121 episodes tracked since 2023 about →
Episode 86 - Pinball Economics 101
PodcastAnalysis updated 3d ago53 min listen
Highlights
- Black Knight (1980) was the first pinball game to cost $0.50 per play, doubling the standard $0.25 price point that had held for over a decade.
- $0.50 in 1980 dollars equals approximately $1.95 in 2025 dollars when adjusted for inflation.
- A new Stern Pro currently costs $7,000 MSRP (as of November 2024), and a fully featured Premium costs $9,800.
- Average modern Stern pinball machines have play times of 3.5 to 3 minutes 45 seconds per game, rounding to 4 minutes with walk-up/down time, yielding a theoretical maximum of $15/hour earning potential at $1 per play.
- Wedgehead operates 44 hours per week (Mon–Thu 4pm–11pm, Fri 4pm–midnight, Sat noon–midnight, Sun noon–10pm) and realistically averages around $5/hour in earnings, not the theoretical $15/hour maximum.
- A four-game lineup (Stranger Things Pro $7k, Godzilla Premium $9.7k, Addams Family $10.5k, Cheetah $4.5k) requires $32,000 initial investment and approximately 43,200 paid plays at $1 per play to break even after accounting for free games (10% replay rate) and a 75–25 venue split.
- New games typically see peak earnings for 3–6 weeks after placement; if players decide the game 'sucks,' earnings can fall off a cliff, and the operator is stuck with the purchase.
- Deadpool, Stranger Things, and Godzilla are examples of 'evergreen' titles that maintain stronger-than-average earnings over their lifetimes at Wedgehead.
- Historical operator-to-location splits were 50–50 (even split); modern splits trend 80–20 in the operator's favor in many regions, with Portland typically at 60–40.
- Some extremely busy arcades achieve break-even on new machines in 6–9 months; Wedgehead's data aligns with this, though other operators on coin-drop routes see highly variable timelines depending on location quality.
Notable quotes
“Black Knight was a huge sensation for another reason too, one that is almost entirely forgotten today, but at the time was just as earth-shattering as the introduction of the upper playfield. And that is what I want to focus on today.”
“It just goes to show that people will pay More Brewing Company for a great product in the right conditions. They just need to see the value.”
“like it or not, the price of pinball needs to go up again. Now, I know that nobody wants to hear this, but pinball needs to cost More Brewing Company per play in the year 2025 and beyond.”
“If you use an inflation calculator, you will see that 50 cents in 1980 actually has a corrected cost of $1.95 in 2025 dollars. Oh, I wish I could see the look of absolute fucking disgust on your faces right now.”
“That means that the maximum earning potential is about 15 plays per hour, or simply $15. That's sort of the hard upper ceiling. $15 an hour under laboratory perfect conditions.”
“It's not all gravy all of the time. It's a lot More Brewing Company like casting a net, and when you go out to pull the net back up, there will be some varying amount of mate/man in it.”
“The worst part is that as an operator, once you find out that the game is a dud, like Avengers Infinity Arcade Quest or Led Zeppelin, you already bought the damn thing.”
“So in reality, you're going to need an extra 3,200 plays, which is a total of 35,200 plays at $1 per play to meet that. Oh yeah, but there's also the split to think about. Oh shit, that's another 25% going out the door.”
“pinball is booming right... if you listen to the echo chamber on pinside or the pinball subreddit or you go to pinball shows or you watch twitch streams you might even be led to believe that Pinball is More Brewing Company popular now than it has ever been before. Is that true? Well, sort of.”
“Some of the games en route [earnings depend heavily on location quality]... you will inevitably have a mixture of some great and some other not-so-great earning locations.”
Entities
- Stern· company
- Wedgehead· company
- Addams Family· game
- Avengers Infinity Quest· game
- Black Knight· game
- Cheetah· game
- Deadpool· game
- Godzilla Premium· game
- Led Zeppelin· game
- Stranger Things Pro· game
- IFPA· organization
- Pinside· organization
- Rain City Free Play· organization
- Alan· person
- Alex· person
- Harry Williams· person
- rodesy· person
- Steve Ritchie· person
- Ko-fi· product
