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This article covers the word as an umbrella term for cue sports in general. Billiards in the 1620s was played with a port, a king pin, pockets, and maces. The modern term cue sports can be used to encompass the ancestral mace games, and even the modern cueless variants, such as finger billiards, for historical reasons. A recognizable form of billiards was played outdoors in the 1340s, and was reminiscent of croquet. Billiards grew to the extent that by 1727, it was being played in almost every Paris café. In England, the game was developing into a very popular activity for members of the gentry. The footless, straight cue as it is known today was finally developed by about 1800.

Initially, the mace was used to push the balls, rather than strike them. The newly developed striking cue provided a new challenge. Cushions began to be stuffed with substances to allow the balls to rebound, in order to enhance the appeal of the game. After a transitional period where only the better players would use cues, the cue came to be the first choice of equipment. The demand for tables and other equipment was initially met in Europe by John Thurston and other furniture makers of the era. The early balls were made from wood and clay, but the rich preferred to use ivory.

The early croquet-like games eventually led to the development of the carom billiards category. In the United States, pool and billiards had died out for a bit, but between 1878 and 1956 the games became very popular. Players in annual championships began to receive their own cigarette cards. This was mainly due to the fact that it was a popular pastime for troops to take their minds off from battle.

However, by the end of World War II, pool and billiards began to die down once again. The games with regulated international professional competition, if not others, have been referred to as “sports” or “sporting” events, not simply “games”, since 1893 at the latest. Snooker, though a pocket billiards variant and closely related in its equipment and origin to the game of English billiards, is a professional sport organized at an international level, and its rules bear little resemblance to those of modern pool, pyramid, and other such games. A “Billiards” category encompassing pool, snooker, and carom has been part of the World Games since 2001.