Tradition + first movers advantage/network effect. We have a centuries old tradition of playing chess in europe, we dont have a tradition of playing go (and vic

Tradition + first movers advantage/network effect. We have a centuries old tradition of playing chess in europe, we dont have a tradition of playing go (and vice versa for east asia). And as you said, once everyone already knows how to play chess it's much easier to also play it vs a relatively unknown game (part of the reason why D&D is the most popular tabletop RPG - everybody knows D&D!)