The nationwide release of the arcade version of Pac-Man in July 1980 marked a pioneering moment in the history of video games, introducing a rare nonviolent character for players to control and sowing the seeds for a cultural and commercial legacy that continues to endure to this day.
Pac-Man is believed to be one of the most influential video games ever made. Not only did Pac-man establish the maze chase genre, it was one of the first games to give characters individual personalities, it appealed to female audiences in a way that hadn’t been seen before and was one of gaming's first licensing success stories.
According to a 2016 report by USgamer, Pac-Man has established itself as one of the highest-grossing arcade games in history, selling more than 400,000 units worldwide by 1982 and pocketing revenue of more than $3.5 billion by 1990. The franchise also remains one of the best-selling game series of all time, generating revenue of more than $14 billion and sales worth $43 million as of 2016.
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