twilight Princess sold on the Wii, it’s still a fitting send-off to Nintendo’s 6th-generation console and one of the best first-party games in the GameCube’s library.

• Release Date — November 18, 2005
• Developer — Next Level Games
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Sports
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 1.6 million units

The Mario sports games almost always do great numbers on whatever console they release, and the big hitter for the GameCube was Super Mario Strikers. In the absence of a major first-party Mario Tennis or Mario Golf update on the GameCube, Super Mario Strikers filled a nice niche that made players all too happy to pick it up. The title sold fairly well enough in Japan and North America, but it was the European PAL territory players that helped push Super Mario Strikers well past the 1.5 million unit mark to become the GameCube’s best-selling sports title.

• Release Date — June 18, 2003
• Developer — Sonic Team
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 57% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 1.6 million units

It’s one of the great ironies of the universe that, after the commercial failure of the Sega Dreamcast, both of the system’s Sonic Adventure titles would find a second lease on life with their Nintendo GameCube versions. What’s even more bizarre is that the DX version of Sonic Adventure is perhaps the worst way to experience what’s otherwise an incredible platformer, with poor port optimization, wonky controls, and some noticeable visual downgrades. But despite all that, Nintendo players were excited about the novelty of finally getting Sega games on a Nintendo system, which resulted in Sonic Adventure DX (and later, its sequel) becoming two of the GameCube’s best-selling games.

• Release Date — January 11, 2005
• Developer — Capcom Production Studio 4
• Publisher — Capcom
• Genre — Survival Horror, Action
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 1.6 million units

Before it finally launched in 2005, Resident Evil 4 went through one of the most tumultuous development cycles of any game in the series. The sheer amount of false starts and reboots that Resident Evil 4 went through to arrive at the version we finally got meant that anticipation for the game was at an all-time high just ahead of its release, resulting in it quickly becoming one of the GameCube’s best-selling games and pushing well past the sales figures of the other GameCube-exclusive titles in the franchise — the excellent Resident Evil remake and the middling Resident Evil 0. And truthfully, the original GameCube release of Resident Evil 4 is still the best way to experience one of the best games in Capcom’s survival horror series.

• Release Date — October 26, 2001
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Simulation, Puzzle
• Review Aggregate Score — 89% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 1.6 million units

The launch lineup of the GameCube was surprisingly absent a major new title in either the Mario or Legend of Zelda franchises, opting instead for new experiences that helped introduce some of the unique functionality of the new system. One of the most exciting, and the first new property from Nintendo luminary Shigeru Miyamoto in years, was Pikmin. Pikmin would eventually go on to spawn an entire series of incredible puzzle games across multiple generations of Nintendo hardware, and it owes that legacy to the success of the first game, which sold an impressive 1.6 million units as one of the most unique and original titles on Nintendo’s 6th-gen console.

• Release Date — November 18, 2004
• Developer — Hudson Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Party
• Review Aggregate Score — 71% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 1.63 million units

Looking up the figures on the GameCube’s best-selling games, I expected to see at least one game in the Mario Party series show up in the list. What I did not expect, though, was seeing that every single game in the Mario Party series to launch on the GameCube earned a spot in the system’s top 20 best-selling games. Even as the least successful of the bunch, Mario Party 6 still managed to sell more than 1.6 million units. It’s funny, too, because Mario Party 6 sold the least of any entry in the franchise to release on the GameCube despite being the highest-rated game in that era of the series.

• Release Date — December 20, 2001
• Developer — Sonic Team
• Publisher — Sega
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 73% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 1.73 million units

Unlike Sonic Adventure DX, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle is an actually great port of the criminally underrated Sonic Adventure 2, and it even includes GameCube-exclusive content that makes it some fans’ favorite version of the title. Accordingly, Sonic Adventure 2: Battle quickly became one of the GameCube’s best-selling games and a must-have platformer for the console, releasing alongside the equally essential Sonic Mega Collection and bringing Sega’s iconic mascot to Nintendo hardware for the first time. The GameCube version even outsold the Dreamcast original by a factor of 3, moving more than 1.7 million units compared to the Dreamcast’s 0.5 million.

