Arcades in Tampa

Looking for flashing lights and high scores in Tampa, FL? There are 11 arcades mapped here. That's 11 arcades mapped around Tampa. Machine condition varies wildly between venues, so the one with the best-maintained cabinets wins regardless of size. Check whether the venue runs on tokens, cards or coins before you arrive with the wrong currency.

This guide covers every arcade we could verify in and around Tampa (within about 40 km), built from OpenStreetMap's community-maintained data. Names you'll run into include Armada Games and Chuck E. Cheese, plus That Game Show Place. If an arcade's missing from Tampa's list, it probably just hasn't been mapped yet.

The Tampa arcade lineup

11 mapped within about 40 km:

What the map tells us about arcades in Tampa

3 of the 11 list their opening hours on the map, which is genuinely useful — arcades keep long hours, so the listed times are usually good.

6 have websites listed. Worth a look for tournament nights and free-play evenings.

Most of the arcades in Tampa list a phone number. Useful for checking party bookings and tournament schedules.

6 arcades list websites — worth a look for opening times and whether they run leagues or tournament nights.

The Tampa arcade run

Making a day of it in Tampa? Work this order: Armada Games, Chuck E. Cheese on 25921 US Highway 19 North, That Game Show Place on 38547 US Highway 19, Game Time on 1600 East 8th Avenue, The Forge Social Gaming Center on 2154 University Square Mall, Park & Rec on 344 1st Avenue North, Pantopia Games, and Treasure Island Fun Center. That's the arcade run in one sensible loop, no backtracking. 3 more are listed below.

Arcade tips for Tampa

A few things worth knowing before you work through Tampa's arcades:

• Check age policies at Armada Games. Some arcades are all-ages by day and 19+ at night, especially the bar-arcade hybrids. Check before bringing kids.
• Bring friends for versus games at Chuck E. Cheese. Fighting games, racers, shooters — all built for two. Solo arcading is fine; versus arcading is the point.
• Watch the regulars first. The high-score table tells you which machines are hot and who's worth watching. Fifteen minutes of watching teaches plenty.
• Racing games: sit properly. Feet on the pedals, hands at nine and three. The cabinet is a simulator if you treat it like one.

Good to know

We searched about 40 km around Tampa — that covers the town itself plus the surrounding communities you'd reasonably drive to. Listings come from OpenStreetMap, mapped by local volunteers, so a brand-new arcade in Tampa can take a while to appear. Spotted a closure among the 11, or a arcade we missed entirely? The map is the source of truth here — one OpenStreetMap edit corrects it for everyone.

We don't list machine lineups — they change too often. What we list is the where: real venues, verified by real mappers.

If you run one of the 11 listed here and something's wrong — a closure, a move, new hours — the fix is the same: update the shop on OpenStreetMap and the correction flows through to this page on the next daily refresh.