Report | State of Virtual Pinball
The state of
virtual
pinball.
How big the virtual pinball scene is, who builds it and what people play. Counted from every machine in the Virtual Pinball Spreadsheet, the community’s own index, and from games played in Pocket Pinball. The headline numbers update with every sync.
This edition
November 2026
- Machines
- Every game in the Virtual Pinball Spreadsheet
- Files
- Every table file listed for them, VPX and other formats
- Plays
- Games of 20 seconds or more in Pocket Pinball
- Live figures
- Headline numbers refresh with each daily sync
The headline numbers
Virtual pinball in six numbers
Machines catalogued
Real machines and originals with at least one entry in the spreadsheet.
VPX table files
Every Visual Pinball X release listed, across all machines.
Original creations
Machines designed from scratch by the community, not recreated.
New table files in 2025
The busiest year on record.
Backglasses
Animated backglass files for the second screen.
PuP packs
Video packs that add full-motion video to a table.
Source: Virtual Pinball Spreadsheet | Data refreshed
Findings | November 2026
Six things the numbers say
01
Originals
Nearly half are originals
Of the 2,671 machines in the spreadsheet, 1,207 are originals, designed from scratch rather than recreated. That is 45 percent, more than Gottlieb, Williams, Bally and Stern combined.
02
Output
2025 was a record year
947 new table files were added in 2025, more than in any year before. 2026 had reached 644 by the start of November.
03
Decades
The 2020s lead every decade
974 machines are dated to the 2020s, more than any decade of real pinball. Nearly all of them, 941, are community originals.
04
Builders
One builder, 1,748 files
JPSalas is credited on 1,748 table files, far ahead of anyone else. Next come Loserman76, HauntFreaks and 32assassin, with more than 600 each.
05
Recreations
The most remade machines
Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars have 20 table files each, then The Addams Family with 17. Stern’s NFL lists 67, mostly team editions.
06
Rules
Rules are rare
Only 548 machines, about one in five, link to a rulesheet in the spreadsheet, and 886 to a tutorial video.
Breakdowns
Where the tables come from
Top manufacturers
| Original | 1,207 |
|---|---|
| Gottlieb | 365 |
| Williams | 215 |
| Bally | 189 |
| Stern | 114 |
| Zen Studios | 110 |
| Taito do Brasil | 36 |
| LTD do Brasil | 29 |
| Playmatic | 29 |
| Data East | 28 |
Machines per maker. Original = community creations
Most recreated machines
| NFL (Stern 2001) | 67 |
|---|---|
| Medieval Madness (Williams 1997) | 20 |
| Attack from Mars (Bally 1995) | 20 |
| The Addams Family (Bally 1992) | 17 |
| Monster Bash (Williams 1998) | 13 |
| Bram Stoker's Dracula (Williams 1993) | 13 |
| Creature from the Black Lagoon (Bally 1992) | 13 |
| The Walking Dead (Limited Edition) (Stern 2014) | 13 |
| Twilight Zone (Bally 1993) | 13 |
| Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Gottlieb 1978) | 12 |
Table files per machine
Machines by decade
| 1930s | 31 |
|---|---|
| 1940s | 36 |
| 1950s | 45 |
| 1960s | 160 |
| 1970s | 470 |
| 1980s | 356 |
| 1990s | 165 |
| 2000s | 56 |
| 2010s | 376 |
| 2020s | 974 |
By the year of the machine
Most credited builders
| JPSalas | 1,748 |
|---|---|
| Loserman76 | 645 |
| HauntFreaks | 637 |
| 32assassin | 637 |
| Arngrim | 456 |
| Bigus1 | 368 |
| BorgDog | 320 |
| Bord | 309 |
| Rothbauerw | 294 |
| Goldchicco | 273 |
Table files each builder is credited on
New table files by year
| 2010 | 3 |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 6 |
| 2012 | 10 |
| 2013 | 21 |
| 2014 | 18 |
| 2015 | 22 |
| 2016 | 172 |
| 2017 | 133 |
| 2018 | 177 |
| 2019 | 249 |
| 2020 | 371 |
| 2021 | 843 |
| 2022 | 632 |
| 2023 | 828 |
| 2024 | 592 |
| 2025 | 947 |
| 2026 | 645 |
By the year each file was added to the spreadsheet
Machines by type
| Solid State | 1,851 |
|---|---|
| Electromechanical | 782 |
| Pure Mechanical | 26 |
| Digital | 4 |
Solid state, electromechanical, pure mechanical, digital
Played on Pocket Pinball
The most played tables
- 1No changeThe Addams Family321 games44 players
- 2No changeFunhouse119 games7 players
- 3No changeAttack from Mars112 games36 players
- 4Up 1Black Knight71 games8 players
- 5Down 1Bram Stoker’s Dracula66 games18 players
- 6No changeThe Lord of the Rings52 games10 players
- 7Up 15Star Trek – The Next Generation44 games17 players
- 8No changeIndiana Jones – The Last Movie44 games10 players
- 9Down 2Guns N’ Roses42 games13 players
- 10No changeMonster Bash40 games12 players
All time | Updated 2 Nov 2026, 21:05 UTC | Refreshed hourly
Method
Where the numbers come from
Machine, file, builder and year counts come from the Virtual Pinball Spreadsheet, the open index the community maintains of every virtual pinball table and its extras. A file counts in the year its entry was added to the spreadsheet, and a machine in the decade of its year.
Play counts come from games of 20 seconds or more played in Pocket Pinball by signed-in players.
Cite this report
Use any figure here with a link to this page. Suggested citation:
Pocket Pinball, "State of Virtual Pinball", pocketpinball.com/state-of-virtual-pinball/, November 2026. Data: Virtual Pinball Spreadsheet.