Monopoly History
The Monopoly game is the World's favourite board game so it's no surprise there are lots of quirky facts about the history of Monopoly!
Here's a brief history of Monopoly and how the Monopoly game we love so much today was invented:
FACT: A basic version of Monopoly can be traced all the way back to the early 1900s. In 1903 a lady called Lizzie Magie filed for a patent on her new game, The Landlords Game. Lizzie was an economist and she invented the game to demonstrate the idea that rental payment improved both the owners and tenants lives.
FACT: Charles Darrow is the man who is widely credited for inventing the Monopoly game in 1934, at the peak of the American Great Depression. Strangely when he first approached the execs at Parker Brothers they didn't buy his idea, saying the Monopoly game had 52 design errors on the board. Darrow refused to take no for an answer and proceeded producing the game without Parker Brothers. Darrow managed to sell 5,000 hand crafted copies of the Monopoly board game to a local department store but word soon spread about this new game and he couldn't make enough Monopoly games to keep up with demand. It was then that he went to meet the execs at Parker Brothers again and this time they jumped at the chance to buy the Monopoly board game.
FACT: Since it's official Parker Brothers release in 1935 it's thought that more than 500 million people worldwide have played the Monopoly game.
The Monopoly game is the best selling board game in history and it's estimated that more than 250 million copies of Monopoly have been sold globally.
Monopoly can be bought in 103 countries around the world and is available in 37 languages.
FACT: The longest ever Monopoly game lasted for an epic 1,680 hours.
FACT: During the Second World War secret plans, compasses and maps were attached to Monopoly boards and then snuck into German POW camps. Real money was also often hidden in the stacks of Monopoly game cash.
FACT: Over the years there have been more than 19 different game tokens for the Monopoly board game including lesser known ones like the lantern, the handbag and the elephant.
