The Commodore 64, also known as the C64 or the CBM 64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, in Las Vegas, January 7–10, 1982).^[4] It has been listed in the Guinness World Records as the highest-selling single computer model of all time,^[5] with independent estimates placing the number sold between 10 and 17 million units.^[2] Volume production started in early 1982, marketing in August for US$595 (equivalent to $1,545 in 2018).^[6][7] Preceded by the Commodore VIC-20 and Commodore PET, the C64 took its name from its 64 kilobytes(65,536 bytes) of RAM. With support for multicolor sprites and a custom chip for waveform generation, the C64 could create superior visuals and audio compared to systems without such custom hardware.

The C64 dominated the low-end computer market for most of the 1980s.^[8] For a substantial period (1983–1986), the C64 had between 30% and 40% share of the US market and two million units sold per year,^[9]outselling IBM PC compatibles, Apple computers, and the Atari 8-bit family of computers. Sam Tramiel, a later Atari president and the son of Commodore's founder, said in a 1989 interview, "When I was at Commodore we were building 400,000 C64s a month for a couple of years."^[10] In the UK market, the C64 faced competition from the BBC Micro and the ZX Spectrum,^[11] but the C64 was still one of the two most popular computers in the UK.^[12]

Part of the Commodore 64's success was its sale in regular retail stores instead of only electronics or computer hobbyist specialty stores. Commodore produced many of its parts in-house to control costs, including custom integrated circuit chips from MOS Technology. It has been compared to the Ford Model T automobile for its role in bringing a new technology to middle-class households via creative and affordable mass-production.^[13] Approximately 10,000 commercial software titles have been made for the Commodore 64 including development tools, office productivity applications, and video games.^[14] C64 emulators allow anyone with a modern computer, or a compatible video game console, to run these programs today. The C64 is also credited with popularizing the computer demoscene and is still used today by some computer hobbyists.^[15] In 2011, 17 years after it was taken off the market, research showed that brand recognition for the model was still at 87%.^[5]