Who invented video games?

May 17, 2026 - 17:22

Video games are a massive part of modern life, from mobile puzzles to sprawling online worlds. But the question of who actually invented them is more complicated than picking a single name. It depends entirely on how you define a "video game."

The most widely accepted answer points to physicist William Higinbotham. In 1958, he created "Tennis for Two" to entertain visitors at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. Using an oscilloscope and an analog computer, he displayed a simple side-view of a tennis court. Players turned a knob to adjust the angle of the ball and pressed a button to hit it. It was a hit with the public, but Higinbotham saw it as a novelty, not a commercial product. He never patented the idea.

However, some historians argue the true first video game was "OXO," a tic-tac-toe simulator. In 1952, Cambridge student Alexander S. Douglas wrote it for his PhD thesis on human-computer interaction. It ran on the massive EDSAC computer and used a rotary telephone dial for input. While it was a digital game, it had no moving graphics or real-time action.

The title of "first commercial video game" usually goes to "Computer Space" from 1971. But the real breakthrough came a year later with "Pong." Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell didn't invent the concept of electronic ping-pong, but he and engineer Al Alcorn turned it into a simple, addictive arcade machine that launched the industry.

So, there is no single inventor. Higinbotham showed the world the fun of interactive graphics. Douglas proved a computer could play a game. And Bushnell figured out how to sell that fun to the public. Each one built on the last, turning a laboratory curiosity into a global cultural force.