Pong to GTA VI: Play Through 50 Years of Video Games’ Biggest Turns

Pong reaches the public

Video games existed before 1972, but that year brought them to a much wider audience. The Magnavox Odyssey became the first home console, connecting to a family television.

Atari placed a test version of Pong in Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, California. Its paddles, square ball and scoreboard helped make it an early commercial hit and establish the arcade business.

A crash and a new star

The US market collapsed in 1983 after a flood of hastily made games and too many consoles. Atari buried thousands of unsold cartridges in Alamogordo, New Mexico, including the rushed E.T. film tie-in.

Super Mario Bros. helped define a different kind of game, moving beyond one screen with side-scrolling levels, hidden blocks and secret pipes. Its hero also had a distinct personality.

Consoles change direction

The 1990s brought competition between Sega and Nintendo, followed by Sony’s entry with the PlayStation. Launched in Japan in 1994 and elsewhere in 1995, the console used CDs that held more data than cartridges and cost less to make.

Concerns over violence led US senators, including Joe Lieberman, to hold hearings in 1993 on Mortal Kombat and Night Trap. The industry established the Entertainment Software Rating Board the following year.

In the 2000s, the PlayStation 2 combined gaming with DVD playback and went on to sell about 160 million units. Nintendo’s Wii focused on motion controls, while Xbox Live connected players online from 2002 and Apple opened its App Store in 2008.

Players build bigger worlds

Minecraft gave players freedom to shape a world of blocks and choose their own goals. The game, officially released in 2011, had sold about 350 million copies by 2025, more than any other game; Microsoft bought its developer, Mojang, in 2014 for $2.5bn.

Grand Theft Auto V arrived in 2013 and had sold more than 230 million units worldwide by June 2026, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive. The pandemic brought more people to games in 2020, but a later downturn led to thousands of industry job cuts in 2023 and 2024.

Al Jazeera used AI tools to create six short levels inspired by games from different decades, inviting players to try to beat its times. As GTA VI approaches, the game is poised to test the growth of an industry now worth more than $200bn annually.