Check out these major moments in the history of gaming!
INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo (Pong); M-Studio/Alamy Stock Vector (Pac-Man); Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images (Arcade); Sonic Team/Sega (Sonic); Digital Image Library/Alamy Stock Photo (Angry Birds); Minecraft (Creeper, Steve); The Pokemon Company International (Pikachu); Shutterstock.com (All Other Images)
Math,
Growing Up With Video Games
Analyze a timeline about the history of video games.
By Jess McKenna-Ratjen
From the December 2025/January 2026 Issue
1972
INTERFOTO/Alamy Stock Photo
The first video game to make a profit, called Pong, was released. You could play it on bulky computers or coin-operated arcade machines.
1980
M-Studio/Alamy Stock Vector (Pac-Man); Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty Images (Arcade)
The release of Pac-Man kicked off an era of arcade gaming! Thousands of arcades—where people went to play video games—opened in the 1980s.
1985
Shutterstock.com
A new console called the Nintendo Entertainment System brought gaming into more people’s homes. Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda became classics.
1995
Sonic Team/Sega (Sonic)
A new gaming system called PlayStation hit stores. It introduced 3-D graphics to gaming. Games like Sonic the Hedgehog were launched around this time.
2007
Digital Image Library/Alamy atock Photo (Angry Birds); Shutterstock.com
The invention of the iPhone kicked off a boom in mobile gaming. Games became apps!
2011
Minecraft (Creeper, Steve); Shutterstock.com
Minecraft, the best-selling video game of all time, became a sensation. It grew from 1 million players to 10 million in just six months!
2025
Shutterstock.com
Nintendo released the Switch 2. It’s the company’s fastest-selling gaming device, with more than 3.5 million of them sold in four days.
What’s your favorite way to play games? Does it involve any of this technology?
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