Most Atari 2600 games are worth about $3-15 each as loose cartridges as of October 2026. PriceCharting's sold-price guide puts Combat at about $6, Pac-Man at about $8.50 and E.T. at about $8 loose, with boxed copies of the same games around $15-35. Only a small group is worth real money: scarce late releases such as Swordquest Waterworld sell for about $110-185, and a handful of promotional and tiny-run carts sell for about $1,900 to $8,500.
The 2600 was sold from 1977 into the early 1990s and tens of millions of cartridges were made, so the carts in an attic are almost always common. That is no reflection on them: they are some of the most played games ever made, and they are worth exactly what thousands of identical copies are worth. What changes the price is which game it is, the label variation, whether the box and manual survived, and, for the rarities, whether the cart is genuine.
Quick answer
- Common carts like Combat, Pac-Man, E.T., Asteroids, Space Invaders and Missile Command: about $3-15 loose, $10-35 boxed.
- Popular third-party games like Pitfall, River Raid and Kaboom: about $9-15 loose, $29-42 boxed.
- Scarce retail and mail-order carts: Swordquest Waterworld about $110-185 loose, Chase the Chuck Wagon about $60-115 loose.
- Promotional and tiny-run carts: Pepsi Invaders about $1,900-2,700, Red Sea Crossing about $6,500-7,000, Air Raid about $8,500 loose.
- New homebrew carts sell for roughly $30-60 from the makers.
How do I check what my Atari 2600 game is worth?
Identify the game and the maker, read the label style, then price it by what you have: cart only, or with box and manual.
- Read the maker. The label and the end of the cart name the publisher. Atari made most games, with catalog numbers beginning CX26 (Combat is CX2601). Activision, Imagic, Parker Brothers, Coleco, M Network, CBS and dozens of smaller companies made the rest. Sears sold Atari games under its own Tele-Games brand with different labels and sometimes different titles.
- Read the label style. Atari changed its label design several times, and collectors price the variations separately. The first games of 1977 had plain text labels with colored lettering; picture labels with artwork replaced them in 1981; silver labels were used from 1982 to 1985; and red labels marked the late releases from 1986 to 1990. See the timeline below.
- Check the shape. Most carts share the same black shell. Odd shapes are worth a closer look: Air Raid, the most valuable 2600 cart, has a blue T-shaped handle. Carts from tiny publishers often have plain or hand-applied labels.
- Check for a box and manual. Original boxes were thin cardboard, and most were discarded. A box in good shape with the manual often multiplies the price by two to four on common games, and far more on rare ones.
- Test it if you can. Clean the contacts with isopropyl alcohol and play. Most 2600 carts still work after forty years. Note any label damage, writing or price stickers, which lower the price.
- Look out for homebrews and reproductions. New games have been made for the 2600 since the 1990s, and some rare originals have been reproduced. A crisp, new-looking label on a rare title deserves a careful look.
Which Atari 2600 games are worth the most?
The valuable 2600 games are promotional carts made in tiny numbers, mail-order games, late releases from small companies that folded in the 1983 crash, and a few odd label variations. Figures are PriceCharting's guide values, built from completed sales and checked in October 2026, with recent realized sales where the guide rests on few.
