Best Selling Products of All-Time (2024): Overall & by Category

Highlights. Excluding food products, the best-selling modern-day product category is video games with over 10 billion sold.

The single best-selling video game of all time is Minecraft, although the best-selling video game series is Tetris.
The single fastest-selling video game of all time is Grand Theft Auto V.
The single best-selling video game console of all time is the PlayStation 2 although the best-selling console brand is Nintendo.
The all-time best-selling product in human history in terms of volume is wheat.
The longest continuously operating consumer goods company in the world has produced paper products for over 1,250 years.

Graphic: Best-Selling Products of All-Time list according to Statista, Nintendo, Sony, IGN, Guinness, WEF, National Geographic, CNBC, MPR News, U.S. SEC, StatisticsandData.org, VinePair, Money, Inc.

Best-Selling Consumer Goods of All Time

Most of the world’s oldest and most lucrative consumer goods companies produce alcohol and food products.

Wheat is the world’s oldest cultivated food product and the most widely-used in other staples, including bread and beer.
Wheat accounts for 34.7% of the world’s grain production.
Archer Daniels Midland is the highest-grossing consumer goods brand globally and in the U.S. with $102 billion annual revenue.
Among the world’s current 100 most lucrative companies, 1-in-4 are located in the United States.
The oldest food or beverage producer is Staffelter Hof Winery in Germany since 862 A.D.
Genda Shigyō Paper Industries, the world’s oldest company, has operated in Japan since 771 A.D.

Leading Global Consumer Brands
Brand	Industry	Annual Revenue (billions)
Archer Daniels Midland	United States	$101.85
Nestlé	Switzerland	CHF94.42 / $101.32
Pepsico	United States	$86.39
Christian Dior	France	€79.20 / $83.89
Lvmh Moet Hennessy – Louis	France	€79.20 / $83.89
The Proctor & Gamble	United States	$80.28
Siemens	Germany	€73.55 / $77.91
Jbs	Brazil	R$375.00 / $73.91
Sysco	United States	$68.64
Unilever	United Kingdom	€60.10 / $63.66

Best-Selling Video Game of All Time

Tetris is the best-selling video game franchise of all time.

Minecraft is the single best-selling video game of all time with 238 million units sold since 2001.
The most popular video game series is Tetris; titles have sold 520 million copies since 1984.
Grand Theft Auto V sold 11 billion copies on launch day.
35 million copies of Tetris sold for Nintendo Game Boy.
Game Boy is the second-best-selling handheld console with 118.69 million sold since 1989.
The best-selling console brand is Nintendo with 833.6 million hardware units sold since 1986.
Nintendo gamers have purchased 5.69 billion software units (i.e. games) sold.
Nintendo DS is the best-selling handheld, the second-best-selling console overall, and Nintendo’s best-selling console, and with 154.02 million units sold since 2004.
Sony’s PlayStation 2 is the best-selling console, selling 159 million units since 2000.
Consumers have purchased 1.5 billion games for PlayStation 2.
Global consumers buy up to 40 million video game consoles in a year.

Leading U.S. Consumer Brands
Brand	Industry	Annual Revenue (billions)
Archer Daniels Midland	Food processing	$101.85
Pepsico	Soft drinks & water	$86.39
The Proctor & Gamble	Pharmaceuticals	$80.28
Sysco	Food products	$68.64
Tyson Foods	Meat processing	$53.61
Nike	Footwear	$49.11
Coca Cola	Beverages	$43.00
Philip Morris International	Tobacco	$31.76
Mondelez International	Food products	$31.50
The Kraft Heinz	Food processing	$26.49

Best-Selling Foods & Beverages of All Time

Many of the oldest brands and highest-grossing goods are part of the food and beverage industry; cereals, such as wheat and rice, are the best-selling food products of all time in terms of volume.

Cereals first cultivated between 10,000 and 6,000 B.C.E. are a staple (dominant food source) for an estimated 70% of people today.
Globally, the average human consumes 142.6 pounds (64.7 kilograms) of wheat food products annually.
The average human consumes 142.1 pounds (64.4 kilograms) of rice annually.
3.5 billion people eat rice as a staple food.
Budweiser is the oldest of the best-selling beers (since 1876), selling an estimated 10.6 billion pints in a year.
Bud Light sells an estimated 9.5 billion pints in a year.
Snow, the world’s best-selling beer of the last decade, is only available in China; consumers buy 21.4 billion pints of Snow in a year.

