Scrabble back as Britain's top board game after 15 years

London, Nov 18 : The word game Scrabble has once again become the country's best selling board game thanks to the increasing popularity of brain games.

The board game, which is a favourite family pastime, reclaimed its number one spot for the first time in at least 15 years by knocking off Golden Balls, a game based on a television programme.

The NPD (formerly National Purchase Dairy), a market research firm that tracks toy and games sales, noticed that the sales for Scrabble had increased by 30 per cent in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period last year.

The huge sale has also been attributed to the online and computer versions of the game, with Scrabulous, a web version of the game that members of Facebook could play, proving one of the Internet phenomena of 2009.

Hasbro, the owner of the US rights to the game, shut down the web version, but only after it had attracted half a million players every single day.

According to some toy experts, the old fashioned board games will to do well this Christmas thanks to the economic slowdown.

"When money is tight, people turn to brands they know and trust. We sell over 200 board games but people pick things they remember from their childhood when they unsure where to spend their money," the Telegraph quoted Stuart Grant, buying director of the toy chain The Entertainer, as saying.

ANI