How To Install Python Pygame Module Correctly Windows Tricks

This article will tell you how to install the Python Pygame module correctly and how to fix the problems during the installation process.

Table of Contents

1. Install Python Pygame Module Use The PIP Install Command.

Open the terminal and run the command pip install pygame in it.

$ pip install pygame
Collecting pygame
  Downloading pygame-2.1.2-cp37-cp37m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl (8.9 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 8.9 MB 1.2 MB/s 
Installing collected packages: pygame
Successfully installed pygame-2.1.2

Run the command pip show pygame to verify the module installation.

$ pip show pygame
Name: pygame
Version: 2.1.2
Summary: Python Game Development
Home-page: https://www.pygame.org
Author: A community project.
Author-email: [email protected]
License: LGPL
Location: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/lib/python3.7/site-packages
Requires: 
Required-by:

2. Install Python Pygame Module Use The Binary Installer File.

Besides using the pip install command, we can also install it using the downloaded binary installer file.
Go to the Pygame GitHub website to download the Pygame installer file that matches your OS and Python versions.

Open a terminal and go to the Pygame installer downloaded directory.

Run the command python -m pip install –user pygame-2.1.2-cp37-cp37m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl to install the Pygame from the installer file.

$ python -m pip install --user pygame-2.1.2-cp37-cp37m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl
Processing ./pygame-2.1.2-cp37-cp37m-macosx_10_9_x86_64.whl
Installing collected packages: pygame
Successfully installed pygame-2.1.2

Run the command python -m pygame –version to verify the installed Pygame moduel version.

$ python -m pygame --version
pygame 2.1.2 (SDL 2.0.18, Python 3.7.3)
Hello from the pygame community. https://www.pygame.org/contribute.html
/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.7/bin/python: No module named pygame.__main__; 'pygame' is a package and cannot be directly executed

3. How To Fix The ImportError: No module named ‘pygame’.

3.1 Question.

I installed pygame 1.9.2 in Windows, and my python version is 3.5. But when I import the pygame module in the python source code, it shows the error ImportError: No module named ‘pygame’. How can I fix this error?
```
>>> import pygame
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "<pyshell#0>", line 1, in <module>
import pygame
ImportError: No module named 'pygame'
```

3.2 Answer1.

Below are the steps to install Pygame 1.9.2 on Python 3.5.1 for Windows, you can try it.
After you successfully install Python 3.5, you should write down the Python 3.5 installed folder for later use.

Download the wheel file pygame-1.9.2a0-cp35-none-win32.whl and save it to the folder python35/Scripts.
Open a dos window and cd to the python35/Scripts folder, then run the below command.
```
pip3 install pygame-1.9.2a0-cp35-none-win32.whl
```
If you can not run the above command successfully, you can run the below command instead.
```
python -m pip install pygame-1.9.2a0-cp35-none-win32.whl
```

Now when you import the pygame module, the error should disappear.

3.3 Answer2.

I also meet such an error, but the reason is different.
I installed multiple Python versions on my Windows, and I installed pygame library successfully into one of my Python versions.

But my IDE used python interpreter does not contain the pygame library, so when I import pygame in my IDE the error is shown.
After I select the python interpreter that has installed pygame library, the error disappear.
wish this can help you too.

3.4 Answer3.

This error happened when you do not install pygame successfully.
Or you may have multiple Python versions installed, and pygame is installed in one of the python versions, but you import pygame in another python version.

So you should make sure the pygame library has been installed in your python env, you can run the below command to check it.

(MyPythonEnv) C:\Users\zhaosong>pip show pygame
Name: pygame
Version: 2.1.2
Summary: Python Game Development
Home-page: https://www.pygame.org
Author: A community project.
Author-email: [email protected]
License: LGPL
Location: c:\users\zhaosong\anaconda3\envs\mypythonenv\lib\site-packages
Requires:
Required-by:

4. How To Fix ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:…EOFError: EOF when reading a line When Install Pygame Using PIP.

4.1 Question.

I run the command pip install pygame on windows 10, but it throws the error with the message ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:…EOFError: EOF when reading a line. My python version is 3.9. Below is the detailed error message. How can I fix it?

Collecting pygame
  Using cached pygame-1.9.6.tar.gz (3.2 MB)
    ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1:
     command: 'c:\users\jerry\appdata\local\programs\python\python39\python.exe' -c 'import sys, setuptools, tokenize; sys.argv[0] = '"'"'C:\\Users\\jerry\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-4b04m745\\pygame\\setup.py'"'"'; __file__='"'"'C:\\Users\\jerry\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-install-4b04m745\\pygame\\setup.py'"'"';f=getattr(tokenize, '"'"'open'"'"', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('"'"'\r\n'"'"', '"'"'\n'"'"');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, '"'"'exec'"'"'))' egg_info --egg-base 'C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-pip-egg-info-up4741kz'
         cwd: C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-4b04m745\pygame\
    Complete output (17 lines):


    WARNING, No "Setup" File Exists, Running "buildconfig/config.py"
    Using WINDOWS configuration...


    Download prebuilts to "prebuilt_downloads" and copy to "./prebuilt-x64"? [Y/n]Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
      File "C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-4b04m745\pygame\setup.py", line 194, in <module>
        buildconfig.config.main(AUTO_CONFIG)
      File "C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-4b04m745\pygame\buildconfig\config.py", line 210, in main
        deps = CFG.main(**kwds)
      File "C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-4b04m745\pygame\buildconfig\config_win.py", line 576, in main
        and download_win_prebuilt.ask(**download_kwargs):
      File "C:\Users\jerry\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-install-4b04m745\pygame\buildconfig\download_win_prebuilt.py", line 302, in ask
        reply = raw_input(
    EOFError: EOF when reading a line
    ----------------------------------------
ERROR: Command errored out with exit status 1: python setup.py egg_info Check the logs for full command output.

4.2 Answer1.

From the message you provide, we can see that you just install the Pygame version 1.9.6. And your python version is 3.9.
But Pygame 1.9.6 does not support python 3.9 now. So you had better use python 3.8 instead.

Or you can install Pygame 2.0 with the command pip install pygame==2.0.0, Pygame 2.0 support python 3.9.
You can also download the Pygame wheel file from https://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pygame, it contains the wheel file pygame‑1.9.6‑cp39‑cp39‑win32.whl that meet your needs.