The piles of dust that had gathered upon some 2,000 unwanted arcade units perhaps stirred as a verbal beratement of near-seismic magnitude occurred in a nearby room, overdue rent serving as the subject of an intense conversation between a landlord and his tenants.
Mario Segale owned the Seattle-area warehouse in which the interaction was taking place, his leasees, the American branch of a foreign playing card company, taking the brunt of his… request for payment on the chin.
They had no real argument. Fresh off a failed foray into the fledgling American gaming industry and with much of its capital tied up in the development of a new arcade title at home, the company had fallen behind on its rent. Whether it would be able to ultimately make its payment was undetermined, but saying it would soon do so was enough to get Segale to exit through his doors on that particular day.
And it wasn’t long after Segale left that he became the punchline of an office joke. The property owner, the employees noticed, bore a striking resemblance to the pixelated protagonist of the company’s newest game. The character, at the time, did not have a name, the game’s creator only referring to him as “Jumpman.”
Those working in the Seattle warehouse started colloquially referring to him as “Mario.”
Word eventually got back across the Pacific to the game’s creator, and he found it charming. The name stuck, and with it, a near-half-century stretching master class in asset diversification commenced.
‘Asset diversification’ is defined by those more intelligent than I - i.e. the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority - as “the spreading of . . . investments both among and within different asset classes.” We’ll get into how this relates to a fictional plumber momentarily, but first, I’ll provide a brief crash course on the history of the character that has come to symbolize the very idea of the video game.
The Mario character first appeared in the 1981 arcade title Donkey Kong, the barrel-throwing ape game only existing out of necessity. Nintendo, historically one of Japan’s largest producers of ‘hanafuda,’ found itself in financial turmoil following an underwhelming incursion into the then-new world of electronic games.
The company had achieved some domestic success with its sci-fi arcade title Radar Scope, hoping to replicate this feat with American audiences in the early 1980s. Confident in foreign interest in the product, Nintendo ordered 3,000 units for American distribution.
According to History.com, it struggled to move even 1,000 cabinets.
The company was on the verge of collapse, in desperate need of some sort of hit to keep it afloat. In a time of crisis, it threw up a hail mary, the proverbial ball being roped in by a 28-year-old with no prior experience in video game development.
Nintendo tasked Shigeru Miyamoto, an employee originally hired as a “product developer and artist,” per History.com, with the development of a new title. With no experience in the field, the ambitious staffer did not fundamentally understand what he was getting into, but this perceived deficiency would ultimately prove to be one of his biggest advantages.
New to the world of video game direction and development, Miyamoto was not burdened with the knowledge of the prior limitations of electronic games. Approaching the medium with a fresh set of eyes and grand ambition, he did not focus on what the video game had historically been, but rather, what it could be.
Miyamoto would go on to develop Donkey Kong, essentially inventing the “platformer” style of game that would dominate arcades and home consoles for decades to come. The game was a success, making Nintendo over $180 million throughout its first year of release (according to Ultimate Classic Rock).
And at the center of that success was Mario, the humanoid protagonist who players used to traverse through the game’s multiple stages. It was at this point that Miyamoto, perhaps playfully, started to diversify his asset, setting a precedent that would ultimately bring Mario to a level of global significance that few fictional characters have ever achieved.
“My original goal was that I really wanted to use Mario in a lot of different games,” Miyamoto told TIME Magazine in 2010. “So, for example, in the original Punch-Out!, you’ll see Mario and Donkey Kong in the audience. You’ll see Mario is the referee in Tennis. And then it became taking Mario and Luigi both and putting them in different situations in various games, and [that] was the direction that I decided to take.
“It’s sort of common among the popular culture in Japan that a creator will take that same character and have him will appear in different manga. It’s also sort of like, maybe, Hitchcock appearing in all his movies. It’s sort of cool to have that character appearing here and there, whether or not they have a large role or not.”
Mario became less of a character for Nintendo and more of a performer, Miyamoto even referring to Mario as “[his] go-to actor” in that aforementioned TIME interview. The company started to plug him into a variety of titles in roles both significant and secondary, parts that painted him in both positive and negative lights.
He appeared as the antagonist in 1982’s Donkey Kong Jr. before again taking the role of hero in 1983’s Mario Bros., an, in hindsight, rather run-of-the-mill platformer that proved to revolutionize gaming not because of its mechanics, but because of its characters.
In addition to serving as the first game to advertise Mario in the title, Mario Bros. introduced Luigi, Mario’s, at the time, near-identical brother. The arcade title also established some of the mythology that would become synonymous with Mario - the ‘Mario mythos,’ if you will. The two brothers traveled through large green pipes, their preferred mode of transportation, combined with their blue-collar attire, leading many to infer that the two were plumbers.
This mythology was expanded upon rather significantly in 1985’s Super Mario Bros., a platformer released for Nintendo’s home consoles (known as the Family Computer (Famicom) in Japan and the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in the United States). The game threw Mario and Luigi into the Mushroom Kingdom for the first time, their task being to rescue Princess Peach from the grasp of Bowser, an evil ‘Koopa’ who had representation in a frankly shocking number of castles.
