The Game Boy Advance Games Worth the Most Money Today

It's hard to believe, but the Game Boy Advance turns 25 years old this year, and in that time, it's only further cemented itself as one of Nintendo's most legendary pieces of hardware, bolstered by a roster of incredible games. Of course, the stars of the GBA hardware were none other than the long line of great Pokémon titles that helped make it one of Nintendo's most successful handhelds to date, but the legendary Castlevania and Metroid games on the system also helped inspire a renaissance for the Metroidvania genre that can't be overstated. But today, we're here to talk about the most valuable games on the system, the ones that fetch eye-watering prices on the secondary collector's market, should you happen to be tracking them down to play on original hardware.

As a reminder, the following categories are at play for this ranking:

• Loose: a standalone, loose cartridge without original box or manual
• CIB: Complete-In-Box. A complete copy of a game with original packaging and all manuals and inserts.
• Sealed/New: A factory-sealed, brand-new retail copy of the game, never opened.

• Release Date — November 21, 2002
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $97.83
• Price (CIB) — $337.48
• Price (Sealed/New) — $920.00

The release of Pokémon Sapphire and Ruby kicked off the third generation of Pokémon and brought the Game Boy Advance two of its most popular and best-selling games, so of course, getting your hands on a sealed copy of either can net you some big bucks. While Ruby is far more valuable (which we'll get to momentarily), Sapphire can still fetch some pretty big bucks on the secondary market, going as high as $100 for a loose cartridge and up to almost $1,000 for a factory-sealed copy. The fact that these games aren't available yet for emulation via the Switch's Game Boy Advance library in the Switch Online classic game collection means that your best bet to play these classics natively on GBA hardware is to fork over the necessary cash or resort to a bootleg reproduction cartridge.

• Release Date — September 13, 2001
• Developer — Red Company
• Publisher — Atlus
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 70% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $119.99
• Price (CIB) — $677.48
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,016.00

The Robopon games are interesting Pokémon-style monster-collecting RPGs that swap monsters for robots and let players engage in some lighthearted mech-building and customization, and the series' second entries on GBA are both pretty valuable among collectors. Thanks to a fairly limited production run in the West, the Ring Version (the Robopon games released as pairs similar to Pokémon titles) of Robopon 2 can net up to $120 for a loose copy and up to nearly $700 for a complete-in-box version with manuals. The real prize for collectors, though, is a sealed copy of Robopon 2, which is worth over $1,000 and expected to only appreciate in value as the gap between its original 2001 release date widens.

• Release Date — November 15, 2002
• Developer — Multimedia Intelligence Transfer
• Publisher — Atlus
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 62% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $105.00
• Price (CIB) — $575.75
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,029.00

You'd never know from its naming, but DemiKids is actually the Westernized version of the long-running Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Children spin-off series, and the two Game Boy Advance titles are the only ones released in the West. Thanks to the growing popularity of both Shin Megami Tensei and its Persona spin-off series, older SMT games have only continued to appreciate in value, with the very limited run of DemiKids GBA games fetching some pretty high prices. The most valuable of the duo of games released for the Game Boy Advance, DemiKids Light and Dark Version, is the Light Version, which regularly goes for more than $100 as a loose cartridge and easily fetches over $1,000 for a sealed copy.

• Release Date — September 13, 2001
• Developer — Red Company
• Publisher — Atlus
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 68% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $138.13
• Price (CIB) — $674.98
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,099.99

The Cross Version of Robopon 2 slightly beats out the Ring Version for being the most valuable of the two, with its pricing in just about every format (except for, strangely enough, a complete-in-box copy) landing a few dollars ahead. Owing to the game's different roster of collectible robots, the Cross Version of Robopon 2 can land upwards of $140 for a loose GBA cartridge, and regularly does so on secondary markets like eBay. Again, the real prize is a factory-sealed copy of the game, which is worth an estimated $1,100 thanks to an incredibly limited production run in North America.

• Release Date — April 17, 2003
• Developer — Hudson Soft
• Publisher — Konami
• Genre — Action-Platformer
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $323.55
• Price (CIB) — $790.00
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,185.00

Having a regularly available re-release of Ninja Five-O has surprisingly done very little to detract from the value of a physical Game Boy Advance cart, with the game still landing upwards of $350 for a loose copy. And, yes, it used to be worth much more (standing as the most-valuable GBA game by a large margin for years), but considering you can purchase the re-release for $25 on multiple platforms, spending nearly $1,200 for a sealed GBA copy seems a little crazy. That said, Ninja Five-O is one of the Game Boy Advance's best games and was released at a time when getting a new action-platformer was almost unheard of, so its value makes sense.

