History

2022

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 first
commercially successful video games to be developed and distributed, Pong helped create a global video
gaming 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.

With video game consoles ranking at the top of birthday and winter holiday "wish lists" for children young and old, the Consumer Technology Association estimated that more than half of the 172.5 million households in the United States own at least one video game console in 2021. With more than 2.5 billion gamers worldwide, the global market for consoles in 2021 was valued at $107.5 billion , while the market for the video games played on those consoles was an estimated $138.4 billion the same year.

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 hours a 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 to
enlist. 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, and
mobile 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

The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the 1937 Unemployment Census the week of November 14, 1937.

Voluntary response to the census found that 7.8 million people were unemployed and 3.2 million people were partially unemployed 8 years after the Great Depression began.

An "enumerative check census" that followed used statistical sampling to confirm that 11 million men and women 15 years and older were unemployed in November 1937.

Budgeted to cost $5 million, the Census Bureau conducted the censuses for less than $2 million. Once all the data were tabulated, director William Lane Austin returned the $3 million surplus to the U.S. Treasury.

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Black Friday

The Friday after Thanksgiving is the traditional start of the winter holidays shopping season in the United States. Companies designing and manufacturing video game consoles, games, and gaming gear anxiously anticipate these throngs of shoppers in stores and online.

Known as "Black Friday," American shoppers flock to shopping malls, department stores, discount retailers, and e-commerce retailers to purchase gifts for family and friends.

In 2019, Department stores (NAICS 4521) selling clothing, housewares, and electronics—like video games and game consoles—had sales of $31.5 billion in November and December.

Hobby, toy, and game stores (NAICS 45112) had sales of nearly $16.4 billion in 2019, including $4.3 billion during the last 2 months of the year.

Sales of $9.5 billion in December 2019 made the month the busiest for Electronics stores (NAICS 443142) as shoppers purchased video games, game consoles, televisions, telephones, laptops, and other gadgets.

Shoppers are increasingly avoiding the crowds by shopping online. Between 2000 and 2019, spending online and at mail-order houses during the months of November and December rose from about $24.9 billion to $142.2 billion.

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Did You Know?

The residents of Green Bank, WV, enjoy very limited access to smartphones, gaming consoles, "smart" appliances, and GPS-enabled watches.

The town is located within the United States' National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) established in 1958.

Radio transmissions are prohibited within the NRQZ. Strictly-enforced radio silence permits research and intelligence gathering free from electronic interference. The NRQZ is also a haven for people suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Residents living within 20 miles of the quiet zone's Green Bank Observatory's radio telescope can not use cell phones, Wi-Fi routers, or "smart" devices. There are even restrictions on microwave ovens since they may disrupt the observatory's research.

Thanks to residents' cooperation, the NRQZ is home to the only large radio telescope capable of searching our universe for the chemical building blocks needed for life.

The U.S. Department of Commerce also maintains a radio quiet zone near its Table Mountain Field Site and Radio Quiet Zone north of Boulder, CO.

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