| Game | Loose cart | Boxed, complete | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air Raid (Men-A-Vision, 1982) | About $8,500 | About $31,600-33,400 (two sales, 2010 and 2012) | Blue T-handle cart; last loose sale $8,500 in December 2024 |
| Red Sea Crossing (1983) | About $6,500-7,000 | Not enough sales | Heritage sold one with its cassette for $6,563 in July 2026 |
| Pepsi Invaders (1983) | About $1,900-2,700 | Rare | Made for Coca-Cola; a PSA 8 cart sold for $2,684 at Goldin in September 2026 |
| Superman, Tele-Games picture label | About $929 | About $2,509 (thin) | A Sears variation, not the common Atari Superman |
| Swordquest Waterworld (1983) | About $110-185 | About $935 (thin) | Loose sales of $108-185 from July to October 2026 |
| Crazy Climber | About $125 | About $499 (thin) | Few sales a year |
| Chase the Chuck Wagon (1983) | About $60-115 | About $1,142 (thin) | Ralston Purina mail-in promotion |
| Adventure | About $15 | About $55 | Popular, not rare |
| Pitfall | About $13 | About $42 | Activision's best known game |
| River Raid | About $10 | About $30 | Common |
| Kaboom | About $9 | About $29 | Common |
| Pac-Man | About $8.50 | About $21 | Very common |
| E.T. | About $8 | About $33 | Very common |
| Asteroids | About $6 | About $16 | Very common |
| Combat | About $6 | About $15 | Packed with the console |
For the top four, a handful of sales a year sets the price, so treat the figures as a guide to the range rather than a quote.
Do label variations change the price?
Sometimes, and mostly by small amounts. On common games the label style rarely adds more than a few dollars: Combat with a text label is about $3.42 loose on PriceCharting, no more than the regular listing at about $6. The variations that matter are the unusual ones. Asteroids is a good example: the common version is about $6 loose, but the silver-label Asteroids, an oddity AtariAge lists among label anomalies, is about $36 loose and $91 boxed on thin sales. Sears Tele-Games picture labels of games that are otherwise common, such as Superman, can sell for many times the Atari version.
AtariAge, the main 2600 collector community, keeps a rarity guide and label pages for each title. If your cart's label does not match the common picture shown for the game, check its page before you price it.
What does a box add?
A lot, because most boxes were thrown away on Christmas morning.
| What you have | Typical effect on value |
|---|---|
| Loose cart, clean label | The base price in the table |
| Loose cart, torn label or writing | About half, or less |
| Cart with manual | A little more on common games |
| Complete in box, worn | About 2 to 3 times loose on common games |
| Complete in box, sharp | 3 to 6 times loose on scarce games, more on rare ones |
| Factory sealed | Most common games about $30-120 sealed; popular and rare ones far more |
| Reproduction or homebrew sold as original | A few dollars, or the homebrew's own price |
A worked example
Say you find a shoebox with a woodgrain Atari console, two joysticks and twenty cartridges: Combat, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Missile Command, Pitfall, River Raid and a mix of sports games, plus one cart labeled Swordquest Waterworld. None have boxes.
The nineteen common carts are worth about $3-15 each, roughly $100-140 together. The Swordquest Waterworld cart, if the label is clean and it plays, is worth about $110-185 on its own as of October 2026, based on loose sales between July and October. That one cart is worth more than all the others combined. If the box and manual turned up too, PriceCharting's complete figure is about $935, though few complete copies sell each year.
Are Atari 2600 homebrews worth anything?
Yes, but most are bought new, not found. Homebrew developers have been making new 2600 games since the 1990s, and the AtariAge store sells new homebrew carts for roughly $30-60 each. Most hold roughly that value. A few limited runs sell for more on the secondary market, and PriceCharting lists several homebrews above $200 loose, but those are exceptions. A homebrew cart is a new game, not a vintage rarity, and a fair seller says so.
What is the Atari 2600 console itself worth?
Usually about $40-175 loose and working, depending on the model. Count the switches on the front and look at the trim to tell them apart. PriceCharting's October 2026 guide values:
| Model | How to recognize it | Loose | Boxed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Sixer (1977) | Six switches, woodgrain, thick heavy shell | About $174 | About $300 |
| Light Sixer | Six switches, woodgrain, lighter shell | About $48 | About $131 |
| Four-switch woodgrain ("Woody") | Four switches, woodgrain front | About $65 | About $154 |
| All-black four-switch ("Vader") | Four switches, no woodgrain | About $39 | About $370 (thin) |
| 2600 Junior (1986) | Small, flat, black and silver | About $39 | About $79 |
Original joysticks, the power supply and the switchbox add a little; a console that does not power on sells for parts at a fraction of these figures.
