10 More Video Games That Sold Millions (Despite Being Terrible)
3. Pac-Man (Atari 2600)
In the old days, reviewers used the phrase "Arcade Perfect" to describe a home console game that almost perfectly replicated its arcade version. Pac-Man on the Atari was very much on the opposite end of that scale.
Just look at the photo adorning this entry for proof. Even the most neophyte gamer should have some idea of what Pac-Man is meant to look like, and that beige-and-blue monstrosity is not it. It's the very definition of "We have Pac-Man at home" and, unsurprisingly, it plays as terribly as it looks.
Such was the Atari version of Pac-Man's all-encompassing ineptitude that it, along with the legendarily terrible licensed ET game, is often blamed for the video game market's infamous crash in 1983. Over 8 million people bought Pac-Man on the Atari, and it's all too easy to imagine every one of those eight million thinking "Well, I'm not making that mistake again" before swearing off video games for good and going on to live a life of religious fulfilment (to borrow a phrase from the incomparable Leslie Nielsen).
Some games may have got their franchises cancelled, but Pac-Man is the only one that almost caused the death of the entire industry.