1980 in video games

List of years in video games
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1980 saw the release of a number of games with influential concepts, including Pac-Man, Battlezone, Crazy Climber, Mystery House, Missile Command, Phoenix, Rally-X, Space Panic, Stratovox, Zork, Adventure, and Olympic Decathlon. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pac-Man, while the best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch. The Atari VCS (later called the Atari 2600) also grew in popularity with a port of Space Invaders and support from new third-party developer Activision.

Financial performance

  • The arcade video game market in the US generates $2.81 billion in revenue ($9.98 billion adjusted for inflation).
  • Home video games sell $464 million ($1.65 billion adjusted for inflation) in the United States, with the Atari VCS leading the market with a 44% share.

Highest-grossing arcade games

The following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games worldwide in 1980.

Rank Title Gross revenue Inflation Cabinet sales Developer Distributor(s) Genre Ref
1 Pac-Man $1,000,000,000 $3,600,000,000 100,000 Namco Namco / Midway Maze
2 Asteroids $700,000,000 $2,500,000,000 70,000 Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. Shoot 'em up
Galaxian Un­known Un­known Un­known Namco Namco / Midway Shoot 'em up
Space Invaders Un­known Un­known Un­known Taito Taito / Midway Shoot 'em up

Japan and United States

In Japan and the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1980.

Rank Japan (Game Machine) United States
Title #1 #2 #3 Points Cash Box Play Meter RePlay Cabinet sales
1 Pac-Man 62 46 17 295 Asteroids < 60,000
2 Galaxian 44 25 18 200 Galaxian < 40,000
3 Crazy Climber 14 19 30 110 Space Invaders < 12,000
4 Moon Cresta 3 24 15 72 Un­known Missile Command Un­known
5 Monaco GP 11 4 11 52 Un­known Rip Off Un­known
6 Rally-X 1 6 3 18 Un­known Un­known Un­known
7 Heiankyo Alien (Digger) 1 4 4 15
8 Pitch In 0 1 5 7
9 Super Speed Race 0 2 2 6
10 Sasuke vs. Commander 0 0 5 5
Space Invaders 0 1 3 5
Missile Command 0 2 1 5

Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the best-selling home video games in 1980.

Rank Title Platform Developer Publisher Release Year Genre Sales Ref
1 Space Invaders Atari VCS Taito Atari, Inc. 1980 Shoot 'em up 1,318,655
2 Breakout Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1978 Action 256,265
3 Football Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1979 Sports (American football) 248,502
4 Bowling Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1979 Sports 245,670
5 Night Driver Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1980 Racing 161,352
6 Air-Sea Battle Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1977 Shooter 160,093
7 Circus Atari Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1980 Action 148,756
8 Street Racer Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1977 Racing 89,269
9 Video Olympics Atari VCS Atari, Inc. 1977 Sports 36,028

Best-selling home systems

Rank System(s) Manufacturer Type Generation Sales Ref
1 Game & Watch Nintendo Handheld 2,000,000+
2 Atari Video Computer System (VCS) Atari, Inc. Console Second 1,250,000
3 TRS-80 Tandy Corporation Computer 8-bit 290,000
4 Intellivision Mattel Console Second 200,000
5 Atari 400 / Atari 800 Atari, Inc. Computer 8-bit 200,000
6 Commodore PET Commodore International Computer 8-bit 90,000
7 Apple II Apple Inc. Computer 8-bit 79,500
8 HP 9800 / HP series 80 Hewlett-Packard Computer 8-bit 11,300
9 North Star Horizon North Star Computers Computer 8-bit 8,200
10 TI-99/4 Texas Instruments Computer 8-bit 8,100

Events

Awards

Business

Notable releases

Games

Arcade
Console
Computer
Handheld

Hardware

Arcade
Console
Computer

See also


This page was last updated at 2024-01-08 19:42 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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