Breakout is an action video game created in 1976 by Atari, Inc. for arcade machines. In Japan, the game was released by Namco. Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow designed the game, and Steve Wozniak built an early version using special computer parts with help from Steve Jobs. In the game, eight rows of bricks appear at the top of the screen. The player’s goal is to hit a ball with a paddle so it bounces into the bricks and breaks them. This idea was inspired by Atari’s earlier game, Pong (1972), though a similar game called Clean Sweep (1974) came before it. The arcade version of Breakout uses a black and white screen with a colored layer on top.
Breakout became very popular worldwide. It was one of the top five highest-earning arcade games in the U.S. and Japan in 1976, and one of the top three in both countries in 1977. A version of the game for the Atari 2600 was released in 1978, featuring color graphics. A follow-up game called Super Breakout came out in 1978, adding multiple balls that bounce at the same time. Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs later started the Apple Computer Company with Ronald Wayne. The Apple II computer, mostly designed by Wozniak, used technology similar to Breakout’s hardware.
Atari faced legal disputes about whether they could copyright Breakout, but they were allowed to do so. Despite this, many similar games were made based on Breakout’s idea. In Japan, these games are called "block kuzushi" games. Breakout inspired Taito’s Arkanoid (1986), which led to many other games. It also influenced the design of Taito’s Space Invaders (1978).
Gameplay
Breakout starts with eight rows of bricks. There are two rows of each color: yellow, green, orange, and red, from bottom to top. The player uses a ball and a paddle to hit the ball against the bricks and break them. If the paddle misses the ball when it bounces back, the player loses a turn. The player has three turns to clear two screens of bricks. Yellow bricks give 1 point each, green bricks give 3 points, orange bricks give 5 points, and red bricks give 7 points each. After the ball breaks through the red row and hits the top wall, the paddle becomes half its size. The ball moves faster after four hits, after twelve hits, and after the ball hits the orange or red rows.
The highest score for one player is 864. This happens by breaking two screens, each worth 432 points. After the second screen is destroyed, the ball bounces safely off empty walls until the game restarts, as no more screens appear. However, a hidden method to score more than 864 points is to play in two-player mode. If "Player One" finishes the first screen on their third and final ball, and then lets the ball fall out of play on purpose, "Player Two" gets to play the second screen as a third screen. If "Player Two" successfully keeps the ball in play long enough, they can score up to 1,312 points. Once the third screen is broken, the game ends.
The original arcade version of Breakout has artwork showing a prison escape. The player is an inmate trying to hit a ball and chain into a wall of their prison cell with a mallet. If the player breaks the wall in the game, the inmate escapes, and others follow.
Development
A game called Clean Sweep, created by Ramtek in 1974, was an early version of Breakout. In Clean Sweep, the player uses a paddle to hit a ball upward through a field of dots. As the ball moves, the dots disappear. The goal is to clear all the dots, achieving a "clean sweep." Clean Sweep was one of the top ten best-selling arcade games in 1974 and sold 3,500 arcade cabinets.
Breakout was a game that used simple circuits instead of a microprocessor. It was designed by Nolan Bushnell and Steve Bristow, both of whom worked for Atari and its subsidiary, Kee Games. Atari made innovative video games using Pong hardware to compete with companies that made similar games. Bushnell wanted to change Pong into a single-player game, where the player would use a paddle to keep a ball bouncing until a wall of bricks was destroyed. He believed the game would be popular and partnered with Steve Bristow to develop the idea. Al Alcorn was chosen as the Breakout project manager and began working with Cyan Engineering in 1975. Bushnell assigned Steve Jobs, who was not an engineer, to create a prototype. Jobs was offered $750, with a bonus for every transistor-transistor logic (TTL) chip used that was fewer than 50. Jobs promised to finish a prototype in four days.
Bushnell offered the bonus because he was unhappy with how many chips (150 to 170) were used in new Atari games. He knew that Jobs’ friend, Steve Wozniak, an employee of Hewlett-Packard, had designed a version of Pong using about 30 chips. Jobs had no experience with circuit board design but knew Wozniak could create designs with fewer chips. He convinced Wozniak to help, promising to split the payment evenly if Wozniak could reduce the number of chips. Wozniak had no sketches and worked from a description of the game. To save parts, he used creative designs. Near the end of development, Wozniak considered moving the high score to the top of the screen, but Jobs claimed Bushnell wanted it at the bottom. Wozniak did not know if this was true. The original deadline was met after Wozniak worked at Atari for four nights straight, doing extra designs while working his full-time job at Hewlett-Packard. This earned Jobs a bonus of $5,000, which he kept secret from Wozniak. Wozniak later said he only received $350 and believed for years that Atari had promised $700 for a design using fewer than 50 chips and $1,000 for fewer than 40. Wozniak was the engineer, and Jobs was the breadboarder and tester. Wozniak’s original design used 42 chips, but the final working prototype used 44. He said, "We were so tired we couldn’t cut it down."
