The Game Boy is an 8-bit handheld game console which was developed and manufactured by Nintendo and first released on April 21, 1989, in North America on July 31, 1989 and in Europe on September 28, 1990. It is the first handheld console in the Game Boy line and was created and published by Satoru Okada and Nintendo Research & Development 1. This same team, led by Gunpei Yokoi at the time, is credited with designing the Game & Watch series as well as several popular games for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Redesigned versions were released in 1996 and 1998 in the form of Game Boy Pocket and Game Boy Light (Japan only), respectively.

The Game Boy is Nintendo's first handheld game console and it combined features from both the Nintendo Entertainment System and Game & Watch. It was sold either as a standalone unit or bundled with the puzzle game Tetris.

During its early lifetime, the Game Boy mainly competed with Sega's Game Gear, Atari's Lynx, and NEC's TurboExpress. The Game Boy outsold its rivals and became a significant success.The Game Boy and its successor, the Game Boy Color, have sold over 118 million units worldwide. Upon the Game Boy's release in the United States, its entire shipment of one million units was sold within a few weeks. Production of the Game Boy and Game Boy Color were discontinued in the early 2000s, being replaced by the subsequent Game Boy Advance, released in 2001.