1988 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Dragon Quest III, Super Contra, Super Mario Bros. 2, Mega Man 2, Double Dragon II: The Revenge, and Super Mario Bros. 3, along with new titles such as Assault, Altered Beast, Capcom Bowling, Ninja Gaiden, RoboCop, Winning Run and Chase H.Q. The year's highest-grossing arcade video games were After Burner and After Burner II in Japan, Double Dragon in the United States, Operation Wolf in the United Kingdom, and RoboCop in Hong Kong. The year's bestselling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the fifth year in a row, while the year's best-selling home video games were Dragon Quest III in Japan and Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt in the United States.

Events

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988, according to the annual Gamest and Game Machine charts.

Hong Kong and United States

In Hong Kong and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1988.

United Kingdom

Operation Wolf was the top-earning arcade game of 1988 in the United Kingdom. The following titles were the top-grossing games on the monthly arcade charts in 1988.

Best-selling home systems

Best-selling home video games

Japan

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1988 in Japan, according to the annual Family Computer Magazine (Famimaga) charts.

United Kingdom and United States

In the United States, the NES Action Set bundled with Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt was the best-selling toy of 1988. The same year, Super Mario Bros. 2 became one of the best-selling cartridges of all time, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Zelda II: The Adventure of Link were the top-selling cartridges during the holiday season, and The Legend of Zelda and Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! each crossed 2 million sales between 1987 and 1988. The following titles were the top-selling home video games of each month in the United Kingdom and United States during 1988.

Top-rated games

Major awards

Japan

United Kingdom

United States

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame

The following 1988 video game releases entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Business

Notable releases

Arcade

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