Celebrating 50 years of Rubik’s Cube | How a Hungarian professor's humble teaching tool charmed the world and continues to hold sway in the digital age

Originally intended as a teaching aid, the Rubik’s Cube became a global craze in the 1980s,

The Hungarian inventor of the Rubik’s Cube on Saturday celebrated the 50th anniversary of the creation of his spatial puzzle that became a global craze, sold half a billion units and has 43 quintillion possible combinations.

Surrounded by world cube champions, influencers and fans, Ernő Rubik said he felt the cube would be as relevant in the 21st century as it was when he first designed it in Cold War-era Hungary in 1974.

A lecturer of design at a technical university in Budapest, he used his cube as a teaching aid for mathematics.

Struck by its popularity with students, Rubik patented it, and it entered the global market at the end of the decade, becoming a worldwide craze in the 1980s.

More than 500 million units have since been produced.

The current world record for solving a randomly scrambled cube is just over three seconds, held by America’s Max Park, widely regarded as one of the greatest speedcubers of all time.

There are just over 43 quintillion possible combinations and orientations for the 26 different components.

The exact number of permutations is: 43,252,003,274,489,856,000, its makers say.

Rubik’s Cube is still selling millions after 50 years. Here’s how the analog Gen X phenom is solving the digital shift to Gen Z—and beyond

If you’ve ever dabbled with a Rubik’s Cube, you know it isn’t the easiest puzzle to crack. But despite the challenging nature of the game, it’s endured longer than most other toys of its generation—think Tamagotchis and Game Boys. 

The Cube has seen enormous growth and success in its relatively long lifespan in the world of games, selling roughly 500 million units as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year since architecture professor Erno Rubik discovered it—something he says has defied his expectations. 

“It is a curious fact—one that surprises me as much as anyone—that for so many decades, during a time of an unprecedented technology revolution, fascination with such a simple, ‘low-tech’ object has survived. And, in fact, this fascination has evolved,” Rubik wrote in his book Cubed, published in 2020. 

How Rubik’s Cube cracked the code for success

The Hungarian professor founded the colorful Cube—whose basic configuration involves a three-dimensional 3×3 grid that’s twisted and turned so each of its surfaces has the same color—in 1974, when he was just 29.

Rubik, now 79 years old, always had a proclivity for puzzles, and his academic background in art and sculpting became helpful instruments in creating the first prototype of the Cube we know today. 

“I got an interest from [a] young age about problem-solving, challenges, chess problems and so on,” Rubik told Fortune in an interview. 

Although he had created something that intrigued him, he couldn’t solve it for a month.

But once he did, it marked the beginning of the Cube’s journey—first, to shops in Hungary and soon after, the rest of the world.  

“At first, it was important to prove to myself that it’s possible to solve. So, I thought well, if I can do it, somebody else can,” Rubik said, referring to the Cube philosophically as a reflection of life itself.

“The question is, how do you find your way between so many possible positions and how can you find your way back?”