Along with its immediate sequel, it was one of the most popular games during the golden age of Arcade video games. It spawned a successful sequel, Galaga, in 1981, and the lesser known Gaplus and Galaga '88 in 19 respectively, as well as many later ports and adaptations. It was ported to the Atari 2600, Atari 5200, ColecoVision, Bally Astrocade, Nintendo Famicom, and home computers. The game was a big hit for Namco upon its release, and has been a focus of competitive gaming ever since.

A vertical scrolling shooter game in which the player controls a spaceship at the bottom of the screen, and shoots enemies descending in various directions, it was designed to compete with Taito's successful earlier game Space Invaders (which was released in the previous year, and also imported to the US by Midway). It was published by Namco in Japan and imported to North America by Midway that December.

Galaxian (ギャラクシアン) is an Arcade game that was developed by Namco and released in October 1979.