Editing Board game (section)

==Eras==
{{Further|History of games}}
[[File:Board Game Timeline.png|thumb|This timeline was made with information from the Wikipedia articles on Board Game, Hasbro, Board Game Cafe, Tabletop Simulator, and Monopoly. All information on this timeline was from those Wikipedia pages as they were on November 24th, 2024]]

===Ancient era===
Board games have been played, traveled, and evolved in most cultures and societies throughout history<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Livingstone|first1=Ian|title=Board games in 100 moves|last2=Wallis|first2=James|publisher=Dorling Kindersley|year=2019|isbn=978-0-241-36378-2|location=London|oclc=1078419452}}</ref> Board games have been discovered in a number of archeological sites. The oldest discovered gaming pieces were discovered in southwest Turkey, a set of elaborate sculptured stones in sets of four designed for a chess-like game, which were created during the [[Bronze Age]] around 5,000 years ago.<ref name="oldest-board-game_smithsonian-magazine_2021">{{Cite web|last=Solly|first=Meilan|title=The Best Board Games of the Ancient World|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094|access-date=6 February 2020|website=Smithsonian Magazine|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241001091826/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/best-board-games-ancient-world-180974094|archive-date=1 October 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="oldest_discovery-news_2013">{{cite web|title=Oldest Gaming Tokens Found in Turkey|website=Discovery News (www.news.discovery.com)|date=14 August 2013|first=Rossella|last=Lorenzi|language=en|url=http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/oldest-gaming-tokens-found-130814.htm|access-date=13 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140214203403/http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/oldest-gaming-tokens-found-130814.htm|archive-date=14 February 2014|url-status=dead|df=dmy}}</ref> Numerous archaeological finds of game boards exist that date from as early as the [[Neolithic]] period including, as of 2024, a total of 14 Neolithic sites reporting 51 game boards, ranging from mid-[[7th millennium]] to early [[8th millennium]].<ref name="discoveies_rollefson_2024">{{cite journal|title=What are the odds? Neolithic "game boards" from the Levant|journal=Journal of Arid Environments|volume=225|number=105257|date=December 2024|first=Gary|last=Rollefson|language=en|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S014019632400137X|access-date=18 April 2025|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="finkel_2007"/><ref name="mancala_simpson_2007"/><ref name="discoveries_rollefson_2012">{{cite web|title=La Prehistoire des jeux|trans-title=The Prehistory of Games|number=33|date=December 2012|first=Gary|last=Rollefson|pages=18–21|journal=Histoire Antique & Médiévale|language=fr|url=https://www.faton.fr/dossiers-dhistoire/numero-33/art-jeu-jeu-l-art/prehistoire-jeux.32646.php#article_32646|access-date=18 April 2025|df=dmy}}</ref>

