Checkmate: These Are New Jersey's Favorite Board Games

We love family game night, especially when it gets the kids off their screens. What are the most popular board games in New Jersey? According to World of Card Games, chess is the most popular game in NJ, with an average of 17,322 monthly Google searches.

Chess is also the No. 1 searched game overall in the U.S. and is No. 1 in every state except for Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming, whose residents searched checkers first. Chess is especially booming among middle and high school students, many of whom play the popular game on their phones. Chess clubs and tournaments are also growing in popularity. According to the New York Times, chess hadn’t seen this level of popularity since the 1972 World Chess Championship.

“Chess is a cultural touchstone, with terms such as ‘checkmate’ being a staple of 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 New Jersey’s most popular board game,” says a spokesperson from World of Card Games. “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.”

Analysts reviewed the number of Google searches for 605 games using search words such as “board game,” “how to play” and “rules” to determine the interest in each game.

In New Jersey, checkers came in second with 7,506 average monthly searches, while Monopoly is third with 5,163 average monthly searches. Clue is fourth in NJ, with 3,322 average monthly searches, followed by Mancala with 1,684 average monthly searches.

Here are the Top 10 most searched board games in New Jersey:
1. Chess
2. Checkers
3. Monopoly
4. Cluedo
5. Mancala
6. Rummikub
7. Go
8. Pictionary
9. Chinese Checkers
10. Settlers of Catan