Games people play

Photo credit: National Geographic

COVID-19 has sparked a resurgence in classic board games.

Research across 14 developed nations shows that more and more people are playing board games and card games, not only as a way to pass the time but also to provide themselves with emotional comfort.

Indeed, the top selling games during this time are old games like Monopoly, rather than newer games. “What’s different is people have reverted to the original classic they knew, and they used to play when they were children themselves,” according to Frédérique Tutt, global toy market analyst at the NPD Group.

A couple of thoughts:

• The era of the 1930s-1950s seem to have an outsized influence over American culture. Popular board games like Risk, Clue, Scrabble, and Monopoly all come from that era. Also, 2/3 of the songs on ASCAP’s list of most popular holiday songs in the US are from the 1930s - ‘50s. Something about this era seems to evoke nostalgia, even for those of us who weren’t born until much later

• As the article asks, what does this mean for new games? How can they encourage people to explore and create new classics?