The simplicity of the game caused problems when the copyright filing was denied because it "did not contain at least a minimum amount of original pictorial or graphic authorship, or authorship in sounds." Atari appealed, and in the case Atari Games Corp. v. Oman, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ruled that the game was copyrightable.
Atari could not use Wozniak’s design because it used too few chips, making it hard to manufacture. Wozniak said Atari did not understand the design and speculated that an engineer might have tried to modify it. Atari created its own version for production, which used about 100 TTL chips. Wozniak said the gameplay was the same as his original design and could not find any differences.
The arcade cabinet uses a black and white monitor. Colored cellophane strips are placed over the monitor to make the bricks look colorful.
Ports
A software version of Breakout was created for the Atari 2600 by Brad Stewart. The game was released in 1978 and included six rows of bricks. Players had five attempts to clear two walls instead of three. In the Breakthru version, the ball passes through the bricks rather than bouncing off them, continuing until it reaches the wall. Atari registered the term "Breakthru" and used it alongside "Breakout" to describe gameplay features in similar games and remakes.
The Atari 1977 Video Pinball console, which was a special device for playing pinball games, also included a Breakout game.
Reception
In October 1976, the RePlay chart ranked Breakout as the fifth highest-selling arcade video game in the United States for that year. It was below Midway Manufacturing's Sea Wolf, Gun Fight, and Wheels, as well as Atari's Indy 800. In 1977, Breakout was the third highest-selling arcade game in the U.S., below Sea Wolf and Sprint 2. In 1978, it was the fifth highest-selling arcade game in the United States. Atari produced 11,000 arcade cabinets of Breakout, which is estimated to have earned over $11 million (about $62 million when adjusted for inflation) in sales.
Breakout was also a successful game for Namco in Japan. On the first annual Game Machine chart, it was the fourth highest-selling arcade game in Japan in 1976, behind Taito's Ball Park (Tornado Baseball), Speed Race DX, and Sega's Heavyweight Champ. In 1977, Breakout was Japan's third highest-selling arcade game, behind only two racing games: Namco's F-1 and Taito's Speed Race DX. By 1981, Breakout had sold 15,000 arcade units worldwide.
The Atari 2600 version of Breakout sold 256,265 units in 1980. By 1983, the game had sold a total of 1,650,336 units.
In 1989, the magazine Computer and Video Games reviewed the Atari VCS version of Breakout and gave it a score of 24%.
In 2021, The Guardian listed Breakout as the fourth greatest video game of the 1970s, behind Galaxian, Asteroids, and Space Invaders.
Legacy
Breakout led to the creation of many similar games. Ten years later, Taito's 1986 game Arkanoid brought the concept back, inspiring many other games. In Japan, these types of games are called block kuzushi, which means "block breaker." Tomohiro Nishikado said Breakout was one of the early ideas that influenced his 1978 game Space Invaders. He wanted to include the feeling of accomplishment and excitement from breaking targets one by one in a shooting game. Breakout also influenced Steve Wozniak's design for the Apple II computer. He explained that designing Breakout for Atari taught him how to build hardware games, and he wanted to recreate those features in software for the Apple II. This included designing color graphics, adding support for game paddles, and creating graphics commands in Integer BASIC, which he used to make a software version of Breakout called Brick Out. Wozniak said in 1984:
"I added many game features to show off Breakout at the Homebrew Computer Club. It was the most satisfying day of my life when I demonstrated Breakout, fully written in BASIC. It felt like a major step forward. After working on hardware games, I knew programming them in BASIC could change the world."
The connection between hardware and software from Breakout has made the original 1976 game a key subject for studying old computer games and how they work today. In 2026, experts noted that the specific components used in Breakout still affect how modern touchscreens and controllers are designed.
The success of Breakout led to the release of Super Breakout in 1978, which included three different game modes. Later versions of the game for home computers added Breakout as a fourth mode, using the visual style from Super Breakout.
Breakout 2000 for the Atari Jaguar added a 3D playing field and new features. A 3D version of Breakout was released in 2000 for Windows and PlayStation by Hasbro Interactive's Atari Interactive division.
In 2011, Atari SA released an updated version called Breakout Boost. A newer version titled Breakout: Recharged was released on February 10, 2022, for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Microsoft Windows, and Atari VCS as part of the Atari Recharged series. It was developed by Adamvision Studios and SneakyBox.
In 2025, to celebrate the game's 50th anniversary, Atari released Breakout Beyond for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Microsoft Windows. This version keeps the original game's basic rules but adds new features like a combo system, power-ups, abilities, and a multiplayer mode.
Pilgrim in the Microworld is a book by David Sudnow that describes his deep interest in Breakout. Sudnow wrote about studying the game's rules, visiting the company that made it in Silicon Valley, and talking to the programmers.
The first-generation iPod Classic has a hidden feature: pressing the center button for a few seconds in the "About" menu shows a version of Breakout.
On the 37th anniversary of Breakout's release, Google created a secret version of the game. Users could access it by typing "atari breakout" in Google Images. The image thumbnails formed the game's bricks, changed colors, and after a ball and paddle appeared, the game began.