Article updated on January 24, 2021 by Byothe
Originally there was Pong. Two vertical bars representing rackets and a dot representing the ball made this game the ancestor and first success of video games.
Over 8000 arcade machines of this game were deployed in bars and arcades around the world within 2 years of its release in 1972. Much to the delight of teenagers of the time.
But since that time of innocence, the video game market has become a real business driven by 2.2 billion players and its nearly 50 years of existence. The turnover of companies involved in this industry reaches $109 billion!
Pong helped establish Atari as a leading company in the 70s and led to the mass marketing of the first video game consoles. By 1977, 27.6 million Atari 2600s were installed in homes around the world, becoming an inspiration to future tech executives like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who created the game Breakout in their spare time during the early days of Apple Computer Inc.
During the 80s, Pac Man and Mario Bros established themselves as essential references and Nintendo experienced its first successes in the world of consoles with the NES and the Game-Boy.
But today the industry has changed and 43% of games are played on smartphones, 31% on game consoles and 23% on PC. But above all, as the first players have become parents, 71% of them now believe that video games have a positive influence on their children's lives (ok, that remains to be proven!).
Find all this information and more in the infographic below.
