Golden Age of Arcade Video Games - The End of The Era and The Aftermath

The End of The Era and The Aftermath

The golden age cooled around the mid-1980s as copies of popular games began to saturate the arcades. Arcade video game revenues in the United States had declined from $8 billion in 1981 and $7 billion in 1982 to $5 billion in 1983, reaching a low of $4 billion in 1986. Despite this, arcades would remain commonplace through to the early 1990s as there were still new genres being explored. In 1987, arcades experienced a short resurgence with Double Dragon, which started the golden age of beat 'em up games, a genre that would peak in popularity with Final Fight two years later. In 1988, arcade game revenues in the United States rose back up to $6.4 billion, largely due to the rising popularity of violent action games in the beat 'em up and run and gun shooter genres. After yet another relative decline, US arcade video game revenues had fallen to $2.1 billion by 1991, by which time the sales of arcade machines had declined, with 4000 unit sales being considered a hit at the time.

One of the causes of decline was new generations of personal computers and video game consoles that sapped interest from arcades. In the early 1990s, the Sega Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in North America) and Super Nintendo Entertainment System greatly improved home play and some of the technology was even integrated into a few video arcade machines.