Jenga is a popular game worldwide.

Here you need to stack blocks but involve no board to play with.

So, is Jenga a Board Game is a question you may be wondering about.

Even I had the same question in my mind and then I did complete research to find out about it.

Let’s get started!

Is Jenga A Board Game?

Jenga is not a board game because there is no board required to play it. As long as you have all the blocks, you can play Jenga anywhere.

There is no board or specific surface that Jenga has to be played on.

There are no playing pieces that have to go around a playing surface to win at Jenga.

What is Jenga?

Jenga is a game that was created in 1983 by Leslie Scott and marketed by Hasbro.

The game is played with 54 wooden blocks that are each about the size of 1.5 cm × 2.5 cm × 7.5 cm.

The object of the game is to remove one block from a tower of blocks and then replace it at the top of the tower, causing the tower to become unstable and potentially fall.

The player who removes the last block from the tower loses the game.

It is a rule-intensive game and much fun too while you play with your friends. If you use any Jenga Move that is not allowed, you may get disqualified from the game.

What Is A Board Game?

A board game is a game that has a designated playing surface.

Board games also come with pieces that repeatedly go around the board landing on spaces until there is a winner.

Eg: Monopoly is a board game.

There are games like Candyland where instead of going around the board repeatedly, the objective of the game is to get to the final spot.

But all these games have a playing surface and the game is unplayable if you don’t have that specific playing surface.

What Does Jenga Stand For?

The word Jenga comes from the Swahili word Kujenga. The definition of Kujenga is to build.

That’s why the game is a tower of wooden blocks and you make the tower higher by removing blocks from the bottom or middle and putting them on top.

The highest Jenga tower built was 40 levels high and the 41st level had two of the three blocks in place.

What Category Is Jenga?

When you try to categorize Jenga, Jenga fits its own category because you play with blocks. There is no designated board to play with and there are no cards like Uno.

Any game where you have to build a structure of some kind and hope you’re not the person that messes everything up would fit in the same category as Jenga.

Is Jenga A Tabletop Game?

While Jenga can be played anywhere, it doesn’t fit the same classification as a table game.

When people play Dungeons & Dragons or a game similar, there are background pieces that rest on the table.

You may use dice to decide the outcome of battles and you may use notebooks to record information about your character.

Jenga does not use any of those things and can be easily played on any flat surface including the floor.

Jenga Rules

To explain the rules, the setup of the game has to be explained first. You take three Jenga blocks and put them facing the same way next to one another.

You take three more blocks and put them on top but facing a different direction.

You keep building in that pattern until all the blocks are used and the game is ready to start.

Players take turns removing blocks from the bottom or middle and putting them on top.

As the game goes on, the stable structure starts to become more unstable.

When the tower collapses after a block is removed or placed on top, the game is over and the loser is the player who caused the tower to collapse.

Games Like Jenga

Since Jenga is a game that doesn’t fit into any specific category except its own. There are other games like Jenga that have a similar setup and similar rules.

Catch The Moon has you set up ladders that intertwine and the smallest mistake could bring everything down.

There is another game named Suspend where you place your rubber-tipped wires on a structure and if it falls off, you have to take back that wire and try again on a later turn.

The first person to place all their wires on the structure without any falling off or touching the surface the structure rests on wins.