Tetris
Tetris is a 1989 puzzle video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It is a portable version of Alexey Pajitnov's original Tetris and it was bundled with the North American and European releases of the Game Boy itself. It is the first game to have been compatible with the Game Link Cable, a pack-in accessory that allows two Game Boy consoles to link for multiplayer purposes. A remaster, Tetris DX, was released on the Game Boy Color in 1998. It was released for the Nintendo 3DS' Virtual Console in December 2011 without multiplayer functionality. The game was released on the Nintendo Classics service in February 2023.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1989
- Developer
- Nintendo Research & Development 1
- Platforms
- 1 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 14 June 1989 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Nintendo Research & Development 1 |
| Publisher | Nintendo |
| Platforms | Game Boy |
| Genres | Puzzle |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q3519191, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Tetris? How long to beat it
Total play time for Tetris is about 12.7 hours to do everything, and around 3.2 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 3.2h | 126 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 5.4h | 19 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 12.7h | 20 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Tetris sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Tetris lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 42ahead of 3% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 16ahead of 65% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Tetris
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Tetris appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Tetris qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Tetris
What platforms is Tetris on?
Tetris is available on Game Boy. It first released in 1989.
Who made Tetris?
Tetris was developed by Nintendo Research & Development 1 and published by Nintendo.
How long does it take to beat Tetris?
about 3.2 hours for the main story, 5.4 hours with the main extras, 12.7 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.