1996 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Super Mario 64, Duke Nukem 3D, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Super Mario RPG, King's Field III, Virtua Fighter 3, along with new titles such as Blazing Heroes, NiGHTS into Dreams..., Crash Bandicoot, Pokémon Red/Green/Blue, Resident Evil, Dead or Alive, Soul Edge, Quake and Tomb Raider. The year's best-selling video game console worldwide was the PlayStation, while the best-selling consoles in Japan were the Game Boy and Sega Saturn. The year's best-selling home video game worldwide was Super Mario 64, while highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Street Fighter Zero 2 (Street Fighter Alpha 2) and Virtua Fighter 2.

Events

Hardware

Discontinuation

1996 saw a major shakeup in the crowded home console market, with the Virtual Boy, Atari Jaguar, 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, Sega CD, 32X, and CD-i all being discontinued.

Top-rated games

Game of the Year awards

The following titles won Game of the Year awards for 1996.

Critically acclaimed titles

Metacritic and GameRankings

Metacritic (MC) and GameRankings (GR) are aggregators of video game journalism reviews.

Famitsu Platinum Hall of Fame

The following video game releases in 1996 entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40.

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1996.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1996.

Australia

On Australia's Timezone monthly arcade charts published in the March 1996 issue of Leisure Line magazine, Sega's Manx TT Super Bike was the top-grossing dedicated arcade cabinet and Namco's Point Blank was the top-grossing arcade conversion kit.

Best-selling video game consoles

Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games (console games or computer games) worldwide in 1996.

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1996.

Europe

In Europe, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1996. In addition to the PlayStation games listed above, the following titles were the year's best-selling Sega Saturn and PC games in the United Kingdom.

Top game rentals in the United States

In the United States, the following games were the top video game rentals of each month, according to the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA).

Notable releases

Business