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List of best-selling Atari 2600 video games

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An award plaque for River Raid selling over one-million copies for Activision given to Carol Shaw.

The Atari 2600 (previously known as the Atari VCS) was the most successful home system of its generation, and it was home to many popular games that sold millions of copies (a figure unheard of before). The best-selling video game on the console is Pac-Man, a port of the arcade game of the same name programmed by Tod Frye.[1] Originally created by Toru Iwatani and released in 1980, Pac-Man was later ported to many home video game consoles, beginning with the Atari 2600 in 1982.[2] Within months it became the best-selling home video game of all time, with more than 1.5 million units pre-ordered by customers before its release.[2] Pac-Man went on to sell over 8 million units worldwide.

The second best-selling Atari 2600 game is Space Invaders,[3] a port of the 1978 Taito arcade video game that was programmed by Rick Maurer, which was released in 1980 and became the first video game to sell a million copies.[4] It went on to sell over 6 million copies, was the best-selling game on the system (until Pac-Man), and is credited with increasing the VCS’s sales and popularity.[3] The other three titles among the top five best-selling Atari 2600 games are Pitfall! (designed by David Crane for Activision), Donkey Kong (a port of the 1981 Nintendo arcade game programmed by Garry Kitchen for Coleco), and Frogger (a port of the Konami and Sega arcade game programmed by Ed English for Parker Brothers), each having sold over 4 million units.

26 video games released on the Atari 2600 sold at least one million copies, of which 14 were developed and/or published by the console's manufacturer, Atari, Inc. Other publishers with multiple entries in the top 26 are Activision (six titles), Imagic (three titles) and Parker Brothers (two titles). Three of the games in the top 26 were programmed by David Crane, three by Howard Scott Warshaw, three by Rob Fulop, and two by Bradley G. Stewart.

Video games

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List of best-selling video games on the Atari 2600
Title Developer / Publisher Arcade port Licensor Programmer(s) Release date Sales Reference(s)
Pac-Man Atari, Inc. Yes Namco Tod Frye March 16, 1982 8,095,586 [a]
Space Invaders Atari, Inc. Yes Taito Rick Maurer March 1980 6,252,229 [b]
Donkey Kong Coleco[c] Yes Nintendo Garry Kitchen July 1982 4,180,523 [d]
Pitfall! Activision No — David Crane April 20, 1982 4,000,000 [7][8]
Frogger Parker Brothers Yes Sega Enterprises Ed English August 1982 4,000,000 [9]
Asteroids Atari, Inc. Yes — Bradley G. Stewart July 1981 3,832,886 [e]
Defender Atari, Inc. Yes Williams Electronics Bob Polaro 1982 3,040,684 [f]
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Atari, Inc. No Universal Pictures Howard Scott Warshaw December 1982 2,740,232 [g]
Ms. Pac-Man Atari, Inc. Yes Midway Manufacturing Mike Horowitz, Josh Littlefield February 1983 2,311,428 [h]
Demon Attack Imagic No — Rob Fulop March 1982 2,000,000 [11]
Night Driver Atari, Inc. Yes — Rob Fulop June 1980 1,990,643 [i]
Berzerk Atari, Inc. Yes Stern Dan Hitchens August 1982 1,870,642 [j]
Centipede Atari, Inc. Yes — Douglas B. Macrae, Josh Littlefield March 1982 1,815,661 [k]
Warlords Atari, Inc. Yes — Carla Meninsky 1981 1,788,462 [l]
Breakout Atari, Inc. Yes — Bradley G. Stewart November 1978 1,678,965 [m]
Adventure Atari, Inc. No — Warren Robinett July 1980 1,000,000 [12]
Laser Blast Activision No — David Crane March 1981 1,000,000 [13]
Freeway Activision No — David Crane July 1981 1,000,000 [13]
Kaboom! Activision No — Larry Kaplan July 1981 1,000,000 [13]
Yars' Revenge Atari, Inc. No — Howard Scott Warshaw May 1982 1,000,000 [14]
Atlantis Imagic No — Dennis Koble July 1982 1,000,000 [1]
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Parker Brothers No Lucasfilm Rex Bradford July 1982 1,000,000 [15][additional citation(s) needed]
Cosmic Ark Imagic No — Rob Fulop August 1982 1,000,000 [11]
Megamania Activision No — Steve Cartwright October 1982 1,000,000 [1]
Raiders of the Lost Ark Atari, Inc. No Lucasfilm Howard Scott Warshaw November 1982 1,000,000 [14]
River Raid Activision No — Carol Shaw December 1982 1,000,000 [13]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ 7,271,844 in 1982. 684,569 in 1983.[3] 37,063 in 1986. 61,685 in 1987. 3,885 in 1988. 34,374 in 1989. 2,166 in 1990.[5]
  2. ^ 1,318,655 in 1980. 2,964,137 in 1981. 1,373,033 in 1982. 435,353 in 1983.[3] 17,523 in 1986. 65,148 in 1987. 29,717 in 1988. 36,308 in 1989. 12,355 in 1990.[5]
  3. ^ Published by Atari Corporation from 1987.[5]
  4. ^ 4 million in 1982.[6] 27,516 in 1987. 109,125 in 1988. 40,147 in 1989. 3,735 in 1990.[5]
  5. ^ 3.8 million up until 1982.[10] 7,503 in 1986. 8,558 in 1987. 12,120 in 1988. 11,558 in 1989. 4,705 in 1990.[5]
  6. ^ 3,006,790 in 1982 (with at least 68,993 returned in 1983).[3] 2,298 in 1986. 6,160 in 1987. 24,741 in 1988. 695 in 1989.[5]
  7. ^ 2,637,985 in 1982 (with at least 669,733 returned in 1983).[3] 1,138 in 1986. 88,338 in 1987. 3,131 in 1988. 9,586 in 1989. 54 in 1990.[5]
  8. ^ 1,963,078 in 1983.[3] 35,719 in 1986. 138,400 in 1987. 125,266 in 1988. 38,597 in 1989. 10,368 in 1990.[5]
  9. ^ 161,352 in 1980. 779,547 in 1981. 457,058 in 1982. 580,959 in 1983.[3] 84 in 1986. 7,227 in 1987. 4,416 in 1988.[5]
  10. ^ 1,798,773 in 1982 (with at least 20,314 returned in 1983).[3] 2,046 in 1986. 54,444 in 1987. 15,170 in 1988. 209 in 1989.[5]
  11. ^ 1,475,240 in 1982.[3] 49,774 in 1986. 150,572 in 1987. 107,168 in 1988. 21,973 in 1989. 10,934 in 1990.[5]
  12. ^ 936,861 in 1981. 420,924 in 1982. 372,454 in 1983.[3] 11,412 in 1986. 6,370 in 1987. 38,504 in 1988. 1,865 in 1989. 72 in 1990.[5]
  13. ^ 256,265 in 1980. 838,635 in 1981. 242,764 in 1982. 312,672 in 1983.[3] 7,060 in 1986. 1,680 in 1987. 19,889 in 1988.[5]

