American Board Game History

We all know the feeling. Say the words board games, and something instantly pops into your mind. With the holiday season bringing family and friends together, it is almost guaranteed that a board game will hit the table at some point. So we decided it was the perfect moment to dig into an often overlooked chapter of American history, and the story is surprisingly fun. Let us begin with a great quote:

“We do not stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”
(Widely quoted by Oliver Wendell Holmes & Bernard Shaw)

Board games have brought people together for thousands of years, from ancient Egypt’s Senet to Victorian parlor games and today’s global best-sellers. What makes them so popular is simple. They turn a table into a shared experience, a place where families laugh, compete, and make memories that last long after the box is put away.

In America, the modern board game boom was shaped by two rival companies founded only 23 years apart, both in Massachusetts. Milton Bradley opened his first shop in Springfield, while George S Parker launched Parker Brothers in Salem. What began as two small New England businesses with homemade games and bold ideas grew into a century-long competition that reinvented family game night and produced some of the most successful titles in history. First, we share some fun TV ads that you might remember…..

Two Historic American Game Titans

Before long, the growing American appetite for play, profit, and clever new ways to bring people together created the perfect moment for two ambitious Massachusetts inventors who believed games could be both a business and a joy, igniting a friendly competition that began in the late 1800s and shaped more than a century of American game culture.

Milton Bradley was born in 1836 in Vienna, Maine, and later moved to Massachusetts, where he trained as a draftsman and lithographer. After settling in Springfield, he launched a small printing shop that took an unexpected turn when he began designing simple parlor games. His first hit, The Checkered Game of Life, captured the spirit of the era by combining moral lessons with light entertainment. Bradley believed games could educate as well as amuse, and he spent his career creating bright, family-friendly titles that children could learn in minutes. His commitment to printing quality, clean design, and accessible play helped build one of the earliest and most trusted names in American games.

George S Parker was born in 1866 in Salem, Massachusetts, and proved to be a natural entrepreneur from a young age. At 16, he designed his first game, Banking, and began selling copies door-to-door around Salem. Encouraged by early success, he formed Parker Brothers with his siblings and aimed to build games that reflected real-world situations, decision-making, and competition. Parker believed games should reward skill rather than luck, and this philosophy shaped the company’s catalog. Under his leadership, Parker Brothers introduced titles that became worldwide standards, including Monopoly and Clue, and helped push American board gaming toward bigger themes and deeper strategy.

Milton Bradly and Parker Brothers

These fun facts explore how board games began, why they continue to captivate us, and how two Massachusetts rivals turned simple cardboard into cultural icons.

Feature	Milton Bradley	Parker Brothers
Founder	Milton Bradley	George S Parker
Founded	1860	1883
Founded In	Springfield Massachusetts	Salem Massachusetts
First Board Game	The Checkered Game of Life	Banking
Style and Focus	Family friendly games with simple rules and bright colors	Strategy, mystery, conflict, and negotiation
Most Famous Games	The Game of Life, Candy Land, Battleship, Connect Four, Operation, Chutes and Ladders, Simon, Twister	Monopoly, Clue, Risk, Sorry, Trivial Pursuit, Ouija board, Boggle, Aggravation
Notable Strength	Defined the American family game night with easy to learn classics used by younger players	Created some of the most influential mass market games of all time with deeper themes
Ownership Today	Folded into Hasbro in 1984	Became part of Kenner Parker then later acquired by Hasbro
Legacy	Brand retired but its games still sell worldwide under Hasbro	Brand used less today but its core titles remain flagship Hasbro products

Top 10 American Board Games

Across the decades, Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers built their sales slowly at first, then hit rocket mode once television, big-box retail, and global licensing arrived. In the nineteen forties and fifties, titles like Candy Land and The Game of Life quietly became family standards, selling steadily every Christmas season and earning their first tens of millions of copies over many years. These were the gifts parents bought because they remembered playing with them as kids, creating a cycle of new buyers every generation.

