No. Pac-Man is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.

What platforms is Pac-Man on?

Pac-Man is available on Arcade, Legacy Computer, Handheld Electronic LCD, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation Portable, Atari 2600, Android, iOS, Legacy Mobile Device, PC (Microsoft Windows), Atari 8-bit, Sharp X68000, Sharp MZ-2200, Commodore VIC-20, Texas Instruments TI-99, Palm OS, PC-9800 Series, Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy, Web browser, Neo Geo Pocket Color, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone, MSX, Plug & Play, DOS, FM-7, ColecoVision, PC-8800 Series, Family Computer Disk System, Wii, Family Computer, Wii U, Nintendo Entertainment System, Xbox One, Sharp X1, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Intellivision, Sega Game Gear, NEC PC-6000 Series.

When did Pac-Man release?

Pac-Man was first released on May 22, 1980.

Pac-Man

May 22, 1980ArcadeArcadeLegacy ComputerHandheld Electronic LCDSega Mega Drive/Genesis PlayStation Portable

Pac-Man — frequently asked questions

Is Pac-Man on Steam?: No. Pac-Man is not distributed on Steam, so there is no Steam Charts or SteamDB player count for it. Its live popularity is tracked here via Twitch viewership instead.
What platforms is Pac-Man on?: Pac-Man is available on Arcade, Legacy Computer, Handheld Electronic LCD, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation Portable, Atari 2600, Android, iOS, Legacy Mobile Device, PC (Microsoft Windows), Atari 8-bit, Sharp X68000, Sharp MZ-2200, Commodore VIC-20, Texas Instruments TI-99, Palm OS, PC-9800 Series, Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy, Web browser, Neo Geo Pocket Color, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone, MSX, Plug & Play, DOS, FM-7, ColecoVision, PC-8800 Series, Family Computer Disk System, Wii, Family Computer, Wii U, Nintendo Entertainment System, Xbox One, Sharp X1, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Intellivision, Sega Game Gear, NEC PC-6000 Series.
When did Pac-Man release?: Pac-Man was first released on May 22, 1980.

About Pac-Man

Pac-Man is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. It is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. Players control Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called Power Pellets causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue, allowing Pac-Man to eat them for bonus points.

Summary via IGDB.

Pac-Man on Wikipedia

Pac-Man, originally titled Puck Man in Japan, is a 1980 maze video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released in Japan on May 22, 1980 and by Midway Manufacturing in North America in October 1980. The player controls Pac-Man, who must eat all the dots inside an enclosed maze while avoiding four colored ghosts. Eating large flashing dots called "Power Pellets" causes the ghosts to temporarily turn blue and vulnerable, allowing Pac-Man to eat the ghosts for bonus points.

Source: Wikipedia (text under CC BY-SA 4.0).

Game details

Platforms: Arcade, Legacy Computer, Handheld Electronic LCD, Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, PlayStation Portable, Atari 2600, Android, iOS, Legacy Mobile Device, PC (Microsoft Windows), Atari 8-bit, Sharp X68000, Sharp MZ-2200, Commodore VIC-20, Texas Instruments TI-99, Palm OS, PC-9800 Series, Nintendo 3DS, Game Boy, Web browser, Neo Geo Pocket Color, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation, BlackBerry OS, Windows Phone, MSX, Plug & Play, DOS, FM-7, ColecoVision, PC-8800 Series, Family Computer Disk System, Wii, Family Computer, Wii U, Nintendo Entertainment System, Xbox One, Sharp X1, Commodore C64/128/MAX, Intellivision, Sega Game Gear, NEC PC-6000 Series
Developer: Namco
Publisher: Midway Manufacturing
ESRB rating: E
Game modes: Single player
Themes: Action, Survival
Series: Pac-Man
Official site: Visit

Details via IGDB.

Reception

IGDB rating

79/100

from 264 ratings

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed
Neo Geo Pocket Color Details ↓	1999	$16	$64	$121
Atari 2600 Details ↓	1982	$8	$18	$65

Also released on: Arcade · Legacy Computer · Handheld Electronic LCD · Sega Mega Drive/Genesis · PlayStation Portable · Android · iOS · Legacy Mobile Device · PC (Microsoft Windows) · Atari 8-bit · Sharp X68000 · Sharp MZ-2200 · Commodore VIC-20 · Texas Instruments TI-99 · Palm OS · PC-9800 Series · Nintendo 3DS · Game Boy · Web browser · PlayStation 4 · Nintendo Switch · PlayStation 3 · Xbox 360 · PlayStation · BlackBerry OS · Windows Phone · MSX · Plug & Play · DOS · FM-7 · ColecoVision · PC-8800 Series · Family Computer Disk System · Wii · Family Computer · Wii U · Nintendo Entertainment System · Xbox One · Sharp X1 · Commodore C64/128/MAX · Intellivision · Sega Game Gear · NEC PC-6000 Series. We haven’t priced or authenticated those versions yet.

Prices are per version and are not interchangeable, and neither are the reviews: conversions in this era were often built by a different studio than the original, so a score earned on one machine says nothing about how another plays.

