Where is Mexican Train Dominoes most popular? Here's a state-by-state look.

Despite its name, Mexican Train Dominoes is most popular in the United States. We looked at online and offline data sources, including searching through newspapers dating back to 1850 for mentions of the popular domino game. Based on our original research and data, Mexican Train Dominoes is most popular in the Southwest US and much of the Midwest.



New Mexico gets the crown for most known organized in-person games with nearly a thousand published events in the last thirty years. Led by Pinellas County, these in-person events occur at clubs, senior centers, and among social groups.

Originally derived from a Chinese game, Cuban laborers adapted Mexican Train Dominoes and helped popularize it in the American Southwest amid the railroad boom of the late 19th century.

The game features a central hub from which chains or trains emanate, allowing players to play their tiles onto the trains. So it’s not hard to see why Mexican Train Dominoes is so prevalent in the Southwest and New Mexico, even if California and Texas have generally large populations. It’s also deceptively simple and gameplay involves everyone trying to be the first to play all their tiles, making it both exciting and strategic with more than a little luck required.

Globally, our online game at MexicanTrain.com has players from Australia to Latin America, South America, and the northern reaches of Europe and all of the E.U., all playing millions of rounds each year. Canada, in second place among the popularity of Mexican Train Dominoes, has just 8% of the total average players of the United States.

You can play the most popular domino game anytime online

There are endless games to play online, but nothing’s quite like Mexican Train. Play against yourself and AI-based computer players for the most double domino plays in a row at MexicanTrain.com.

The object of Mexican Train Dominoes is simple:

• Play as many dominoes as possible before your opponents on a series of “trains”, including your own train and a public Mexican Train using branching doubles variation, matching pips-for-pips.
• Any train that a player cannot play on becomes an eligible train for others. Players can also play their tiles onto one or more chains emanating from the central hub.
• If your personal train can’t match an available domino, play it on the public train or someone else’s train if they’re “blocked.”
• The game also involves finishing out your hand by playing all your remaining dominoes, which affects scoring based on the total of all remaining dominoes in every player's hands.

Read all the rules and special considerations for Mexican Train.