Board games have been enjoying their most successful period in history, but not all board games occupy the same amount of time in the hearts, minds, and on the living room tables of players.
We all know Monopoly is the most popular board game and one of the most historically interesting ones in modernity, but is it really the highest-selling one of all time? Let’s find out.
10. The Game of Life
The Game Of Life is meant to simulate one’s adventure in adulthood, which means you might have to study, work, get married, and have kids. It’s like a version of The Sims where you get to perform the ultimate flex on your friends, that of being the best at living.
The basis for the current Life is a game called The Checkered Game of Life from 160 years ago, but The Game of Life in its current format has sold over 50 million units ever since it came out in 1960.
9. Candy Land
Candy Land is a game that’s as simple as it is successful. It asks players not to be smart with choices, but to be lucky. It doesn’t involve casting dice but rather taking cards out of a stack that’ll tell players where to go next. Candy Land was made for children, so it’s unlikely to captivate adults due to its simplicity, but it sure has found an audience.
Candy Land has sold over 50 million units since it came out in 1949.
8. Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit is to board games what Jeopardy is to TV. A way to test your knowledge, prove it, and also, perhaps, to be very annoying while at it. Unfortunately, the amount of questions inside a box of Trivial Pursuit is limited, and they sometimes don’t withstand the test of time, so the experience you get out of Trivial Pursuit isn’t exactly what your parents did back in the day, but the amount of fun is likely the same.
Trivial Pursuit has sold over 100 million units since it first came out in 1981.
7. Battleship
Tactics and classic RPG lovers, this one is for you. Ever wanted to beat your friend in a way that also made you feel like an accomplished navy strategist? Look no further than Battleship, a classy two-player adventure where you try to blow up your friend’s fleet by guessing the position of their ships. It’s as simple as it is fun and will likely never lose its appeal as its random nature gives everyone of all ages more or less the same chance to win.
Battleship has sold over 100 million units since it was first released in its famous plastic shape in 1967.
6. Clue
Everyone wants to be a detective, and everyone wants to be the best detective in a world where everyone—apart from the dead guy—is also a detective. Clue, or Cluedo outside of the US, allows players to sound like the smartest person in the room, should they actually be the smartest person—or simply the luckiest—and everyone loves that.
Clue is the game on this list that’ll likely wear out its welcome the fastest, but it’s one hell of a lot of fun until it does. Clue has sold over 150 million units since it first came out in 1949.
5. Scrabble
If you’re one of the rare few who’ve never played Scrabble, this might be one of the hardest games on this list to convince you to play. “Words? I don’t want to be at school or at a job where you have to write them—who would want that?” But, truth is, Scrabble‘s random nature ensures that this game where we put letters together to come up with words for points will always remain equally fun.
Scrabble has sold over 150 million units since its release in 1948, and its perfect formula will likely keep it from ever slowing down.
4. Monopoly
Monopoly, the simple capitalism simulator that shows how capitalism ultimately doesn’t work with surprising accuracy, has been providing immense fun and sneaky lessons for hundreds of millions of people.
Monopoly has sold over 250 million units since its creation in 1933. Its makers “took a lot of inspiration” from The Landlord’s Game, which was pretty much the same game but with the equally awesome theme of “landlords are evil.”
But, even though Monopoly is the highest-selling board game of modern times, it doesn’t have the dominance over sales numbers across all of human history.
3. Backgammon
Backgammon is one of the most mysterious and seemingly least-inviting board games ever made. This is because it was made long before games were made to be sold in neat packages to huge audiences—though it still managed to find an immense player base.
When only the modern age is concerned, backgammon is known to have sold over 80 million units. Still, we’re talking about a game that could be over five thousand years old, so there’s no telling how many people have paid for a board—because backgammon long predates even the concept of currency itself.
2. Checkers
Checkers (or draughts, if you’re an old-timey Brit) is one of the oldest, most consistently popular, and best-selling games in history. The legendary one-versus-one board game where you win either by devouring your opponent’s pieces or by forcing them to eat your pieces in a way that puts them at a disadvantage has been either solidifying or destroying friendships for up to five thousand years.
Over that time, checkers is estimated to have sold over fifty billion, yes, with a b, units.
1. Chess
Chess as the #1 best-selling board game of all time is either very obvious or something that completely flies under your radar. Due to it not being copyright protected and thus not advertised by any major brand — because it predates brands and copyright itself — some might not put it in the same category as Monopoly, but it totally is.
Chess is so old that no one can even come up with an approximation of how many copies it has sold since its inception in Ancient Indian times back when people knew it as Chaturanga. Still, it sells over three million units annually and is played by so many online that it easily gets the distinction of being the best-selling board game of all time.