Collector value & authenticity

Neo Geo Pocket Color · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-08-07

Loose

$16

Complete

$64

Sealed

$121

Region: NA+EU+JP
Released: 1999
Authenticity: Med

Never re-released — the original cartridge is the only way to playMedium counterfeit risk

Neo Geo Pocket Color prices, all games & how to spot a fake

The Neo Geo Pocket Color version

A licensed arcade-perfect Pac-Man with a scrolling mode for the small screen — and the cheapest good cartridge on the platform.

SNK licensed Pac-Man from Namco and shipped it on 31 August 1999, three weeks after the retail launch, as part of a push to show third-party support. SNK's own press release makes the pitch plainly: a full-screen version that is an exact port of the arcade game, plus a scrolling mode that keeps the maze readable on a handheld.

It is the least expensive worthwhile cartridge on the system by a comfortable margin, which makes it the obvious first game to buy with a console.

Before you buy

Cheap enough that reproducing it makes no economic sense. Worth knowing that this is a distinct game from every other handheld Pac-Man; database and marketplace listings merge them constantly, so check that the cartridge in the photo is an SNK shell.

Collector value & authenticity

Atari 2600 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-06

Loose

Complete

$18

Sealed

$65

Label variants

Release	Loose	Complete	Sealed
Tele-Games	$8	$20	—
Not For Resale	$84	—	—
8K Arcade Edition	$40	$108	—

Release record

Territory	Label	Catalog #	Rarity
North America Atari	Picture	CX2646	Common
North America Sears	Picture	49-78185	Scarce
Europe Unknown	Taiwan Simple	—	—
Asia Atari	—	—	—

Also released in South America by CCE, Digitel, Dynacom, Star Game, Atarimania, Cosmovision, Supergame, VGS, Canal 3, Polyvox.

Source: Catalog numbers, label types, rarity, controllers and player counts: AtariAge 2600 software database

Region: NA+EU
Released: 1982
Controller: Atari Joystick
Players: 1 - 2
Authenticity: Med

On Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration since Nov 11, 2022 — the cartridge is now a collectibleMedium counterfeit risk

Atari 2600 prices, all games & how to spot a fake

The Atari 2600 version

The best-selling 2600 cartridge ever and one of its most criticized, which is why almost every copy is cheap.

Tod Frye spent six months on the 2600 Pac-Man, working without arcade design specifications and fitting it on a 4K cartridge, which Atari chose because it cost less to make than an 8K one. The compromises show: a simplified maze, rectangular wafers instead of dots, and ghosts that take turns appearing so that each one flickers. Critics panned it at release. Electronic Games gave it four out of ten, its first negative review of an Atari game, and later writers have often ranked it among the worst arcade ports.

It sold anyway. Atari made more than a million copies for launch, held a National Pac-Man Day on April 3, 1982, and sold more than 7.2 million cartridges that year. It remains the best-selling 2600 game of all time. Atari also made Pac-Man cartridges under the Sears label, and the game is on Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.

How it was made

Programmed by Tod Frye at Atari, Inc. He had to work out how the arcade game behaved by playing it, and spent 80-hour weeks over six months on the conversion. The 2600's two player sprites were split between Pac-Man and all four ghosts, which is the source of the flicker.

What the press said at the time

“All right, folks, first the bad news about the most eagerly-awaited videogame of all time. Atari's VCS version of Pac-Man neither looks nor sounds anything like the coin-op original. … it's disappointingly difficult to find anything positive to say about this game.”
— Electronic Games, June 1982

“Considering the anticipation and considerable time the Atari designers had to work on it, it's astonishing to see a home version of a classic arcade contest so totally devoid of what gave the original its charm.”
— Electronic Games, June 1982

“Yet the overall effect of the cartridge is not quite what electronic-game fans have come to expect from Atari.”
— VIDEO (Arcade Alley), June 1982

“Controller response is not as good as we'd like it to be, especially when ma- neuvering Pac-Man around corners.”
— JoyStik, December 1982

Cartridge & preservation record

Program size 4 KB, measured from the preserved dump.

Catalogue number as recorded for the physical release.

Worth knowing

Flickerman. Phil Wiswell of Video Games mocked the port as 'Flickerman'. Atari's own ads had warned that it differed 'slightly from the original'.
A hit in West Germany. Arcade Express reported in November 1982: "It's estimated by happy burgermeisters that over 230,000 of the Atari cartridges will be sold there in 1982." It added that "Home video cartridges cost from $40 to $60 in Germany".
Dealers' award. Arcade Express reported in October 1982 that Atari's Pac-Man had won the Video Software Dealers Association's "best videogame cartridge" award.
The new pack-in. Atari Age confirmed in late 1983 that Pac-Man had replaced Combat as the bundled game, referring to "Pac-Man included with Atari 2600 units now being sold".

Before you buy

Medium risk on paper, but a standard Pac-Man is one of the most common carts there is and not worth faking. Check which label you are looking at. The Atari and Sears Tele-Games copies are both cheap. The Not For Resale variant sells for much more, so confirm that marking is actually on the label in the photos. The 8K Arcade Edition is a separate product priced on its own; make sure it is the one you mean to buy. A Pac-Man double-pack cartridge was also made for the modern Atari 2600+, so confirm whether a listing is a vintage cart.