The year was 1996, and a small egg-shaped plastic toy was about to make millions of people around the world genuinely, emotionally attached to a collection of pixels on a liquid crystal display. Not attached in the way you're attached to your phone. Attached in the way you're attached to a living thing. Kids cried when their Tamagotchi died. Adults scheduled their lunch breaks around feeding times. Schools started confiscating them like contraband. A pet cemetery in Cornwall, England started burying them in actual graves. And Bandai, the Japanese toy company behind it all, sold over 40 million units in the first two years alone. The Tamagotchi wasn't just a toy. It was the first time technology made us care about something that wasn't real, and it completely rewired how an entire generation thought about digital relationships.
A Turtle, a Teenage Girl Market, and a Tiny Egg
The idea for Tamagotchi came from a man named Akihiro Yokoi, who worked at a company called WiZ. He saw a TV commercial about a boy trying to bring his pet turtle on a trip and thought: what if you could carry a pet in your pocket? Not a real one. A digital one that needed actual care and attention. He brought the concept to Bandai in 1995, and they rejected it. So Yokoi did something smart. He went to Shibuya, one of Tokyo's busiest shopping districts, and studied what teenage girls were buying. He noticed that almost every handheld electronic device on the market was designed for boys. There was a massive gap. If he could make something "kawaii" (cute) enough, he could own an entirely underserved market.
He partnered with Aki Maita, a Bandai employee who became the public face of the project. Together, they designed a device shaped like an egg (the name "Tamagotchi" combines the Japanese words "tamago," meaning egg, and "uotchi," meaning watch). The concept was simple but brilliant: you hatch a digital creature, and it needs you. You feed it, clean up after it, play with it, discipline it, and put it to sleep. Neglect it, and it gets sick. Ignore it long enough, and it dies. For real. No undo button. No respawn.
The first Tamagotchi went on sale in Japan on November 23, 1996. It retailed for about 1,980 yen (roughly $17). Within weeks, it was sold out everywhere.
The Frenzy That Nobody Predicted
When Bandai launched the Tamagotchi in the United States on May 1, 1997, FAO Schwarz in San Francisco sold its entire stock of 3,000 units by 3:00 PM on the first day. Not by end of business. By mid-afternoon. Parents were lining up before stores opened. Scalpers were flipping them for $100 or more. By the end of 1997, Bandai had sold over 10 million units worldwide, and the number kept climbing. By 1998, that figure hit 40 million, including 12 million in North America alone.
The pricing was part of the genius. At $17.99, it was cheap enough that parents would buy one on impulse but expensive enough to feel like a real purchase for a kid. Compare that to a Game Boy, which cost $69.99 in 1997 (plus $30 per game). The cost of 90s tech adjusted for inflation makes the Tamagotchi look like the bargain of the decade.
The cultural footprint was massive. Tamagotchi keychains were everywhere. Kids wore them around their necks. Teenagers clipped them to backpacks. Japanese businesswomen were reportedly canceling meetings to care for their digital pets. In November 1997, the Swedish Retail Institute named it the Christmas Gift of the Year. Yokoi and Maita won the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize for Economics, a tongue-in-cheek award that basically called them the mother and father of the digital pet revolution.
Why Schools Went to War with a Plastic Egg
The problem with Tamagotchi was built into its design. Your pet could die in less than half a day if you didn't check on it. That meant kids weren't putting them away during class. They were sneaking glances under their desks, pressing buttons during tests, and having full-on emotional breakdowns when their creature died mid-lesson. Teachers went from annoyed to furious in a matter of weeks.
Schools across the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan started banning them outright. California and New York were among the first, with teachers citing them as the single biggest classroom distraction they'd ever dealt with. Some schools treated Tamagotchis like they were cell phones (which, in 1997, most kids didn't even have yet). Confiscation bins filled up. Parents wrote angry letters demanding their kids' toys back. It was chaos.
But here's the thing that made Tamagotchi bans different from, say, banning Game Boys or trading cards. Kids weren't just playing a game. They felt responsible for a digital life. Taking away someone's Tamagotchi during school hours meant their pet might die while it sat in a teacher's desk drawer. That created a level of emotional distress that no school administrator had planned for. Some kids started leaving their Tamagotchis with friends who had a free period, creating informal daycare networks. In Japan, actual paid Tamagotchi daycare services popped up for adults who couldn't check their devices during work.
Funerals for Pixels
When a Tamagotchi died, it didn't just display "Game Over." The screen showed a small angel or a gravestone, depending on the version. For a lot of kids (and more adults than you'd expect), that was devastating. The emotional response was so widespread that it spawned an entire mourning culture around digital pet death.
In January 1997, two teenage girls traveled to a pet cemetery in Pontsmill, Cornwall, England to bury their Tamagotchis, named Sid and Arty. Fourteen-year-old Danielle Perren told reporters she wanted to remember her pet "as he was," not as he'd be if she just reset the device. The cemetery owner, Terry Squires, soon started receiving Tamagotchis from around the world. Switzerland, Germany, France, Canada, the United States. He fenced off a dedicated section of his cemetery for digital pet burials.
