Jenga

Jenga is a physical skill game invented by British designer Leslie Scott and now sold by Hasbro. Its name comes from the Swahili word kujenga, meaning "to build." Players take turns pulling a single block from a stack of 54 wooden blocks, then placing that block on top. This makes the tower increasingly wobbly. The game ends when the tower collapses.

Leslie Scott, who co-founded Oxford Games Ltd, based Jenga on a family game from the early 1970s that used wooden building blocks bought from a sawmill in Takoradi, Ghana. Scott grew up in Tanganyika (now Tanzania) speaking English and Swahili, later moving to Ghana. She launched Jenga at the London Toy Fair in January 1983 through her company, Leslie Scott Associates. The first sets were made by the Camphill Village Trust in Botton, Yorkshire. The V&A Museum of Childhood has displayed one of these original sets since 1982.

In 1984, Robert Grebler, a California entrepreneur and brother of a close friend of Scott, contacted her about importing Jenga to Canada. In April 1985, Grebler obtained exclusive rights for the U.S. and Canada; that October, Scott assigned worldwide rights to Grebler, who then transferred them to Pokonobe Associates. Grebler had formed Pokonobe with two cousins in 1985 to boost distribution. Pokonobe licensed Irwin Toy to sell Jenga in Canada and act as master licensee globally. Pokonobe takes 80% of royalties, while Scott receives 20% or less—the reverse of the usual split. Scott says she regrets signing away her rights on those terms.

Irwin Toy licensed Jenga to Schaper in the U.S. When Hasbro bought Schaper, Jenga launched under the Milton Bradley brand in 1987. Hasbro eventually became the licensee in most countries. By 2019, Pokonobe reported over 80 million Jenga games sold—more than 4.3 billion blocks. On November 5, 2020, Jenga entered the National Toy Hall of Fame.

The game uses 54 blocks, each three times as long as it is wide and one-fifth as thick as its length (1.5 inches). Small random variations in block dimensions create imperfections that make stacking harder. To start, blocks are stacked into 18 layers of three blocks each, with each layer’s blocks oriented the same way and perpendicular to the layer below. A plastic tray can help with setup.

The player who built the tower goes first. On each turn, a player removes one block from any level below the highest completed one and places it horizontally on top, perpendicular to the blocks it rests on. Only one hand may touch the tower at a time, but players can switch hands. Once a level has three blocks, it is complete and cannot take more. A player may nudge a block to test if it is loose, but must return it if they choose a different block. A turn ends when the next player touches the tower or ten seconds pass after placing a block.

The game ends when any part of the tower falls, whether from removing or placing a block. The last player to complete a turn before the collapse wins.

One edition’s packaging claims Robert Grebler built the tallest Jenga tower ever at 40 levels in 1985, using an original set from the early 1980s.

Official variants include Throw 'n Go Jenga (colored blocks plus a die, by Art's Ideas), Jenga Truth or Dare (three block colors), Jenga Xtreme (parallelogram-shaped blocks), and Casino Jenga: Las Vegas Edition (roulette-style play with a felt board, chips, and extra rules). Licensed collector editions feature themes like the Boston Red Sox, Las Vegas Raiders, New York Yankees, John Deere, Hello Kitty, Transformers, Tarzan, Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, Donkey Kong, Bob's Burgers, National Parks, Jenga Ocean, The Walking Dead, Super Mario, Fortnite, Godzilla, Rick and Morty, Onyx, and Harry Potter. Jenga XXL and Jenga Giant are licensed giant versions by Art's Ideas, with some reaching five feet or higher.