Play Meter

Play Meter is an American trade magazine focusing on the coin-op and arcade game industry. It was founded in December 1974 by publisher and editor Ralph C. Lally II and it is published in physical form by Skybird Publishing on a monthly basis. Play Meter has published several bi-monthly and annual special issues throughout its history and it maintains a website where online content is also published monthly. The magazine is generally regarded as the premier trade magazine of the American video game industry and as the earliest example of video game journalism, establishing such practices as individual video game reviews and the ten-point assessment scale for video game reviews.

Play Meter also served as the parent organization of the first coin-op-oriented spring trade show (forerunner to North America's annual Amusement Expo), and together with rival publication RePlay (founded 1975) it represents the only trade magazine to chronicle the arcade industry in its nascency, through market fluctuations like the video game crashes of 1977 and 1983, and through the rebirth and maturation of the medium through the 1980s.

Throughout its history Play Meter has released a number of special issues. These issues are scheduled at a slower pace (typically bi-monthly or annually) and they cover specific details of the Arcade and Coin-Op markets.