Test Powers Of Deduction – 37 of 55 Features Of Best-Selling Board Games

Games like Guess Who, Battleship and Mastermind offer a light test of deductive skills (and sell in large quantities). Note the emphasis on ‘light’, the concept can be really simple, making something very complicated won’t necessarily be mass market.

Guess Who seems simple, but the mechanic/matrix of characters and variations behind it is surprisingly complicated. Battleship is very basic, but also highly compelling. Mastermind is not frankly speaking the most exciting board game in the world, but it has still sold millions of games over time.

What all these games have in common is their effect – this type of simple deductive thinking positively aids the cognitive development of children. So, while adults may not find these gameplays very compelling, for children they can be quite challenging and therefore particularly stimulating.

Guess Who is reported to sell around 2million games each year, Battleship is so big that a Hollywood movie starring Liam Neeson & Rihanna based on this classic game grossed more than $300m at the global box office and Mastermind has sold tens of millions of copies over time. Commercially speaking, simple deductive games are major news.

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