Just like the difference between movie theatres vs home theatres, arcades can be a very different and more (or less) social experience than playing games at home, but the appeal might depend more on what your home is like than what the arcade is like.

You might live in a small space where you can't keep a functioning Dance Dance Revolution setup without noise complaints from downstairs, but you can dance at the arcade, maybe with an awestruck audience if you're really good at it.

You can take your SO to the arcade on a date and giggle as you race down a mountain together with a steering wheel and pedal setup, even if he/she isn't into that kind of thing most of the time and wouldn't have fun playing Gran Turismo with you at home.

You can hang out with your friends each week and play with them even if your home environment is too strict, chaotic, or unpredictable for that.

But if you have everything you need at home and can couch-co-op Halo with your buddies on a big screen TV, you might not see any appeal in the arcade.

It's the original pay to play/win gaming model, back when arcades actually had people in them. Anyway arcade is a unique genre of games often characterized by more fast paced chaotic gameplay, "infinite" levels, extra focus on leaderboards, more eye-candy style of visual design akin to casinos, etc. It can be a pretty fun space

In general, arcades are just fun. They’re a place to go outside the house. But, arcades also get to experiment with unique hardware & interfaces that a home console or PC can’t match.

Sega Joyopolis in Tokyo was a next level experience. It had arcade cabinets that spin 360 degrees on X & Y axes, which makes flying games fantastic. It had racing cabinets with full sized Mazda Miatas & similar cars on full motion platforms. There was a snowboarding half pipe, where the rider is strapped into a full sized snowboard on a pendulum arm with a VR headset. Another ride was an enclosed pod with VR displays that ran along a rollercoaster track. And, the most unusual thing I remember, there was a holographic virtual pop star performance.

Nostalgia I guess. If you're old enough to remember the world before ubiquitous internet, you likely have some fond memories of arcades. We didn't always have everything available at arms length instantly. Many of us saved up money for the one-per-week (or month) trip to the arcade. The delayed gratification and shared experience made it a phenomenon that has few parallels any more.

Yeah, you should be able to see the appeal of bespoke machines inappropriate for the home easily. Not everyone has a golf simulator in their home to hone their swing, yet people go to a place where they have one.

Same thing with arcades; not everyone has a DDR machine at home, yet people love them and want to play them.

The video game arcade grew out of earlier electromechanical amusements, primarily pinball(which has had a small renaissance in the US). The joy of pinball is a combination of "bright lights and chimes" - attractive theming giving it a monumental feel, the physics of the game being complex and chaotic, and a "beat the operator" element of skill where good players can play for longer and are even rewarded with more credits. Every time you come in to play a pinball, it's slightly different because the parts were readjusted or the ball had grown worn.

When video arcades started to grow popular at the end of the 1970's, they retained most of these elements: An arcade game was a "destination" for game enthusiasts and had the best technology available at the time. They didn't have real physics like pinball, but they were very reliable, giving the skill element a new wrinkle - the operator mostly wasn't a factor, so you played against the game design as the developer intended. While free credits for high scores were eliminated, time extension was still a common part of the gameplay. Playing for high scores or going longer on one credit are the underlying factor to being "into" arcade games - they are fundamentally short "instant fun" experiences and you have to fight them to get more out of your credit.

There's a strong element of "performing" an arcade game - not just consuming it but making the most of every nuance. Not all arcades are designed fairly, but the best ones allow you to clear the game on one credit if you are very good. It can be very satisfying to spend time practicing an arcade and then be able to perform it again on demand.

While consoles got better and closed the gap on technology, the arcade got a second wind in the 90's as fighting games and larger format games like Daytona USA became central, preserving the monumentality of it and opening up more multiplayer experiences, which helped the arcade retain a social feeling.

Since video games are so prevalent now, and allow for cheaper, longer-format and less intense experiences, arcades have become a niche, but their style of gameplay remains popular.

There's a social aspect.

For example, take girls who aren't gamers, there's no way to get them to play console games. They see that as the domain of dudes. So there's no chance to take them out on a date where you sit in a room playing games from a console.

But these very same girls love the arcade experience. They are partial to the arcade experience because they get to be out in the open, in their best outfit, consume alcohol and/or food, smoke, socialize and even though they might not enjoy the games themselves, they like the social aspect. It's like going to a club where the crowd is a bit nerdier and not quite the meat market that are dance clubs.

Same with billiards. Not that fun in dad's den. But fun as hell in a pool hall. More social. More vibing.

You don't go to arcades cause it's cheaper. You go cause you want it to be a communal experience.

Even if you're not there to mingle with guys or girls. Maybe you want to show off and beat some game. It's much funner when you got a bunch of people rooting behind you than if you owned the cabinet and just played in dad's den.

I think it's like why people go to the gym to exercise even though most of them would theoretically be better off buying a set of resistance bands and making a YouTube playlist to follow at home. There seems to be something inherently compelling about a physical space that society has designated as being dedicated to a specific activity.

While it hasn't been the case recently, way back in the day arcade machines had much better graphics than anything you could play on home consoles or computers.

As others have alluded to it's not just to play a game it's also a social thing.

I can't think of any other social activity I was involved in outside my home as a teenager. I was shy, quiet, no friends etc. but at an arcade there was a common interest. Watching someone else play or 2 player game with someone you didn't know.

The smell too arcades had a certain smell the plywood cabinets, sweet smells of food, and for a certain period in time cigarettes.

Have you been to a Round 1? As far arcades go they're very impressive imo, especially the rhythm game sections.

I love me some Groove Coaster and Drummania!