Which New York museum added Pac-Man to its permanent collection in 2012?

The New York museum that added Pac-Man to its permanent collection in 2012 was the Museum of Modern Art.

MoMA announced in December 2012 that it had acquired 14 video games for its Architecture and Design collection. Pac-Man, released in 1980, was included alongside influential titles such as Tetris, Another World, Myst, and SimCity. The museum planned to begin displaying the games in March 2013.

MoMA’s decision treated games as designed interactive artifacts rather than merely entertainment products. Its curators considered factors including visual quality, sound, interface, behavior, and the quality of the experience over time. Pac-Man was a particularly strong example because its maze, character design, ghost behaviors, and compact controls communicate clearly through play.

The wording can cause a small confusion: this was not the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney, or the American Museum of Natural History. It was the Museum of Modern Art, commonly abbreviated MoMA, in Manhattan. The collection also reflects the museum’s broader interest in preserving software, hardware, and playable design history.