The most played board games are old; some are even ancient (#2 most played, Checkers; #3 Chess; #13 most played, Backgammon). The only game to make the list from this century—and just making the list, at #22—is Ticket to Ride.
Here are the top games sorted chronologically from oldest to newest:
| Date | Game | % Played Last Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| ~3000 BCE | Backgammon | 8% | 13 |
| ~3000 BCE | Checkers | 25% | 2 |
| ~600 CE | Chess | 24% | 3 |
| 1630 | Cribbage | 4% | 18 |
| 1860 | The Game of Life | 9% | 11 |
| 1929 | Sorry! | 12% | 9 |
| 1931 | Battleship | 17% | 6 |
| 1935 | Monopoly | 37% | 1 |
| 1938 | Scrabble | 17% | 5 |
| 1943 | Chutes and Ladders | 8% | 12 |
| 1948 | Candyland | 19% | 4 |
| 1949 | Clue | 12% | 8 |
| 1956 | Yahtzee | 17% | 7 |
| 1957 | Risk | 5% | 17 |
| 1965 | Trouble | 9% | 10 |
| 1974 | Sequence | 3% | 21 |
| 1977 | Rummikub | 3% | 19 |
| 1979 | Trivial Pursuit | 8% | 14 |
| 1985 | Pictionary | 6% | 15 |
| 1995 | Catan | 5% | 16 |
| 1998 | Cranium | 3% | 20 |
| 2004 | Ticket to Ride | 2% | 22 |
The median year is 1949 and most “modern” boardgames date from 1929 (Sorry!) to 1965 (Trouble). The 1930s, 1940s, and 1970s are the only decades to have three games among the most played.
