It is one of the earliest arcade video games; it was created by Allan Alcorn as a training exercise assigned to him by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell, but Bushnell and Atari co-founder Ted Dabney were surprised by the quality of Alcorn's work and decided to manufacture the game.

During the 1975 Christmas season, Atari released a home version of Pong exclusively through Sears retail stores.

[7][8] In 1971, Bushnell and Dabney founded Syzygy Engineering to develop the concept of a standalone computer system with a monitor and attaching a coin slot to it to play games on.

[11] Three months into development, Bushnell told Alcorn he wanted the game to feature realistic sound effects and a roaring crowd.

[6][11] To construct the prototype, Alcorn purchased a $75 Hitachi black-and-white television set from a local store, placed it into a 4-foot (1.2 m) wooden cabinet, and soldered the wires into boards to create the necessary circuitry.

[23] Bushnell had difficulty finding financial backing for Pong; banks viewed it as a variant of pinball, which at the time the general public associated with the Mafia.

[7][30] A new electronic technology, the large-scale integration (LSI) chip, had recently become available, which Bushnell believed would "allow pioneering in new" game concepts.

Atari began working on the reduction of Pong from a large arcade printed circuit board (PCB) down to a small LSI chip for use in a home system.

After the designs were approved, fellow Atari engineer Bob Brown assisted Alcorn and Lee in building a prototype.

[30] Bushnell and Gene Lipkin, Atari's vice-president of sales, approached toy and electronic retailers to sell Home Pong, but were rejected.

Atari staff (including Bushnell and Lipkin) discussed the game with a representative, Tom Quinn, who expressed enthusiasm and offered the company an exclusive deal.

In order to gain approval from the Sporting Goods department, Quinn suggested Atari demonstrate the game to executives in Chicago.

Alcorn and Lipkin traveled to the Sears Tower and, despite a technical complication in connection with an antenna on top of the building which broadcast on the same channel as the game, obtained approval.

[34] The first units manufactured, branded with Sears' "Tele-Games" name, started to sell around the end of October[35] to mid November 1975[36] with a 1-year warranty for $98.95 and an additional $7.95 for the optional AC adapter.

[39] Magnavox argued that Atari had infringed on Sanders Associates' patents relating to the concept of electronic ping-pong based on detailed records Ralph Baer kept of the Odyssey's design process dating back to 1966.

Other documents included depositions from witnesses and a signed guest book that demonstrated Bushnell had played the Odyssey's table tennis game prior to releasing Pong.

The prototype was well received by Andy Capp's Tavern patrons; people came to the bar solely to play the game.

As a result, the market consisted primarily of "Pong clones"; author Steven Kent estimated that Atari had produced less than a third of the machines.

Coleco entered the video game market with their Telstar console; it features three Pong variants and was also succeeded by newer models.

The systems were Nintendo's entry into the home video game market and the first to produce themselves—they had previously licensed the Magnavox Odyssey.

[47][50] Bill Loguidice and Matt Barton of Gamasutra referred to the game's release as the start of a new entertainment medium, and commented that its simple, intuitive gameplay made it a success.

The revenue generated from them—each system sold over a million units—helped the company survive a difficult financial time, and spurred them to pursue video games further.

[52] After seeing the success of Pong, Konami decided to break into the arcade game market and released its first title, Maze.

In fact, there are a lot of people who have come up to me over the years and said, 'I met my wife playing Pong,' and that's kind of a nice thing to have achieved.

Pong has also been included in several Atari compilations on many different platforms, such as Arcade Classics on the Sega Genesis, Paired with Asteroids and Yars' Revenge on the Game Boy Advance.

[5][73][74][75][76] In 1976, Atari released Breakout, a single-player variation of Pong where the object of the game is to remove bricks from a wall by hitting them with a ball.

[84] In 2020, a new game titled Pong Quest was developed by Chequered Ink and released by Atari on Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.

[86] The game is featured in episodes of television series including That '70s Show,[87] King of the Hill[88] and Saturday Night Live.

[91][92] The concert event Video Games Live has performed audio from Pong as part of a special retro "Classic Arcade Medley".

[95] In 1999, French artist Pierre Huyghe created an installation titled "Atari Light", in which two people use handheld gaming devices to play Pong on an illuminated ceiling.