10 Biggest Video Game Flops Of All Time

1. E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial

There perhaps never will be as big of a financial failure within the video game industry as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for the Atari 2600. Even quarter of a century later, E.T. is still considered one of the worst games ever made.

While E.T. actually sold fairly well early on, the sales weren’t anywhere near Atari’s expectations. Terrible word of mouth hurt sales even more, and despite the immense popularity of the film, sales continued to dwindle. This led to an excess of inventory, which caused retailers to consistently drop the price just to make some profit off it. All of this combined with the cost of the movie license caused Atari to take a huge financial hit off of what was supposed to be a surefire success.

The spectacular failure of E.T. cannot be overstated. It is said to be a major catalyst to the video game crash of 1983, which nearly destroyed the entire industry. Its failure also birthed the rumors of the legendary Atari video game landfill in New Mexico: a mass burial which was long believed to contain thousands of unsold E.T. cartridges. While it was considered a myth by many for a long time, it was finally proved true when it was excavated in 2014. In this way, E.T.’s failures have immortalized it within gaming culture; that’s how significant of a bomb it truly was.

What are some other notable video game flops? Let us know in the comments!