Online, memorial websites popped up where you could post eulogies, record your Tamagotchi's age at death, and list the cause of death. Some of these sites still exist today, abandoned but intact, frozen in late-90s HTML with tiled backgrounds and animated GIF candles. If you want a snapshot of how seriously people took this, spend five minutes browsing the Tama Talk memorial forums. It's equal parts funny, sweet, and a little bit haunting.
The Tamagotchi effect (that's what researchers actually call it) became a legitimate area of academic study. Psychologists wanted to understand why humans could form genuine emotional bonds with a creature that was, objectively, just a few lines of code running on a chip the size of a fingernail. The consensus? Our brains don't fully distinguish between real and simulated care relationships when the feedback loop is convincing enough. You feed it, it grows. You neglect it, it suffers. That's enough for your brain to start treating it as real.
The Crash, the Comeback, and the 100 Million Milestone
Like most 90s fads, the original Tamagotchi craze burned white-hot and then faded fast. By 1999, sales had dropped off dramatically. Bandai's stock price took a hit. The toy aisles moved on to the next thing. For a few years, Tamagotchi looked like it would become just another relic of 90s nostalgia, filed next to AOL Instant Messenger and slap bracelets.
But Bandai never actually stopped making them. The Tamagotchi Connection launched in 2004 with infrared communication, letting two devices interact with each other. Your Tamagotchi could visit a friend's Tamagotchi, play together, and even have offspring. The Connection line sold well, especially in Japan, and kept the brand alive through the mid-2000s.
Then came the Tamagotchi Uni in 2023, which added Wi-Fi connectivity and a color screen. Suddenly you could connect your Tamagotchi to the internet, visit a virtual world called the Tamaverse, and interact with players globally. In 2024, Bandai released the Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary edition, bringing back the classic infrared gameplay with modern touches and over 50 characters to raise.
In August 2025, Bandai announced that cumulative worldwide shipments had officially surpassed 100 million units. About 49% of those were sold in Japan, 33% in the United States, 16% in Europe, and 2% across the rest of Asia. That same year, Tamagotchi was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. Not bad for a toy that most people assumed died in 1999.
What Your Old Tamagotchi Is Worth Now
If you still have an original 1996 or 1997 Tamagotchi sitting in a drawer somewhere, it might be worth checking. A used, loose original typically sells for $40 to $50 on eBay. But if you have it in the original packaging, especially unopened, that number jumps to several hundred dollars. A bundle of three original English-language Tamagotchis recently sold for about $2,250.
The real money is in rare variants. A Tamagotchi Plus sold for $5,000 in 2021. Limited edition models like the Pizzara-kun have been listed at $1,600, and certain Tamagotchi Plus Tama Depa versions go for over $3,000. The collector market is real, driven largely by millennial nostalgia and the same logic that turned first-edition Pokemon cards into five-figure investments.
But most people don't want to sell their Tamagotchi. They want to play it again. And that's exactly why Bandai's modern revival strategy is working so well. The new models retail for around $30 to $60, which is roughly double the original price but still impulse-buy territory. Bandai understood something important: nostalgia isn't just about remembering. It's about reliving. And you can't relive the Tamagotchi experience by watching a YouTube video about it. You have to hold the egg in your hand and hear that familiar beep.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who actually invented the Tamagotchi?
Two people deserve the credit. Akihiro Yokoi of WiZ came up with the original concept after seeing a commercial about a boy and his pet turtle. He partnered with Aki Maita at Bandai to develop and produce it. Maita was the public face of the project for months, but both were recognized together when they won the 1997 Ig Nobel Prize for Economics.
How many Tamagotchis have been sold worldwide?
Over 100 million. Bandai hit the milestone in August 2025, nearly 29 years after the original launch. The first 40 million sold in just the first two years, which gives you a sense of how intense the initial craze was.
Why were Tamagotchis banned in schools?
Because a Tamagotchi could die in less than 12 hours without care, kids couldn't put them down during class. They'd check them under desks, press buttons during tests, and have emotional meltdowns when their digital pet died. Schools in the US, UK, and Japan started confiscating them, treating them the same way schools today treat phones.
Can you still buy a new Tamagotchi in 2026?
Yes. Bandai has been releasing new models consistently. The Tamagotchi Uni (2023) added Wi-Fi and a color screen. The Tamagotchi Connection 20th Anniversary edition came out in 2024 with infrared multiplayer features. A new model called Paradise is expected in mid-2025. Prices range from about $30 to $60 depending on the model.
Were people actually burying Tamagotchis in real cemeteries?
Yes. A pet cemetery in Cornwall, England started accepting Tamagotchi burials in January 1997 and received devices from multiple countries. Online memorial sites also appeared where owners could post eulogies and record their pet's cause of death. Some of those sites are still online today, frozen in 90s web design.
What's the most expensive Tamagotchi ever sold?
Rare variants regularly sell for thousands of dollars. A Tamagotchi Plus sold for $5,000 in 2021, and certain limited editions like the Tama Depa version have been listed above $3,000. Even a basic original in unopened packaging can fetch several hundred dollars. The collector market mirrors what happened with vintage Pokemon cards and retro game cartridges.