The game, with its approachable mechanics, imaginative plot, and vibrant visuals, was a smash success, sparking sequels - the aptly titled Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3 - to be released in 1988 and 1989, respectively.
Mario, simply put, was as objective of a success as the world of video games had seen to that point. The games were accessible from a tangible and technical standpoint, almost all of them achieving that illusive status of ‘easy to pick up, difficult to master.’ The series’ characters - Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad, the list goes on - became beloved, as did its innovative world.
To many, Mario not only symbolized video games… he was video games. Audiences simply could not get enough of him.
And Miyamoto was more than happy to provide.
In the 1990s, Nintendo started centering a wide range of spin-offs around Mario, these titles placing the affable plumber in genres previously foreign not only to him, but to casual gaming audiences, in general.
1990’s Dr. Mario, released for the NES, saw Mario get his Ph.D. and fight viruses in a game that was perhaps most akin to Tetris. Nintendo followed this up with two additional spin-offs in 1992, with Super Mario Kart and Mario Paint both releasing for the then relatively new Super NES.
Super Mario Kart would prove to be a successful sub-franchise for Nintendo, its engaging and innovative concept - Mario go-kart racing against other characters from the Mushroom Kingdom in a laundry list of well-designed tracks - resonating with audiences. Mario Paint was slightly less successful.
Despite initial inconsistent reception from consumers, Nintendo continued to throw Mario in a myriad of different genres. 1995’s Mario Tennis was the first sports-themed title to feature Mario and his supporting characters, the Mario sports franchise ultimately expanding to include sports like golf, soccer, and the Olympics, in general. The character ventured into the popular world of the role-playing game with 1996’s Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, this title serving as a precursor, of sorts, for the far more successful Paper Mario sub-series that would launch in 2000.
Mario would become the star of multi-person party games with 1998’s Mario Party, which, too, launched a financially viable sub-franchise. One year later, Nintendo released the first Super Smash Bros., which pitted Mario against other popular Nintendo IPs in an approachable multi-person fighting game. Smash Bros. would ultimately become a cultural phenomenon of its own, the franchise releasing its fifth entry in 2018.
Mario, for any person who had an even passive interest in the then-burgeoning world of video games, was impossible to ignore. He was an omnipresent figure with representation in any genre that one could dream to imagine.
Were you in the mood to play a classic platformer? That was Mario’s bread and butter. Were you more so feeling a fun party game to play with friends? Mario had you covered in spades. How about a game in which small, colorful characters fought to the death? Mario, strangely, had that market cornered, as well.
You get the idea at this point. As the video game, in general, was growing in popularity and prominence, Mario had at least one game that appealed to every consumer, significantly broadening his appeal and reach.
And this, according to Miyamoto, was by design, all a part of the ultimate ‘asset diversification’ that he dreamed of when initially conceiving the character. As he conceptualized new titles and game types throughout the 1990s, his intention, at least initially, was to center each of these games around Mario, inherently generating interest from the character’s built-in audience.
“When I’m creating that new [game] system, I start by plugging Mario in to see how he will react or what we can do with Mario in this design,” Miyamoto told TIME. “He’s like the trusted guy you throw in to see how the system is working.
“. . . The player is the one who is playing the game and Mario is sort of their surrogate vehicle for enjoying that game. And because we know it’s Mario, there’s a sense of reassurance and familiarity. The player can think, ‘Even though I don’t know what’s going on, at least I’m Mario.’”
As Mario’s influence grew tangibly with the release of countless spin-offs and tangentially related titles, his mainline series consistently made innovations to the video game, in general, significantly widening the scope of what could be accomplished within the medium.
1996’s Super Mario 64 is perhaps the most pressing example of this. Prior to its release, the 2-D platformer, while still popular, was perhaps waning in popularity, with the idea of a three-dimensional platformer - or functional 3-D game, in general - serving as a bit of an industrial white whale.
Nintendo sought not only to slay this beast, but to do so with its most popular character.
This decision had all the potential to be catastrophic. What if Nintendo’s first attempt at a 3-D platformer was an unmitigated disaster, a difficult-to-control muddy mess than had its unofficial mascot plastered on the cover? Imagine the irrevocable damage that an incomprehensible botch would have had on the character, on the brand, on the company.
These concerns would never materialize. Super Mario 64 was not only a resounding commercial and critical success; it was a turning point in the history of video games.
The title, technically speaking, was a marvel. Its mechanics were shockingly approachable, its world and level design visually striking. iD Software co-founder Tom Hall told VG247 that the game “defined the 3-D platformer as a genre,” innovating and mastering a new class in one fell swoop.
“The industry hadn't really figured out 3-D platforming yet, and here it was, a masterwork that set the standard,” Hall said. “And it kinda kicked the butt of everything on the [Nintendo 64] after it.”
And at the center of the game’s success, yet again, was Mario. Miyamoto used the beloved character as the audience’s insert, as their vehicle into a world and category of game that had never before existed.
