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1989 in video games

overview of video gaming-related events during the year of 1989

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 15, 2026
Entity authorityQ2718401
Source-derived summary

1989 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Phantasy Star II, Super Mario Land, Super Monaco GP, and Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse, along with new titles such as Big Run, Bonk's Adventure, Final Fight, Golden Axe, Strider, Hard Drivin' and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The year also saw the release of the Sega Genesis, TurboGrafx-16 and Atari Lynx in North America, plus the Game Boy worldwide along with Tetris and Super Mario Land.

The year's highest-grossing arcade video games in Japan were Namco's Final Lap and Sega's Tetris; in the United States they were Double Dragon, Super Off Road and Hard Drivin' among dedicated arcade cabinets and Capcom Bowling and Ninja Gaiden among arcade conversion kits. The year's best‑selling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the sixth year in a row, while the year's best-selling home video games were Super Mario Bros. 3 in Japan and RoboCop in the United Kingdom.

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade video games of 1989.

Hong Kong and United Kingdom

In Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, the following titles were the top-grossing arcade games of each month.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1989.

Best-selling home systems

Best-selling home video games

Japan

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1989 in Japan, according to the annual Family Computer Magazine (Famimaga) charts.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, RoboCop for the ZX Spectrum was the best-selling home video game of 1989.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “1989 in video games” as overview of video gaming-related events during the year of 1989. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around video, games and overview.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1989—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with video, games and overview providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “1989 in video games”, the useful work is to connect “overview of video gaming-related events during the year of 1989” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2718401. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1989.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “1989 in video games”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow 1989 in video games primary sources, 1989 in video games archive and video research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “1989 in video games”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from 1989 in video games” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.