Before Space Invaders, arcade games mostly ended when they ended. Space Invaders gave players something to chase forever after: a number on the screen that said exactly how good they were.
How to Play Space Invaders
Space Invaders puts you in control of a laser cannon at the bottom of the screen, sliding left and right while rows of descending aliens march steadily closer. Fire upward to pick off the invaders before they reach the bottom, using the handful of protective barriers on screen as cover — though those barriers slowly get chipped away by both your shots and the aliens' return fire. Clear a full wave and another one starts, faster and more aggressive than the last, with the aliens' descent speeding up as their numbers thin out. On RivalPit, you can play solo to push your score higher with each life, or challenge a friend to see who survives longer and racks up more points before the invaders break through.
The History of Space Invaders
Space Invaders was created by Japanese designer Tomohiro Nishikado, who spent roughly a year building the game essentially by himself — writing the code, drawing the artwork, composing the sound, and even engineering custom arcade hardware from scratch because existing microprocessors at the time weren't powerful enough to run what he had in mind. Nishikado drew inspiration from earlier games like Breakout and Gun Fight, along with electro-mechanical shooting games, while the alien designs themselves were shaped by descriptions in H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds as well as squid and crab-like forms. Taito released the finished game in Japan in July 1978, and it reached international arcades later that year through a partnership with Midway.
The game's impact was almost immediate and enormous. Space Invaders is credited as the first fixed shooter and the first video game built around genuinely endless, escalating gameplay, and it introduced the first persistent high-score display in arcade gaming — a small feature that changed the entire culture of arcades by giving players a permanent number to beat and bragging rights to chase. It became a sensation in Japan, reportedly grossing enormous daily revenue that briefly made Taito one of the country's largest companies, and its runaway popularity is widely credited with helping launch the golden age of arcade video games that followed through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Decades later, adjusted for inflation, Space Invaders remains among the highest-grossing entertainment products of all time.
Why Play Space Invaders on RivalPit
- Free and no download. Space Invaders runs instantly in your browser.
- Real-time multiplayer. Challenge a friend with a link, or race the clock solo.
- Points, never money. Earned by playing, never purchased or wagered.
- One of 100+ free games on RivalPit, with new games added every week.
Space Invaders is part of RivalPit's free arcade games lineup, alongside Snake, Brick Breaker, and Whack-a-Mole. Want to challenge a friend to top your high score? Check out our guide to playing games online with friends with no download.