10 Most Profitable Arcade Games That Made BILLIONS
6. Defender - Williams (1981)
Revenue To Date: $2.8 billion
Defender stands as one of the most important video games of the early 1980s, due to the simple fact that it was an insanely popular shooter. The success of Defender helped with the overall development of shooters, and players loved the challenge it represented.
The control panel featured a staggering seven buttons, which was unheard of at the time. Nowadays, a single player's controller has dozens of functions, but back in 1981, most players were trying to work through having to smash a single button every few seconds; defender broke that trend.
The game's search & rescue gameplay put the player in a dynamic environment, featuring different types of enemies and a changing landscape. It was exceptionally difficult to master, and that level of difficulty made it a favorite of arcade denizens all over the world.
Defender broke records when it sold more than 60,000 total units. It was the first game of its kind to break the $1 billion mark, but that's only true if you analyze the total sales between 1981 and the early '90s when cabinet sales ceased. The billion it earned by 1993 is around $2.8 billion today, so it's no wonder Defender was Williams' best-selling video game.