PAX West 2026's Most Surprising Hit Was a 150-Year-Old Board Game that Combines Darts and Woodworking

I didn't know this game existed a month ago, so here is my story experiencing crokinole for the first time.

The short version

• I was dangerously late to this particular party.
• My editor told me that I should try to play some crokinole while I was at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, as it's become popular recently, and my first reaction was that he'd just made that word up.
• When I complained to my board-gaming friends, it turned out that they had all not only played crokinole before, but several already owned their own boards.

What happened

One was even reasonably certain that he’d played the game with me. When I got to the demo room on the basement level of the Washington State Convention Center, I discovered maybe a dozen tables that were all dedicated exclusively to crokinole, played on beautiful, handmade wooden boards, and there was a crowd seated at them.

Why it matters

It felt as if I was the only person who noticed some kind of cosmic retcon, where an unknown force had decided to re-edit the universe to account for the existence and sudden popularity of a previously unknown Canadian table game.

Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Polygon via the links above and below.