The Wii U sold about 13.5 million units, roughly a tenth of its predecessor, and it is the most under-appreciated console Nintendo has ever made. Its failure was marketing and third-party support, never software: nearly every major Wii U game was eventually rescued onto Switch, where most of them sold enormously. These are the 10 best Wii U games of all time.
10. Mario Kart 8
The 2014 original introduced antigravity sections, and its track design is so strong that the Switch version became the best-selling Mario Kart ever, at over 60 million copies. That the same game sold roughly eight times more on the next console is the Wii U story in one statistic. The current entry is covered in our Mario Kart World guides.
9. Pikmin 3
Nintendo’s 2013 strategy game used the GamePad as a real-time map for directing three captains at once, which is the single best use anyone found for that second screen. Its food-gathering survival framing gives every day genuine stakes.
8. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Retro Studios’ 2014 platformer is one of the most demanding and most beautiful 2D games ever made, with a David Wise soundtrack that ranks among gaming’s best. Its underwater levels alone justify the whole project.
7. Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker
A 2014 puzzle game spun out of a minigame in Super Mario 3D World, built around tiny rotatable dioramas where Captain Toad cannot jump. It is gentle, endlessly clever, and exactly the sort of small idea Nintendo only greenlights when a console is not selling.
6. Bayonetta 2
PlatinumGames’ 2014 sequel exists only because Nintendo funded it after Sega passed, which remains one of the more surprising acts of corporate patronage in games. It is one of the finest action games ever made, and its Umbran Climax system makes its combat even more spectacular than the original’s.
5. Xenoblade Chronicles X
Monolith Soft’s 2015 open world is still one of the largest and most seamless ever built, with transforming mechs that let you eventually fly across a planet you spent thirty hours walking. It is the studio at its most ambitious, and its Switch 2 Definitive Edition finally made it accessible again.
4. Super Mario Maker
The 2015 level editor turned thirty years of Mario design into a toy, and the GamePad’s touchscreen made building genuinely intuitive in a way the Switch sequel never quite matched. Its online community produced everything from perfect tributes to levels that broke the game entirely.
3. Splatoon
Nintendo’s 2015 shooter is the company’s most successful new franchise in decades, built on an idea nobody else had: win by covering the floor in paint, not by killing opponents. That single decision made a competitive shooter that welcomes people who lose every gunfight, and the series now anchors Switch 2 with Splatoon Raiders.
2. Super Mario 3D World
The 2013 game is the best four-player Mario ever made: five characters with distinct physics, a cat suit that reshapes every level’s geometry, and course design that introduces an idea, develops it, and moves on before it can get stale. Chaotic with friends, immaculate alone.
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
The 2017 game launched simultaneously on Wii U and Switch, and it is the Wii U’s final release. That is a strange, fitting ending: the console’s last game is arguably the greatest game Nintendo has ever made, and almost nobody played it on this hardware. For the console that came directly before it, see our best Wii games.
It reinvented open-world design by removing the checklist and trusting physics and chemistry systems to generate their own stories. Climb anything, burn anything, glide anywhere: a decade of open worlds since have been measured against it. It takes number one here on merit, and as a reminder that the Wii U’s problem was never the games.
Honorable Mentions
Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, The Wonderful 101, Yoshi’s Woolly World, New Super Mario Bros. U, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Hyrule Warriors, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD are all worth playing, and nearly all of them found bigger audiences after being ported to Switch.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best Wii U game of all time? Breath of the Wild, which launched on Wii U and Switch the same day. Super Mario 3D World is the best game made exclusively with the Wii U in mind.
How can I play Wii U games today? Most of the best ones were ported to Switch, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury, Pikmin 3 Deluxe, Tropical Freeze, Bayonetta 2, and Captain Toad. The Wii U eShop closed in 2023.
Why did the Wii U fail? Confusing branding (many shoppers thought it was a Wii accessory), a weak third-party lineup, and a GamePad that added cost without a clear purpose. It sold about 13.5 million units against the Wii’s 101 million.
What came next? The Switch, and then Switch 2; see our best Switch 2 games of 2026.