THE MAKERS of Monopoly have announced the results of a global poll on the introduction of a new token to the board game – and confirmed what we all already knew: the internet loves cats.

A Facebook poll to decide on the introduction of a new token – and the abandonment of an existing one – saw voters from over 120 countries decide that a cat token should be introduced into the popular board game.

The cat – which will join a Scottie dog and six other surviving tokens in new sets to be manufactured later this year – comes at the expense of the iron, which fared worst in a parallel poll on which to scrap.

While the cat had been a longtime leader in the poll on choosing a new token, the survey on which piece to scrap had been much more closely-fought: both the wheelbarrow and the shoe had flirted with abandonment before the iron was eventually dropped.

“While we’re a bit sad to see the iron go, the cat token is a fantastic choice by the fans and we have no doubt it will become just as iconic as the original tokens,” said Eric Nyman from Hasbro, the game’s maker.

The use of tokens in the original game, which became popular during the Great Depression, stemmed from the suggestion of its creator Charles Darrow that charms from a charm bracelet be used as playing tokens.