1989 saw many sequels and prequels in video games, such as Phantasy Star II, Super Mario Land, Super Monaco GP, along with new titles such as Big Run, Bonk's Adventure, Final Fight, Golden Axe, Strider, Hard Drivin' and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The year also saw the release of the Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx-16 in North America, and the Game Boy worldwide along with Tetris and Super Mario Land. The year's highest-grossing arcade games in Japan were Namco's Final Lap and Sega's Tetris, while the highest-grossing arcade video games in the United States were Double Dragon, Super Off Road and Hard Drivin' among dedicated arcade cabinets and Capcom Bowling and Ninja Gaiden among arcade conversion kits. The year's bestselling home system was the Nintendo Entertainment System (Famicom) for the sixth year in a row, while the year's best-selling home video games were Super Mario Bros. 3 in Japan and RoboCop in the United Kingdom.

Financial performance

Highest-grossing arcade games

Japan

In Japan, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1989.

Hong Kong and United Kingdom

In Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, the following titles were the top-grossing arcade games of each month.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the highest-grossing arcade games of 1989.

Best-selling home systems

Best-selling home video games

Japan

The following titles were the top ten best-selling home video games of 1989 in Japan, according to the annual Family Computer Magazine (Famimaga) charts.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, RoboCop for the ZX Spectrum was the best-selling home video game of 1989. The following titles were the best-selling home video games of each month in the United Kingdom during 1989.

United States

In the United States, the following titles were the best-selling home video games of each month in 1989.

Top-rated games

Major awards

Japan and United Kingdom

United States

Critically acclaimed titles

Famitsu and CVG reviews

In Japan, the following 1989 video game releases entered Famitsu magazine's "Platinum Hall of Fame" for receiving Famitsu scores of at least 35 out of 40. In the United Kingdom, the following titles were Computer and Video Games (CVG) magazine's highest-rated games of 1989.

English-language reviews

Notable video game releases in 1989 that have accumulated overall critical acclaim from at least four contemporary English-language sources include:

Events

Hardware releases

Game releases

Business