Random Fact.

[Flack]

The first year Pac-Man was released, it sold 100,000 machines.

In 2006, Big Buck Hunter sold 7,000 units, making it the year's best selling arcade game.

(Source)

[Pantechnicon]

Are you sure about that 100,000 Pacs figure? Maybe if you count every Pac-themed sequel as well you get close to 100,000 units, but I can't imagine there were 100k original yellow Pac-cabs released period, let alone produced in one year's time. By way of comparison, iirc there were something like only 25,000 Asteroids cabs manufactured, not including Lunar Lander conversion kits. But 100K Pac-cabs...wow.

I'm perfectly willing to be wrong here, of course. Far be it from me to question the Flackster on something like this, but that number still sounds a little steep.

[Flack]

You should always question the Flackster. #1, the Flackster loves it (because it means people are reading the Flackster's posts), and #2, the Flackster has been known to make up facts from time to time.

In this case I don't have anything other than the above linked artice to substantiate the 100,000 number. According to Wikipedia (for what it's worth), "Pac-Man outstripped Asteroids as the greatest selling arcade game of the time,[15] and would go on to sell over 350,000 units.[16]" Unfortunately, [16] is a link to a ClassicGaming article which is no longer online.

There are lots of references to the 350,000 number -- of course if they all quoted Wiki and Wiki's not accurate, then that number doesn't mean much.

There are several references to the 100,000 units sold the first year, including this one from Salon.com, which unfortunately doesn't cite its sources.

[Gapporin]

This site and this site both cite the 100,000 in the first year mark.

Of course, I've also seen some sites cite (heh) that only 100,000 or 150,000 were sold in the U.S. alone.

Who's correct? Who knows.

[MrSparkle]

how the mighty arcades have fallen, its a sad day when a deer hunting game (probably sold in a ratio of 2 to 1, bars to arcades) is the top selling arcade game.

[Peale]

The number may be more in line for Ms Pac than Pac. At the opererator I used to work he had five Ms Pac cabs. One was numbered 895. Another I don't remember the exact number, but it was something like 193854. And even though they were the same game they were quite a bit different. Different materials, etc.