By the nineteen sixties and seventies, the catalogs really exploded. Battleship, Twister, and Connect Four drove huge volume for Milton Bradley, while Parker Brothers leaned on Monopoly, Clue, and the growing presence of Risk. In many households, Monopoly was the clear king of the shelf, while Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders dominated the early grade school years. Then the eighties brought a new wave of monster hits like Trivial Pursuit and electronic titles such as Simon, pushing total unit sales into the hundreds of millions. By the time Hasbro folded both brands into its portfolio, decades of steady holiday sales, birthday gifts, and family game nights had turned these ten games into billion-dollar evergreens, with Monopoly and Candy Land leading globally, and Life, Battleship, Clue, and Trivial Pursuit not far behind in their own eras.

Here are ten classic Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers titles, ranked roughly by estimated units sold. Exact numbers aren’t public for all, so these are broad tiers, not precise counts.

Top 10 Classic Board Games by Estimated Units Sold

Based on the analysis below it’s amazing to note that some of these games are almost 100 years old and still topping the rankings. Let’s see if your favorite is there…..

Rank	Game	Company	Date Launched	Estimated Units Sold	Notes
1	Monopoly	Parker Brothers	1935	Over 275 million	Global best seller, translated into many languages and sold in most countries
2	Battleship	Milton Bradley	1967	Over 100 million	Peg and grid guessing game that became a worldwide standard
3	Clue	Parker Brothers	1949	Over 100 million	Iconic mystery and deduction game with countless editions
4	Trivial Pursuit	Parker Brothers	1981	Over 100 million	Question and answer party game that exploded in the 1980s
5	Risk	Parker Brothers	1957	Tens of millions	World domination strategy game that has stayed in print for decades
6	Candy Land	Milton Bradley	1949	Over 50 million	Classic starter game for young children since the 1940s
7	The Game of Life	Milton Bradley	1960	Over 50 million	Modern relaunch from 1960, based on 1860 original
8	Connect Four	Milton Bradley	1974	Tens of millions	Drop the discs and get four in a row, a simple abstract classic
9	Sorry	Parker Brothers	1934	Tens of millions	Family race and bump game based on older cross and circle games
10	Twister	Milton Bradley	1966	Tens of millions	Party mat game that mixes physical balance with social chaos

New Board Games on the Scene

Here’s where I started to feel old. Based on additional research, I assembled the list of the Top 10 board games that have been released over the last 20 years. Sorry to say, I didn’t know a single one of them. Now that’s an age statement there.

Rank	Game	Company	Date Launched	Estimated Units Sold	Notes
1	Catan	Catan Studio / Kosmos	1995 (exploded in past 20 years)	Over 45 million	Modern strategy classic that drove the board game renaissance
2	Ticket to Ride	Days of Wonder	2004	Around 18 million	Family route building board game with many map expansions
3	Codenames	Czech Games Edition	2015	Around 16 million	Word deduction party board game
4	Carcassonne	Hans im Glueck	2000	Over 12 million	Tile laying board game about building cities and fields
5	Dixit	Libellud	2008	Around 12 million	Storytelling and illustration driven board game
6	Pandemic	Z Man Games	2008	Over 5 million	Cooperative disease fighting board game
7	Azul	Plan B Games	2017	Over 2 million	Pattern and tile drafting board game
8	Splendor	Space Cowboys	2014	Around 3 million	Engine building board game about gem trading
9	Wingspan	Stonemaier Games	2019	Around 2 million	Nature themed engine building board game
10	7 Wonders	Repos Production	2010	Around 2 million	Card drafting civilization board game

Two Final Quotes about Board Games

It’s time for you all to take some time to remember your family and friends, and play one of these great American board games. Have a story to share, please post in the comments section below your favorite game.

“Life is more fun if you play games.”

“Home is wherever your games are.”

Comments? We know you play!

Now it is your turn. What board game brings back the best memories with your friends and family?
Share your favorite in the comments and tell us who always won at your house.