Microsoft Solitaire Turns 35 – The Game That Taught Us to Procrastinate Like Pros

Anna | January 7, 2025

King mascot celebrates 35th anniversary with playing cards and confetti

Happy New Year 2025!

This year offers a lot more than just a calendar change, as 2025 marks the anniversary of a small game that’s been quietly sitting on our computers for decades. On May 22, 2025, Microsoft Solitaire officially turns 35. That’s right, 35 years of stacking cards, killing time and finding small excuses to take breaks. Whether you were sneaking in a game during work hours or playing while figuring out your new computer, Solitaire has been there for us. Always ready, always reliable, always fun.

To celebrate this, let’s look back at how this iconic card game went from a practical tool to a global favorite and why it’s still going strong after all those years.

The Humble Beginnings of a Classic Card Game

The year was 1990. Microsoft was getting ready to launch Windows 3.0, a huge step forward for personal computers as it would later prove. After all, Windows? You might have heard of it. But there was one big problem… people didn’t really know how to use a mouse. Dragging and dropping? For most, it felt like rocket science. That’s where Wes Cherry came in. Back in 1988, during his internship at Microsoft, Wes created a digital version of Klondike Solitaire in his spare time. Wes’s goal wasn’t to make history, he simply wanted to help people get comfortable with a mouse. And this worked, by dragging cards across the screen, users were learning mouse skills without even realizing it! Wes even had one bold idea: a ‘boss key’—a button to instantly hide the game when your boss walked by. Microsoft turned it down, but just imagine how many office careers that little button could have saved… or ruined.

The Quiet Office Hero

Office worker playing Microsoft Solitaire on a Windows 3.0 computer in the 1990s

Solitaire was brought out on May 22, 1990 as a standard feature with the release of Windows 3.0 and pretty soon it became the unofficial mascot of procrastination. By the mid-90s, you’d find it running on office computers everywhere. Sure, people were supposed to be working, but Solitaire was just too tempting. It was the perfect office distraction—quiet, simple and easy to hide if someone walked by. All it took was a quick click and you could get back to looking busy. And of course, most bosses weren’t big fans of the game. A few companies banned it outright and in one extreme case, the mayor of New York City had it removed from all municipal computers. But let’s be honest—if someone wanted to play Solitaire, they’d find a way.

Not Just Klondike

While Klondike Solitaire is the classic version, Microsoft didn’t stop there. Over the years, they added other variants like Spider, Freecell, Pyramid, Golf and TriPeaks. Then in 2012, they released the Microsoft Solitaire Collection, complete with daily challenges, trophies and leaderboards. Even with all these updates, the heart of Solitaire hasn’t changed. It’s still that reliable little game you can turn to when you need a quick break.

From Intern Project to Hall of Fame

By the time Solitaire turned 25 in 2015, it had grown into a cultural icon, enjoyed by millions of people around the world. To celebrate this milestone, Microsoft organized a global tournament where players from different countries competed to see who could stack cards the fastest. It was a true testament to how deeply embedded Solitaire had become in everyday life, bringing people together over a game originally designed to teach mouse skills. Five years later, in 2020, Solitaire earned one of gaming's highest honors: induction into the Video Game Hall of Fame. For a game that started as a simple side project by an intern, it’s an incredible legacy, don’t you think?

Happy Birthday Solitaire!

Now, 35 years later, Solitaire is still going strong. Millions of people continue to play, whether they’re killing time on their phones or taking a quick break at work. The game feels like an old friend, dependable and always there when you need it. And why are we still playing Solitaire 35 years later? It’s simple. Whether you’re playing on our site FreeSolitaire.com or shuffling a deck of physical cards, the game doesn’t need fancy graphics or complicated instructions. It’s just you, the cards and a quiet little challenge to keep your brain engaged.

So here’s to Microsoft Solitaire, the game that taught us how to use a mouse, helped us procrastinate like pros and turned wasted minutes into small victories. Happy 35th, Solitaire. Thanks for all the fun—and here’s to many more years of keeping us entertained, no matter where technology takes us. Whether it’s on holograms, AR glasses or devices we haven’t even dreamed up yet, we’ll always find a way to shuffle the deck and play one more game.