#1 With A Bullet

Wii Sports, thought by skeptics to be merely a gimmick to show off the capabilities of the Wiimote, is now the top-selling video game of all time, according to VGChartz.

Like the former record holder Super Mario Bros, Wii Sports owes much of its sales success to bundling, as it shipped with nearly every Nintendo Wii sold (except in Japan and South Korea). To date, the game has sold 40.24 million units, while the Wii itself has sold upwards of 45 million units.

But can a bundled game be considered the "best-selling" game of all time?
VGZChartz, Jan. 3: The point of view taken by VGChartz is that:

1. The bundling of Wii Sports with the Wii console is integral to the success of the Wii console - Wii Sports adds value to the package and isn't "given away" with the console. It is purchased alongside the console.

2. The game isn't bundled in Japan and has managed to sell at a 45% attach rate with the Wii console showing that many Wii owners in Japan bought a Wii for Wii Sports.

3. Bundle sales of all other games are counted. Super Mario Bros wouldn't have sold 40 million as a stand-alone title but who can say how many it would have sold - maybe 20 million, maybe 25 million. Same is true of Wii Sports, Tetris, Duck Hunt, Super Mario World and most of the other titles on the best seller list. Sure, the act of bundling the game with the console will serve to increase its sales but to totally remove the game because of the fact it has been bundled is not right either. It is totally conceivable that as a stand-alone title Wii Sports would have sold well over 20 million units by now given the attach rate seen in Japan and also seen with both Wii Play and Wii Fit in the west. So to remove the title also seems totally unfair - especially given point 1.
While I understand the above justification, it's clear that bundling the game at launch led to a buzz that the game would not have received otherwise.