Microsoft Solitaire had 35 million monthly active players at its 30th anniversary in 2020, with more than 100 million hands played every day — on Microsoft’s platform alone. That is the headline number, but it is only one line of a much larger story. 83% of US adults have played solitaire (YouGov, May 2023). The game has been distributed on more than a billion computers (Xbox Wire, May 2019). Klondike is winnable in 81.945% of deals under thoughtful play (Blake & Gent, Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, 2026). Peer-reviewed research has linked card-game engagement to reduced dementia risk in seniors (Verghese et al., NEJM, 2003).
This reference aggregates data from Microsoft, YouGov, the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, the New England Journal of Medicine, Newzoo, Verified Market Reports, Sensor Tower, and other primary sources. Every figure is cited inline. Wherever the best data is more than three years old, it is flagged as “most recent available.” We update this page as new research and reports are published.
Key Takeaways
- 83% of US adults have played solitaire, making it the most-played card game in America (YouGov, May 2023, n=1,000).
- Microsoft Solitaire has reached more than 500 million players since 1990 and had 35 million monthly actives in 2020 (Xbox Wire).
- Microsoft Solitaire is distributed on more than 1 billion computers, localized into 65 languages, and played in over 200 markets including Antarctica (Xbox Wire, May 2019).
- The most rigorous study to date puts Klondike’s “thoughtful” winnability at 81.945% ± 0.084% across 73 variants and 35 patience games (Blake & Gent, JAIR Vol. 85, 2026).
- FreeCell is solvable in more than 99.999% of deals — only 102,075 of 8.6 billion analyzed FreeCell Pro hands are impossible (Pringle & Fish, 2018).
- The global mobile games market was $92 billion in 2024, with Newzoo forecasting the broader games industry at roughly $205 billion by 2026.
- The global puzzle video-game market is projected to grow from $6.28 billion in 2024 to $9.86 billion by 2033 at a 6.02% CAGR (Verified Market Reports).
- A landmark NEJM study linked frequent cognitive leisure activity — including card games — to reduced dementia risk in seniors (Verghese et al., 2003, n=469).
- Microsoft Solitaire was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame in 2019, receiving more Player’s Choice votes than all other finalists combined (The Strong Museum of Play).
- Microsoft Solitaire was built in the summer of 1988 by an intern, Wes Cherry; its card deck was designed by Macintosh pioneer Susan Kare (Xbox Wire, May 2019).
Table of Contents
Global Adoption: Solitaire Is the Most-Played Card Game on Earth
83% of US adults have played solitaire — more than any other card game, according to YouGov’s May 2023 nationally representative survey of 1,000 adults.
Solitaire’s dominance is not a matter of novelty. It is a matter of ambient availability. It ships pre-installed on operating systems, is free in every app store, and requires no second player. That combination has produced a reach that no other card game — digital or physical — comes close to matching. A full 83% of US adults report having played it, which is a higher rate than any other card game YouGov measured in its 2023 survey. Distribution through Microsoft Windows alone has placed the game on more than a billion computers across more than 200 markets.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US adults who have played solitaire | 83% | YouGov, “How Americans feel about 30 card games” (May 2023, n=1,000) |
| US adults who play card games often | 40% (four in 10) | YouGov (May 2023) |
| Microsoft Solitaire lifetime players | 500M+ | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Computers that have shipped with Microsoft Solitaire | 1B+ | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Markets where Microsoft Solitaire is played | 200+ (incl. Antarctica) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Languages Microsoft Solitaire is localized into | 65 | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Solitaire’s rank among US card games | #1 most-played, #1 “most-loved” tier | YouGov (May 2023) |
The survey was conducted May 10–12, 2023 among 1,000 US adults with a margin of error of approximately 4%. Go Fish (79%), Blackjack (70%), and Old Maid (66%) rounded out the top four most-played card games. Explore every variant in one place on our solitaire games hub.
Microsoft Solitaire: The Game That Taught the World to Mouse
Microsoft Solitaire had 35 million monthly active players as of its 30th anniversary in 2020, with more than 100 million hands played every day (Microsoft, Xbox Wire, May 2020). It has shipped on more than 1 billion computers in 65 languages across 200+ markets.
