What year did sudoku puzzles come out?

The origins of Sudoku puzzles are a bit murky, but the first known publication of a Sudoku-like puzzle was in 1979 in a magazine called "Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games".

However, a similar puzzle called "Number Place" was popular in the US during the 1970s. It was published in the magazine "Mathematical Games" in 1979, and the name "Sudoku" didn't come about until 1984 in a Japanese magazine.

So, while it's hard to pinpoint an exact year, the late 1970s and early 1980s are considered the era of Sudoku's birth.