How Old Is Mario? Here's What We Know
The "Mario" franchise has been around for decades now, but in that time Nintendo has rarely brought up the age of the world's most recognizable video game character. The few times Nintendo has mentioned Mario's age in the past offered different answers, but the company rarely talks about the age of "Mario" series characters in general.
Mario has been portrayed in many different stages of life in the video games, TV shows, and movies he's been featured in. Chris Pratt's Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" seems to show off a relatively young, wide-eyed Mario, but in the live-action segments of "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," he appears much older, less like a whimsical explorer and more like an old fuddy-duddy who gets spaghetti on his overalls.
Most of the official discussion of Mario's age comes from third-party sources, staff interviews, and fan interpretations of in-game descriptions and actor ages. Still, there's more than enough information and interpretation to figure out what Mario's age is – and the best place to start is with everything we officially know.
Nintendo has made conflicting statements about Mario's age
There are a few official sources for Mario's age: an interview with Shigeru Miyamoto from 2005, the trophy description for Mario in "Super Smash Bros. Melee," and a calendar from the second issue of Nintendo Power from 1988.
In an interview republished by Nintendo, originally from 2005, "Mario" creator Shigeru Miyamoto was asked a variety of questions about the backstory of Mario and the franchise at large to commemorate the series' 20th anniversary. Miyamoto talked about how Mario was designed without restrictions, but said "aside from the fact that he's about 24-25 years old, we didn't define anything else." So that's it, right?
Well, in "Super Smash Bros. Melee," specifically the Japanese version of the game, the description for the Mario trophy says that he is "about 26 years old." That doesn't seem like too large an age range, but it's difficult to believe that Mario is a young 20-something.
In a calendar that was included in the opening pages of the second edition of Nintendo Power, Mario's birthday is listed as October 11. Several fan wikis state that he was born in 1968, which would make him a nearly 54-year-old man. The only source for this is a wiki for the YouTuber Super Mario Logan, though, which brings us back to square one.
One interpretation (and actor portrayals) implies Mario is older
There are a handful of actors who have played Mario in games, TV shows, and movies over the years. The most well-known is Charles Martinet, who set a world record for voicing Mario and has been at the center of attention after several voice actors criticized Chris Pratt's casting as Mario in the upcoming movie. Lou Albano was Mario in "The Super Mario Bros. Super Show," and Bob Hoskins played the character in the 1993 movie "Super Mario Bros." Chris Pratt will of course play Mario in 2023's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," a casting John Leguizamo had strong feelings about, considering his role as Luigi in the 1993 adaptation.
Everyone who has played the character is over that official age bracket of 24-26, if Miyamoto and the trophy description are all we truly know about Mario's age. Charles Martinet is now 67, though he started doing voice work for Mario back in 1992 when he was in his late 30s, Lou Albano was in his mid-fifties when he had the role, Bob Hoskins was 50 when he appeared in the movie, and Chris Pratt is 43.
To swing the discussion even further in favor of an older Mario, one interpretation pins him as being 62 years old. If he was 24 to 25 when the original "Mario" game was released in 1985, then that means he was born around 1960, making him more than 60 years old in 2022 – that is, if he ages like a normal person.
Mario's age will likely never be officially confirmed, but we have a range
Ultimately, the information Nintendo has released on Mario's age through in-game descriptions and information that Miyamoto revealed about the Mario games holds more weight than fan interpretations of his age. Though a range of 24 to 26 years old isn't a concrete answer, it makes more sense for him to be an agile young adult than an old man – the stamina a person would need in real life to do half the things Mario can is incalculable.
Though he's usually portrayed as a little portly, it doesn't hold him back as the Italian plumber can accomplish superhuman feats of agility in almost every video game he appears in. But it's impossible for the insanity of "Mario" worlds to be compared to the real world because it's nonsensical, and can't be taken 100% seriously in the context of reality.
Mario's age doesn't influence his personality or the gameplay of the "Mario" series, and if Nintendo did give him an age it could restrict him creatively, as Miyamoto said was the case in the original "Super Mario Bros." While Nintendo may not ever confirm Mario's canonical age, a range of 24 to 26 makes the most sense for the iconic character and is the most backed up by official statements.