Catan

Tabletop games date back to more than 3000 BCE with the game of Senet. Quite an ancient industry, and surprisingly still growing, much to the thanks of Catan! Dating back to 1995, Catan may potentially be the oldest game that I will be reviewing on our website. Most people in the industry, including myself, would call it the OG of modern strategic board gaming. Ask anyone on the street if they enjoy playing board games, and, more often than not, they’ll say, “Yeah! I love playing Catan!”

Created by German game designer Klaus Teuber and published in 1995, “The Settlers of Catan,” as it was officially called then, now just “Catan”, took the world by storm. It won the “Spiel des Jahres” (German) “Game of the Year” in 1995 and quickly expanded its reach, selling over 40 million copies in more than 40 different languages.

Catan introduced the board gaming world to far more player agency than older, luck-driven games. The ability to choose your next move and strategically play probabilities, rather than allowing the roll of the dice to decide your fate, meant that you were in the driver's seat, in control of your own destiny. Catan’s resource-generation mechanics created an always-active experience with minimal downtime. When it’s not your turn, you still need to pay attention, or you might miss picking up your resources, especially if your friends are ultra-competitive!  

One of the main factors in Catan’s success is how it transformed the game mechanics of trading and negotiation like never before. More than 30 years after its publication, I have not played a single game with a trading mechanism as good as Catan’s. Now, I’m sure there’s avid gamers out there that will say, “You obviously haven’t played this game, it has way better trading mechanics...” and they may be right, but to that I’d say, “Where do you think the inspiration came from?” Catan has influenced so many of the modern board games being played today. I’ll let y’all know when I come across a game with a trading mechanism that competes with Catan’s, but until then, Catan takes the cake in my books.

Long story short, after playing hundreds of Catan games and being hooked on it for years as my one and only gateway game, I have immense appreciation for how it has inspired me to design Due Diligence. Without Catan, Due Diligence would not exist, and for that, I’m grateful! Thank you, Klaus Teuber! You have made an impact on my life and over 40 million other people around the world! Your work has brought joy to many tabletops and will continue to do so for the undeniable future.

-Mark Krabben

March 30th, 2026

PS. I can’t wait for the new TV series of Catan to air on Netflix!