Film and television adaptations of video games

Numerous electronic and video games have been adapted into films and television series, with the work in the new medium incorporating elements of the game's narrative, characters, gameplay, and concepts.

The first and earliest adaptation of a video game was an American animated series Pac-Man (1982–1983), loosely based on a 1980 Japanese video game of the same name by Toru Iwatani, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Early adaptations were created cheaper and faithfully, such as Saturday Supercade (1983–1984), Pole Position (1984), and Super Mario Bros.: The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach! (1986). Television adaptations of video games became more popular in the late 1980s and 1990s, driven by its popularity and generally garnered mixed and positive responses by critics and fans of video games. Quintessentially, the live-action game show Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? (1991–1995) and its follow-ups of Carmen Sandiego were critically praised and won several Daytime Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.

The Hollywood film industry began making live-action film adaptations in the mid 1990s, including Super Mario Bros. (1993), Double Dragon, and Street Fighter (both 1994). Most of these films were typically made to capitalize on the popularities of these games, and tried to incorporate the interactivity of a video game to the fixed medium with mixed results, with several of these films being critically panned. While some works in the 2000s and 2010s received positive criticism and were profitable, many received poor reviews and were box-office failures, leaving game developers hesitant about giving studios permission to adapt their feature films.

Film adaptations of video games were revitalized in the late 2010s after the releases of Detective Pikachu (2019) and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), both critically praised and becoming box-office successes. Video games becoming mainstream with more narrative elements allowed creators to make the films more effective and faithful to the source material, establishing a positive trend for future adaptations. In the 2020s, several video game films were successful at the box office, including The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and A Minecraft Movie (2025). Newer television adaptations since the late 2010s, following similar approaches of focusing on the game's narrative rather than gameplay, drew similar critical praise. These include Carmen Sandiego (2019–2021), Arcane (2021–2024), The Last of Us (2023–present), and Fallout (2024–present).

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