"Space Race" was not commercially successful; Nolan Bushnell has described it as "not as successful as "Pong" by a wide margin", and Ralph Baer claims that it sold around 1,500 units. It inspired a clone game, Taito's 1973 "Astro Race", and according to Bushnell also inspired an unsuccessful clone version by Nutting Associates. Midway felt that the release of "Space Race" violated their contract with Atari for "Asteroid", and the two companies agreed in exchange to drop Atari's three percent royalty cut for "Asteroid" machines. Baer claims "Asteroid" sold 2,000 units, making "Asteroid" and "Space Race" the eighth and ninth best-selling arcade video games of 1973 according to him.