The story behind some of the most and least successful video games in history

Mario rises in one corner, E.T. gets buried in another. This handy infographic explains it all.

Other than sports fans, you probably won’t find a group of people more passionate than gamers and their favorite video games. With so many games having been released, and players possessing a limited budget, the success of any video game depends on how many people end up buying it. Some of the most commercially successful games might not have been the pinnacle of top-of-the-line fun, but neither were some of the biggest flops terrible games. It’s hard to remember the history of all games ever released, but luckily, we don’t have to. The helpful folks at ebates created this cool infographic in chronological order. The entire thing can be found below, but let’s take a look at some of the key parts first.

Some of these successful games were so big that there is no way we could forget them, like Mario, Sonic, Pokémon and Minecraft, but there are a few games we often forget about that have sold millions and millions of copies like Tetris and Wii Fit.

Also included on the timeline is a note about the 2012 addition of selected video games to the Museum of Modern Art in New York cementing video games as more than just a silly hobby.

On the flip side, the biggest busts include everyone’s favorite punching bag, E.T., along with major flops such as Duke Nukem Forever and Daikatana where too much money, too much time, and way too much hype essentially doomed those games from the beginning (Doom on the other hand was quite successful).

Also included are some critical darlings like Beyond Good & Evil and Shenmue and Shenmue II, but no matter how good the games were, they couldn’t quite sell enough copies to be considered a success.

▼ The complete infographic,
Most Successful Video Games vs. Biggest Flops Throughout the Decades Created By: Ebates

For as long as we’ve all been playing video games, it’s no surprise that we can’t remember every single game we play, but with infographics like these, we can spend more time gaming and less time recording history. Just make sure you’ve got the right chair to game with!

Source: Ebates H/T DesignTAXI
Images: Ebates

Credit: