A sealed copy of the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES sold for $3 million at Heritage Auctions, setting a new record for a vintage video game at auction. The sale was announced on June 12, 2026, according to Heritage Auctions and confirmed by The Verge.

The copy earned a PSA grade of 9.6 — near-mint condition, though not a perfect 10 — and retained its original sticker. In the grading world, a single grade point can swing the price considerably; a 9.6 on a title with Nintendo's recognition sits at the upper end of what typically appears on the market.

This sale surpasses the previous record for a sealed vintage game, a benchmark that has itself shifted upward multiple times in recent years. Heritage Auctions, one of the largest collectibles auction platforms in the United States, has anchored many of these milestone sales.

The graded video game market accelerated in the early 2020s by adopting infrastructure from the sports card and coin collecting worlds — professional grading services, population reports (databases tracking how many copies exist at each grade level), and collector registries. PSA's entry into video game certification created a standardized language for condition, and that standardization opened the door to institutional and semi-institutional investment. When provenance and grade are verifiable, a $3 million bid looks like a calculated investment rather than pure speculation.

Super Mario Bros., released in North America in 1985, is the natural contender for top-tier valuations in this category. It ranks among the highest-profile launch titles in console history, carries universal brand recognition, and sealed original copies have grown rarer over four decades. The original sticker variant adds collector cachet — different production runs used different label designs, and earlier variants command premiums according to population data.

Whether prices can hold at this level is a legitimate question. The graded game sector has experienced visible downturns alongside broader speculative collectibles cycles, particularly after the pandemic-era surge in spending and liquidity cooled. A $3 million print on a single cartridge will prompt scrutiny about whether underlying demand is sustainable or whether, as occurred with certain high-value graded cards, a small number of motivated buyers set prices the broader market cannot support over time. This is not a criticism of the sale itself — auction records happen at the intersection of supply, demand, and timing — but it is the realistic frame for anyone using this figure as a market baseline.

What is clearer: the record strengthens Heritage's standing in this category and confirms PSA grading as the established certification standard for sealed software. For collectors who hold high-grade sealed Nintendo titles from the same era, a $3 million ceiling on a 9.6 Super Mario Bros. likely shifts their expectations about the ceiling on their own holdings.