What is Nevada’s most popular board game?
Checkmate.
You’ll hear that word in game rooms across America more than any other if a study by World of Card Games is to be believed.
The organization recently posted a state-by-state analysis of which board games are most popular in every state based on the number of Google searches conducted for “board games,” “how to play” and “rules” for 605 different games.
In Nevada — and in 46 other states — chess dominated as the most popular game played. Defying the trend were players in Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, who favored checkers, although chess was No. 2 in both Kansas and Wyoming. In Nebraska, it was the fourth most popular game behind Monopoly and Clue.
In Nevada, there were 5,375 average monthly searches for chess with 2,627 average monthly searches for checkers and 1,906 for Monopoly.
“Chess has always been popular, but it has seen a massive resurgence in popularity in recent years as people embrace this ancient game,” a representative of World of Card Games said. “Chess originated in India in the sixth century AD and has spread all over the world since then.”
The World of Card Games believes chess to be a cultural touchstone with the term “checkmate” a staple in the English language.
“It has been studied for centuries, and skill at the game is considered shorthand for a person’s intelligence. It has even seen a new wave of popularity in recent years as more people learn of its intricacies. It is fitting then that chess is Nevada’s most popular board game.
“It will be interesting to see if chess continues to grow in popularity in the coming years and how that might impact how people play the game online and offline, both professionally and at the amateur level.”
In Nevada, the popularity of chess, checkers and Monopoly is followed by Clue (1,366 average monthly searches), the who-dunnit murder mystery board game in which players try to solve the murder of the game’s victim. Players will try to determine who committed the murder, where it was committed, and what was the murder weapon through seeking clues room by room and a process of elimination.
Clue, known as Cluedo outside North America, was invented in the United Kingdom during World War II, with a patent granted in 1947 and eventual release in 1949.
The rest of the top 10 board games played in Nevada:
-Mancala (681 searches), one of the oldest games still to be actively played today, with forms of the game being discovered dating back to around 5870 BC. The origin of modern mancala dates back to 700 AD in East Africa.
-Rummikub (681 searches), which will have a world tournament that begins Sept. 6 in Gdansk, Poland.
-Pictionary (200 searches), a fast-paced word game involving drawing pictures to get a player to state a phrase or word.
-Chinese checkers (128 searches), a game that can be played by up to six people with the object to move a field of marbles to the other side of the board by jumping opponents.
-Shogi (74 searches). a Japanese strategy game similar to chess.
-Settlers of Catan (71 searches), a multiplayer game in which players take on the roles of settlers, each attempting to build and develop holdings while trading and acquiring resources.
The top five games played by Nevadans are the same played by game board fans across the nation.
Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on X.
