The Composite View
The Pulse of Pinball
A snapshot of the industry — every machine in our catalog, aggregated by year, manufacturer, and community rating. Three charts to read the rise and fall of pinball as a whole.
Industry Volume
Pinball Releases by Manufacturer, by Year
Every machine in our catalog, stacked by who built it. Top eight manufacturers shown individually; the rest grouped as 'Other'.
Industry Quality
Average Community Rating by Release Year
Average IPDB community fun rating across all machines released that year. Years with fewer than 3 rated machines are excluded to reduce noise.
Composite Score
The Pinball Index
A single composite score per year, normalized so the peak year equals 100. Combines release volume, average community rating (weighted), and total documented production. Peaks roughly correspond to the industry's strongest moments.
Peak: 1977 — 96 releases, 7.5 avg rating, 169,263 units
Methodology
Data sources: catalog from OPDB, refreshed daily. Production counts and community fun ratings from IPDB, refreshed monthly. Manufacturers are normalized (Williams Electronics / WMS → Williams; Stern Pinball / Stern Electronics → Stern Pinball; etc).
The Pinball Index is computed as releases × rating² × log₁₀(units produced + 10), then normalized so the peak year equals 100. The squared rating term rewards quality years more than volume years; the log production term keeps blockbusters from dominating purely on output.