WITH ITS neon lights and mirrored ceilings, 886, a Taiwanese restaurant in New York's East Village, has the vibe of a nightclub. But on a recent Wednesday night, you could hear shouts of "Pong!" and "Chow!" rather than thudding beats. Dozens of young people descended on the hip eatery to enjoy black-pepper beef, sesame noodles-and a few rounds of mahjong. As they tried to assemble a winning hand by drawing and discarding tiles, players were overlooked by a huge mural of Taiwanese celebrities immersed in the game.

Mahjong has long been a popular pastime among older generations of Asians and American women. But now it is attracting a young crowd, too. Global attendance at mahjong events has more than tripled in the past year, according to Eventbrite, a ticketing platform. Regular events are held in Berlin, Helsinki, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Sydney. Some, such as the event at 886, are intimate; others attract as many as 800 people.

Naturally these new fans are spreading the word online. There are hundreds of mahjong tutorials on YouTube. There has been a 70% surge in mahjong content on TikTok in the past year: over 100,000 posts now talk about it. Some share videos extolling the pleasures of playing with friends ("This & three hours of uninterrupted yapping") or showing themselves unboxing a new set of gleaming tiles.

Mahjong was devised in Shanghai in the mid- to late-19th century. (The name means "sparrow", as the sound of tiles knocking together is reminiscent of the birds' clacking.) It started out as a gambling game and was associated with insalubrious venues such as brothels and teahouses. But by the end of the century it had spread into the homes of the bourgeoisie, and from Shanghai to the rest of China.

Mahjong continued its march across East Asia in the early 20th century. In the 1920s it conquered America. Joseph Babcock-who had been sent to China by Standard Oil and loved to play the game with his wife-simplified mahjong and created tiles with Roman numerals. In doing so, he set off a craze. Its famous boosters included celebrities such as Fred Astaire and Warren and Florence Harding, then the president and first lady.

The game continued to evolve. In 1937 a group of Jewish women formed the National Mah-jongg League. They simplified and standardised the rules once more, thereby creating the version now known as American Mahjong. Today there are dozens of variations of the game. Each has slightly different rules, scoring systems and number of tiles-all of which can affect the tempo. In American Mahjong the winning player must match their hand to one of the combinations on a card; in Hong Kong Mahjong, they must assemble four sequences and a pair of tiles.

What explains mahjong's trendiness today? Popular culture is one reason for the revival. Meghan Markle is shown hosting a mahjong night in her lifestyle show on Netflix. The game is often used as a narrative device in anime and manga to ramp up tension: characters may bet their life savings- or their lives-on a round. In "Crazy Rich Asians" (2018), a hit romantic comedy, a pivotal scene between the protagonist and her boyfriend's steely mother unfolds over a game of mahjong. Even those who do not know what is going on can deduce that it is a test of strategy and patience.

Another reason for mahjong's popularity is that it is a sensory experience. Annelise Heinz, the author of a history of the game, says there is something satisfying about "the way that the tiles look and sound and feel". (The same is true of a game like dominoes.) "In this very digital world", she argues, the tactile nature of mahjong offers "analogue pleasures".

To tap into this, firms are bringing a modern design sensibility to tile sets. The Mahjong Line makes ocean- and Western-themed tiles. Luxury brands are turning kits into objets d'art. Hermès and Prada sell mahjong sets; Louis Vuitton's "Vanity Mahjong Trunk" costs £48,000 ($64,000). Talk about an expensive night on the tiles.

The last reason for mahjong's renewed relevance is the sense of community it provides. Sarah Teng says the pandemic galvanised her and her cofounders to establish the Green Tile Social Club in New York. "We were craving those in-person interactions and activities that were not super expensive and involved more than just eating or drinking," she says. "We created what we felt didn't exist yet."

An evening spent on your phone is enervating; one spent on the mahjong mat is enriching. During the game, there are pauses while tiles are shuffled and stacked, which leaves room for chitchat. Mahjong is "the ultimate connector", says Angie Lin, the founder of East Never Loses, which produces mahjong events. "You sit down at the table, you're immediately going to meet three people and you're going to have to look them in the eye. You can get to know them through this game."

Fun and companionship are worthy pursuits in themselves, but the benefits of mahjong persist long after the thrill of a winning hand has subsided. Aficionados talk about reaching a "flow state"-the stresses of the day disappear as they organise their tiles-and studies have found that, among the elderly, playing mahjong regularly is associated with lower rates of depression. It also helps to maintain cognitive function, thanks to the pattern recognition and memory skills required. By starting early, then, young people are getting ahead of the game.