Apparently, World Monopoly Day is today, the 19th of March. If you didn’t know that was a thing (because I certainly didn’t) well, now you do! In celebration of this auspicious day, here are 10 interesting facts about the world’s most ubiquitous family tabletop game:
- Charles Darrow developed the MONOPOLY game in 1933, using small items from around the home, including pennies or buttons, to allow players to track their journey around the game board.
- Darrow’s young niece had a better idea and suggested using charms, like the ones on her bracelet, to serve as the iconic tokens fans know and love today.
- The original tokens represented familiar items from 1930s America, including an iron, purse, lantern, race car, thimble, shoe, top hat, battleship, cannon, and rocking horse.
- Mr Monopoly was only introduced into the game in 1936
- In 1943, when faced with a metal shortage during World War II, wooden tokens were substituted until 1945, when the metal tokens were brought back into the game.
- The sack of money token was added in 1999 but retired less than a decade later.
- In 2008 Mr Monopoly began wearing an M-shaped silver metallic bowtie.
- 2013 saw Mr Monopoly ranked #12 on the Forbes Fictional 15 list of wealthiest characters, with a net worth of $1.2 Billion.
- In 2015 Mr Monopoly celebrated his 80th birthday by ringing the closing bell at the NASDAQ.
- Last year Hasbro held a historic vote allowing fans to pick the eight tokens that would feature going forward. Over 4.3 million fan voted to secure spots for the: Scottie Dog; T-Rex; Top Hat, Car, Rubber Ducky, Cat, Penguin and Battleship token on board!
Monolopy has over a thousand variations and is enjoyed by more than 1 billion players in 114 countries across the globe. Love it or loathe it, Monopoly is the biggest and most well-known tabletop game. So to celebrate World Monopoly Day, I want to hear about your fondest (or not so fondest) Monopoly memories. Do you have the warm and fuzzy memories of rainy days passed with a friendly game among friends? Or do you remember an epic game that, with house rules, took hours and hours? Maybe your last Monopoly game ended with tantrums and table-flipping? Let me know in the comments below.
Last Updated: March 19, 2018