• Release Date — September 23, 2002
• Developer — Rare
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 1.82 million units

As disappointing as it was to not get an official first-party update to classic Star Fox gameplay on the GameCube, Rare’s Star Fox Adventures is a criminally underrated action-adventure game that does its best to blend the Star Fox universe with The Legend of Zelda gameplay and mostly succeeds. By the time it arrived on the GameCube, players were practically starved for a new Zelda-like adventure (with Wind Waker‘s release still months away), which helped it achieve some impressive sales figures in no time flat. Strangely enough, Star Fox Adventures rarely ever gets mentioned when naming the GameCube’s best games, despite selling nearly 2 million units.

• Release Date — July 22, 2004
• Developer — Intelligent Systems
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 1.91 million units

Paper Mario on the Nintendo 64 was a clever pivot from the SNES’ Super Mario RPG that maintained many of the mechanics and RPG systems from that classic but switched to a new art style, and its sequel on the GameCube was a huge step up by nearly every metric. When it comes to the great RPGs on the GameCube, no game even comes close to Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and because the system was practically starved for great role-playing games, it quickly sold almost 2 million units. It probably helped that The Thousand-Year Door has one of the most charming and humorous stories of any RPG and some fantastic turn-based combat.

• Release Date — November 7, 2005
• Developer — Hudson Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Party
• Review Aggregate Score — 64% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 2.08 million units

The Mario Party series’ final foray on GameCube hardware would be one of the few games on the console to push past the 2 million unit sales mark, closing out an incredibly successful era for the series. While the Mario Party games never really received that well, they were major hits among players, especially those who kept their GameCube handy for its excellent multiplayer functionality, and Mario Party 7 was yet another fun collection of boards and mini-games that likely kept friend groups and siblings entertained for dozens, if not hundreds, of hours.

• Release Date — November 10, 2003
• Developer — Hudson Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Party
• Review Aggregate Score — 69% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 2.17 million units

When Mario Party made its first transition to the GameCube following its successful Nintendo 64 trilogy, its visuals were still somewhat stuck in the past despite being on Nintendo’s newer, more powerful hardware. So when Mario Party 5 rolled around, its noticeable improvements to visuals and performance helped it quickly become a must-have for GameCube owners’ libraries as one of the system’s better multiplayer games. It would eventually be outpaced by the better Mario Party 6, but Mario Party 5 is still what feels like the first “true” next-gen entry in Nintendo’s party game series.

• Release Date — November 21, 2003
• Developer — Genius Sonority
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Fighting
• Review Aggregate Score — 73% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 2.41 million units

The Pokémon franchise’s place as a handheld-specific series meant that players were forced to adopt Nintendo’s portable hardware configurations if they wanted in on the franchise, which made the arrival of any console title featuring the collectible pocket monsters a big deal. Like Pokémon Stadium, Snap, and Puzzle League on the Nintendo 64, Pokémon Colosseum on the GameCube quickly became one of the system’s best-selling games, moving nearly 2.5 million units and giving players their first glimpses of newer Pokémon in glorious 3D.

• Release Date — October 21, 2002
• Developer — Hudson Soft
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Party
• Review Aggregate Score — 70% (Mixed or Average)
• Total Sales — 2.46 million units

The incredibly successful run of Mario Party games on the Nintendo 64 all but solidified that Nintendo and Hudson Soft would continue the franchise on the GameCube. Sure enough, the fourth game in the series, and first for Nintendo’s 6th generation hardware, arrived roughly a year after the GameCube’s launch, quickly becoming one of the must-have first-party titles for some frantic and fun multiplayer. No surprise, then, that Mario Party 4 remains the best-selling game in the franchise’s run of GameCube titles and established an unbroken streak for the series as one of the platform’s biggest sellers.

• Release Date — September 14, 2001
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 78% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 2.63 million units

The lack of a definitive new 3D Mario game for the launch of the GameCube paved the way for the system to get experimental with its launch lineup, which Nintendo leaned into fully with games like Pikmin and Luigi’s Mansion. And while the later Luigi’s Mansion games vastly improved on the series’ formula (especially the incredible Luigi’s Mansion 3), the first game in the series had such a novel premise that it naturally became the GameCube’s best-selling launch title. I would’ve expected no less from the first game to feature Mario’s brother in a starring role.

