Dust off that old Nintendo and haul your prized collection of games out of the closet. National Video Game Day happens on July 8! (Its cousin, National Video Games Day, is Sept. 12.) Primarily used for recreational purposes (although professional gaming leagues do exist), video games have exploded in popularity over the last few decades. They’re exciting, invigorating, and most importantly — not just for kids.
The very first video game ever invented involved simple table tennis. Today, there are over five million games in existence. From high-speed racing adventures to perilous virtual dueling matches, there’s a genre for everyone to enjoy. Follow these Top Video Game Journalists if you want to learn more about video games.
- 1940 – The first video game, ‘Nim’ is introduced at the New York World’s Fair by Edward Condon.
- 1947 – the earliest form of video games was created. It was a “cathode-ray tube amusement device” that was filed for a patent on 25th January 1947 by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann. On 14th December 1948, it was issued as a U.S. Patent 2455992.
- 1958 – The first video game is created by physicist William Higinbotham, a very simple tennis video game becomes popular at an open house of the Brookhaven National Laboratory.
- 1972 – First Home Video Game System is sold. From a prototype multi-player, a multi-program video game created by Ralph Baer, the Odyssey is sold as the first home console video game.
- 1972 – On October 19, 1972, the Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University organized the world’s first eSports tournament: the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics. However, no prize money was involved yet – the winner would only receive a subscription to Rolling Stones.
- 1973 – The term “video game” first appeared in print in 1973. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a BusinessWeek story from November 10th, 1973 as the first printed use of the word.
- 1975 – Atari developed the home version of Pong which was released on Christmas Day. Odyssey and Pong which are both arcade games and home machines became a success.
- 1976 – The first console to have games available in cartridges was the Fairchild Channel F console, introduced in August 1976.
- 1977 – Atari 2600 released. Known as the Video Computer System, Atari’s console features joysticks and interchangeable cartridges for multicolored games.
- 1981 – Donkey Kong is released. A Japanese company, Nintendo, released this game featuring an ape who will eventually be the beginning of a franchise.
- 1981 – Released by Atari in 1981, Battlezone was the first successful 3D game.
- 1985 – The first Super Mario game is released!
- 1989 – Nintendo’s Game Boy is released. After a slump in the video game industry, Nintendo makes a comeback with the Gameboy and becomes a dominator in the market.
- 1993 – In 1993, Tetris was brought aboard a Soyuz TM-17 rocket to the MIR Space Station, where the Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr A. Serebrov played it.
- 2008 – In 2008, Burnout Paradise surprised many as it featured a campaign ad for former President Barack Obama. On one of the billboards of the game, there was the “Vote for Change” campaign sign of Barrack Obama.
- 2019 – “Pokemon Sword and Shield” for the Switch are both released.
- 2019 – There are about 1,181,019 existing video games as of 2019.
- 2021 – The Video Game Industry Generated $180 Billion in 2021
- 2022 – As of 2022, the video game industry is estimated to be worth around $184 billion
- E-sports is the professional competition for video games.
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate is the longest-running game ever. The Monster Hunter franchise is notorious for its dedication to realism – (Seriously, no pause menu?!) – and with Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate, you’ll feel like a hunter yourself with the time it takes to finish this game. You can try a hand at it if you’d like, but MH3 Ultimate takes a whopping average of 693 hours to finish: and that’s just an average!
- Minecraft is the best-selling video game of all time.
- Antonio Monteiro of Texas holds the Guinness World Record for the largest video game collection at 20,139 video games. The collection features games from the 2nd to 8th generation consoles and over 100 devices to play them on. One of the most hardcore video game facts: It took Guinness 8 days to finish counting them all!
- Grand Theft Auto was supposed to be a much tamer Race’n’Chase, but during a test run, a glitch made the police cars attack the player. The glitch was so well-received by testers that the developers had to scrap the original concept and rebuild the game around high-speed police chases.
- There is a hiding spot in Pac-Man where you can be safe. Once you find this location, you can sit safely for as long as you want.
- Aside from being the first commercially successful 3D game, Battlezone was also used by the U.S. Army to train their tank gunners.
- The Wii’s motion sensor technology was rejected by Sony and Microsoft. Gyration Inc. was behind the iconic motion sensor of the Wii. However, it was rejected twice.
- The Nintendo Switch is the only commercial hybrid console to date.
- PlayStation 2 is the Best-selling Video Game Console of all time.
- The average age of a gamer is 35, according to a recent study — this proves that the gaming market is expanding beyond kids and teenagers.
- The average salary for a video game designer in the United States is around $85,000 per year
- At one point, “Candy Crush Saga” reigned as the most popular mobile game in the world. Today, it continues to rank in first place in the Apple App Store and second place on the Google Play Store.
- The Atari game “E.T.” is widely regarded as the worst video game of all time — it was so bad that the creators literally buried copies of the game in the New Mexico desert.
- The greatest fighting game of all time, “Mortal Kombat,” didn’t have a name for the first six months of its development.
- The game “Chex Quest” was released as part of a Chex cereal promotion — it was the first video game ever to come as a cereal box prize.
- NATIONALTODAY NATIONAL VIDEO GAME DAY SURVEY. Info gained from a top Entertainment Marketing Agency (Survey of 1,000 Americans).
- What’s the best gaming console?
- #1: Playstation (38%)
#2: Xbox (38%)
#3: Nintendo (21%) - What’s the best video game franchise?
#1: Super Mario (47%)
#2: Call of Duty (21%)
#3: Donkey Kong (19%)
#4: Grand Theft Auto (19%)
#5: Pokemon (16%)
#6: Zelda (13%)
#7: Sonic the Hedgehog (13%)
#8: Final Fantasy (9%)
#9: Halo (9%)
#10: Crash Bandicoot (7%) - How often do you play video games?
#1: Everyday (31%)
#2: Rarely (31%)
#3: 2-3x a week (23%) - When do mobile gamers like to play games on their phones?
#1: Whenever I’m bored (66%)
#2: When I’m watching TV (41%)
#3: Before I go to sleep (39%)
#4: When I’m on the toilet (34%)
#5: During my breaks at work (21%)
#6: Whenever I’m eating (20%)
#7: Before I leave for work (12%)
#8: On my commute to work (8%)
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