How Much Did the Atari 2600 Cost in 1977?
By the Price Time Machine team · Updated
The Atari 2600 launch price was $199 when it launched in the United States in September 1977. Adjusted for inflation, that is about $1,092 in September 2026 money, roughly 5.5 times the original price.
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Atari 2600 at a glance
- US launch price
- $199
- In today’s money
- ≈ $1,092September 1977 to September 2026 (CPI-U, BLS)
- US release date
- September 11, 1977
- Where it was designed
- California, USADesigned by Atari in Sunnyvale, California.
- Category
- Gaming & tech
- Price source
- en.wikipedia.org
Today’s price is the US launch price adjusted for US inflation with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U) from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, comparing the launch month with the latest published month. It updates automatically as new figures come out.
What came in the box
For $199 you got the console, two joysticks and the Combat cartridge. Eight more games were sold separately, each on a swappable cartridge. That idea of buying new games for one machine was still new in 1977.
Later, Sears sold its own version as the Tele-Games Video Arcade. By 1982, when it was renamed the Atari 2600, it sold for an average of about $125.
The Atari 2600 launch price in today’s money
Inflation means a dollar buys less today than it did in 1977. Using the US Consumer Price Index, the original Atari 2600 launch price of $199 works out at about $1,092 in September 2026 money, around 5.5 times the original figure. That is what the same amount of spending power would cost now, not what the Atari 2600 sells for second-hand.
Where was the Atari 2600 designed?
Atari designed it in California’s Silicon Valley, where the company was based in Sunnyvale. The prototype, codenamed “Stella”, was built by Atari’s engineering offshoot Cyan Engineering. To pay for finishing it, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell sold the company to Warner Communications in 1976 for $28 million.
Atari 2600 facts you might not know
- It had only 128 bytes of RAM.
- Its first “killer app” was the home version of Space Invaders in 1980.
- Adventure (1980) contains one of the first widely known Easter eggs, a hidden room with the designer’s name.
- Rushed games such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial helped cause the video game crash of 1983.
- About 30 million were sold before production ended in 1992.
Frequently asked questions
How much did an Atari cost in 1977?
The Atari VCS, later called the Atari 2600, cost $199 when it launched in September 1977, with two joysticks and the Combat game.
How much is $199 from 1977 in today’s money?
Adjusted for US inflation, the Atari 2600’s launch price is about $1,092 in September 2026 money.
How many Atari 2600 consoles were sold?
About 30 million were sold between 1977 and 1992.
Want to compare the Atari 2600 launch price with other launch prices? See what the PS2 launch cost, browse more famous launch prices, or play this question in Price Time Machine.
Sources
Launch prices and dates are checked against the sources below. Today’s price is calculated from official US inflation data and updates automatically when new figures are published.
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