3 Nintendo Wii Games Everyone Owned In The 2000s

Published Aug 16, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT Austin King is the Senior Editor of Gaming at ScreenRant and has been with the site since 2020 with a focus on RPGs and tabletop games. He previously managed content for Geek to Geek Media, and has served as a writer for sites like Nintendad, Geek Fitness, and more. In addition to his work at ScreenRant, he also hosts the Dragon Quest FM podcast and is the author of several books, including co-writing Nimbus (a #1 bestseller in 2013). His latest is the nonfiction The Dragon Quest Book, available now. He's written about pop culture, video games, and genre studies over the course of his career. You can find him on BlueSky, X, and at Dragonquestaustin.com Sign in to your ScreenRant account The Nintendo Wii released 20 years ago, a statement that makes me feel incredibly old. But it's true — Nintendo's weird little console with motion controls launched in November 2006 for just under $250. And it went on to become a wildly successful item for Nintendo, selling over 100 million units during its lifespan. Along the way, it gave us some truly incredible games. Because of its motion controls and nunchucks, there was nothing quite like the Wii when it launched. The console promised more innovative and immersive gameplay while also putting a major focus on party games. That's probably why it's not too surprising to learn that almost all of the best-selling Wii games had multiplayer functions. And while the console had a lot of popular games, there were a few that everyone seemed to own in the 2000s. 3 New Super Mario Bros. Wii The hype for New Super Mario Bros. Wii cannot be stressed enough. Mario is always going to be popular, but the Wii saw an increase in older generations buying the console, hungry for the kind of nostalgia that Super Mario Bros. brings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this means New Super Mario Bros. Wii is one of the best-selling games on the Wii console. It outsold all the other Mario games on Wii except for Mario Kart (more on that in a sec), selling over 30 million copies. The four-player co-op, side-scrolling, and addictive gameplay all helped make New Super Mario Bros. Wii a hit. Whether this was your first classic Mario adventure or you'd been playing Super Mario Bros. since the NES days, if you owned a Wii, the odds are good that you also owned this game. 2 Mario Kart Wii Mario Kart Wii is the best-selling Wii game to not have "Sports" in its title somewhere. The motion controls for the Wiimote made racing more immersive than ever, even if you didn't shell out money for the Wii Wheel. And Mario Kart Wii didn't just rely on gimmicks. It includes some of the coolest tracks ever. While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe may be arguably the best in the series, I'm always going to have a soft spot for this one. The day it came out, my future wife and I spent at least 8 hours playing this nonstop. And for a huge portion of the population, you likely had a similar experience. Mario Kart Wii was a seminal release on the Wii, and this game was simply too good to put down. 1 Wii Sports Wii Sports was the ubiquitous game for Nintendo's flashy new console. This is the video game that even your non-gamer grandparents played at least once. I'm convinced everyone alive in the 2000s played Wii Sports' bowling or golf with their relatives at some point. It helped, of course, that bundles of Wii Sports (and Wii Sports Resort) along with the console were sold later on. By the end of the Wii's lifespan, everyone who owned the console also owned Wii Sports. Honorable mentions: Wii Fit, Just Dance 3, Donkey Kong Country Returns, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I'm not sure there has ever been a console so synonymous with one game the way the Nintendo Wii and Wii Sports are. While later Nintendo consoles have certainly tried to cash in on the popularity of Wii Sports, it's never been replicated. And Wii Sports is still one the best games to play at a party if you've got time to drag your old console out. This is hands-down the most popular game to ever release on the Nintendo Wii, and you definitely owned it. Brand Nintendo Original Release Date November 19, 2006 Original MSRP (USD) $249.99 Operating System Proprietary Storage 512 GB NAND flash memory VR Support No