How much does a single arcade game make?

Here’s a good question for you, how much does an arcade game make? First we have to find out how many arcades there are in the world, or heck the US. Then we have to find out how much the average person will spend on a game. Find out the potential amount that can be made, and then make some basic guesses. Finally, compare that to modern console games and how much they make.

Get ready for some weirdness.

We can’t say exactly how many arcades there are, but there is a good way to guess. How many cities are there? Multiply that by 3. In an Ars Technica article Adam Pratt says that there should be 2-3 in every city. In the case of the North West, this number is actually a lowball. There are three in Seattle itself, and at least one in every town that is part of the Seattle Area. The same can be said for many of the major areas around. Spokane, for example, has four.

Portland has the famous Ground Kontrol, but also many smaller arcades. I actually don’t know the exact numbers, but would guess the same as Seattle. Also, Boise has the absolutely wonderful Pojos.

The SouthWest has much of the same numbers. Phoenix is actually still opening up new arcades, as is Las Vegas. San Francisco has some of the oldest Arcades ever, and many of the Cities of California have at least one. So, it seems that 2.5 arcades is a good estimate for the amount of arcades per city is a good lowball guess.

Now then, how many cities are there? A US Census shows that cities above 50,000 is 729. With a basis of 50,000 we can say that there should be about one arcade per. I really didn’t feel like doing the math, but its cool. To save some time, we will say there is about 2,000+ areas with population enough for an arcade. It’s likely way bigger, but we can lowball it.

At 2.5 arcades per city, and 2000 ‘cities’ we  can estimate that there are 5,000 arcades in the US, at least. That is a lot more than you imagined I expect, likely because arcades can be fairly small in size, and yet still have 15-30 games in them. I know this pretty well, because we did that for the last Emerald City ComicCon. Also, an arcade in Honolulu is very small, but hold 22 games in it.

Now we need to figure out how many people visit an arcade at any time. This would take a lot of sleuthing, but there is a cheat. US Gamer posted the top 10 money earning Arcade games. The lowest number I see in this list is around 2,000 per game as a low number. That is for Donkey Kong, which sold 132,000 units, and made $280,000,000. Literally each person was putting in around a dollar to play the game.

So, 5,000 arcades have on average 2,000 people playing a single game during a year. A good game has the potential of making $10 million in a year at least. Take a moment to let that in, we are trying to low ball it the best we can, and get numbers that are completely worth the time of the game maker.

What about the arcade owner himself? We will say that they have 20 games, and have the 2000 people per month. That is about $40,000 a month. You need to check for costs like power for the machines, rent, and paying for staff. With 20 games, playing all the time it should be about $20,000. That sounds pretty steep, but I know folks paying $50,000. Then you throw in Rent, and Staff you should add another $10,000. So you have a profit potential of $10,000 for 20 games every month.

So, it looks like everyone can walk away happy. So long as the arcade owner does good maintenance, and has new games it should be good.

While researching this I found out a lot better numbers. BMI -an arcade sales place- says there about 7,000 arcades. The industry is making about $8.1 billion 2004. By inflation standards, this is about $10.2 Billion today. In modern console sales we are at $10.5 Billion. In other words, arcades are about even with Consoles.

This is actually a really weird moment. If you ever read a modern article about arcades, it will be about Arcades in a past tense. Heck, I believed arcades were gone forever. Then, I started meeting arcade fans. The amount of Arcades is increasing, not decreasing.

Most of the promotion for arcades is to the owners, not the average fan. Perhaps the console companies don’t want you to know this. Perhaps companies want to build nostalgia for things for Millennials.

Most arcade companies do not promote themselves to the average player. Most of the flyers you see on websites were sent to the arcade owners. The only published magazine about arcades is for the owners. The magazine just celebrated its 55th anniversary, and you just found out it existed.

There are multiple events for arcades, and the public is not expected to arrive or welcome. The IAAPA is huge, and no one but insiders is invited. The same can be said about the JAEPO.

The problem with all of this is that the big events for console, and PC games is pretty much the same. The big events like GDC, E3, and others do not allow the public for the most part. There is still tons of coverage on it.

Perhaps the reason why is that many of the console companies themselves don’t want things to be covered. Nintendo has released a version of their console for Arcade use. Sony really hasn’t, however other companies have used the PS3, PS2 architecture. Microsoft has not released a single arcade item at all. On the other hand, PC’s have been used more and more for arcade games.

Still, the Playstation Brand, and the Xbox Brand does not try to fit the image of an arcade game. They want things to take a long time, and not die a lot. This is the opposite of what an arcade game is about. If they don’t talk about arcade games, and act as if the arcade doesn’t exist, perhaps it can be ignored? Arcades began to be ignored as the PS2 began to dominate.

In fact, the last major arcade company was SEGA. The Dreamcast was designed with the same architecture as their latest arcade board. It was easy to port Arcade games over. Then, the PS2 offered a ton of old arcade game compilations.

It would be a good idea to convince up and coming game designers that arcade games were no longer an option. That way, the only entry would either be PC or the indie game section by the console company itself.

Did Sony try to make videogame NEWS sites ignore arcade companies? Or has this been a longer time?

In many comments on arcade games today, the word Nostalgia shows up. In fact, in most commentaries about arcades, it talks about the locations as if they no longer exist. This is sort of true. The Pojos of my youth has changed a lot, but Pojos is still there.

Because so many arcades went under in 2003, perhaps people did not realize that arcades have been coming back? Because the average Generation X, or Millennial is now an adult, and thus do not have time to go to the arcade, they believe they do not exist?

Ironically, now that many have grown up enough to have more free time, arcade collecting is now a thing. The NWPAS has grown a great deal, and continues to do so.

Through a few guesses, we can see that an average arcade game can make quite  bit. There are around 2.5 arcades for every area of about 50,000 people. Also, the arcade industry is about even with the console industry. So then why do we act like the arcade is gone? Is it the industry itself making it too hard to know things? Did Console companies try to make it look like Arcades were gone? Did the average videogamer simply think they dissapeared because what they remembered isn’t there anymore?

The real reason why I am doing this is I found a really cool game. It’s a beat em up with a Castlevania feel to it. The graphics seem nice, and the gameplay looks like fun. The creators are releasing it for Smartphones. The thing is, the game has a need for buttons, and looks and acts just like an arcade game. It would fit perfectly, and I would love to play it.

What I have been thinking about is Indie companies around the North West. I work with Arcade enthusiasts, and know tons of indie folks. It would be really cool to have this game, and others showcased at the arcade show. The question is can it be done, and would it actually be worth it?