Microsoft Solitaire is often treated as a card game. It is more usefully understood as a piece of software-distribution history. Microsoft shipped it with Windows 3.0 in 1990 to teach users unfamiliar with graphical interfaces how to drag-and-drop with a mouse — and in doing so, handed the world a free card game on every PC. The combined effect is arguably the most-reached piece of entertainment software ever made. Microsoft’s own figures, published by Xbox Wire at the game’s 30th anniversary in 2020, remain the most recent official numbers.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly active players (most recent official figure) | 35M (2020) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2020) |
| Hands played per day | 100M+ (2020) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2020) |
| Microsoft Solitaire Collection games played per day | 55M (2016) | Windows Experience Blog (August 2016) |
| Microsoft Solitaire Collection games per year | ~20 billion (2016) | Windows Experience Blog (August 2016) |
| Unique MSC users | 100M+ (as of 2016) | Windows Experience Blog (August 2016) |
| Xbox Live Gamerscore awarded through MSC | 1.3B+ | Windows Experience Blog (August 2016) |
| Original development | Summer 1988, by intern Wes Cherry | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Card-deck designer | Susan Kare (Macintosh pioneer) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Launch platform | Windows 3.0 (1990) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| World Video Game Hall of Fame induction | 2019 — most Player’s Choice votes of any finalist | The Strong Museum of Play (May 2019) |
The 2020 monthly-active-players figure is the most recent that Microsoft has published officially. A boss-key feature that would have switched the display to a fake Microsoft Excel spreadsheet was part of Cherry’s original build but removed before release. For background on why Microsoft bundled solitaire with Windows in the first place, see our post on why Microsoft included solitaire in Windows — and for the longer pre-computer story, our history of solitaire covers the game’s 18th-century origins through its card-table era.
Win Rates by Variant: Theory vs. Reality
Theoretical and observed win rates diverge sharply across solitaire variants. Klondike is solvable in ~82% of deals under thoughtful play (Blake & Gent, JAIR 2026) but casual players win 30–35% of Turn 1 games and 10–15% of Turn 3 games. FreeCell is solvable in more than 99.999% of deals (Pringle & Fish, 2018) but casual win rates sit around 30–40%.
The gap between “this deal is solvable” and “most players will actually solve it” is where solitaire gets mathematically interesting. A game can be winnable in 99.999% of deals and still have a casual win rate under 50% — because winnability describes a ceiling, not a floor. The most rigorous modern work on this question comes from Charlie Blake and Ian Gent’s 2026 paper in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, which analyzed 73 variants across 35 patience games using a purpose-built solver called Solvitaire.
| Variant | Theoretical Winnability | Observed Player Win Rate | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klondike (thoughtful) | 81.945% ± 0.084% | — | Blake & Gent, JAIR Vol. 85 (2026) / arXiv 1906.12314 |
| Klondike Turn 1 (casual play) | Higher than Turn 3 | ~30–35% | Industry data; casual sample |
| Klondike Turn 3 (casual play) | ~82% overall | ~10–15% | Blake & Gent (2026); casual sample |
| FreeCell | 99.999%+ — 102,075 impossible of 8.6B deals | ~30–40% casual, 75–80% strategic | Pringle & Fish (2018) |
| Spider 1-Suit | Not formally established | ~60–80% | Industry data |
| Spider 2-Suit | Not formally established | ~15–20% | Industry data |
| Spider 4-Suit | Not formally established | ~5–10% | Industry data |
| Pyramid (strict rules) | ~5–6% | ~15–20% | Solitaire Laboratory simulation |
| TriPeaks | ~90%+ | ~85% | Robert Hogue (inventor) |
| Golf (with wrap) | ~93% | ~65–70% | Politaire simulation |
| Addiction 7 | ~86% | Approachable — most players win regularly | Mark Masten solver analysis |
Blake and Gent’s study narrowed the 95% confidence interval on Klondike’s thoughtful winnability by roughly 30× compared to prior work. “Thoughtful” means the player is allowed to see the identity of all cards, including face-down ones — it is the theoretical ceiling, not a player model. Real Klondike Turn 1 players win around 30–35% of the time; Turn 3 players around 10–15%. For the complete variant-by-variant breakdown, read our dedicated article on whether every solitaire game is winnable.
Academic Research on Solitaire Winnability
At least seven major computational studies have analyzed solitaire winnability since 2005 — culminating in Blake & Gent’s 2026 paper in the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, which narrowed the 95% confidence interval on Klondike’s thoughtful winnability by roughly 30× over prior work.
