Yahtzee was first released in 1956 by toymaker Edwin S. Lowe.  His company was later acquired by the Milton Bradley Company, now a division of Hasbro Inc. According to the Hasbro corporation, the game was invented by a Canadian couple in 1954.

Yahtzee is a dice game that is loosely based on the Puerto Rican dice game Generala, and the English games of Poker Dice and Cheerio. The object of the game is to score the most points by throwing 5 dice. A game of Yahtzee consists of 13 rounds. A player is allowed to roll the dice three times in each round. Each roll will be scored in one of 13 scoring categories based on the combination of dice rolled.