---
title: "Which came first, the hamburger or Nintendo?"
description: "the hamburger vs Nintendo: Nintendo came first, by 11 years — 1889 against 1900. What happened in each case, and why the dates are often given differently."
url: https://atoneplace.net/which-came-first/hamburger-vs-nintendo/
site: "At One Place"
---

# Which came first, the hamburger or Nintendo?

**Which came first, the hamburger or Nintendo?: Nintendo**

1889 — 11 years before the hamburger

Nintendo came first, by 11 years. Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.

## Side by side

|  | the hamburger | Nintendo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Year | 1900 | 1889 |
| Date | — | 1889-09-23 |
| Category | food | company |
| What happened | Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904. | Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto. |

## the hamburger

At least four places claim it. Charlie Nagreen said he flattened a meatball between bread at the Seymour Fair in Wisconsin in 1885; the Menches brothers claimed the same year at the Erie County Fair; Louis' Lunch in New Haven claims 1900; and Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas is credited with introducing it at the 1904 St Louis World's Fair. No contemporary document settles it. What is documented is the Hamburg steak — chopped beef, no bun — on American menus from the 1870s.

## Nintendo

Nintendo was founded in 1889 to make handmade hanafuda cards, and it was a playing-card company for about eighty years. It is older than the Ford Motor Company (1903), older than the aeroplane, older than the Eiffel Tower by five months, and older than the modern Olympic Games. Before settling on video games in the 1970s it tried taxis, instant rice and a chain of love hotels.

## Common questions

### Which came first, the hamburger or Nintendo?

Nintendo, by 11 years — 1889 against 1900.

### When did the hamburger start?

1900. Competing American claims put the first burger between 1885 and 1904.

### When did Nintendo start?

1889. Fusajiro Yamauchi began making hanafuda playing cards in Kyoto.

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## Sources

- Typical range compiled from manufacturer specifications — At One Place (/about/)
- Wikidata — Wikimedia Foundation (https://www.wikidata.org/) [CC0 1.0]