Mahjong tiles are turning up in camp activity rooms and bunks across the country this summer, moving a game long tied to retirees into daily programming for children and teenagers. The shift has caught the attention of camp directors across the American Camp Association’s network of accredited camps, some of whom are now listing tile sessions as a scheduled elective alongside canoeing and arts and crafts.
Birthday parties have picked up the same trend, with families booking mahjong lessons as party entertainment for tween birthdays, complete with matching accessories and decorations built around the game’s tile designs. Camp directors describe the sessions as inexpensive additions, since the activity needs little more than tables, tile sets and a rack for each player. In New York, clubs such as Green Tile Social Club have added beginner sessions aimed at younger players alongside their regular adult nights.
The current wave traces back roughly a decade, gaining momentum after the 2018 film “Crazy Rich Asians” introduced the game to a wider audience. Yelp reported that lookups for mahjong clubs rose more than 4,000 percent year over year between September 2024 and August 2025, with searches for mahjong lessons up more than 800 percent over the same period.
Market researchers project global mahjong sales will grow from about $1.9 billion in 2024 to roughly $3 billion by 2035. The National Mah Jongg League still issues the annual card that sets the rules for American play, and its format has stayed largely intact as the audience has widened from grandmothers to grandchildren.
Canasta occupies the same social spaces mahjong does now, sharing instructor rosters and activity calendars at many of the same camps and clubs. That overlap gives canasta a built-in path into camp programming, since instructors who teach mahjong lessons often teach canasta as well, sometimes on alternating days for the same groups.
