1978 saw the release of new video games such as Space Invaders. The year is considered the beginning of the golden age of arcade video games. The year's highest-grossing video game was Taito's arcade game Space Invaders, while the best-selling home system was the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS).
Space Invaders was the top-grossing video game worldwide in 1978.[1] The following table lists the top-grossing arcade games of 1978 in Japan, the United Kingdom, United States, and worldwide.
| Market | Title | Gross revenue | Inflation | Cabinet sales | Developer | Distributor | Genre | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | Space Invaders | $670,000,000 | 100,000 | Taito | Taito | Shoot 'em up | |||
| United Kingdom | Space Invaders | Taito | Midway Manufacturing | Shoot 'em up | |||||
| United States | Space Wars | 10,000 | Cinematronics | Cinematronics | Shooter | [2] [3] [4] | |||
| Worldwide | Space Invaders | Taito | Shoot 'em up |
In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1978, according to the third annual Game Machine chart, which lists both arcade video games and electro-mechanical games (EM games) on the same arcade game chart. Taito's Space Invaders was the first video game to become highest-grossing overall arcade game on the annual Game Machine charts, after the two previous charts were topped by an EM game, F-1 by Namco.[5] [6]
| Arcade video games | Arcade electro-mechanical games (EM games) | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Title |
|
|
| Points | Rank | Title |
|
|
| Points |
| 1 | Space Invaders | 48 | 7 | 4 | 1 | F-1 | 2 | 4 | 0 | ||
| 2 | Super Speed Race V | 1 | 18 | 8 | 2 | Shoot Away | 0 | 2 | 7 | ||
| 3 | 4 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | ||||
| 4 | Scratch | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | Mogura Taiji (Whac-A-Mole) | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
| 5 | Speed Race DX | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | Submarine | 0 | 3 | 2 | ||
| 6 | Cosmic Monsters | 2 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 7 | Acrobat | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 8 | Gee Bee | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 9 | Super Breakout | 0 | 2 | 2 | 9 | Clay Champ | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 10 | (Sankyo) | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||
The following titles were the highest-grossing games on each Game Machine arcade chart. Nintendo's EVR Race was the highest-grossing medal game for the third year in a row.[5] [6]
| Chart | Top title | Gross revenue | Inflation | Cabinet sales | Manufacturer | Genre | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arcade game | Space Invaders | $670,000,000[7] | 100,000 | Taito | Shoot 'em up | [8] | ||
| Medal game | EVR Race | Nintendo | Racing |
In the United States, the following titles were the top ten highest-grossing arcade video games of 1978, in terms of coin drop earnings according to the annual Play Meter and RePlay charts.
| Rank | Play Meter[9] | RePlay | Cabinet sales |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Space Wars | 10,000 | |
| 2 | Sprint 2 | rowspan="9" | |
| 3 | Sea Wolf | Sprint 1 | |
| 4 | Sea Wolf II | Sea Wolf | |
| 5 | Super Bug | Breakout | |
| 6 | Starship 1 | Super Bug | |
| 7 | Circus | Starship 1 | |
| 8 | Breakout | Sea Wolf II | |
| 9 | Night Driver | Smokey Joe | |
| 10 | Sprint 1 | LeMans | |
| Rank | System(s) | Manufacturer(s) | Type | Generation | Sales | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) | Atari, Inc. | Console | Second | [10] | ||
| Bandai Baseball | Bandai | Handheld | [11] | ||||
| 3 | TRS-80 | Tandy Corporation | Computer | 8-bit | 150,000 | [12] | |
| 4 | Commodore PET | Commodore International | Computer | 8-bit | 30,000 | ||
| 5 | Apple II | Apple Inc. | Computer | 8-bit | 20,000 | [13] | |
| 6 | IMSAI 8080 | IMS Associates, Inc. | Computer | 8-bit | 5,000 | ||
| IBM 5110 | IBM | Computer | 5,000 | ||||
| 8 | Altair 8800 | MITS | Computer | 8-bit | 4,000 | ||
| HP 9800 series | Hewlett-Packard | Computer | 4,000 | ||||
| 10 | Pertec/MITS 300 | Pertec Computer | Computer | 8-bit | 3,000 |