When did video games become popular

I'd argue around the mid 1990s to around the turn of the millennia. Why? using the word popular makes this question difficult. Charlie Manson was popular to his followers, not to compare with SNES players, but the target demographic was fairly young, you could see this from the choice of video games and how "childish" video games like Zelda and Mario were the most commercially successful. I'd argue that popular in this question would mean accepted by all or most people and not viewed negatively, also fairly normal, as pre 1990's video games were considered just for kids and social outcasts, but with the introduction of the PSX, XBOX, PS2, more people than ever before and with a greater range than kids and basement dwellers were playing video games. Maybe these were the children of the 80's with NES, but nevertheless, this was the time video games were truly accepted into the general public.
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I'm going to suggest that video games have always been popular. Prior to home consoles, video arcades were jam packed with people dropping quarters day and night. The home console revolution of the 80's cannot be overlooked either. Without it we would have nothing. If it wasn't massively popular then, we would have nothing today. But when were they at the height of their popularity? Probably 2010-2012. Lots of good titles on all consoles, smart phones, and PC. Console wars were in full swing and the consumer wins. Facebook games were exploding. Now, unfortunately, the market is flooded with sub-par games, incomplete and buggy games, games filled with microtransactions and annoying ads, and too much reliance on DLC to suck more money out of us.