The question of what percentage of Klondike deals are actually winnable was famously described by Yan, Diaconis, Rusmevichientong, and Van Roy as “one of the embarrassments of applied mathematics” in their 2005 NeurIPS paper. Twenty years later, it is no longer embarrassing — but the full answer spans multiple game variants and multiple research teams. This is the most complete public consolidation of that work.
| Study | Researchers (Year) | Game(s) | Method | Key Finding |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solitaire: Man Versus Machine | Yan, Diaconis, Rusmevichientong & Van Roy (2005) — NeurIPS | Thoughtful Klondike | Rollout policy improvement | Solved ~70% of games at level-3 rollouts; foundational modern analysis of Klondike winnability |
| Lower Bounding Klondike Solitaire with Monte-Carlo Planning | Bjarnason, Fern & Tadepalli (2009) — ICAPS | Klondike (standard + thoughtful) | UCT, hindsight optimization, sparse sampling | Established empirical lower bounds on probabilistic Klondike solvers |
| The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games | Blake & Gent (2026) — JAIR Vol. 85 | 73 variants across 35 patience games | Solvitaire solver (DFS with transposition tables, symmetry breaking, dominance rules, streamliners) | Klondike thoughtful winnability 81.945% ± 0.084%; 30× confidence-interval improvement |
| FreeCell Pro solvability analysis | Pringle & Fish (2018) | FreeCell | Exhaustive solver analysis | Of 8.6 billion FreeCell Pro deals, 102,075 are impossible (~1 in 84,000); FreeCell is solvable in >99.999% of deals |
| Solitaire Laboratory — Pyramid Solver | Mark Masten / Solitaire Laboratory | Pyramid | Monte Carlo simulation (2 million deals) | ~5–6% of Pyramid deals winnable under strict clear-all-52 rules |
| Solitaire Laboratory — Gaps solver | Mark Masten | Gaps / Addiction 7 | Solver analysis | ~85–86% of Gaps-style deals are solvable — high for a gap-style variant |
| Politaire Golf simulation | Politaire | Golf (with wrap) | Experimental simulation (100,000 deals) | ~93% of Golf deals winnable with Kings-to-Aces wrap enabled |
| TriPeaks creator analysis | Robert Hogue (inventor) | TriPeaks | Computer analysis by game designer | ~90%+ of TriPeaks deals winnable with optimal play |
Three distinct research traditions stand out. The peer-reviewed academic lineage on Klondike — Yan et al. → Bjarnason et al. → Blake & Gent — progressively tightened confidence intervals on thoughtful winnability across two decades. The exhaustive-enumeration tradition, exemplified by Pringle and Fish on FreeCell, proved near-universal solvability for an entire variant. The community-research tradition — Solitaire Laboratory, Politaire, Hogue — has produced the only public estimates for several major variants that have yet to receive formal academic treatment.
What remains open: Spider 4-Suit winnability has never been rigorously established. The computational complexity of analyzing two-deck, four-suit games with overlapping same-suit-sequence constraints has so far exceeded what any published solver has tackled. It remains the most widely-played solitaire variant whose theoretical winnability is genuinely unknown.
The Mobile Solitaire Economy
The global mobile games market reached $92 billion in 2024 (Newzoo). Puzzle video games — the category solitaire falls into — accounted for $6.28 billion in 2024 and are projected to reach $9.86 billion by 2033 at a 6.02% CAGR (Verified Market Reports).
Solitaire is a quiet category that punches above its weight financially. Mobile is where most of that money moves, and the sub-genre has grown into a meaningful slice of the broader casual-puzzle market. Exact solitaire-only revenue figures are tricky because analysts typically report “solitaire” either as a sub-segment of puzzle or as a handful of top-grossing titles rather than as a comprehensively measured category.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Global mobile games market (2024) | $92B | Newzoo, Global Games Market Report (2024) |
| Global games industry forecast (2026) | ~$205B | Newzoo (2026 forecast) |
| Global puzzle video-game market (2024) | $6.28B | Verified Market Reports (2024) |
| Global puzzle video-game market (2033 projection) | $9.86B @ 6.02% CAGR | Verified Market Reports (2024) |
| US solitaire apps — quarterly tracking cadence | Top-5 grossing US solitaire apps tracked quarterly | Sensor Tower (2022–2024 reports) |
| Reported solitaire app downloads, Android + iOS (2024) | ~2.09 billion | Statista (as reported by industry trackers — secondary attribution; underlying Statista figure paywalled) |
Context on the download figure: the widely cited 2.09 billion number for 2024 appears across multiple industry write-ups attributed to Statista, but the original Statista entry is behind a paywall. We include it with that caveat rather than treating it as a fully verifiable primary number. The Newzoo and Verified Market Reports figures both come from their published reports with disclosed methodology.
