The History of Solitaire

Solitaire has been played by an estimated 35 billion people in the digital era alone. It is probably the single most-played game in human history — and it started as a way to pass the time at noble card tables in 18th-century northern Europe. The journey from there to Windows 3.0 and the modern web is a strange, fascinating story.

The earliest documented references: 1780s Germany and Scandinavia

The oldest known written references to single-player card games date to approximately the 1780s. German card game books from the late 18th century describe games called Patiencespiele(patience games), and Scandinavian sources from the same era contain similar games played alone. The word “patience” became the standard term across most of Europe and remains so in the UK and France today.

The exact origin is contested. Some historians attribute early Patience games to Germany, others to Sweden or Denmark. What is clear is that by around 1800, single-player card games had spread widely across northern and central Europe, appearing in game compendiums alongside traditional multiplayer card games.

Napoleon and the French “Patience” craze

Patience games became fashionable in France during the early 19th century. French nobles and intellectuals collected and published catalogues of Patience variants, some running to dozens of different games. The French word — patience— carried a deliberate double meaning: the games required patience to play, and they were associated with solitary contemplation.

Napoleon Bonaparte is reportedly linked to Patience in two ways. During his years in exile on Saint Helena (1815 to 1821), accounts from his companions describe him playing card patience games to occupy his time. There is also a game called “Napoleon at Saint Helena” — an alternative name for the Forty Thieves variantof Solitaire — though the exact origin of that name is difficult to verify precisely.

“Patience is a game peculiarly adapted to those who are alone.”

Whether Napoleon actually played Solitaire is historically unclear, but the association lodged itself firmly in popular culture. Throughout the 19th century, Patience spread from France to England (where Lady Cadogan's 1870 book catalogued 25 variants) and eventually to North America.

Where the major variants got their names

Klondike — the gold rush connection

The most widely played variant is named after the Klondike region of Yukon, Canada — site of the 1896 gold rush. The exact connection is not definitively documented, but the name appears in American card game books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, coinciding with the gold rush era. The game may have been played by prospectors or spread by people returning from the Klondike.

It is sometimes called “Canfield” in North America, after casino owner Richard Canfield who reputedly charged $52 for a deck and paid $5 per card moved to the foundation — a house edge so severe that fewer than 3% of players broke even. Read more about Canfield Solitaire →

Spider — eight legs, eight foundations

Spider Solitaire is named for its eight foundation piles — one for each leg of a spider. The game uses two decks and requires building eight complete same-suit sequences. It was known in card game books by the mid-20th century but gained its largest audience when Microsoft bundled it with Windows 98 in 1998.

FreeCell — a medical student's invention

FreeCell was invented in its modern form by Paul Alfille, a medical student at the University of Illinois, in 1978. Alfille wrote the first digital implementation for the PLATO educational computer system and documented the game's unusual mathematical property: almost every possible deal is solvable. Microsoft developer Jim Horne brought it to Windows 3.1 in 1992.

1990: Microsoft Solitaire changes everything

The most consequential moment in Solitaire's history is not a card game invention. It is a software decision made in 1990.

Wes Cherry, an intern at Microsoft, wrote Microsoft Solitaire as a side project in 1989. The game was included in Windows 3.0 when it launched on May 22, 1990 — not as a game, exactly, but as a training tool. The stated purpose was to teach new computer users how to use a mouse. Dragging cards across the screen gave novices practice with mouse movement, clicking, and the concept of point-and-drag interfaces.

The mouse-training rationale was genuine, but the effect went far beyond training. Within months of Windows 3.0's release, Solitaire was the most-used program on most corporate computers in America. Office workers played it during breaks, between tasks, and instead of tasks. Corporate IT departments began actively disabling it.

The game Microsoft included to teach mouse skills had become the most popular software product the company had ever shipped.

The scale of what followed

Windows 3.0 sold 2 million copies in its first six months. By the mid-1990s, Windows had installed bases in the hundreds of millions of homes and offices worldwide. Every one of those machines shipped with Solitaire.

Solitaire in the modern era

The web era opened Solitaire to new audiences and new variants. Browser-based implementations from the early 2000s brought the game to people who didn't own Windows. Mobile apps carried it further — Solitaire is consistently among the most downloaded card game apps on both major mobile platforms.

The core appeal has not changed in 240 years. Solitaire requires no other players, no scheduling, no negotiation. It fits any length of time from two minutes to two hours. It is mentally engaging without being overwhelming. And on the roughly 30–50% of winnable Klondike deals, there is a genuine satisfaction in the final card going to the foundation.

A game that started at a German card table in the 1780s, was reportedly played by Napoleon in exile, and was bundled into a 1990 operating system to teach mouse skills is now played by hundreds of millions of people online every year. That is a more improbable journey than most.