There's absolutely no way to prove that. It was with every console. It'd be like saying people buy Froot Loops for the yellow rings and wouldn't buy Froot Loops if the yellow rings weren't in there. There's no way to make a factual statement about that because the latter option isn't available. You cannot say that people wouldn't buy a Wii without a game when the only way to get the Wii is with the game. Like I said, it's like the XBone and AC. Only way to get an XBone right now is with AC bundled. You wouldn't dare say people wouldn't buy an Xbone unless AC was with it, and yet that's what you're implying by saying that the only reason people bought a console is because of a game they had no option but to receive.

I'm not stating facts, but its certainly very likely that GTA V has more digital sales than SMB.

A massively bundled exclusive, while GTA was just moderately bundled. And despite that, GTA is a new games, so it's still selling.

lol @ discrediting Wii Sports because it was a bundle. It was the game that sold many on the Wii as an investment. Most definitely deserves to be counted. Not to mention Tetris and Minecaft sold more, plus probably lots of mobile games. So I guess you could say "GTA V: Best selling game ever!*"

* - Not counting games that sold more

Probably the digital sales for GTA V surpass the digital versions of SMB on virtual console and similars.

This thread evolved from "GTA is the best-selling game ever" to "Wii sports and Minecraft don't count because of reasons". Lol. I think a GTAV release on the WiiU with Mario skins would calm down everyone here. PC mods soon.

It also killed my PS3 :)

Stuck in an update loop since I started to update my PS3 with the firmware provided on the disk.


Also a single system jump n run in the 80s (that was a launch game!) vs a multiplatform action game in the mid 2010's (where even everyones grandma or baby is playing games) is kinda an unfair comparison.

Fair would be to add every single version of the game to the Mario sales. Be it the GBA Nes classics or the Virtual console versions etc.
(The Gameboy or Wii etc versions of the Mario is more similar to the NES game than the updates modified new gen version of GTA is to its last gen counterpart. GTA5 on PS4 is more like WindWaker to WindWaker HD than a normal port)

But how much? From what we know, PS4 and X1 have higher digital sales ration than their predecessors. PS3 and 360 will be ahead in total numbers (not in some years) and combined they probably easily have way more digital sales than Wii/3DS/Wii U. With GTA breaking digital sales records on PS3, and a digital to retail sales ratio of around 15% this gen with more than 6M GTA V copies sold, GTA may be ahead.

There's also no way to say otherwise. Other than looking at the difference between the Wii and the Gamecube. That difference was Wii Sports. 

You mean it took 1 year and 3 months for GTAV to sell over 5m more than Mario did in 6 years, surely. That is with heavy bundling on a console that reached 100m+.