Hey, everybody, who wants to play a game about economics, specifically the single-tax theory? It’s an educational tool to illustrate the dangers of concentrating land in private monopolies. Sound like fun? Anyone? How about a round of Monopoly then? Cool! For turning dry, even dull economic principles into one of the world’s most popular games, Monopoly takes its turn as the Pop Culture Hall of Fame’s Brand of the Year for 2025.
The board game actually did start as described above. In 1903, British anti-monopolist Lizzie Magie devised a game in which everyone could win by sharing the rewards whenever someone gained wealth (BORING!) or, under a different set of rules, one could win by crushing their opponents into oblivion. You can guess which set of rules would become the basis for the modern game.
Magie’s friend Charles Darrow played the game with her one night and began to market his own version of it as Monopoly in 1931. A few years later, two brothers named Parker bought the game from him. In 1935, Parker Brothers released their version of Monopoly to huge success. They did go back and compensate Magie with the princely sum of $500 to credit her with inventing the game. (Enough to buy Pacific Avenue and a house!)
Unlike most games that might last 15 minutes, at most an hour to play, Monopoly can take hours, even days, to finish. It must be a lot of fun to garner that much attention for 90 years and counting. It does allow one’s calculating, even mean streak to rise to the surface, which people don’t usually get to show off in socially acceptable ways
The game remained relatively unchanged yet popular into the early 1990s, when Parker Brothers had a brilliant idea. They started offering anniversary, deluxe, limited edition, or throwback versions of the game. The result was a boost in sales of a game everyone already probably owned anyway. Then, in a stroke of marketing genius, Parker Brothers began offering licensed versions of the game tailored to match other interests: Different cities, The Simpsons, Wizard of Oz, Game of Thrones,… the rules of the game are the same, just the street and other location names change. Millions of these variants have been produced over the years.
Today, Monopoly also exists as a mobile game, as well as a seemingly eternal McDonald’s promotion. Such popularity has created a… what’s the word we’re looking for here? A stranglehold on the world of board games. For creating a virtual, well, monopoly in society, Monopoly is inducted into the Pop Culture Hall of Fame as a Brand for 2025.
