The first Monopoly World Championship was held in 1973.
The championship formed part of Monopoly’s development as an organized competitive game, extending the familiar home pastime into a formal tournament setting. Players compete through buying, trading, and developing properties while managing cash and bankruptcy risk.
The event belongs to the modern history of Monopoly, which had already become commercially established decades earlier. Parker Brothers first published the game in 1935, but organized world-level competition did not begin until the 1970s.
Championship formats and host locations have changed over time, and national qualifying events have been used in different periods. The 1973 date refers specifically to the first World Championship, not the game’s original publication or the creation of The Landlord’s Game.