Fun Facts about Everyone’s Favorite Game – Monopoly

Who hasn’t played Monopoly, or at the very least never heard of the game?

We thought we’d post a short piece on our favorite game and show you some trivia and facts we dug up online. Hope you enjoy!

So, while researching the background of our favorite game, Monopoly, our team came across two different stories of who created the game. Oh, the joys of the internet!

Disclaimer in place here, we don’t know who is the actual genius, but we’ll cover both here and let you decide on your own.

Two Possible Creators

Suspect # 1

Elizabeth Magie Phillips Is thought to have developed the game back in the early 1900’s. She called the game “The Landlord’s Game’.

Elizabeth reportedly received $500 when she sold the patent to the game to George Parker, of Parker Brothers fame in 1935.

Suspect # 2

Charles Darrow is suspect number two. Our research showed that he created the game in 1933. Some references say he ‘modified’ Phillip’s game, some that he created the game.

When he tried to sell his game to Parker Brothers, they declined, stating the game was too complex.

Darrow went on to manufacture the game himself and sold it to local department stores in the Philadelphia area.

The game was a big success locally, so naturally, Parker Brothers reconsidered and ended up buying the rights to the game.

Monopoly was first manufactured in the U.S. in 1935.

The original Monopoly game is based on Atlantic City in New Jersey. It was first manufactured in the U.S. in 1935. It’s official ‘birthday’ is March 19, 1935.

There were 35,000 copies of Monopoly manufactured every week in its first year of release, to keep up with the high demand. The game originally sold for $2.00.

The game is now sold in at least 114 countries, in 47 different languages.

It’s reported that at the very least, one billion people have played Monopoly worldwide.

Fun Facts about Monopoly

• There are 40 spaces on the game.
• The game has 28 properties available.
  • 22 colored streets
  • 4 railroads
  • 2 utility spaces
• There are 3 Chance spaces.
• There are 3 Community Chest Spaces

• There are 2 tax spaces, one for luxury tax and the second for income tax.
• In the deck of cards, there are 16 Chance cards.
• There are 16 Community Chest cards in the deck.
• The game contains $20,580 in cash.
• There are more than 300 licensed versions of the game. (See some unusual options below.)
• A Braille edition is available for the seeing impaired.

We hope you enjoyed these fun facts about Monopoly. Now, let’s go play!