Super Mario video game breaks record for most expensive game ever sold
Nintendo's game character Super Mario is seen on a screen at the presentation ceremony of Nintendo's new game console Switch in Tokyo, Japan.
An unopened copy of a vintage Super Mario video game has been sold for a whopping $114,000 at in an auction in the United States underscoring the enduring popularity of the entertainment game created decades ago.
An anonymous bidder snapped up an early version of the pioneering Super Mario game released in 1985 for Nintendo's console during an auction conducted last week by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.
The new price has broken heritage auctions' previous record amount for a video game which was a $100,150 bid made early last year for an unopened copy of the same game. The Super Mario copy that sold for a new record was part of a collection of video games from the 1980s and 1990s that sold to various buyers for nearly $700,000.
The price is the highest ever paid to for a video game, Heritage said adding that it was found in "excellent condition" with the "highest-graded copy of the game".
Heritage had said that copy of Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! was sold for $50,400 but the latest auction by an anonymous bidder of 1980s iconic game speaks of the game's enduring value for collectors who are able to shell out huge sums of cash to get hold of the vintage wine.