Happy 25th Birthday to Tetris

Iconic computer game, Tetris is celebrating its 25th birthday this month. Tetris is one of the world’s most popular casual computer games with over 125 million products sold on more than 30 platforms and available in more than 50 countries.

“Tetris has driven the entire casual computer gaming industry,” said Henk Rogers, President & CEO of Blue Planet Software, the company that manages the exclusive licensing rights to Tetris. “One reason why Tetris is so enduring is that it transcends culture. It is beyond language. It is part of a universal desire for order. Ultimately, it’s a mental sport – a mix of fun and mental stimulation.”

In June 1984, Alexey Pajitnov, a Russian-born mathematician wrote the program for Tetris in his spare time. His love of puzzles inspired him to create a game where players arranged distinctive puzzle pieces in real time along the bottom of the rectangular playing field or “matrix” in order to clear lines. “For a short time, I was the best Tetris player in the world,” he said.

The popularity of Tetris has grown every year since its inception with the game’s greatest growth occurring on mobile phones. EA Mobile, a division of Electronic Arts holds the exclusive license for Tetris on mobile devices and has sold over 75 million Tetris products on the mobile platform.

Since debuting Tetris on the Apple App Store in July of 2008, the game has become one of the top 10 game 

“Tetris is the best-selling mobile phone game of all time, showing continued growth year after year all around the world,” said Adam Sussman, Vice President Worldwide Publishing for EA Mobile. “We are proud to join The Tetris Company in celebrating the 25th Anniversary of Tetris; a product that has had such a significant impact on the entire video game industry.”

Posted to the site on 2nd June 2009