• Release Date — December 14, 2001
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Simulation
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 2.7 million units

While Japanese players got to experience the Animal Crossing franchise on the Nintendo 64, the series wouldn’t make its Western debut until 2001 with the GameCube entry, and it was almost perfectly timed to become a massive hit. At the time of Animal Crossing‘s North American launch on the GameCube, The Sims was already a major cultural phenomenon, and Nintendo having its own piece of the life sim pie led to it moving nearly 3 million units for players eager to experience something similar on their consoles. Throw in some special functionality with unique Nintendo hardware like the e-Reader and unlockable NES classics before the age of the Virtual Console service, and you have a title that appealed to more than sim fans but helped convert them to the genre all the same.

• Release Date — November 18, 2002
• Developer — Retro Studios
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — FPS, Metroidvania
• Review Aggregate Score — 97% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 2.84 million units

At the time of its release, players were wary of the Metroid franchise’s switch to a first-person perspective with Metroid Prime. But getting to go hands-on with the title and experiencing how wonderfully the series’ formula translated into 3D helped assuage any lingering fears, quickly establishing Metroid Prime as one of the best games in the franchise and a bold new direction for Samus. Not only did Metroid Prime almost blow past 3 million units in sales, it holds the honor of being the best-reviewed game on the GameCube and an undisputed classic of the 6th generation.

• Release Date — December 13, 2002
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Action-Adventure
• Review Aggregate Score — 96% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 4.43 million units

Speaking of 6th-generation classics, the reveal of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker was polarizing (thanks to its cartoonish art style after the promise of a darker, more mature Zelda game at the GameCube’s E3 reveal), but going hands-on with the title ultimately proved that it was a brilliant evolution of the Ocarina of Time formula. Naturally, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker went on to become one of the best-selling games on the GameCube, and by a large margin, proving those initial concerns and complaints from fans to be almost entirely void and cementing it as one of the best games in the series.

• Release Date — July 19, 2002
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 5.91 million units

Universally loved at the time of its release and looked back on fondly through the lens of hindsight, it’s a shame that Super Mario Sunshine remains a sort of blind spot in the Mario series. While we’ve gotten plenty of remasters and ports of other 3D games in the franchise, Super Mario Sunshine is mostly trapped on the GameCube (except for its sole, limited-time available port to the Switch as part of Super Mario 3D All-Stars), which is confusing when you see how successful its original version was. Not many games selling 6 million units would remain exclusive to one generation of console hardware, but that’s the case with Super Mario Sunshine.

• Release Date — November 14, 2003
• Developer — Nintendo EAD
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Driving/Racing
• Review Aggregate Score — 87% (Generally Favorable)
• Total Sales — 6.88 million units

For evidence of how important the Mario Kart franchise is to the success of Nintendo’s hardware, look no further than the series’ GameCube entry. Despite being one of the weaker mainline games in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart: Double Dash still managed to sell almost 7 million units and carry the GameCube’s software sales. Mario Kart: Double Dash isn’t a bad game by any means, and even the weaker Mario Kart games are better than most kart racers on a good day, but it pales in comparison to the excellent Mario Kart 64 or its Wii follow-up.

• Release Date — November 21, 2001
• Developer — HAL Laboratory
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — Fighting
• Review Aggregate Score — 92% (Universal Acclaim)
• Total Sales — 7.41 million units

When Super Smash Bros. was first released on the Nintendo 64, it was a bit of a novelty that managed to form a cult following around it. But the series’ GameCube sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, is where the franchise came into its own and established itself as one of Nintendo’s most important first-party series. An expanded roster, better visuals, smoother performance, and a multitude of modes helped make Melee a sequel that improved on everything players loved about its predecessor, and Melee would also be the Smash Bros. franchise’s first game to be taken seriously in the competitive fighting scene, making it a natural fit to be the GameCube’s best-selling game by a large margin.