Board games remain timeless, despite the popularity of video games and mobile gaming. Ask any person about a favorite game they may have played, and it’s likely some traditional board games will be at or near the top of the list.
Some may be interested to find out which games were the most popular the year they were born or garnered their fair share of devotees during their childhood. Here’s a look at popular games throughout the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, courtesy of researchers with Popular Mechanics.
1974: Connect Four combined the strategies of Tic Tac Toe and checkers into this strategic game.
1975: Pay Day involved getting through a calendar month paying bills and other expenses. It’s basically balancing the budget in game form.
1976: Whosit? had players trying to guess their opponent’s secret identity.
1977: Electronic Battleship added noises to the regular game of trying to sink battleships to make play more exciting.
1978: Simon required players to improve their pace in this heart-racing memory game.
1979: Guess Who was another game of figuring out a person’s identity by asking questions.
1980: Can’t Stop had players rolling pairs to see how long their luck would last.
1981: Trivial Pursuit became the most well-known of trivia games.
1982: Sequence combined a card game with a board game and included up to 12 players for big game nights.
1983: Topple asked players to stack colored pieces high on the board without having the tower topple.
1984: Balderdash was all about having players bluff their way through definitions of words and more.
1985: Pictionary required players to channel their inner artists to draw the words on the cards so teammates could guess.
1986: Fireball Island involved moving around the board to retrieve a giant ruby from the top of a mountain.
1987: Jenga was another stacking game but instead of piling pieces on top, it involved removing pieces without toppling the tower.
1988: Mall Madness came out during the height of the shopping mall boom. Players used a credit card to buy everything on their shopping lists.
1989: Taboo forced players to try to describe the word on the card without using the forbidden words listed below.
1990: Crocodile Dentist required players try to pull out crocodile teeth without triggering the jaws to snap shut.
1991: Atmosfear incorporated an interactive component through use of a VHS tape. The Gatekeeper popped up on screen to keep the game unexpected.
1992: Terrace appeared as a prop on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and then gained popularity in real life.
1993: 13 Dead End Drive required players to escape from a booby-trapped house.
1994: Pylos involved being the player to place the last marble at the top of the pyramid.
Those wondering about the most popular game in 2023 may want to pick up Hegemony: Lead Your Class to Victory. Hegemony is centered on various “classes” of people and how to make alliances and political maneuvers to advance.
