Today we will be posting the top 5 most expensive video games in the world. If you see one of these in a flea market or garage sale make sure to snatch them up! These are rare beauties who carry a hefty value for the owner. Let's have a look at these hidden gems and why they are so expensive.
#5. Red Sea Crossing – $10,000 – $13,877
In the Red Sea Crossing game by Atari, you took on the character role of Moses when he was crossing the Red Sea. You were to dodge fish, turtles, and other sea creatures, and occasionally, you might encounter one of the pixelated Egyptian characters who would try to throw arrows at you. It wasn’t a very well- heard of or popular game by Atari, and someone actually came across a copy at a garage sale and bought it for 50 cents. There was nothing with it, no instructions or manual of any kind. But there was a number to call about it and found out that Steve Stack was the creator of the game. The buyer of the game actually held onto the game for about five years and would up selling it by auction, in 2012, on GameGavel.com, where it sold for a whopping, $10,400. It is one of the most expensive video games ever sold.
#4. 1990 Nintendo World Champions (Gold and Gray Editions) – $8,500 – $20,200
Nintendo created a series of video game competitions that began in 1990. The first competition toured twenty-nine cities throughout the U.S. The competition was named for the game cartridge that was released in 1990 and it is worth $8,500-$20,200. Since then, Nintendo has held two other subsequent competitions, with the third edition just being held recently, in October of 2017. A new game was release in 2014, called the NES Remix 2, reminiscent of the original Nintendo World Championships Remix. The gold and gray editions of the original cartridge are some of the most expensive video games ever sold. Anyone remember the movie The Wizard from the 80's?
#3. Nintendo Campus Challenge – $14,000 – $20,000
Nintendo video game developers are big into competitions. They have held a number of competitions on college campuses as well as at spring break destinations for college kids. One competition, World Championships, gave players six minutes to play for the highest score on games like, Dr. Mario, PinBot, and Super Mario Bros. 3. When the tour ended, the majority of the copies of the games were destroyed, all but a few and one of the game cartridges fell into the hands of Rob Walters in 2006. He purchased a lot of different retro games and sold them all for around $50,000, with one of the games being a copy of this.
#2. Air Raid – $3,000 – $33,433
On April 10, 2010, a copy of Air Raid sold for $31,600. It is the only known, (what was thought to be a complete version) of the game to still exist. It was put out by Atari in 1982, and is a shoot ’em up game, meant for the Atari 2600, and designed by Men-A-Vision, which are said to have only developed the one game. It was very limited in distribution, which made it a highly sought after game. After the 2010 surfacing and purchase of the one cartridge, later, in late 2011, another copy emerged, however, this one was only a partial copy, but in the end, even it sold for a substantial amount of money. It sold for an impressive $3,375 U.S. After all of the hype regarding the 2010 game emerging in the media, a third has since come out. On October 24, 2010, another copy came out, and this one was truly a complete version, with the cartridge, instruction manual, and the box altogether. It was put up for auction and eventually did sale, with the sale’s price finalizing at $33,433.30.
#1. Stadium Events – $2,600 – $41,300 (Box alone – $10,000)
Stadium Events was a game released in 1987 by Bandai, and was one of only a couple of games that were available in America that was actually designed for that company’s Family Fun Fitness mat, which was a soft mat you used to control the characters by walking, jumping, and running on to make them move. Nintendo wound up buying the rights to both the game and the mat in 1988 and subsequently re-released them both under a new name, WorldClass Track Meet and the mat was newly released as the Power Pad controller. Nintendo didn’t want any confusion with the two games, so they pulled all the copies of the original Stadium Events from the store shelves. They were supposed to be destroyed, however, about 200 copies had already been sold, and of those, about 20 complete copies are said to still be out there somewhere. This is what makes them so rare, and so expensive. The biggest part of the game package, is, the package. Most kids would throw their box away, so to have a full-intact box for the game is very rare. Boxes alone can sell for up to $10,000 by themselves. A man in Kansas came across a version of the original version of Stadium Events in his closet that was purchased in 1987. He claims he had meant to just give it to Goodwill due to not being able to ever find the accompanying mat, but never did. The game was still sealed and in its packaging since he had meant to return it all those years back, and since he had it now, he put it up on eBay for auction and it wound up selling for an amazing, $41,300. It has become the second only known full copy of the game in existence and is at the top of the list for being the most expensive video game ever sold.
Wow what a list! Who would ever think these games would demand such a high price.