For the jigsaw side of the puzzle category — including its 2020 pandemic sales surge, world records, and market sizing — see our jigsaw puzzle statistics companion reference.
Who Plays Solitaire: Demographics and Engagement
Solitaire’s audience skews older and somewhat more female than the mainstream mobile-gaming audience: women make up 69% of US mobile gamers versus 58% of men (Entertainment Software Association), and adults 65+ over-index heavily on casual card games.
The solitaire audience skews older and somewhat more female than the overall mobile-gaming audience. That difference matters because engagement patterns — session length, frequency, tolerance for ads — are shaped by it. Solitaire players tend to play longer sessions less frequently than the hyper-casual norm, which is why the category has a distinct economic profile.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US adults who play card games often | ~40% | YouGov (May 2023) |
| Women who play mobile games (vs. men 58%) | 69% | Entertainment Software Association |
| Age group most over-indexed on casual games incl. solitaire | 65+ | Industry audience data |
| Typical solitaire session length | ~10–15 minutes | Industry estimate; most recent available |
| Typical mobile-game session length (industry-wide average) | ~4–5 minutes | Industry estimate |
| YouGov card-games survey fieldwork | May 10–12, 2023; n=1,000; ±4% MoE | YouGov (May 2023) |
The session-length figures are the softest numbers in this article — they circulate across industry sources without a single canonical study behind them. They are included as directional context only. What the data firmly supports is that solitaire engagement looks more like a patient, thoughtful leisure activity than like the fast-swipe loops that dominate hyper-casual mobile gaming.
Cognitive Benefits: What the Research Actually Shows
Two longitudinal studies anchor the evidence. Verghese et al. (New England Journal of Medicine 2003, n=469) found seniors 75+ who frequently engaged in cognitive leisure — including card games — had approximately 63% lower dementia risk than low-engagement peers. Altschul and Deary (Journals of Gerontology: Series B 2020, n=1,091) tracked Scottish adults from age 11 through age 79 and found analog game play associated with reduced cognitive decline, even after controlling for baseline cognitive ability. No single game has been shown to prevent dementia; the evidence supports cognitive engagement broadly, not solitaire specifically.
The claim that “solitaire prevents dementia” shows up often in marketing copy, and it overstates the evidence. The peer-reviewed finding is narrower but real: frequent engagement in cognitively demanding leisure activity — reading, crossword puzzles, playing musical instruments, and card games, including solitaire — is associated with a reduced risk of dementia in older adults. The single most-cited study on this question is Verghese et al., published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003.
| Finding | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Dementia risk reduction associated with frequent cognitive leisure incl. card games (among seniors 75+) | Approximately 63% lower risk vs. low-engagement peers | Verghese et al., NEJM (2003), n=469 |
| Analog game play associated with reduced cognitive decline (Scottish cohort tracked from age 11 to 79) | Effect held after controlling for baseline cognitive ability | Altschul & Deary, Journals of Gerontology: Series B (2020), n=1,091 |
| Klondike gameplay as digital biomarker for Mild Cognitive Impairment | Machine-learning analysis can detect MCI signatures from gameplay patterns | PMC/NIH (2021) |
| National Institute on Aging position on cognitive engagement | Cognitive stimulation is among the factors studied for healthy cognitive aging | National Institute on Aging |
The important caveat: correlation is not causation, and no study has shown that any single game — solitaire included — prevents or treats dementia. The cognitive reserve hypothesis suggests that a lifetime of mental engagement builds neurological resilience, and solitaire can contribute to that pattern; it is not a pill. For the fuller discussion of what solitaire actually does for your brain, see our article on whether solitaire is good for your brain.
