The Tool Desk
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What did Elizabeth Magie invent?
On January 5, 1904, Magie received U.S. patent 748,626 for The Landlord’s Game. The Library of Congress describes a board game with railroad properties, a luxury tax, public parking and jail. Its patent makes Magie the inventor of this documented predecessor to Monopoly.
Magie designed two ways to play: a monopolist set of rules and an anti-monopolist set. Mary Pilon’s 2015 account in Smithsonian Magazine says Magie intended the game to demonstrate the harms of accumulating wealth at other people’s expense.
In words attributed to Magie in 1906, as reported by Pilon: “In a short time, I hope a very short time, men and women will discover that they are poor because Carnegie and Rockefeller, maybe, have more than they know what to do with.”
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#1 Best Overall
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How did The Landlord’s Game become Monopoly?
The game spread through homemade adaptations. Pilon describes a Quaker version as the one Charles Darrow copied and sold to Parker Brothers in 1935. That account helps explain the connection, but it does not establish that every feature of the later commercial board came directly from Magie’s patent.
The Library of Congress records Darrow’s patent as issued on December 31, 1935, and says Parker Brothers eventually accepted and sold his game. Pilon reports that Magie sold her patent to Parker Brothers for $500 that year.
Rank #2
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How the two games differ historically
| Point of comparison | The Landlord’s Game | Commercial Monopoly |
|---|---|---|
| Date and patent | Magie’s U.S. patent 748,626 was issued January 5, 1904. The Library of Congress also identifies a later patent under the name Elizabeth Magie Phillips in 1924. | Darrow’s patent was issued December 31, 1935, according to the Library of Congress. |
| Purpose and rules | Designed to demonstrate the effects of wealth accumulation, with monopolist and anti-monopolist rule sets, as reported by Mary Pilon in Smithsonian Magazine. | Darrow’s version was sold by Parker Brothers; the cited accounts do not establish that it retained Magie’s paired rule sets. |
| Route to publication | Circulated in homemade adaptations before Magie sold her patent to Parker Brothers in 1935 for $500, according to Pilon. | Parker Brothers accepted and sold Darrow’s game, according to the Library of Congress. |
What the sales figures do—and don’t—show
Pilon’s 2015 Smithsonian Magazine account reports 278,000 copies sold in Monopoly’s first year and more than 1,750,000 in the following year. These are figures reported in that article; they are not figures attributed to the Library of Congress or independently audited totals established here.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the distinction matters
Calling Darrow the inventor without qualification erases the earlier patented game and the path by which it circulated. Calling Magie the inventor of modern Monopoly unchanged goes too far in the other direction. The evidence supports a more precise account: Magie invented and patented The Landlord’s Game; Darrow’s later version became the Parker Brothers commercial game called Monopoly.
Rank #3
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The Library of Congress’s history of Monopoly documents the patents and game features. For a fuller narrative of the game’s development, Pilon’s Smithsonian Magazine account discusses Magie’s purpose and the later commercial history.
Quick Recap
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Rank #4
- Game Type: Board Game
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- Minimum Number of Players: 2
- Maximum Number of Players: 6
- Length of Play: 60 minutes
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