The best selling computer of all time
The Commodore 64 sold so many units that nobody can agree on the number
One computer has sold more units than any other single model, ever. It is not a Mac and it is not a ThinkPad. It is a chunky beige wedge from 1982 called the Commodore 64.
How many did it sell? Nobody actually knows. Estimates run from around 12 million to 17 million, and people have written research papers trying to pin it down. When your sales are so big they become an academic argument, you have won.
The trick was price. It launched at $595 when comparable machines cost twice that, and Commodore kept cutting until a real computer cost less than a bicycle. It sold in toy stores and supermarkets, next to the crayons. For millions of families, the C64 was the first computer in the house.
And because the machine in the house had a real keyboard and a built-in programming language, a generation of kids typed their first line of code on one. Ask an older programmer where they started. The answer is very often this machine.
Thousands are still running. The C64 scene releases new games and demos every year, on real hardware, four decades on.
One warning if you drag yours out of the garage: do not plug in the original power supply until you have read the guide in the library. It has a famous failure mode that kills the machine. The spec sheet, the guide, and the owners are all there. Add yours to your gear and join the biggest club in computing.