Giving the Game Away: What Canada’s game play says about people?

A new survey of 1,000 respondents has revealed ‘The 10 Most Popular Board Games in Canada’. The survey highlights the reasons why Canadians play board games, and it also provides some insights into age and gender disparity.

The top three most popular board games are:

Monopoly – Monopoly has been revealed the most loved game by 49 percent of Canadians with people from Newfoundland and Labrador area being the biggest lovers.
Scrabble – With 38 percent of respondents confessing their predilection for Scrabble, the game sits in second position.
UNO – The card game where winning depends on your luck and quickness was revealed as the third most popular game for 23 percent of Canadians.

Also making up the top ten are: Yahtzee, Chess, Trivial Pursuit, Battleship, Cribbage, Jenga and Risk. Its interesting to note that the most recent of this games is Trivial Pursuit, and that was invented during the 1980s. New board games find the established market a difficult one to crack.

Typically Canadians play a board game on average once per month, with young people (18 to 24 year olds) playing more often than over 65. This means that the appeal of digital video games is not all and everything for young people.

Beyond the headline figures there are some interesting variants. The survey discovered that over half of Canadians play board games in order to bond more closely with their family and friends, at 54 percent of respondents. Other top reasons for playing are due to the social aspect (39 percent) and to fill time during holidays (24 percent).

The survey also highlights some differences around gender. The figures reveal women (at 44 percent) have a stronger preference toward collaboration when compared with men (36 percent). In contrast, men tend to prefer problem-solving and strategizing games (35 percent, men compared with 28 percent for women). It also stands that more men prefer card games (19 percent) than women (15 percent) and more women prefer word games (27 percent compared with 16 percent).

Another drawing room, with a backgammon set. Backgammon is one of the oldest board games known. It is a two player game where playing pieces are moved according to the roll of dice, and a player wins by removing all of his pieces from the board before their opponent.

Tim Sandle

In terms of why people, play it appears that more women than men play games in order to distract themselves from the outside world (15 percent compared with 12 percent). While winning isn’t everything, more men (at 11 percent) enjoy winning than women (8 percent).