The Top Selling Board Games

Before there smartphones, consoles, and gaming computers, there were board games. They’ve been around for decades and have entertained hundreds of millions of people across the world, and still do to this day. Board games have become known for their family-friendly fun, allowing people of all ages to join in together to enjoy a game for a few hours. These are the world’s best-selling board games of all time.

Scrabble

Scrabble is the quintessential board game when it comes to the English language, and it’s a great way of expanding vocabulary while having a friendly competition with friends or family. First invented in 1938, Scrabble was created by Alfred Mosher Butts, and was published by James Brunot. There is an official Scrabble dictionary that can be used to settle spelling debates.

Monopoly

The game about money, Monopoly is a world favourite, known for its incredibly long gaming sessions, and for being exceedingly frustrating for the players that aren’t doing well against their competitors. Monopoly first entered the market in 1903 and was originally known as the Landlord’s Game.

Checkers

Also known commonly as Chinese Checkers, this game is perhaps the oldest in the world, with historians agreeing that people played Checkers around 3000 years BC. It was so common in the ancient world, in fact, there it was mentioned in works by both Plato and Homer. Over the years, Checkers has been transformed into a number of different variants, and the kind usually depends on the region its being played in. Regardless, the basic, fundamental rules of the game have remained unchanged for thousands of years and it offers a great glimpse into the past for newer players.

Backgammon

The game of backgammon is another ancient board game that was discovered by archaeologists in an excavation located in Iran. It’s believed that the game has been around for around since 3000 BC, making it around as old as Checkers, and there’s a good chance that the two games have influenced one another over the years. Backgammon is a game of chance that is played using a pair of dice, and players need to try and use a combination of luck and strategy to beat their opponents in order to win the game. Today, backgammon can easily be found being sold at most game and toy stores and is perfect for the entire family.

Chess

Originally, the game of chess can be traced back to ancient India, where it was enjoyed by a wide variety of classes. The modern chess that we know and love today, while similar, actually dates back to the year 1200, and many of the pieces used in the game are based on titles that were common during the medieval period, such as king, queen, rook, and knight. While the game has undergone a number of changes over the centuries, it’s core rules have, for the most part, remained the same.