The Most Popular Game In Each Year of the 1970s

When most people think of early video games, they likely picture the 1980s, when plenty of popular games were released. Still, games got their start in 1958, and between then and 1979, plenty of commercial games reached players worldwide. Throughout the 1970s, innovative new games helped shape the industry, and publishers released some of the most important video games in media history, many of which were incredibly popular. Of course, popularity isn’t always quantifiable as a metric, so for this article, it’s primarily based on sales, but also each game’s overall impact on the industry in the year it was most popular.

1970) Chess 3.0

Commercial video games were not a thing in 1970, as most were passed around from coder to coder, used more as novelties or proofs of concept than anything else. An important creation during the year was Chess 3.0, a mainframe version of chess that won the first U.S. Computer Chess Championship, held by telephone. The event took place in September, and gameplay was conducted by operators who moved the relevant pieces on real chessboards while inputting the information into the mainframe. While not commercial or popular worldwide, Chess 3.0 laid the groundwork for chess computer games that would eventually follow.

1971) Computer Space

The most popular video game in 1971 was undeniably Computer Space, as it was also the first commercial arcade video game. It is essentially the same game as Spacewar!, a title coded back in 1962 for the DEC PDP-1 minicomputer held at MIT. The game features a rocket that the player uses to fight flying saucers. Its goal is to score more points than the computer opponent, and it is encased in a retro-futuristic fiberglass cabinet. Computer Space was the first arcade cabinet to have screentime in a feature film, appearing in 1973’s Soylent Green.

1972) Pong

Many people mistakenly believe that Pong was the first video game, likely because of its popularity. While Pong was nowhere near the first game, it was the first successful commercial video game that helped to establish the industry. This is what makes it one of the most important games ever created, and by 1972, it was everywhere. Initially, Pong was available only in arcade cabinet form, but it was soon ported and cloned into a myriad of devices. Atari sold a commercial version of Pong through Sears, so plenty of people had it in their homes. 

1973) The Magnavox Odyssey

While Pong continued to dominate well into the early 1970s, it had some competition in people’s homes. The Magnavox Odyssey was released a couple of months earlier, in September 1972, and quickly became the hottest item on the market. Not only was the Magnavox Odyssey the most popular system in 1972, but it was also the first successful commercial system of its kind. The reason the console is here, rather than a specific game, is that the Magnavox Odyssey included a bunch of titles. Overall, the system featured 28 games, though the most popular was Table Tennis, which directly inspired Pong.

1974) Tank

Atari’s Pong didn’t stop being popular by 1974, taking the top spot, but it wasn’t the only game on the market. Another popular entry was Tank, released in November ‘74. The two-player game features tanks set within a maze viewed from a top-down perspective. The players use their tanks to shoot at one another while avoiding mines. Once destroyed, a tank reappears, and each player scores points until the timed match ends, which typically lasts 2 minutes. The game was a hit and was later included in Combat for the Atari 2600. Incidentally, Dungeons & Dragons debuted in 1974, and while it wasn’t a video game, it would go on to inspire many over the years.

1975) Gun Fight

Gun Fight was released in November 1975, and it went on to become the most popular game of the year. It wasn’t just successful; Gun Fight is notable as the first arcade game to use a microprocessor. The game features two cowboys from the Old West who face one another with revolvers in a duel. This was significant, as it was the first video game to feature human players fighting one another. It was adapted from the 1969 electromechanical game of the same name. While it wasn’t evident at the time, it laid the groundwork for what would eventually become the FPS genre, in which players fight one another.

1976) Sea Wolf

There were a few popular games in 1976, including Speed Race and Breakout; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak designed the latter. Still, the top game of the year, at least in the United States, was Sea Wolf. The game features a beautifully designed upright cabinet, with the player viewing the screen through a periscope, heightening immersion. The goal is to control an unseen Sea Wolf-class submarine, which fires torpedoes vertically to hit passing ships before the timer runs out. Not only was it the most popular and successful game, but it was also highly innovative and inspired similar cabinet designs, such as 1980’s Battlezone.

1977) Sprint 2

Plenty of games released in 1977 broke new ground, including the oft-forgotten Color TV-Game from Nintendo, which was the best-selling home console. Over in the arcades, Sea Wolf continued to dominate, as did Breakout, but we’re giving the year to Sprint 2, a two-player overhead racing game. This was the first game to feature computer-controlled cars that could drive around the track in more realistic ways. Previous racing games had limited capabilities in this area, often having vehicles move along predetermined paths, but Sprint 2 changed things around, making for a more entertaining and immersive experience.

1978) Super Breakout

First and foremost, Space Invaders was released in 1978 and was undoubtedly the best and most popular game of the year. That said, we already covered it for our 1980 pick in a separate article, so Super Breakout takes its spot for ‘78. The sequel to 1976’s Breakout uses the same gameplay mechanics but features three modes, two of which include additional balls in the playfield. The arcade cabinet’s monitor was black-and-white, and it “colored” its screen with overlays, just as its predecessor did. It was a huge hit and was later featured as the pack-in game for the Atari 5200, which wasn’t the best home console in the world.

1979) Asteroids

The biggest game to close out the ‘70s was, once again, Space Invaders, so as before, we’re giving its spot to the next contender in line: Asteroids. The Atari classic is one of the best-known games of the decade, and despite its relative simplicity, it is a blast to play. It inspired countless clones and copycats and sold incredibly well, making it one of the earliest hits of the Golden Age of Arcade Games. Asteroids has been reimagined and re-released numerous times, including an enhanced version on the PlayStation, Game Boy Color, and many other systems.

What’s your all-time favorite game from the 1970s? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

The Most Popular Game In Each Year of the 1980s