10 Most Profitable Arcade Games That Made BILLIONS

10. Mortal Kombat - Midway (1992)

Revenue To Date: $1.045 billion

When it first came out, Mortal Kombat was an incredibly controversial game. The digitalization of blood, coupled with the brutal "Fatality" moves made conservative parents across the United States cringe. Of course, the kids loved it, and it wasn't long before they were surreptitiously dropping quarters into the cab when their parents weren't looking.

The game even spawned a Congressional hearing, which resulted in the creation of the Entertainment Software Rating Board, more commonly known as the ESRB, a rating system, which remains in use today. The controversy was certainly helpful in MK sales, but the gameplay wasn't bad either.

The graphics used a (then) revolutionary method of motion capture to make the characters look and move like real people. While it was a fighting game, it had a detailed story and lore, which was used to launch a fairly successful film franchise, so it's fair to say MK was a popular title when it was released in 1992.

The cabinets sold well enough, and all-told, 24,000 units shipped to arcades, movie theaters, bars, and bowling alleys where millions of people dropped an estimated 2.28 billion quarters into the machines, which amounts to around $1.045 billion in 2019 dollars.