Summary: Solitaire by the Numbers
The highest-impact figures from every theme above, in one table.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US adults who have played solitaire | 83% | YouGov (May 2023) |
| Microsoft Solitaire monthly actives (most recent official) | 35M (2020) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2020) |
| Microsoft Solitaire hands played daily | 100M+ (2020) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2020) |
| Microsoft Solitaire lifetime players | 500M+ | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Computers distributed with Microsoft Solitaire | 1B+ | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Languages / markets for Microsoft Solitaire | 65 / 200+ | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
| Microsoft Solitaire Collection games played per day | 55M (2016) | Windows Experience Blog (2016) |
| Microsoft Solitaire Collection games per year | ~20B (2016) | Windows Experience Blog (2016) |
| Klondike thoughtful winnability | 81.945% ± 0.084% | Blake & Gent, JAIR (2026) |
| Klondike Turn 1 observed player win rate | ~30–35% | Industry data |
| Klondike Turn 3 observed player win rate | ~10–15% | Industry data |
| FreeCell theoretical solvability | 99.999%+ (102,075 impossible of 8.6B deals) | Pringle & Fish (2018) |
| Spider 4-Suit observed player win rate | ~5–10% | Industry data |
| Pyramid theoretical winnability (strict rules) | ~5–6% | Solitaire Laboratory simulation |
| TriPeaks theoretical winnability | ~90%+ | Robert Hogue (inventor) |
| Global mobile games market (2024) | $92B | Newzoo (2024) |
| Global puzzle video-game market (2024) | $6.28B | Verified Market Reports (2024) |
| Dementia risk reduction linked to cognitive leisure incl. card games | ~63% (vs. low engagement) | Verghese et al., NEJM (2003) |
| Microsoft Solitaire Hall of Fame induction | 2019 — most Player’s Choice votes of any finalist | The Strong Museum of Play (2019) |
| Microsoft Solitaire origin | Summer 1988, intern Wes Cherry; deck by Susan Kare; shipped with Windows 3.0 (1990) | Microsoft, Xbox Wire (May 2019) |
Methodology and Sources
Every figure on this page is traced to a primary source — an original report, a peer-reviewed paper, an official company statement, or a published survey with disclosed methodology. We do not cite blogs that cite studies; we cite the study itself. Where the best available figure is more than three years old, it is labeled as “most recent available.” Market-size estimates are cross-referenced across at least two independent firms wherever possible.
Primary sources cited on this page:
- Microsoft / Xbox Wire, Microsoft Solitaire Inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame (May 2019)
- Microsoft / Xbox Wire, Celebrating 30 Years of Microsoft Solitaire (May 2020)
- Microsoft, Microsoft Solitaire Collection Hits Milestone: 100 Million Unique Users — Windows Experience Blog (August 2016)
- YouGov, How Americans feel about 30 card games — nationally representative online survey, n=1,000 US adults, fieldwork May 10–12, 2023 (±4% MoE)
- Charlie Blake & Ian P. Gent, “The Winnability of Klondike Solitaire and Many Other Patience Games” — Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research, Vol. 85 (2026); pre-print arXiv:1906.12314
- Theodore Pringle & Shlomi Fish, FreeCell Pro solvability analysis (2018) — 8.6 billion deals analyzed; 102,075 determined impossible
- Joe Verghese et al., “Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia in the Elderly” — New England Journal of Medicine (2003), n=469 community-dwelling seniors ≥75
- Drew M. Altschul & Ian J. Deary, “Playing Analog Games Is Associated With Reduced Declines in Cognitive Function: A 68-Year Longitudinal Cohort Study” — Journals of Gerontology: Series B (2020), PMID 31738418, n=1,091 Scottish adults tracked from age 11 to 79
- PMC / National Institutes of Health, Detecting Mild Cognitive Impairment via Digital Biomarkers of Cognitive Performance Found in Klondike Solitaire — machine-learning study (2021)
- The Strong National Museum of Play, 2019 Class of the World Video Game Hall of Fame (May 2019)
- National Institute on Aging — public guidance on cognitive engagement and healthy aging
- Entertainment Software Association — industry reports on mobile gaming demographics
- Newzoo, Global Games Market Report (2024 edition, 2026 forecast)
- Verified Market Reports, Puzzle Video Game Market — sizing and 2033 projection (2024)
- Sensor Tower — quarterly tracking of top-grossing US solitaire apps (2022–2024)
- Statista — 2024 solitaire app download estimates (cited via industry write-ups; underlying entry paywalled)
Last updated: April 2026. This page is reviewed and updated quarterly as new reports are published.