Monopoly
It's from 1935, before you were born.
- Maker
- Parker Brothers / Hasbro
- Type
- Board game
- Debuted
- 1935
- Note
- Descended from the anti-capitalist 'Landlord's Game'
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About
As of 2026, it's 91 years old.
Monopoly's origin is a delicious irony: the game we know as a celebration of crushing your opponents into bankruptcy descends directly from 'The Landlord's Game,' a 1900s creation by Lizzie Magie designed to teach people the EVILS of land monopolies. Charles Darrow repackaged a version, sold it to Parker Brothers in 1935, and got rich — proving the original's point perfectly.
Since then it has become the best-selling board game in history, started countless family feuds, and produced the universal experience of someone flipping the board when they land on Boardwalk with a hotel. The rules nobody actually plays correctly (Free Parking jackpot, anyone?) are practically a tradition.
Cutthroat, endless, and family-rupturing, Monopoly is the game that accidentally turned a lesson about inequality into the world's favorite way to ruin a holiday afternoon.
Monopoly through the years
The Landlord's Game patented
Lizzie Magie's anti-monopoly teaching game — Monopoly's true ancestor.
Parker Brothers launches Monopoly
Becomes a Depression-era smash and eventually the best-selling board game ever.
