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## November 2022

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### Visit *https://www.census.gov/history* every month for the latest Census History Home Page!

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### U.S. Census Bureau History: Video Games

On November 29, 1972, Atari, Inc., released the video game *Pong* to American consumers.  As one of the firstcommercially successful video games to be developed and distributed, *Pong* helped create a global videogaming industry valued at more than $250 billion annually.Image created by Jason Gauthier, U.S. Census Bureau, 2022.

On November 29, 1972, the table tennis video game *Pong* debuted in the United States.  As one of the first successful electronic video games ever produced, *Pong* proved so popular among players at bars and gaming arcades that its developers began selling a wildly successful home console version of the game in 1975.  Clones and competitors quickly followed *Pong's* lead.  Today, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide play video games.  The popularity of gaming is so great that global spending on video game consoles, games, gaming subscriptions, in-game purchases, etc., exceeds $250 billion annually.

Before the advent of electronic games like *Pong*, mechanical Skee-ball and shooting games were popular at amusement parks and carnivals in the early 1900s.  Coin-operated pinball machines were introduced in the 1930s, while games like *Periscope* and *Rifleman* used light guns, switches, bells, and electronic circuitry in the 1960s.  Primitive computerized video games like a 1952 *Tic Tac Toe* game developed at Great Britain's Cambridge University and a 1962 dueling spaceship game created by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA depended on huge mainframe computers similar to the room-sized, power-hungry UNIVAC I and 1105 computers used by the U.S. Census Bureau to tabulate its census data.

By 1972, advances in technology allowed development of the world's first home gaming console—the Magnavox Odyssey.  Users connected the console to their television and played games like soccer, skiing, football, or shooting games using an arcade-style light gun.  The Odyssey was not commercially successful, but its table tennis game inspired Atari, Inc., founders Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney and game developer Allan Alcorn to create a similar game with more advanced game play and sound effects.  With programming complete, a 4-foot cabinet was built to house the game's electronic circuitry, a store-bought black and white television, coin payment mechanism, and controls.  Within days of installing the *Pong* prototype at a Sunnyvale, CA, tavern, its coin box was overflowing!

In 1975, Sears, Roebuck, and Co., ordered 150,000 Atari *Home Pong* consoles that could be easily wired to the television  sets found in most American living rooms.  During the 1975 winter holiday season, *Home Pong* was one of the most sought after items at Sears stores.  In 1977, Bushnell and Dabney replaced *Home Pong* consoles with the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS)—the now famous Atari 2600.  Consisting of a newly introduced 8-bit microprocessor inside a woodgrain console and joy sticks, players could choose games stored on swappable read-only memory (ROM) cartridges.  Over the next 15 years, Atari sold more than 30 million of the consoles and produced or licensed hundreds of games, including now iconic titles like *Pitfall*, *Pac-Man*, *Asteroids*, *Frogger*, *Donkey Kong*, and *E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial*.