Oldest Operating Global Consumer Brands
Founded	Company or Brand Name	Industry
771, Japan	Genda Shigyō Paper Industries	Paper goods
862, Germany	Staffelter Hof Winery	Wine
885, Japan	Tanaka-Iga	Religious goods
1000, France	Château de Goulaine	Wine
1000, Japan	Ichimonjiya Wasuke	Confectionary
1000, Italy	Pontificia Fonderia Marinelli	Religious goods
1024, Japan	Shumiya-Shinbutsuguten	Religious goods
1050, Germany	Weltenburger	Brewery
1074, Austria	Benediktinerstift Admont	Woodwork
1100, Germany	Schloss Johannisberg	Wine

Other Best-Selling Products of All Time

Projections indicate that daily use products, such as mobile devices and other home media, could overtake video game software and hardware purchases in coming years.

The best-selling prescription drug of all time is Humira (Adalimumab), an arthritis drug by AbbieVie.
Nokia 1100 is the best-selling mobile phone in the world with the 2003 and 2005 models each selling 250 million units for a total of 500 million Nokia 1100s sold.
The best-selling smartphones are the Apple iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, which have sold 222 million units since 2014.
The best-selling flip phone of all time is the Motorola RAZR V3, selling 130 million units since 2004.
Finding Nemo is the best-selling DVD of all time with over 38.8 million copies sold.
The best-selling video cassette of all time is The Lion King with 32 million copies sold worldwide.
Frozen is the best-selling Blu-Ray of all time with 7.79 million units sold.
Michael Jackson’s Thriller is the world’s best-selling music album with 67 million copies sold worldwide.
The best-selling single of all time is Bing Crosby’s White Christmas with 50 million units sold.

Oldest Operating U.S. Consumer Brands
Founded	Company or Brand	Consumer Goods Industry
1690	Towle Silversmiths (Lifetime Brands, Inc.)*	Silversmith
1725	Pottstown Roller Mill (Purina Mills)	Grain, Feed
1736	Lakeside Mills	Stone Ground Corn Meal
1752	Caswell-Massey	Perfume (Beauty & Toiletries)
1764	Baker’s (Kraft Heinz Brand)	Chocolate, confectionery
1780	Laird & Company	Distillery
1782	Levi Garrett (American Snuff Company)	Chewing tobacco
1784	D. Landreth Seed Company	Seeds
1785	Bixlers	Jewelry
1790	King Arthur Flour	Flour and baking
1792	Old Farmer’s Almanac	Almanac

*Parenthetical names are of modern-day parent companies or industry categories.

Best-Selling Book of All Time

Superman comic books have sold more units than the world’s all-time best-selling novel.

The best-selling book of all time is the King James Bible with an estimated 5 billion copies sold over several hundred years.
Among works of fiction, the best-selling book is Don Quixote with an estimated 500 million copies sold since 1605.
The Little Prince is the best-selling children’s book of all time with 140 million copies sold in 260 languages.
Harry Potter is the best-selling children’s book series with 500 million copies sold across all seven books; Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the most popular book in the series with 120 million copies sold.
The best-selling author of all time is Agatha Christie, whose books have sold over 2 billion copies.
Superman is the world’s all-time best-selling comic book series with 600 million copies sold.

100% Bar Race: Best-Selling Video Game by Unit Sales in Millions including Minecraft (238) according to Wikipedia

Best-Selling Toy of All Time

Though video games are not included in this section, they often top best-selling toy lists.

Hot Wheels are the best-selling toys of all time with over 4 billion units sold.
Pokėmon is the best-selling multi-media toy franchise with over 480 million units sold.
LEGO is a top-selling toy and has sold over 400 billion individual blocks.
The number of LEGO blocks sold is equivalent to 50 bricks for every living person on the planet.
Barbie has sold up to 3 billion product units, including over 1 billion dolls (other items may include accessories, playsets, and multi-media).
Totally Hair Barbie is the best-selling Barbie doll ever with 10 million units sold since 1992.

Bar Graph: Toys Sales Revenue in Billions by Category according to Statista

Best-Selling Vehicle of All Time

Japanese vehicles, such as the Toyota Corolla sedan, are best-selling globally, but in the U.S., domestic manufacturers, such as Harley Davidson, control the market.

Toyota sold 50 million Corolla cars worldwide between 1966 and 2021.
In 2022, Toyota sold 1.12 million Corolla cars.
The Toyota Corolla is the best-selling car in at least six countries, including Ireland, Finland, and Taiwan.
In the United States, the best-selling vehicle is the Ford F-150 truck.
Ford F-150 trucks are also the best sellers in neighboring Canada.
The Volkswagen Golf is the best-selling vehicle in Europe, with over 35.5 million sales worldwide.
The all-time best-selling motorcycle is the Honda Super Club with over 100 million bikes sold worldwide.
Honda controls 28.7% of the global motorcycle market.
In the United States, Harley-Davidson is the best-selling brand with a 21.1% market share.

100% Bar Race: Number of Highest-Selling Brands by Industry, Among the 100 highest-selling consumer brands worldwide, according to Statista

These data and insights were compiled by the Capital One Shopping team based on publicly available data.

Best-Selling Products of All Time