The Atari 2600 (previously known as the Atari VCS) was the most successful home system of its generation, and it was home to many popular games that sold millions of copies (a figure unheard of before). The best-selling video game on the console is Pac-Man, a port of the arcade game of the same name programmed by Tod Frye. Originally created by Toru Iwatani and released in 1980, Pac-Man was later ported to many home video game consoles, beginning with the Atari 2600 in 1982. Within months it became the best-selling home video game of all time, with more than 1.5 million units pre-ordered by customers before its release. Pac-Man went on to sell over 8 million units worldwide.
The second best-selling Atari 2600 game is Space Invaders, a port of the 1978 Taito arcade video game that was programmed by Rick Maurer, which was released in 1980 and became the first video game to sell a million copies. It went on to sell over copies, was the best-selling game on the system (until Pac-Man), and is credited with increasing the VCSâÂÂs sales and popularity.
At least 24 video games released on the Atari 2600 sold at least one million copies, of which 14 were developed and/or published by the console's manufacturer, Atari, Inc. Other publishers with multiple entries in the top 24 are Activision (six titles) and Imagic (three titles). Three of the games in the top 24 were programmed by David Crane, three by Howard Scott Warshaw, three by Rob Fulop, and two by Bradley G. Stewart.
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