# What's the most successful video game ever made? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 14, 2008, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336 "2008-04-14T18:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/61 "2012-12-03T17:00:00Z")
Wikipedia, backing up my much-earlier statement: “By 1982, [Pac-Man] had sold 400,000 arcade machines worldwide and an estimated 7 billion coins had been inserted into Pac-Man machines.” And, “The game produced one billion dollars in 1980 alone.” _A billion dollars_, a quarter at a time, in one year. That is simply insane. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/62 "2012-12-03T17:04:26Z")
Well, not quite. A large percentage of that is probably the arcade cabinets/inserts themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/63 "2012-12-03T17:09:39Z")
How about largest online community/largest online game? The winner would probably be League of Legends with an active 32 million member community, over 12 million daily gamers. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/64 "2012-12-03T17:16:20Z")
Any love for Myst? Sure, it’s been blown away commercially since its release, but it held the PC title’s most popular game for 9 years until The Sims came along. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/65 "2012-12-03T17:22:32Z")
> [@Enderw24](#): > > Any love for Myst? Myst sold a little over 6 million copies on the PC in its heyday. It’s age has passed. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/66 "2012-12-03T18:32:57Z")
Weird that zelda isn’t on the franchise list. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/67 "2012-12-03T20:27:44Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Well, not quite. A large percentage of that is probably the arcade cabinets/inserts themselves. That’s specifically _not_ including cabinet sales, which account for another billion with a “B” by 1982. Quoting the well-cited Wikipedia article: > [@](#): > > Pac-Man outstripped Asteroids as the best-selling arcade game in North America, **grossing over $1 billion in quarters within a year, by the end of 1980** , surpassing the revenues grossed by the highest-grossing film Star Wars. It sold more than 350,000 arcade cabinets (retailing at around $2400 each) for $1 billion within 18 months (inflation adjusted: $2.4 billion in 2011). By 1982, the game had sold 400,000 arcade machines worldwide and an estimated 7 billion coins had been inserted into Pac-Man machines. In addition, United States revenues from Pac-Man licensed products (games, T-shirts, pop songs, wastepaper baskets, etc.) exceeded $1 billion (inflation adjusted: $2.33 billion in 2011). The game was also estimated to have had 30 million active players across the United States in 1982. Towards the end of the 20th century, the game’s total gross in quarters had been estimated by Twin Galaxies at more than 10 billion quarters ($2.5 billion), making it the highest-grossing video game of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/68 "2012-12-03T20:36:05Z")
solitaire.exe ---
**Author:** ![Kinthalis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kinthalis/32/16084_2.png) [@Kinthalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kinthalis)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/69 "2012-12-03T21:47:09Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > That’s specifically _not_ including cabinet sales, which account for another billion with a “B” by 1982. Quoting the well-cited Wikipedia article: But hasn’t WOW easily surpassed that? In terms of online revenue (subscription, pay for digital items, etc) + sales of expansions? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336/70 "2012-12-03T22:06:01Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > But hasn’t WOW easily surpassed that? In terms of online revenue (subscription, pay for digital items, etc) + sales of expansions? Many many times over. But because there’s no agreed-upon metric of what makes the most successful game ever (or even reliable sales numbers to make an argument with), this question will always be answered a different way. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-most-successful-video-game-ever-made/445336.md?page=3)