1920s Games: Best Board, Card And Video Games

Mah Jong mania, the birth of contract bridge, and a board game in every parlour.

Below: the board games of the 1920s, the card games people played, the video and arcade games of the era, and how games actually got played at home.

Handy for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone played growing up.

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Cards, prints and badges, made by us

Funny and warm greeting cards, art prints and pin badges, printed in the UK. We do not sell games - this guide is free to read, print and copy.

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Board games of the 1920s

  • Mah Jong - the craze of 1923, sold in Britain in lacquered boxes with rules nobody agreed on.
  • Ludo and Snakes and Ladders, both Victorian imports from India, by now standard family sets.
  • Halma and draughts, the thinking games of the front room.
  • Crokinole and bagatelle boards, flicked and rolled rather than moved square by square.
  • Table croquet and tiddlywinks, sold as parlour versions of outdoor games.

Card games of the 1920s

  • Contract bridge, codified by Harold Vanderbilt in 1925 and the game of the decade for adults.
  • Auction bridge and solo whist, still going in clubs that had not converted yet.
  • Whist drives - the village hall fundraiser of the era.
  • Cribbage, played in pubs with a board and a peg.
  • Newmarket, Snap and Happy Families for children.

Video and arcade games

  • No video games - they were thirty years away.
  • Penny arcades on every pier: allwin machines, what-the-butler-saw viewers and strength testers.
  • Bagatelle tables, the ancestor of pinball, in pubs and amusement halls.
  • Shove ha'penny and darts, both codified into pub league games in this period.

How people played

  • Round a table, in the evening, with the wireless on from 1922.
  • Games were bought as gifts at Christmas and lasted years - one Monopoly-sized box per family.
  • Adults played cards, children played board games, and Sunday was for both.

Years covered in the 1920s

  • 1920 - The first Remembrance at the Cenotaph and a country still counting its losses. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1920
  • 1921 - A miners' lockout, mass unemployment and the first British Legion poppy appeal. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1921
  • 1922 - The BBC's first broadcast, the Austin Seven and Tutankhamun's tomb. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1922
  • 1923 - The White Horse Final at Wembley and the first Radio Times. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1923
  • 1924 - The first Labour government, the Empire Exhibition and the Chariots of Fire Olympics. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1924
  • 1925 - The Charleston, the return to the gold standard and a summer of dance halls. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1925
  • 1926 - The General Strike, the birth of Elizabeth II and Baird's public television demonstration. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1926
  • 1927 - The BBC became a corporation, talking pictures arrived and the FA Cup went to Wales. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1927
  • 1928 - Votes for all women, penicillin discovered and the Thames flood. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1928
  • 1929 - Britain's first talkie, a second Labour government and the Wall Street Crash. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-1929
  • That is every 1920s year we have written up so far: 1920 to 1929.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one board game and one card game from the list and have both out on the table.
  • Quiz round: read a game and ask for the decade, or read the year and ask for the game.
  • Reminiscence: ask what was under the tree one Christmas. Games get remembered better than clothes.
  • Anyone born in 1920 turns 50 in 1970, 60 in 1980 and 70 in 1990.

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Found your words? Now find the card

Shop greetings cards Look back to 1920 Look back to 1921 Look back to 1922

How to write it so it lands

  • Release years matter: a game can be invented in one decade and only reach British shops in the next.
  • For a party, pick a game people can join halfway through. Nobody wants to start Monopoly at ten o'clock.
  • Boot sales and charity shops still turn up the original boxes, usually with one piece missing.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What board games were popular in the 1920s?

Mah Jong - the craze of 1923, sold in Britain in lacquered boxes with rules nobody agreed on. The full list above covers the rest of the decade's boards.

What card games did people play in the 1920s?

Contract bridge, codified by Harold Vanderbilt in 1925 and the game of the decade for adults. The card games section above has the others.

What video games came out in the 1920s?

No video games - they were thirty years away. The section above lists the arcade, console and computer games of the era.

Do you sell games?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This guide is free to read and free to copy - charity shops and second-hand sites are the best place to find the older games.

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