Solitaire is now over 30 years old and still sees plenty of action from office workers and your mom

We often talk about excellent longevity in a game being up to a couple of months, with some able to stretch it to a year and legendary games like World of Warcraft, Minecraft and GTA V able to maintain a healthy community for several years. All of those games pale in comparison to what is, arguably, the most played video game on the planet: Solitaire.

Originally included as part of Windows 3.0 back in May 1990 with then-intern Wes Cherry programming the game and pixel art while Mac GUI pioneer Susan Kare designed the original card deck, Solitaire has gone on to be a mainstay in every version of Windows since and is probably the only reason why many moms started using the computer in the first place.

The game turned a remarkable 30 years young this past Friday and according to a post by Microsoft to celebrate the fact, Solitaire is still being played by 35 million people monthly with more than 100 million hands played daily around the world. That’s a lot of lost office productivity right there.

Unlike games today that get updated and patched on a regular basis, Solitaire only received its first major update in 2012. The new app included five new game modes, daily challenges, competitive events, Xbox Live integration, and even the ability to choose your preferred difficulty. The game is available on pretty much every platform imaginable and has even been recognized in the World Video Game Hall of Fame for its impact to the video game industry.  It might get a lot of ridicule and is not the sort of game the average gamer would think about, but it’s hard to argue that it remains incredibly popular and could easily be one of the greatest games ever made.

Last Updated: May 25, 2020