Clue
It's from 1949, before you were born.
- Maker
- Waddingtons / Hasbro
- Type
- Board game (mystery)
- Debuted
- 1949
- Note
- Known as 'Cluedo' outside North America
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About
As of 2026, it's 77 years old.
Clue was dreamed up in wartime England by Anthony Pratt, who reportedly invented it to pass the time during air-raid blackouts, then watched it become the definitive murder-mystery board game after its 1949 release. The whole thing is a tidy deduction engine: it was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the candlestick.
Its cast of suspects, weapons, and rooms became cultural shorthand, spawning a beloved cult movie, video games, and countless 'it was [person] in the [place] with the [object]' jokes. Accusing your sibling of murder has never been more wholesome.
Deductive, atmospheric, and endlessly quotable, Clue is the parlor-murder game born in a blackout that taught generations to solve a homicide before dessert.
