What did the first Monopoly game look like?

You may know Monopoly as one of the most popular classic board games in modern history, or as the game that keeps your family talking for hours. But did you know it was originally invented as a way to educate people about the social implications of wealth, not to buy and sell real estate?

The first Monopoly game was released in 1906, and it looks very different from the version on your shelf (or computer) today. In fact, it even has a different name. Here's everything you need to know about the first Monopoly game .

The first Monopoly game was called Landlord's Game.

Fun fact: The first version of the game wasn't called Monopoly. A young woman named Elizabeth Magie created the game as a " real-life demonstration of the current land grab system with all its usual consequences and ramifications ."

Her inspiration came from the book by progressive economist Henry George, Progress and Poverty. The first version of the game was called The Landlord's Game. While the original goal of the game was simply to accumulate wealth, the goal in the final version of Monopoly is to own industry and create a monopoly on wealth and influence.

The first Monopoly game was a teaching tool.

Researcher Thomas Forsyth has spent the past 20 years studying the history of The Landlord Game. Elizabeth [Magie] saw the concentration of national wealth in the hands of a small minority and wanted to find a way to teach people that if left alone, the situation would only get worse, but that there were solutions to fix the problem. She hoped the game would address those issues by illustrating their impact & making it personal.

Over time, the Landlord Game was introduced into classrooms to teach students about economics. They added new rules and changed the board, from Landlord Game to being renamed Auction Monopoly and finally just Monopoly.

The Parker Brothers quickly bought the patent, and sales of the game exploded. Since then, many newer versions of the original Monopoly game have been released. And true to the game's purpose, some of them are actually monetizable.

How much is the original Monopoly game worth?

Monopoly is a successful game, with thousands of copies sold, meaning there are likely thousands more still in existence. Even games from the 1930s don't tend to sell for the high prices they cost (under $50). However, there are some collector's editions and rare editions that are worth a bit more.

These include the 1935 Parker Brothers Patent Pending Edition (priced between $300 and $900), the 1935 Parker Brothers Trade Mark Edition (priced between $380 and $1,000), and the 1991 Last Edition, which was only given to employees of a manufacturing plant in Salem, Massachusetts, when Hasbro took over the game. Only 650 copies of this game were produced, and they cost more than $2,000.

Forsyth has started selling copies of the original Monopoly game on his website, which look identical to Magie's first version, The Landlord's Game.

Kareem Winters

Update 17 July 2025