Super Mario 64, a classic game produced by the video game giant Nintendo, set a new world record after going under the hammer at an auction and being sold for a whopping $1.56 million on Sunday. The Super Mario cartridge is one of the earliest versions of the game that exists right now.

A similar record was set just days before Sunday’s sale, however, did not cross the $1 million mark. ‘The Legend of Zelda’, another game with a Nintendo connection, was sold for $870,000. The game, which was made for Nintendo’s NES console, was sold in mint condition and also set a sales record for classic video games, according to reports from AFP.

Before the two sales were made this week, the record for the most expensive video game was held by a Super Mario Bros cartridge. The sale, which was made in April of 1986, cost the buyer a sum of $660,000. 

The recipients of this week’s record-breaking sales have not been identified so far by Heritage Auctions, which is based in Dallas, Texas.

Such merchandise, which is either related to classic pop culture, video games, or TV shows, has gained increasing popularity amongst the masses recently, who have been shelling out huge sums of money to purchase collectibles. The recent trend of collecting such retro pieces has driven up the prices of the collectibles in a substantial manner, according to reports from AFP.

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In the past year, the sale of Pokemon cards and NFTs (Non- Fungible Tokens) have set a multitude of records after going under the hammer.

Before this, a series of record-breaking sales have been finalised, most of which revolved around the various classic versions of Mario. In July 2020, a copy of Mario Bros. sold for $114,000. In November 2020, Super Mario 3 sold for a record-breaking price of $156,000. However, Sunday’s sale at the auction was the first one to cross the value of $1 million.