Are you addicted to Jenga? See 5 facts about one of the most popular games in the world

Let the first stone throw who never wanted to throw the pieces of the notorious Jenga out the window. The game that has sold over 50 million copies worldwide is able to test the nerves of players of all ages. And it's not from today, no. The war to beat Jenga comes from the early 1980s.

For nearly four decades, people of different ages have been trying to keep a steady hand to win the game. The rules seem simple and fool everyone. It's not just taking a block out of 54 and putting it on top. Reading like this sounds easy, right? For the more the structure grows, the more unstable it becomes and the tipping is almost certain.

Now, do you want to know more about this enemy that requires a lot of patience? We bring you 5 curiosities.

Photo: Pixabay

Creator didn't know she had invented Jenga

Tanzanian-born Leslie Scott used to play with her family with a stack of her brother's building blocks, using the pieces to build a swinging tower that would collapse if they weren't careful. They even ordered bricks made by a carpenter just for the game. This happened in the 1970s and later, when she had moved to Oxford, she realized that "this was not something everyone did, " she said in an interview with the Somerset County Gazette in 2010. Jenga was launched in 1983 in the United Kingdom. and in 1984 in Canada, after friends insisted on playing the “brick game”, motivating the launch.

Inventor almost went broke

Jenga's early sales were not encouraging, and, as Scott paid for the initial production, immediate failure hit his finances. The family supported the financing of the game and, the partner was the guarantor for a loan, the mother placed the house as collateral for another loan in order to guarantee the production. The effort was rewarded when Jenga landed at the Toronto Toy Fair in 1986. Scott received an order for 400, 000 copies. In the United States, then Hasbro chief executive Alan Hassenfield, when he first met the game, rushed in and bought distribution rights there. The deal was not very advantageous, after all, the creator receives only 20% of the royalties of the game.

Blocks are not identical

The blocks look identical, but Jenga's pieces have subtle differences in purpose to make the construction less stable. Each brick has different size and weights.

Jenga on the Guinness Book

In 2019, Tai Star Vailanti from Pima, Arizona, entered the Guinness Book with the world record of .... Jenga! The feat was earned after stacking 353 blocks on top of a single vertical block. Impressive.

Jenga increased

Also in 2019, a construction equipment manufacturer, Caterpillar USA, used Jenga for a "publicity stunt". The company has recruited huge excavators, handlers and loaders to maneuver 27 much larger than usual Jenga bricks. The blocks were almost 2.5 meters long and over 270 pounds. The game lasted 28 hours and ended with 13 layers of blocks.