How to sell Atari 2600 games
Common carts, Combat, Pac-Man, E.T., Asteroids, Space Invaders, Missile Command and the sports titles, are $3-15 each loose and sell as one lot with the console, at about $5-10 a cart, on a general marketplace; listed one by one they bring the same money for twenty times the work. List singly, boxed or loose, anything from the scarce tier: Swordquest Waterworld at about $110-185, Chase the Chuck Wagon at about $60-115, Crazy Climber, and any Sears Tele-Games picture label or odd variation such as the silver-label Asteroids. Air Raid, Red Sea Crossing, Pepsi Invaders and any cart from a promotion or tiny publisher go to a specialist retro game dealer for a look and then to an auction house such as Heritage, which handles video games and whose buyers set the $1,900 to $8,500 figures.
Photograph the front label straight on, the end label with the title and catalog number, the back of the cart, and the box front, back and ends and the manual if you have them, since the box is what multiplies the price. Say whether the cart has been tested and plays, and show any price sticker, rental label, writing or tear rather than peeling it off. Name the label style: text, picture, silver or red.
Do not call E.T. rare, do not price a loose cart at the boxed figure, and do not sell a homebrew or reproduction as an original. Ship carts in a padded box; the cardboard boxes crush easily, so wrap those separately.
Common mistakes
- Pricing a cart at the boxed figure. The big numbers in sold listings are almost always complete copies.
- Assuming E.T. is rare because of the landfill story. It is one of the most common 2600 carts and sells for about $8 loose.
- Peeling off old price stickers or rental labels. The damage usually costs more than the sticker.
- Missing the one scarce cart in a box of common ones. Check every label, especially from small makers.
- Treating every unusual label as valuable. Most variations add little; check the game's AtariAge page first.
- Buying or selling a high-dollar rarity without having it checked. Air Raid, Red Sea Crossing and Pepsi Invaders are the carts most worth faking.
How WorthPic reads Atari 2600 photos
WorthPic runs on the newest and most capable AI model available, tuned for exactly this kind of identification. From photos of the cart, the end label and the box it reads the title, the maker, the catalog number, the label style and whether the box and manual are present, then gives an honest value range from recent sales for that game, label and level of completeness, with a most likely figure. It can often tell a common Atari label from a Tele-Games or silver variation, and a vintage cart from a new homebrew. What it cannot know from a photo is whether the cart plays, or whether a high-value rarity is original rather than a careful reproduction. It identifies and estimates. It does not authenticate, grade or appraise. For the rarities, a specialist retro game dealer or an auction house settles it in hand.
What to photograph
- The front label straight on, and the end label with the title and number.
- The back of the cart, which shows the shell and any stickers.
- The box front, back and ends, and the manual, if you have them.
- For a suspected rarity, the cart from several angles and the board if it can be opened safely.
When to get it looked at in person
A common 2600 cart does not need an expert; a PriceCharting or sold-listing check for the exact title and label tells you its value. Air Raid, Red Sea Crossing, Pepsi Invaders, any cart from a promotion or a tiny publisher, and any sealed or boxed scarce game deserve a second opinion from a specialist retro game dealer, and the top ones are best sold through an auction house such as Heritage, which handles video games. If the 2600 came with later consoles, our guides to old Nintendo games, Sega Genesis games and the original Game Boy cover the next generations. Our cameras and electronics value page covers the other consoles, computers and gear from the same decades and what each sells for.
Sources
- PriceCharting: Atari 2600 prices by value: the ranking and guide values for rare and common carts.
- PriceCharting: Air Raid, Atari 2600: loose and complete prices and the sale history.
- PriceCharting: Red Sea Crossing, Atari 2600: prices and the July 2026 Heritage sale.
- Wikipedia: Air Raid (1982 video game): the $31,600 sale of a cart with its box in April 2010.
- AtariAge: Atari silver label variation: silver labels used between 1982 and 1985, with links to the other label styles.
- AtariAge Store: new homebrew cartridge prices.