====Oldest game====
The [[Royal Game of Ur]], estimated to have originated from around 4,600 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, an example of which was found in the royal tombs of ancient Mesopotamia ({{Circa|2600&nbsp;BC}} &ndash; {{Circa|2400&nbsp;BC}}),<ref name="ur_british-museum_current(2020)">{{cite web|title=''game-board'': Museum number 120834|website=British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org)|language=en|pages=11–15|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1928-1009-378|access-date=15 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250415000000/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_1928-1009-378|archive-date=15 April 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}} [https://ia600704.us.archive.org/16/items/the-royal-game-of-ur-british-museum/The%20Royal%20Game%20of%20Ur%2C%20British%20Museum.pdf Alt URL]</ref><ref name="finkel_british-museum_2007">{{cite book|title=Ancient board games in perspective {{!}} Papers from the 1990 British Museum colloquium, with additional contributions|editor=I.L. Finkel|publisher=British Museum Press|publication-place=London|date=2007|first=Irving L.|last=Finkel|language=en|url=https://annas-archive.org/md5/189bf3233143e3aa74a521089bae39dc|access-date=17 April 2025|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="mancala_board-game-studies-lournal_2020_p127">{{Cite journal|last=Depaulis|first=Thierry|date=1 October 2020|title=Board Games Before Ur?|journal=Board Game Studies Journal|language=en|volume=14|issue=1|pages=127|doi=10.2478/bgs-2020-0007|issn=2183-3311|doi-access=free|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350710812_Board_Games_Before_Ur|access-date=17 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250417000000/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/350710812_Board_Games_Before_Ur|archive-date=17 April 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}} [https://ia601508.us.archive.org/14/items/depaulis-2020-board-games-before-ur/Depaulis%20%282020%29%20Board%20Games%20Before%20Ur.pdf Alt URL]</ref> is considered the oldest playable boardgame in the world, with well-defined game's rules discovered written on a cuneiform tablet by a Babylonian astronomer in {{Circa|177 BC}} &ndash; {{Circa|176 BC}}.<ref name="ur_british-museum_2021">{{cite web|title=Top 10 historical board games|website=British Museum (www.britishmuseum.org)|date=26 February 2021|language=en|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/top-10-historical-board-games|access-date=3 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231027133607/https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/top-10-historical-board-games|archive-date=27 October 2023|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="finkel_2007">{{cite book|title=Ancient Board Games in Perspective {{!}} Papers from the 1990 British Museum colloquium, with additional contributions|chapter=3. On the Rules for the Royal Game of Ur|page=16|year=2007|first=Irving L.|last=Finkel|language=en|publisher=British Museum Press|publication-place=London|url=https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pbarfuss/On_the_Rules_for_the_Royal_Game_of_Ur.pdf|access-date=17 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250417000000/https://csclub.uwaterloo.ca/~pbarfuss/On_the_Rules_for_the_Royal_Game_of_Ur.pdf|archive-date=17 April 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}} [https://ia600704.us.archive.org/32/items/finkel-2007-on-the-rules-for-the-royal-game-of-ur-p-16/Finkel%20%282007%29%20On%20the%20rules%20for%20the%20Royal%20Game%20of%20Ur%20-%20p16.pdf Alt URL]</ref>

Currently, [[Senet]] is argued to be the oldest known board game in the world, with possible game board fragments ({{circa|3100&nbsp;BC}})<ref name="senet_piccone_1980"/> and undisputed pictorial representations ({{circa|2686;BC}} &ndash; {{circa|2613 BC}})<ref name="Sebbane">{{cite journal|last=Sebbane|first=Michael|year=2001|title=Board Games from Canaan in the early and intermediate Bronze Ages and the origin of the Egyptian Senet game|journal=Tel Aviv|volume=28|issue=2|pages=213–230|doi=10.1179/tav.2001.2001.2.213|s2cid=162219908}}</ref> having been found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burials dating as far back as 3500 BC.<ref name="oldest-games_oldest_current(2025)"/> However, while Senet was played for thousands of years, it fell out of fashion sometime after 400 A.D. during the [[Roman Egypt|Roman period]];<ref name="Sebbane"/> the rules were never written down, therefore they are not decisively known.<ref name="oldest_how-stuff_works_current(2025)">{{cite web|title=How Senet Works|website=How Stuff Works (www.entertainment.howstuffworks.com)|first=Laurie L.|last=Dove|language=en|url=https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/brain-games/senet.htm#pt1|access-date=13 April 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250207171850/https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/leisure/brain-games/senet.htm#pt1|archive-date=7 February 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref> Similarly, [[Mehen (game)|Mehen]] is one of the oldest games dated with reasonable confidence, i.e., {{circa|3000&nbsp;BC}} &ndash; {{circa|2300&nbsp;BC}},<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Egyptians at Play: Board Games Across Borders|last=Crist|first=Walter|display-authors=etal|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2016|isbn=978-1-4742-2117-7|location=London|pages=15–38}}</ref><ref name="ur_british-museum_2021"/> with some estimating it dates back to {{circa|3500&nbsp;BC}}.<ref name="oldest_good-games_current(2024)"/> The rules, scoring system, and game pieces, however, are unknown or speculative.<ref name="oldest_good-games_current(2024)"/><ref name="ur_british-museum_2021"/>