And it is perhaps because of this decision that the 3-D platformer, in general, worked. Despite inhabiting a genre that Nintendo had essentially just invented, Super Mario 64 was approachable, it felt familiar, because of the presence of Mario. Consumers had controlled the mustachioed protagonist, had fought Bowser, had traveled through the Mushroom Kingdom countless times before.
They were now just doing so again, but having these experiences in an entirely new way.
And ever since Super Mario 64, the character has continued to be at the forefront of video game innovation. Nintendo would ultimately release Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey, titles lauded by both critics and audiences for their unique blend of familiarity and medium modernization.
This, too, has always been intentional, according to Miyamoto, another way for Mario to progress with consumer wants and trends while simultaneously reaching new audiences.
“We create by looking at what we can do and using our energies to utilize that technology to the fullest, to maximize its potential,” Miyamoto told TIME. “And of course, as technology grows and advances, that refreshes our ability to look at Mario in new ways, and to be able to do new things with him.
“And it’s really been for me, a very natural process in that, as technology advances, so does Mario.”
You may have noticed that I haven’t included sales figures for many of the recently listed titles, but I’d argue that, if you own a device on which you can read this article, you have a comprehension of the global and cultural significance of the Mario character and brand.
You know that the games sold well.
That said, the numbers do a great job of adding perspective. The Mario series is, by any metric, one of the most successful video game franchises of all time. According to The Gamer, games that feature Mario in a prominent role have sold over 740 million units as of 2021, making it the best-selling franchise in the history of the medium.
It only makes sense, as the Mario character is perhaps the video game’s most significant contribution to global culture, achieving this feat through Miyamoto’s commitment to asset diversification and medium innovation.
The concept of asset diversification, as it relates to Mario, is broader than a list of spin-off titles in various video game genres. Nintendo has long licensed the character for usage in other forms of media, this, too, widening Mario’s reach.
1989’s The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, a television series that blended elements of animation and live-action, ran for 65 episodes, serving as another representation of Mario for children of the era. The character’s ballooning popularity ultimately led him to Hollywood, with the existence of 1993’s Super Mario Bros., a $48 million live-action film that was… liberal with the source material and ultimately flopped, at least serving as proof of the character’s cultural significance.
After the fiasco that was the Bob Hoskins, John Leguizamo-led Super Mario Bros., Nintendo tightened the proverbial purse strings a bit, becoming more selective of their licensing of the character. The company has bucked this trend in recent years, with the prominence and accessibility of the already ubiquitous character only set to further increase in the near future.
‘Super Nintendo World,’ a Mario-themed section of Universal Studios Japan equipped with a Mushroom Kingdom aesthetic, Mario-themed food, and a Mario Kart e-ticket attraction, opened in early 2021. Universal Studios Hollywood opened its own version of the land in 2023, the reactions to both of these lands being largely positive. Orlando is set to open its own answer to Super Nintendo World in 2025, their Mario - and Donkey Kong - themed-land set to open as part of Epic Universe, the company’s third central Florida gate.
And Mario, thanks in part to Universal, is set to return to the big screen in April with the release of Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The animated feature with a stacked cast and striking visuals seems set to dominate the box office, with Deadline ‘conservatively’ projecting the movie to gross at least $90 million over its five-day Easter weekend opening.
The character is everywhere. He’s always been everywhere. He’ll continue to be everywhere.
And I guess the question I’ll attempt to answer as this article concludes, is why?
Why has this character captured the global cultural zeitgeist in such a significant way? How is it that Mario has achieved heights previously only reached by Mickey Mouse in terms of a character being so synonymous with and representative of their medium?
I think there are multiple answers to the question, Nintendo’s diversification of its asset to broaden its appeal to the greatest number of potential consumers definitely being one of the more tangible ones. The shelf life of the character is another explanation; a lot of people have encountered the plumber since his debut in 1981.
But I think there exists a more emotional, or perhaps sentimental, read of this situation, one that perhaps bolsters both of the aforementioned arguments. In an article for Pacific Standard, Tristan Bridges argues that Mario is “an identity known around the world because of his simple association with the same human sentiment — joy.”
Joy. Is this simple, one-word explanation really the only thing we need to consider when trying to answer why Mario has been able to maintain a significant level of global cultural prominence for over 40 years?
At the basis of it, maybe. Nostalgia is a powerful drug. The character of Mario brings people back to a simpler time in their lives, a time in which they enjoyed Mario-related content while surrounded by friends and family without an additional care in the world.
And given the efficiency with which Nintendo has diversified its asset over the past 42 years, the number of people it’s reached is perhaps in the billions.
Mario, as a character, has carved out a spot in our collective heart and mind thanks to his accessibility. It’s a trend that hasn’t slowed, and if history is any indication, it won’t slow anytime soon, either.
“He’s become sort of this worldwide easily accessible idea,” Miyamoto told TIME. “People like it. That’s great.
“Because Mario, as we’ve spoken about earlier, evolves with technology, it’s hard to say where he’s going to be in 25 years . . . I’m confident, though, people will still be playing as Mario.”