Mario, the ever-famous red plumber of Nintendo, has enjoyed his fair share of fun when not rescuing princesses or saving galaxies. While his first major sport was golf, tennis was arguably much more impactful to his entire franchise. From unique gameplay to characters that would become highly influential to Mario games in general, these titles were surprisingly intricate even when they covered just a single sport. It’s especially to see how the success of this franchise influenced its development, which is why this article will take a look at all Mario Tennis games ranked by copies sold.
All information was taken from VGSales. The Wii port of Mario Power Tennis will have its sales combined with the original title, seeing as how it’s a 1:1 port on a console that could already run GameCube games. Mario Sports Superstars will be excluded due to featuring more sports than tennis, and Mario’s Tennis on the Virtual Boy will be excluded due to a lack of sales data.
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All Games in the Mario Tennis Series Ranked by Copies Sold
- 7. Mario Tennis: Power Tour
- 6. Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash
- 5. Mario Tennis (Game Boy Color)
- 4. Mario Tennis Open
- 3. Mario Tennis
- 2. Mario Power Tennis (+ New Play Control!)
- 1. Mario Tennis Aces
7. Mario Tennis: Power Tour — ~475,000 Copies Sold
Much like with the GameCube and GBA iterations of Mario Golf, Mario Tennis: Power Tour is a companion piece to Mario Power Tennis. Gameplay-wise, it’s shockingly close to the non-portable release, offering similar charged hits and even the Power Shots from the GameCube title. Notably, it also featured a role-playing story mode with many regular human characters. A trait eerily similar to its golfing counterpart…much like its sales numbers.
While there’s nothing particularly wrong with Power Tour, it lacks quite a few features from its home console companion. The minigames are much more simplistic, there’s a scarce number of courts, and most of the characters aren’t even from the Mario world. It’s still worthwhile to check this game out on its own, but it’s a hard sell to anyone able to enjoy the GameCube release.
6. Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash — ~540,000 Copies Sold
Mario Tennis: Ultra Smash came at a time when Nintendo was happy to preach the ideology of “less is more.” The only major additions to the game was the Mega Mushroom, allowing players to grow gigantic, and the Ultra Smash, a more powerful shot that slams the ball onto the opponent’s side of the court. It also offered a Knockout Challenge for players to continually battle against computer-controlled opponents. Top that off with being the first console release of Mario Tennis with online play and you have a fine — if not quite innovative — tennis title.
Unfortunately, Ultra Smash did a lot more than simply add some new features. The game only features one stadium with few alterations, and the tournament modes of previous titles were removed. The content outside of simple tennis matches was incredibly barebones, with only one simple rally minigame being available to players. The game was lacking even in terms of characters, boasting fewer playable choices than even the N64 release. It’s still a fun game at a reduced price, but at its MSRP of $59.99 USD, it’s no wonder Ultra Smash was a commercial failure.
5. Mario Tennis (Game Boy Color) — ~1.18 Million Copies Sold
In another case of being similar to its tennis counterpart, the N64 release of Mario Tennis also featured a Game Boy Color companion. Once again, the game features a wide selection of human characters in an RPG-type story mode, though the gameplay similarities to its console release are less notable. The Game Boy Color title does, however, feature a more impressive selection of minigames, even if the N64 game is needed to unlock most of them. It’s not a particularly vast experience, but Mario Tennis for the GBC is fairly worthwhile — especially for when it was released.
This game is available as a Virtual Console title on the 3DS eShop. Note that the eShop will close on March 27th, 2023, so check it out while you still can!
Buy now on Amazon or the Nintendo eShop
4. Mario Tennis Open — ~1.57 Million Copies Sold
Mario Tennis Open was, for a time, the best experience you could get from the series on a handheld console. It lacked many of the features present in Power Tennis, but it made up for it with a simplified control scheme and online play. There was still plenty of content for long-time fans and tennis pros, as well, such as a few familiar minigames and unique characters available only through QR codes. There’s not a whole lot to Mario Tennis Open, but it still manages to be a great experience for both old and new fans of the series.
Buy now on Amazon or the Nintendo eShop
3. Mario Tennis — ~2.32 Million Copies Sold
The first major Mario Tennis title was arguably the most influential Mario sports game of them all. This is partially due to it introducing Waluigi, a Wario-like counterpart to Luigi that would go on to become a huge fan-favorite character. The game itself was also quite unique compared to other tennis titles, featuring a wide selection of players, game modes, and unlockables. Even in comparison to future games, the original Mario Tennis still has plenty to offer modern-day Nintendo fans.
2. Mario Power Tennis (and its “New Play Control!” port) — ~2.95 Million Copies Sold
To this day, Mario Power Tennis is arguably the definitive Mario Tennis experience. Power Shots and unique characters aren’t the only things this title boasts, as it also includes a plethora of courts, gimmick modes, minigames, and even a blooper reel for the opening cutscene. It’s a robust experience with plenty of features, making it an essential title to play even if you skip the rest of the series.
This game was originally released on the GameCube, but a Wii version with motion controls was created. Alone, the Wii version would have fallen short of the sales numbers for the original Mario Tennis, while the GameCube version by itself wouldn’t have beaten the Game Boy Color release. However, since most versions of the Wii are able to play GameCube games, it’s reasonable to assume that most players who own the New Play Control port don’t also own the original. Thus, their sales combined make Power Tennis the second-most successful Mario Tennis game so far.
1. Mario Tennis Aces — ~3.66 Million Copies Sold
As of today, Mario Tennis Aces might have even more content to offer than Power Tennis. It has one of the largest selections of characters in the series and an incredibly unique story mode with its own boss battles and customization options. It also gained a lot of support through post-launch updates, with new characters and online events being added until 2019. Even if it lacks some of the more creative content from prior entries, there’s few questions as to why Aces is the best-selling Mario Tennis game out there.
Buy now on Amazon or the Nintendo eShop
Final Thoughts
Mario Tennis had an incredible influence on the world of Mario spin-offs, with its most successful titles offering a lot for casual players and pro tennis fans alike. Should future Mario Tennis games be released, one can only hope that they’ll continue to build off of previous titles instead of stripping away content for the sake of simplification.