The title of the oldest known board game has been difficult to establish.<ref name="oldest_good-games_current(2024)">{{cite web|title=The Oldest Games in the World|website=Good Games (www.goodgames.com.au)|date=31 July 2023|language=en|url=https://www.goodgames.com.au/articles/the-oldest-board-games-in-the-world|access-date=7 January 2025|archive-url=https://archive.today/20250106224937/https://www.goodgames.com.au/articles/the-oldest-board-games-in-the-world|archive-date=6 January 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref> An example of this is [[mancala]], which includes a broad family of board games with a core design of two rows of small circular divots or bowls carved into a surface, which has had numerous estimations of its generic age due to the many variants that have been discovered in different locations across Africa, the Middle East, and southern Asia.<ref name="oldest_good-games_current(2024)"/> These are dated across many different historical periods, from archeological sites dating the game at {{Circa|800&nbsp;BC}} &ndash; {{Circa|200&nbsp;BC}} (Roman Settlements); {{Circa|2500&nbsp;BC}} &ndash; {{Circa|1500&nbsp;BC}} (Egypt); and even {{Circa|7000 &nbsp;BC}} &ndash; {{Circa|5000 &nbsp;BC}} (Jordan). The later based on divots carved out of [[limestone]] in a Neolithic dwelling from {{Circa|5870 &nbsp;BC}} ± 240 BC,<ref name="mancala_simpson_2007">{{cite book|title=Ancient Board Games in perspective: Papers from the 1990 British Museum colloquium, with additional contributions|publisher=British Museum Press|publication-place=London|editor=I.L. Finkel|year=2007|first=St John|last=Simpson|chapter=1. Homo Ludens: The Earliest Board Games in the Near East|pages=5–10|language=en|url=https://www.academia.edu/3584121/Homo_Ludens_The_Earliest_Board_Games_in_the_Near_East|access-date=17 April 2025|df=dmy}}</ref><ref name="oldest_good-games_current(2024)"/><ref name="mancala_south-african-art-mmuseum_2020">{{cite web|title=Mancala|url=https://www.savannahafricanartmuseum.org/2020-workshops/05-2#:~:text=There%20is%20archeological%20and%20historical,floor%20of%20a%20Neolithic%20dwelling|website=Savannah African Art Museum|access-date=10 December 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241210045650/https://www.savannahafricanartmuseum.org/2020-workshops/05-2|archive-date=10 December 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref> although this later dating has been disputed.<ref name="mancala_board-game-studies-lournal_2020_pp.127-144">{{Cite journal|last=Depaulis|first=Thierry|date=1 October 2020|title=Board Games Before Ur?|journal=Board Game Studies Journal|language=en|volume=14|issue=1|pages=127–144|doi=10.2478/bgs-2020-0007|issn=2183-3311|doi-access=free}}</ref> Furthermore, when considering the Neolithic period game boards discoveries, caution has been given against considering these finds as representing earliest human game playing, as the absence of evidence of such games does not equate to evidence that no games were played during earlier periods.<ref name="discoveries_rollefson_1992">{{cite journal|title=A Neolithic Game Board from CAin Ghazal, Jordan|journal=Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research|date=May 1992|number=286|first=Gary O.|page=3|last=Rollefson|language=en|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1357113.pdf|access-date=18 April 2025|publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250419000000/https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1357113.pdf|archive-date=19 April 2025|url-status=live|df=dmy}} [https://ia601504.us.archive.org/20/items/rollefson-1992-a-neolithic-game-board-from-ain-ghazal-jordan-p.-3/Rollefson%20%281992%29%20A%20Neolithic%20Game%20Board%20from%20%CA%BFAin%20Ghazal%2C%20Jordan%2C%20p.3.pdf Alt URL]</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" heights="160">
File:Men Playing Board Games.jpg|'' Men Playing Board Games'', from The Sougandhika Parinaya Manuscript
File:-3000 Abydos Spiel der Schlange Mehen anagoria.JPG|Mehen game with game stones, from [[Abydos, Egypt]], 3000 BC, [[Neues Museum]]
File:Maler der Grabkammer der Nefertari 003.jpg|Painting in tomb of Egyptian queen [[Nefertari]] (1295–1255 BC) playing senet
</gallery>

