World Video Game Hall of Fame

Explore some of the most influential video games of all time!

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The World Video Game Hall of Fame is housed in ESL Digital Worlds: High Score exhibit at The Strong Museum in Rochester, NY.

The World Video Game Hall of Fame at The Strong, established in 2015, recognizes electronic games of all types that have enjoyed popularity over a sustained period and have exerted influence on the video game industry or on popular culture and society in general. To learn more, see Frequently Asked Questions page.

Recent Inductees

The Strong welcomes Angry Birds, Dragon Quest, FIFA International Soccer, and Silent Hill to the 2026 World Video Game Hall of Fame.

Angry Birds

Inducted: 2026 Angry Birds was the breakout mobile game hit that convinced millions of people worldwide to pay for a game they could download onto their smartphones. More than two billion downloads later, hundreds of […]

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Dragon Quest

Inducted: 2026 Dragon Quest, released in 1986 for the Nintendo Famicom, grew out of a collaboration between scenario writer Yuji Horii, manga artist Akira Toriyama, and composer Koichi Sugiyama. Sugiyama was a popular composer, […]

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FIFA International Soccer

Inducted: 2026 FIFA International Soccer was not the first sports simulation video game—nor even the first one about soccer—but it became the most popular sports game franchise of all time, with sales continually bolstered by […]

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Silent Hill

Inducted: 2026 What makes a game scary? For that matter, what makes a game great? Silent Hill was not the first horror game or even the most famous, coming three years after Resident Evil, but it pushed […]

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Inducted Games

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Inductees to the World Video Game Hall of Fame are on permanent display in the ESL Digital Worlds: High Score exhibit located on the second floor in The Strong’s new expansion.

Defender

Inducted: 2025 The conventional game design wisdom of the early 1980s suggested that many of the best video games were “easy to learn, but difficult to master.” This seemed like sound advice then and […]

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Goldeneye 007

Inducted: 2025 In 1994, Rare and Nintendo began development of a video game inspired by the upcoming James Bond Film GoldenEye(1995). Based on the popular MI6 intelligence agent created by author Ian Fleming, GoldenEye 007 is a […]

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Quake

Inducted: 2025 A dark, medieval world filled with peculiar technology and Lovecraftian creatures. Quake was a first-person shooter built with the mouse in mind, making use completely of its 3D space. Unlike its predecessor Doom, Quake’s engine […]

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Tamagotchi

Inducted: 2025 Considered a popular gaming fad of the 1990s, the handheld game Tamagotchi began with two fanciful childhood wishes: having a toy come alive and bringing a pet wherever you go. In 1995, […]

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Explore the History of Video Games

Discover the historical and cultural significance of video games and other electronic games through online exhibits produced by The Strong’s International Center for the History of Electronic Games.

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Online Exhibit

Video Game History Timeline

Explore the history of video games, understand how the industry began and evolved, and discover the impact that electronic games have had on how people play, learn, and connect with each other.

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Women in Games Artifact Tour

For decades, women have created video games and shaped our play, but their contributions have often been overlooked or obscured. Explore the work of female game industry innovators through artifacts in The Strong’s High Score exhibit.

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