Board and Card Games Timeline

The 50 most historically and culturally significant games published since 1800
Games have existed in some form throughout human history, but only have been commercially published with the goal of selling them to a wide audience since the 1800s. These are my picks for the most culturally and historically significant games published since 1800.

1800 - 1849


Kriegspiel (1824)
The Mansion of Happiness (1843)
1850 - 1899

The Checkered Game of Life (1860)
Crokinole (1876)
Tiddlywinks (1888)
1900 - 1919

Pit (1904)
Rook (1906)
Touring (1906)
1920 - 1939

Sorry! (1934)
Monopoly (1935)
1940-1949

Ethan Allen's All-Star Baseball Game (1941)
Chutes and Ladders (1943)
Scrabble (1948)
Candyland (1949)
Clue / Cluedo (1949)
Electric Football (1949)
1950 - 1959

APBA Baseball (1951)
Yahtzee (1956)
Concentration (1959)
Diplomacy (1959)
Risk (1959)
1960 - 1969

Football Strategy (1960)
Game of the States (1960)
Tactics II (1961)
Acquire (1962)
Password (1962)
Jeopardy (1964)
Twister (1966)
Facts in Five (1967)
1970 - 1979

Uno (1971)
Dungeons and Dragons (1973)
Dungeon (1975)
Cosmic Encounter (1977)
Hare and Tortoise (1979)
Stop Thief (1979)
1980 - 1989

Civilization (1980)
Empire Builder (1980)
Trivial Pursuit (1982)
Who Killed Roger Ellington? (1982)
Warhammer (1983)
Axis and Allies (1984)
Balderdash (1984)
Scotland Yard (1985)
Pictionary (1986)
Werewolf / Mafia (1986)
1990 - 1999

Adel Verpflichtet / By Hook or Crook (1990)
Magic: The Gathering (1993)
We the People (1994)
Settlers of Catan (1995)
2000 - present

Scene It? (2002)
Honorable Mentions
The games on the Honorable Mentions list didn't make it into the Top 50 for various reasons, but deserve to be mentioned as culturally and historically significant modern games.