When did Jenga first come out?

Jenga is clever and a tricky game that’s quite simple. Kids and adults alike have enjoyed the game for more than 40 years, and it has remained popular up to this day.

Jenga has a simple game plan. To start you need  the 54 blocks to be stacked with each in a level consisting of three blocks that rest across the layer beneath. A player then needs to remove one block at a time and places it on the top of the stack in the same pattern.

The player who makes the tower collapse loses.

Jenga was invented in the early 1970s by Englishwoman Leslie Scott. It grew out of a childhood game using wooden building blocks from a local sawmill in Ghana.

She brought the game to England in the 1980s, taking out a copyright on the game rules and trademarking the now famously recognized name. Jenga is promoted in the United States and some 50 other countries by Pokonobe Associates, a U.S.-based partnership, through Hasbro and other licensees. Pokonobe partner Robert Grebler was a champion Jenga player and, according to Hasbro, still holds the world record of 40 and 2/3 levels.

Jenga first came out in January 1983. Leslie Scott launched the game she named Jenga which means to build in the Swahili language at the London Toy Fair in January 1983 and sold it through her own company, Leslie Scott Associates. The blocks of the first sets of Jenga were manufactured for Scott by the Camphill Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire.

Leslie is a  British national who grew up in Ghana in East Africa and invented the game based from the inspiration she got from her younger brother’s wooden blocks. It was their family’s chill and bonding times that they greatly enjoyed.

Jenga is an ultimate game that demands skill, involves interaction with other players, provides suspense, and could be done in a matter of fifteen minutes and could be played game after game.

Leslie Scott’s simple and yet very enjoyable game continues to bring in the sales up to the present day. It’s clear testimony what a great game it is. It never goes passe or irrelevant it just gets better and better.

As of today, Jenga is available in all other variations and also comes with many special editions of the games. There are logos of sports teams on Jenga like the Boston Red Sox and Oakland Raiders. There is also A Nightmare Before Christmas, Jenga and Fortnite Jenga, Giant Jenga, Throw 'n Go Jenga, and many many more!

Jenga has become a household name and a worldwide craze from its humble beginnings. It’s now your iconic game to last forever!

After Thoughts

A great game would always surpass the time. It would become a constant and dependable game that would be enjoyed regardless of age and cultural differences.

Leslie Scott saw to it that it would keep its original game Jenga because she was confident that it would work.

And, Jenga remains what it was, what it is, and what it would be even for the generations to come.

Check the classic Jenga and all its variations on Amazon.