[game_preservation] Where's the figure of 30 million Ataris sold come from?

[Devin Monnens]

Was curious about the origins of the 30 million Ataris sold. The number
seems to come from the 2004 Video Game Price Guide (which I do not have,
and the Amazon listing makes it sound rather dubious). I ask this because
the book I'm reading now (Sullivan's *Screen Play*, 1983) states about
10-15 million units were sold, which seems far more likely (no source given
by Sullivan, as it's a children's book, but even though he's been flat-out
wrong in other places, the book has some surprising information in others,
and is supported by the estimate that there were only about 10 million out
when *Pac-Man* was released a year earlier). I highly doubt Atari moved 15
million more since 1983. Are there any more accurate figures out there? Or
is that 15 million units not the full story?

In terms of how this is important... Well, indicates the size of the market
at the time of the crash and provides a nice comparison with sales figures
of the NES, Genesis, and SNES. What would be really great is if we had
sales figures up through 1983 for the system - apparently, it didn't start
selling well until new advertising campaigns and finally the *Space Invaders
* port.

-- 
Devin Monnens
www.deserthat.com

The sleep of Reason produces monsters.
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