Other Stages
- (You Are Here) Stage 1: Arcades Today - Earnings & Introduction
- Stage 2: Dance Dance Revolution - The Peak and Valley of the Arcade.
- Stage 3: Big Prize Games, Big Money Gains. I Love It!
I'm sure many folks who've gone to the family-friendly arcades in the past 10 years have noticed there's a heavy shift away from video arcade games.
There's now a huge emphasis on big, flashy, physical games. Less challenge being presented by a monitor with imagination, but instead, something with a large wheel, targets, or touchscreens with a theme slapped onto it.
The, now closed, Round 1 arcade in Taunton, MA
There're a few major reasons. I'd personally say the biggest (in the West) is the shift to home consoles leading to more time- and space-shifting* options being embraced.
- time/space-shifting is consuming media outside a scheduled time/place. Think of the rise of VCR recording or on-demand streaming for time-shifting, and mobile phones or handheld consoles for space-shifting
I wanted to present some of the other (and honestly very logical) reasons why the remaining arcades have changed in the U.S..
An old-school arcade, by comparison, has a lot more video and pinball machines.
But instead of jumping straight in, let me address: why listen to me?
I used to be an arcade tech (2007-2008)
I was an arcade tech for Namco back in 2007 and 2008. Namco rented locations within high foot-traffic spaces to open up arcades, such as malls or Walmarts. My location was within a, now, defunct sports and gambling entertainment center called Red & Jerry's. It was housed inside a large warehouse building that offered ample room for events, including Namco's whole arcade. The subsection claimed by the arcade was bigger than most arcades you'd see in the 90s and 00s when corporations like SEGA and Namco were trying to claim U.S. shares.
The story of how I got into being the arcade tech is one for a different time, but I was effectively left to manage the place by myself. So I have solid, but dated, insight into how the arcade ran from an earnings and repairs angle.
While my memory will be fuzzy in some respects, I hope sharing my experience provides further insight for y'all.
Now you know how I was in the arcade business, let's talk about the arcade.
Biggest earners
We kept records on what machines were earning to best understand priorities. Arcade machines were placed into four categories:
- Video: Video games and pinball games with no extrinsic reward (except a hi-score.)
- Redemption: Anything that gave you tickets to go to the prize counter to redeem a prize.
- Large Prize: Big-win games with prizes won costing over ~$100 to stock. Think of games that show off video game consoles as a prize like (Mega) Stacker, or Prize Locker.
- Small Prize: Games with prizes valued at sub-$100, and generally will be WELL below it. Think plush and candy prizes, etc.
You may not be surprised to hear that Large Prize games are significantly the biggest earners. After that, it's the Redemption and Small Prize games, then Video.
The % of earnings was along the lines of:
- Prizes (Large + Small combined): 60% (IIRC around 35% Large, 25% Small)
- Redemption: 30%
- Video: 10%
Stacker machines makes gangbusters thanks to their huge prize potential.
It's not a surprise that arcades hyper-focus on Prize and Redemption games in modern arcades. Still, some may be surprised to learn that video games only earned ~10% of our arcade's earnings.
When arcade experiences were unique in the 80s and 90s, the newest game had to be played there. Now that consoles have reached parity and beyond in most cases, arcades can only offer a few unique experiences, especially in the video game realm.
There's a few reasons why video arcade games themselves are worse for earnings. I feel the best way to cover all those reasons is by bringing in a unique-experience game that was also our consistent biggest loss... despite its popularity!
Next Stage: Dance Dance Revolution - The Peak and Valley of the Video Arcade.


