The whoosh of a puck gliding on a cushion of air is one of the most recognizable sounds in arcade history. Air hockey feels timeless, but it's actually one of the newer games on this list — a happy accident from an American billiards company in the early 1970s. Here's how to play it on RivalPit, and how it really came to be.
How to Play on RivalPit
RivalPit's air hockey mirrors the arcade table: a rectangular playing surface split down the middle, a puck, and a mallet (or "striker") for each player. Move your mallet with your mouse or a swipe on mobile, keeping it between the puck and your own goal to defend, while looking for openings to strike the puck toward your opponent's goal. There's no aiming reticle here — it's pure reflexes and angle control, just like the real table.
Each time the puck fully crosses into a goal, the scoring player earns a point, and the puck resets to center. Matches are played to a set score (commonly 7), so the first player to reach it wins. Because the puck rebounds off the rails at realistic angles, skilled players learn to use bank shots to sneak the puck past a mallet defending the goal mouth directly. Play a friend head-to-head in real time, or warm up against a CPU opponent that reacts fast enough to keep you honest.
The History of Air Hockey
Air hockey was born inside Brunswick Billiards, the American company best known for pool tables and bowling equipment. Around 1969, a small group of Brunswick engineers — accounts generally point to Phil Crossman and Bob Kenrick, with a third early collaborator variously named as Brad Baldwin — began experimenting with a game that used a low-friction, air-cushioned surface, the same underlying principle used in industrial air-powered conveyor tables. The idea was to build a tabletop, low-friction alternative to billiards that could move a puck with almost no resistance.
The project reportedly stalled for a few years before engineer Bob Lemieux picked it up and reshaped it into something closer to a miniature ice hockey game: a thin puck, two handheld strikers, and slot-style goals rigged with photodetectors to register scores. The original patents for the game list Crossman, Kenrick, and Lemieux, and by the early-to-mid 1970s, Brunswick had turned the invention into a commercial product. It became an instant hit, and by the mid-1970s the game was popular enough to support organized tournament play. Air hockey went on to become a defining fixture of American arcades through the 1970s and 1980s, and its air-cushion mechanism — simple, durable, and visually satisfying — is still unchanged in tables built today.
Why Play on RivalPit
- Free and no download. Runs instantly in your browser.
- Real-time multiplayer. Challenge a friend with a link, or play a solid CPU opponent.
- Points, never money. Earned by playing, never purchased or wagered.
- One of 100+ free games on RivalPit, with new games added every week.
Air Hockey is part of our sports games lineup, alongside dozens of other quick-play classics. And to make it a group activity, see our guide to playing games online with friends with no download.