Why is Settlers of Catan so popular with millennials?

Settlers of Catan uniquely engages players throughout

Question: Why is Settlers of Catan so popular with millennials?
Position‹3 of 4›: Catan is a great game
Argument1 of 2›: Settlers of Catan uniquely engages players throughout

Unlike games where players have to wait for their turn to play, Catan allows people to engage with each other and the game start to finish, requiring constant strategy.

The argument

Studies show that there is a rise in the popularity of board games for millennials. A reason for this comes from the desire for millennials to have social experiences with one another. Board games that focus on strategy encourage social interaction by keeping all the players engaged. The game immerses players in constant strategy to collect resources, build roads, and conquer land to create cities. They constantly communicate with other players, making deals and trading to get closer to conquering more and winning. These games require constant attention and engagement from each player. This makes it an immersive social experience, explaining its popularity among millennials.

Premises

[P1]Board games are rising in popularity among millennials, driven by a desire for shared social experiences. [P2] Catan keeps every player constantly engaged—collecting resources, building roads, trading, and making deals—creating an immersive social experience that explains its popularity. [C] Therefore, because it uniquely engages players throughout, Catan is a great game.

Counter-arguments

There are plenty of other games that engage players through constant communication. This is not a unique selling point for Settlers of Catan that sets apart its popularity from other board games millennials enjoy. Also, board games that require constant attention inhibit friends from socializing while playing. A big reason behind the rise in board games is the social aspect that games allow. With a complicated social game such as Settlers of Catan, millennials won't experience the social aspect that other games involve.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] A general rise in board-game sales explains the category rather than this title; the premise establishes a demand for shared social experiences without showing that Catan meets it better than the many other games riding the same boom. [Rejecting P2] "Uniquely" is the load-bearing word and it is never defended — trading, negotiation and continuous turn involvement are common to a large class of strategy games, and the argument's own emphasis on constant attention supports the counter's claim that the game crowds out conversation as readily as it supports engagement.

Proponents cited

Eric Thurm
“Catan’s flexibility is part of why it’s a sort of ambassador for Eurogames, a popular genre of board game built on the principle that, broadly speaking, games should be more about creating a shared experience of play than about the singular pursuit of vic- tory that characterizes the classics of the American dining room table.”
Elizabeth Banks
“A card game called Settlers of Catan is my latest obsession. I'm competitive, and game nights are a wonderful way to be with friends, so I do it once a month. Someone said to me, 'You can play Scrabble online now.' I'm like, 'Why would I do that? The whole point is sitting in a room and having a personal interaction with somebody who you're competing with!”
Klaus Teuber
“He came to the other children and started to play,” Teuber said. “Now he gets contact with other people. Catan is the medium for that.”