1983 in video games

1983 has seen many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Mario Bros. and Pole Position II, along with new titles such as Astron Belt, Champion Baseball, Dragon's Lair, Elevator Action, Spy Hunter and Track & Field. Major events include the video game crash of 1983 in North America, and the third generation of video game consoles beginning with the launch of Nintendo's Family Computer and Sega's SG-1000 in Japan. The year's highest-grossing video game was Namco's arcade game Pole Position, while the year's best-selling home system was Nintendo's Game & Watch for the third time since 1980.

Financial performance

In the United States, arcade video game revenues are worth $2.9 billion.
In the United States, home video game sales are worth $2 billion.
In Japan, home video game sales approach ¥400 billion.
Highest-grossing arcade games

Pole Position, a racing game by Namco, was the most successful arcade game of 1983.

Japan

In Japan, Game Machine magazine began publishing half-monthly charts of top-grossing arcade games from June 1, 1983. The following titles were the top-grossing arcade video games on the Game Machine charts from June to December 1983.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1983, according to RePlay magazine, the Amusement & Music Operators Association, and Cash Box magazine.

Rank	RePlay	AMOA	Cash Box	Play Meter
1	Pole Position	Pole Position	Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position	Dragon's Lair
2	Dragon's Lair, Mr. Do!	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	Ms. Pac-Man, Pole Position	rowspan="12"
3	Dragon's Lair, Mr. Do!	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	Dragon's Lair	-
4		Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	Millipede	-
5	rowspan="9"	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	rowspan="9"	-
6	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
7	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
8	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
9	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
10	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
11	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
12	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-
13	-	Bump 'n' Jump, Galaga, Ms. Pac-Man, Mr. Do!, Bag Man, Nibbler, Buck Rogers: Planet of Zoom, Jungle King Donkey Kong, Joust, Time Pilot, Qbert*	-	-

Best-selling home video games

The following titles were the best-selling home video games of 1983.

Rank	Title	Platform	Publisher	Licensor	Release year	Genre	Sales
1	Ms. Pac-Man	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.	Midway	1983	Maze	1,963,078
2	Donkey Kong	ColecoVision	Coleco	Nintendo	1982	Platformer	1,500,000
3	Centipede	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.		1983	Shoot 'em up	1,475,240
4	Pitfall!	Atari 2600	Activision		1982	Platformer	1,000,000+
5	Pac-Man	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.	Namco	1982	Maze	684,569
6	Night Driver	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.		1980	Racing	580,959
7	Space Invaders	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.	Taito	1980	Shoot 'em up	435,353
8	Warlords	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.		1981	Action	372,672
9	Breakout	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.		1978	Block breaker	312,672
10	Centipede	Atari 2600	Atari, Inc.		1983	Shoot 'em up	100,499

Best-selling home systems

Major awards

Events

January – Electronic Games labels Donkey Kong, Space Panic, and other games with ladders as "climbing games."
The fourth Arcade Awards are held, for games released during 1981–1982, with Tron winning best arcade game, Demon Attack best console game, David's Midnight Magic best computer game, and Galaxian best standalone game.
A major shakeout of the North American video game industry begins. By 1986, total video games sales will decrease from US$3.2 billion to US$0.1 billion.
December - Sente Technologies, a division of Pizza Time Theater, launches and demonstrates its first title Snake Pit.
Business
MCA Universal files suit against Nintendo, claiming that the latter company's video arcade hit Donkey Kong violated Universal's copyright on King Kong. After a brief trial, the judge determined that the rights to the original Kong had passed into the public domain. The case was dismissed, and MCA Universal paid US$1.8 million in damages to Nintendo.,
Atari files suit against Coleco, claiming violation of Atari's patents on the Atari 2600 video game console. The previous year, Coleco released a peripheral device that made it possible for Atari 2600 game cartridges to be run on the ColecoVision console.
Amusement Developing Section 8, a research and development department of Sega, is established under the supervision of Yu Suzuki in Tokyo, Japan.
Milton Bradley takes over distribution of the Vectrex console after purchasing General Consumer Electronics.
New companies: Aackosoft, Alligata, Beyond, Graftgold, Infogrames, Origin Systems, Interplay, Navarre, Mastertronic, Spectrum HoloByte, Tynesoft
Defunct companies: Games by Apollo, U.S. Games, Xonox.