Tetris Has Reached 425 Million Paid Mobile Downloads

Tetris has accumulated 425 million total paid downloads on mobile according to Henk Rogers, the man who secured the publishing rights to Alexey Pajitnov’s all-time classic puzzler back in the late ’80s and brought it to Nintendo consoles.

“We have 425 million total paid mobile downloads,” Rogers told VentureBeat during Philly Tech Week, which featured a record-breaking game of Tetris played on the side of a building. “That’s all just on mobile. We had 35 million on the original Game Boy. Boxed products, I think altogether we sold something like 70 million.”

“That 425 million number doesn’t count free-to-play... That’s another level on top of the 425 million paid downloads.

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The Tetris Company chief stressed that this is a total figure over “the last 14 years or so.”

“It’s really spread over the whole period where phones have become able to play games,” said Rogers.

He also pointed out that the 425 million figure does not include free-to-play versions.

“That 425 million number doesn’t count free-to-play,” he said. “We have Tetris Blitz now. Electronic Arts secured the mobile rights and decided to do a product that’s similar to their Bejeweled Blitz, a free, item-based game. That’s another level on top of the 425 million paid downloads.”

Tetris, which was first released on June 6, 1984, is celebrating its 30-year anniversary this year and remains one of the most popular, successful, and enduring video games of all time.

Ubisoft recently announced a new partnership with The Tetris Company to bring Tetris to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN AU. You can find him on IGN here or on Twitter @MrLukeReilly, or chat with him and the rest of the Australian team by joining the IGN Australia Facebook community.