By the 1980s, Atari faced stiff competition from a number of console makers seeking to tap into the rapidly growing home video gaming market.  To win customers, console manufacturers regularly released new systems with faster processors, improved graphics and sound, and expansive libraries of games.  Today, popular proprietary games, new and updated console releases, and immersive, online games using gamers' broadband internet connections encourages ownership of two or more consoles.  The demand for consoles and games has fueled a highly competitive gaming market that has seen multinational technology companies like Atari, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sega sell hundreds of millions of home video gaming consoles and portable handheld gaming devices.
winter holidayConsumer Technology Association172.5 million$107.5 billion$138.4 billion
You can learn more about the history of video games, computers, and "smart" devices using census data and records.  For example:
                        - The design, distribution, and sale of video games, gaming apps, and gaming hardware employs millions of Americans.  Companies that design video games for gaming consoles and apps are part of the Computer Systems Design and Related Services industry (NAICS 5415).  Data from the Census Bureau's  County Business Patterns  series showed that in 2020, there were  143,096  establishments in the United States in this industry.  These establishment employed  2,018,780  people during the pay period that included March 12, 2020.  During 2020, annual payroll for establishments in the Computer Systems Design and Related Services industry was more than  $222.6 billion . Do you live and breathe video games?  Gamers may enjoy moving to an address in Game Creek, AK; Bowling Green, KY; Golf, IL; Gamerco, NM; Gamewell, NC; Arcade, NY; Sportsmen Acres, OK; Fair Play, MO; Six Shooter Canyon, AZ; Raceland, KY; or Puzzletown, PA.  If you are trying to avoid the constant din of buzzing, ringing, beeping video games, apps, and electronic devices, you might enjoy a town named for its peace and quiet like Hush Lake, MN; Peaceful Village, MO; Boring, OR; Mount Calm, TX; Peace, MN; Rest Haven, GA; Still Pond, MD; or Tranquility, CA.  Before home video game consoles became commonplace in the majority of American homes, most 1970s and 1980s gamers were introduced to *Pong* and other early video games like *Asteroid*, *Space Invaders*, and *Pac-Man* at local video game arcades.  In 2020, the County Business Patterns series found there were 3,350 Amusement arcades (NAICS 713120) in the United States.  These establishments employed 66,707 people during the pay period that included March 12, 2020, earning an annual payroll of nearly $750 million.  Gaming systems and video games rely on access to reliable and fast internet connections to keep consoles updated with the latest software, make in-game purchases, and allow players to compete against each other in multiplayer games. Data collected by the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) showed that in 2018, nearly 103.7 million of the nations121.5 million households had internet subscriptions.  Nearly 103.4 million households had broadband internet, while just 325,497 only had a dial-up internet subscription.  According to the Census Bureau's report, Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2018, households in Utah (90 percent), Washington (90 percent), and Colorado (89.4 percent) were most likely to have broadband internet, while those in Arkansas (76.9 percent), New Mexico (76.9 percent), and Mississippi (76.3 percent) were least likely to subscribe to broadband internet.  Smartphone games and apps are a popular pastime with the average time spent using smartphone apps topping 4 hoursa day in the United States.  In households where the householders were under the age of 35 years of age, smartphone ownership was 97 percent in 2018.  At 93.1 percent, people reporting they were Asian alone (not Hispanic) were most likely to own a smartphone, followed by Hispanics of any race (88.4 percent); White alone, not Hispanic (83.4 percent); and Black alone, not Hispanic (81.9 percent).  In 2021, more than 14 million households reported that their cellular data plan was their only source for internet access.  As millions of Americans quarantined and worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of households that owned one or more types of computing devices rose to the highest point in history.  In 2021, ACS data showed that of the nation's 127,544,730 households, 121,224,032 had one or more types of computing devices.  Just 3,661,111 households had a desktop or laptop alone, while 117,562,921 owned a smartphone, tablet, or other portable wireless computer or other computer.  The number of households reporting no computer fell from 9,950,639 in 2018 to 6,320,698 in 2021.  The U.S. Census Bureau's International Trade Statistics provide detailed data about the importation of video game consoles which show up as sales in the Monthly Retail Trade data.  These data allow users to track import peaks of consoles prior to the release of a new gaming system as well as annual spikes in sales at the nation's electronic stores during the winter holidays.  Learn more about these data and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on console and electronics sales from the report Census Statistics Show Early Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Game Console Launch.  Northern California's Silicon Valley is famous as the birthplace of some of the world's largest internet and computer-related companies.  These establishments employ large numbers of professionals working in the Computer systems design services (NAICS 541512), Custom computer programming services (NAICS 541511), and Software publishers (NAICS 511210) sectors.  These computer, software, and technology firms helped make homes in city's like Los Altos, Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, and San Mateo some of the most sought after real estate in California.  With a population of 1,013,240 in 2020, San Jose, CA, is Silicon Valley's largest city and the tenth largest urban place in the United States in 2020. 

Video games are so popular that the U.S. Army developed and published its own computer-based combat video game in 2002 to encourage young men and women toenlist.  *America's Army* is a first-person "shooter" video game that allows players to virtually operate U.S. Army weapons systems and learn combat medical skills.Between 2002 and its official May 2022 retirement, the *America's Army* video game, sequels, and licensed games on Windows, XBox, PlayStation, arcade, andmobile platforms earned five *Guinness World Records* including the record for most downloaded war video game ever created!Photo courtesy of the U.S. Army.

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### This Month in Census History

1937 Unemployment Census7.8 million3.2 millionGreat Depressionstatistical sampling11 millionWilliam Lane Austin

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### Black Friday

Thanksgivingwinter holidays$31.5 billion$16.4 billion$4.3 billion$9.5 billion$24.9 billion$142.2 billion

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### Did You Know?

Green Bank, WVNational Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ)electromagnetic hypersensitivityGreen Bank Observatory'sTable Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet ZoneBoulder, CO

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