Answer: Settlers of Catan

Board games have a long pedigree, stretching back centuries. Despite the long history of board game play, by the late 20th-century, board games had waned in popularity—especially in many Western countries like England and the United States.

The slow death of board games came to a halt when Settlers of Catan burst out of the German game market in 1995 and took the rest of the world by storm. For you see, the Germans had never dumped board games into the backs of their closets or relegated them to their children—the German board game market was a healthy and respected one that quietly churned out interesting titles over the decades while the rest of us were avoiding another round of Monopoly or Sorry!

When Settlers of Catan took hold outside of Germany, the world saw what a board game could be (so much more than the titles typically played only by children in many other countries), and the rest is history. Board game sales have climbed continuously since Settlers of Catan turned millions of people onto the genre, and now websites like Board Game Geek catalog tens of thousands of games, provide support for the community, and otherwise serve the millions of tabletop gamers out there.