• Release Date — January 29, 2004
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 81% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $120.46
• Price (CIB) — $420.09
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,225.00

Another game that very recently got an official port to the Switch and Switch 2, an original Game Boy Advance copy of Pokémon FireRed can still net an impressive $120 or more for a loose cartridge, and the price of the game only skyrockets from there for a complete-in-box or factory sealed copy. The 2004 remake of the very first Pokémon game, Pokémon FireRed is a phenomenal entry in the long-running and best-selling RPG franchise that fixes most of the pacing and gameplay issues of the original and lets players experience the Kanto region in stunning full color. If you own a Switch or Switch 2, you can spend a reasonable $20 to pick up an official re-release (or, alternatively, emulate it on a handheld PC like the Steam Deck), but getting a complete-in-box copy to sate your nostalgia will cost over $400.

• Release Date — October 5, 2001
• Developer — Altron
• Publisher — Natsume
• Genre — Shoot 'em Up
• Review Aggregate Score — 57% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $200.00
• Price (CIB) — $843.53
• Price (Sealed/New) — $1,750.92

Leave it up to an incredibly obscure shoot 'em up game with a small production run to be one of the Game Boy Advance's most valuable games. Even better that it's one of the hardest shoot 'em ups on the console. The Pocky & Rocky games have been around since the days of the SNES and are fantastic free-roaming shoot 'em up/run 'n gun hybrids with some fairly steep difficulty, and this GBA entry is actually one of the better ones in the series post the franchise's 16-bit glory days. As punishing and unforgiving as Pocky & Rocky with Becky is, it can still regularly net upwards of $200 for a loose copy, and sealed copies are worth an eye-watering $1,700 or more, again owing to the game's niche genre appeal and small production run in the West.

• Release Date — November 21, 2002
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 82% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $106.87
• Price (CIB) — $400.00
• Price (Sealed/New) — $2,050.00

We kicked off our list of the 10 most valuable Game Boy Advance games with Pokémon Sapphire, so it only makes sense that we're rounding it out with the other two Gen Three classics on the GBA: Ruby and Emerald. First up is Ruby, which is generally considered the better game next to Sapphire due to its inclusion of the incredibly powerful fire-type Groudon (no shade against Kyogre, though). While a loose copy of Ruby isn't much more valuable than a loose copy of Sapphire, a sealed copy is where the value gap between the two becomes much more noticeable. Compared to Sapphire's $900+ pricing for a sealed copy, Ruby's regular netting of $2,000 or more is head-turning.

• Release Date —
• Developer — Magic Pockets
• Publisher — DreamCatcher Interactive
• Genre — Sports
• Review Aggregate Score — 69% (Mixed or Average)
• Price (Loose) — $74.26
• Price (CIB) — $1,602.67
• Price (Sealed/New) — $2,404.00

During the 6th console generation, there were several titles that launched as multi-platform releases on major home console hardware while also getting unique ports to the Game Boy Advance that differed from their living room counterparts. In most cases, these were lesser versions of more popular games, but Ultimate Beach Soccer is that rarest of exceptions, where the Game Boy Advance port is actually preferable and a better experience than the main console release of the title. As a result, the GBA version is one of the system's most valuable games, again largely owing to an incredibly small production run. A loose copy is actually very inexpensive compared to other titles on this list, but a sealed or complete-in-box copy is worth thousands.

• Release Date — September 16, 2004
• Developer — Game Freak
• Publisher — Nintendo
• Genre — RPG
• Review Aggregate Score — 76% (Generally Favorable)
• Price (Loose) — $240.00
• Price (CIB) — $699.25
• Price (Sealed/New) — $2,936.35

Both the fan-favorite GBA Pokémon game and the most valuable game on the console, Pokémon Emerald is something of a legendary outlier within the franchise. It's the last of the "Third Entry" games in the mainline Pokémon series (following titles like Pokémon Yellow and Pokémon Crystal), and its endgame is still regarded as one of the best in the franchise. No surprise, then, that even a loose copy of Pokémon Emerald is worth almost $250. Thanks to its release later on in the system's life cycle, there are actually multiple variants of Pokémon Emerald, each worth more than the last, depending on how limited their production run was. A standard edition goes for nearly $3,000 sealed, but one of the later reprints with "Playable on Nintendo DS" emblazoned on the box is worth even more.