The Rubik's Cube’s History – A Closer Look At How It Became A Global Sensation

The Rubik’s Cube, a small cube-shaped puzzle comprised of nine smaller squares on each of its sides, is as popular now as it was when it was first invented. Each side of the cube has squares of a single color, and when these six colors have been scrambled, one can play. The goal is to return the cube to its original state by moving the squares so that the colors are returned to their unified state on each side of the cube. While this sounds easy enough, in theory, solving it is surprisingly difficult.

After a few hours of immersion in the cube, most people end up realizing that while Rubik’s Cubes are mesmerizing, they’re frustratingly difficult to crack. The Rubik’s Cube was first created in 1974, but it wasn’t released and marketed as a toy until 1980. Once it hit stores, it quickly became a fad.

Created by a Hungarian architect in 1974, Ernö Rubik came up with the puzzle primarily as a means of explaining 3D geometry. Rubik was born on the 13th of July 1944 in Budapest, Hungary. His father was an engineer who designed gliders, while his mother was an artist. Influenced by the careers of each of his parents, Rubik grew up to become both an architect and a sculptor.

Rubik was always interested in the concept of space and went on to work as a professor at Budapest’s Academy of Applied Arts and Design. During his free time, he designed puzzles that would help pique his students’ interest and allow them to understand 3-D geometry in a more concrete sense.

During the spring of 1974, just before Rubik turned 30 years old, he came up with the concept of a small cube that would have moveable squares. By the fall of the same year, he commissioned one of his friends to assist him in creating the first model of the cube, which they made of wood.

At first, Rubik enjoyed playing with the cube, turning the squares around from one section to another. Then, he attempted to bring back the colors to their original places on the cube and realized that he could not easily do so. Mesmerized by the challenge the cube presented, Rubik spent a month trying to crack the puzzle before he was able to realign all the colors properly.

Curious as to how other people might solve the cube, he started sharing the puzzle around. Everyone who tried it had the same reaction: an obsession with the difficulty of the thing. That was when he realized that his toy puzzle could be a lucrative financial enterprise.

In 1975, Rubik arranged with Politechnika, a toy manufacturer from Hungary, to produce the cube for the masses. The multi-colored puzzle first appeared in a toy store in Budapest in 1977, under the name Bűvös Kocka or Magic Cube. The Magic Cube found some success in Hungary, but as a Communist country, it was difficult to get approval for global commercial distribution.

It wasn’t until 1979 that Hungary agreed to share the Magic Cube to other parts of the world, enabling Rubik to sign a deal with Ideal Toy Corporation. In planning out their marketing strategy, Ideal Toys decided to rename the cube. After debating the best name for the puzzle, they agreed on naming it “Rubik’s Cube,” honoring its inventor and his catchy surname. The first Rubik’s Cubes hit the West in 1980, and as you are probably aware, they took the world by storm.

Rubik’s Cubes were an instant hit on the international market. Everyone wanted one, and it didn’t matter if you were a kid or an adult. There was a fascinating appeal to the puzzle that captured everyone’s attention, encouraging them to try their hand at solving the toy.

A Rubik’s Cube is composed of six sides. Each side has smaller cubes and the faces of each cube are adorned with a different color – usually yellow, green, white, blue, red, and orange. Each side of the Rubik’s Cube traditionally consisted of nine squares in a 3 x 3 grid. Out of all the 54 smaller squares on the cube, players could move 48 of them, with the center cube on each side staying stationary.

Rubik’s cubes, although deceptively simple and elegant in design, are very hard to solve. In 1982, over 100 million Rubik’s Cubes had been sold, but the majority of these remained unsolved.

Millions of people were left stumped, confused, and frustrated with their Rubik’s Cubes, but this didn’t stop the craze. Rumors began to circulate as to the secret behind solving the cube, but with over 43 quintillion possible solutions to the puzzle, knowing that the center stationery pieces are the starting point, or being told to solve the cube one side at a time just wasn’t enough information for the masses.

Due to insistent and wide demand by the public for a solution to the puzzle, dozens of books were published in the early 1980s targeting specifically ways to easily solve the Rubik’s Cube.

Some Rubik’s Cube owners ended up getting so frustrated that they smashed their cubes open, in the hopes of finding the secrets behind the puzzle inside of it. Other Rubik’s Cube fans, however, were already setting their speed records, aiming to solve the puzzle in the shortest time possible.

In 1982, the first annual International Rubik’s Championships were held in Budapest, with people competing against each other for the fastest record in solving the puzzle. The competition went on to become a place for “cubers” to show off their speed in “cubing.” The current world record, held by Collin Burns of the US in 2015, is 5.25 seconds.

Regardless of whether you were a self-solver, speed-cuber, or even a Rubik’s Cube smasher, it is undeniable that a lot of people were obsessed with the deceptively simple puzzle. During the peak of its popularity, it wasn’t uncommon to find people playing with them in school, in movie theaters, in the malls, and even at work. The Rubik’s Cube also frequently made an appearance on posters, board games, and t-shirts.

In 1983, the toy puzzle even had a TV show in its honor, called Rubik, the Amazing Cube. The show follows the story of a talking and flying Rubik’s Cube on an adventure with three children as they stop the show’s villain.

Today, more than 300 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold, with different varieties and sizes made available to the market. It was one of the ‘80s most popular toys and remains a global phenomenon to date.