References

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  1. ^ a b c Buchanan, Levi (August 26, 2008). "Top 10 Best-Selling Atari 2600 Games". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on August 31, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Katz, Arnie; Kunkel, Bill (May 1982). "The A-Maze-ing World of Gobble Games: A Guide to Maze-Chase Gamers". Electronic Games. Vol. 1, no. 3. New York City: Reese Publishing Company. pp. 62–63. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Cartridge Sales Since 1980. Atari Corp. Via "The Agony & The Ecstasy". Once Upon Atari. Episode 4. Scott West Productions. August 10, 2003. 23 minutes in.
  4. ^ Weiss, Bret (July 6, 2007). Classic Home Video Games, 1972–1984: A Complete Reference Guide. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-7864322-6-4.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Vendel, Curt (May 28, 2009). "Site News". Atari Museum. Archived from the original on December 6, 2010. Retrieved November 27, 2021.
  6. ^ Kitchen, Garry E. (March 5, 2010). "Garry E. Kitchen". Expert Report of Garry E. Kitchen (PDF). United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio. p. 2. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved November 29, 2021. Designed & programmed Atari 2600 adaptation of hit arcade game Donkey Kong, 1982 wholesale revenues in excess of $100 million on 4 million units.
  7. ^ Bogost, Ian; Montfort, Nick (2009). Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System. MIT Press. ISBN 978-0-262-01257-7.
  8. ^ Kohler, Chris (January 26, 2010). "Pitfall! Creator David Crane Is Named Videogame Pioneer". Wired. Archived from the original on April 23, 2017. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  9. ^ "Ed English: 2600 (Frogger, Mr. Do!, Roc 'n Rope)" (PDF). Digital Press. No. 52. May–June 2003. p. 7. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 1, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  10. ^ Urschel, Joe (March 6, 1982). "Gobbling up the home video market". The Day. p. C-6. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Wallis, Alistair (November 23, 2006). "Playing Catch Up: Night Trap's Rob Fulop". Gamasutra. UBM TechWeb. Archived from the original on February 15, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  12. ^ Baker, Chris (March 13, 2015). "How One Man Invented the Console Adventure Game". Wired. Archived from the original on September 13, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  13. ^ a b c d Capparell, James (June 1984). "Activision's James Levy: A software success story". Antic. Archived from the original on January 31, 2019. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  14. ^ a b Stilphen, Scott. "DP Interviews... Howard Scott Warshaw". Digital Press. Archived from the original on April 28, 2007. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
  15. ^ Wojahn, Ellen (February 1, 2003). The General Mills/Parker Brothers Merger: Playing by Different Rules. Washington, D.C.: Beard Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-5879818-2-1. Retrieved April 22, 2017.
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