Possibly the most accurate way to work out which arcade game was the most popular is on actual hardware units sold, so we've done just that - rounded up the 10 arcade games that sold the most individual units.

Back in the golden age of arcade video games, hardware units cost anything from $1000 to $4000 (or more) brand new, and with a reported 10,000 video game arcades across North America alone by the end of 1982, that's some heavy investment going on and some serious profit being earned by the manufacturers.

Individual establishments aren't going to keep track of every coin put into every specific machine, but they certainly know which ones are filling up their coin banks more than others and so, in many cases, ended up investing in multiple units. The arcade's ruled, and they became the hang-out of choice for many children.Īcross the years thousands of different arcade machines have decked the floors of ten of thousands of arcades worldwide, but which of them were the most popular? As for revenue earned by the player, that's almost impossible to tell. Back in the 1980s, if you wanted to experience the graphics of Dragon's Quest or the ride-in action of OutRun then you weren't going to find that on your home video game console. From the early days of Pong, through the glory years of Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Gauntlet, Double Dragon, Street Fighter II and beyond, players have been lining up their quarters in anticipation of 90 seconds of quality arcade action.

Galaxian arcade games