The tenpin bowling was originally a rather popular game with nine pins in Europe. It was carried to the United States with Dutch settlers in that format.

In the US ninepin bowling soon become popular and attracted so many sleazy gamblers, that it was eventually prohibited by the gambling law in Connecticut. So, people just added an extra bowling pin to evade this law.

The first standardized rules of the game were established in New York in 1895, the same year the American Bowling Congress was formed. In 1917 was founded the Women's International Bowling Congress.

The first rubber bowling ball was introduced in 1905, until then the balls were made of hard wood called 'lignum vitae'. Today the tenpin bowling balls should weigh between 10 and 16 pounds (4.5 to 7.2 kg), and have a diameter of 8.5 inches (21.6 cm).

The pins were set manually by pinsetters until the automatic pinsetter was invented in 1936. The first commercial automatic pinsetters sped up the game thus making it more popular.

Other related forms of bowling are bocce from Italy, petanque from France and lawn bowling from England.