===Golden era===

The 1880s–1920s was a board game epoch known as the "Golden Age", a term coined by American art historian Margaret Hofer<ref name="golden-era_hofer_2003"/> where the popularity of board games was boosted through [[mass production]] making them cheaper and more readily available.<ref name="Hofer">{{Cite book|last=Hofer|first=Margaret|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=icYtGRUZrZUC|title=The Games we Played: The Golden Age of Board and Table Games|date=1 March 2003|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=978-1-56898-397-4|language=en}}</ref>{{rp|11}} The most popular of the board games sold during this period was ''Monopoly'' (1935), with 500 million games played as of 1999.<ref name="monopoly_guiness-world-records_current(2025)">{{cite web|title=Most popular board game|website=Guinness World Records (www.guinnessworldrecords.com)|language=en|url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/72473-most-popular-board-game|access-date=6 January 2025|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220426181116/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/72473-most-popular-board-game|archive-date=26 April 2022|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref>

===Renaissance era===

[[File:Board_games_with_expansions_1944-2017.svg|thumb|upright=1.4|The number of board games published by year (1944–2017), as listed on [[BoardGameGeek]]. Expansion sets for existing games are marked in orange.]]
In the late 1990s, companies began producing more new games to serve a growing worldwide market.<ref name="board game resurgence">{{Cite web|last=Smith|first=Quintin|date=October 2012|title=The Board Game Golden Age|url=http://www.shutupshow.com/post/34426556753/su-sd-present-the-board-game-golden-age|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130601124655/http://www.shutupshow.com/post/34426556753/su-sd-present-the-board-game-golden-age|archive-date=1 June 2013|access-date=10 May 2013}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=A look into the golden age of boardgames {{!}} BGG|url=https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1943195/look-golden-age-boardgames|access-date=11 December 2024|website=BoardGameGeek|language=en|archive-url=https://archive.today/20241211111105/https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1943195/a-look-into-the-golden-age-of-boardgames|archive-date=11 December 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref> The early 21st century saw the emergence of a new "Golden Age" for board games called the "Board Game Renaissance".<ref name="board game resurgence"/><ref name="guardian_2014(oct)">{{Cite news |date=25 November 2014 |title=Board games' golden age: sociable, brilliant and driven by the internet |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/25/board-games-internet-playstation-xbox |author-last=Duffy |author-first=Owen}}</ref><ref name="golden-age_konieczny_2019">{{Cite journal|last=Konieczny|first=Piotr|date=2019|title=Golden age of tabletop gaming: Creation of the social capital and rise of third spaces for tabletop gaming in the 21st century|url=http://bazekon.icm.edu.pl/bazekon/element/bwmeta1.element.ekon-element-000171561541|journal=Polish Sociological Review|language=en|issue=2|pages=199–215|issn=1231-1413|doi=10.26412/psr206.05|df=dmy}}</ref><!-- This field ("|doi-broken-date=1 November 2024") is throwing up an error, so I have removed it to this comment; however, the doi is actually broken.--> This period of board games industry development, of which board games such as ''[[Ticket to Ride (board game)|Ticket to Ride]]'' (2004) and were a major part, saw a shift away from the 20th-century domination by well-established standby Golden Era board games like ''[[Monopoly (game)|Monopoly]]'' (1935) and ''[[The Game of Life|Game of Life]]'' (1960).<ref name="15-anniversary-review_ign_2024">{{cite web|title=Ticket to Ride: Europe 15th Anniversary Edition Review|website=IGN (www.ign.com)|date=12 July 2024|first=Chris|last=Reed|language=en|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/ticket-to-ride-europe-15th-anniversary-edition-review|access-date=19 November 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240716192906/https://www.ign.com/articles/ticket-to-ride-europe-15th-anniversary-edition-review|archive-date=16 July 2024|url-status=live|df=dmy}}</ref>