13 Great Board Games To Play

As people look for a break from digital entertainment, both to rest their eyes and their minds, tabletop board gaming becomes more and more popular. Using elements such as figurines, cards, dice, cubes, and meeples, players are increasingly introduced to interesting worlds and fantastical scenarios. While some board games focus on pure skill or luck, the best-stocked game cabinets contain titles all across the spectrum.

As the board games of the current year have gone way beyond the abstract board games of years past, players can also look forward to a variety of scenarios — from haunted houses to dirt track racing and everything in between — to meet their gaming needs. As a result, there are tons of games to sort through, in various styles and settings, to sort out the best of the best for each player type.

Related: Sci-Fi Board Games With The Best Combat

When choosing a great board game to play, it’s important to consider these factors:

• How many players can participate
• The estimated playtime
• The complexity level
• Whether the game can be played virtually

These are the most common questions for any given tabletop game, and they can determine whether a board game is a perfect fit or a critical fail.

The Best Tabletop Board Games to Play

Terraforming Mars may not be what humans end up doing in the future, but the titular tabletop game is a natural progression path for most board game enthusiasts. The game itself focuses on a fictional future where multiple corporations and private interest groups are seeking to be the first ones to terraform Mars, letting players choose which entity they want to be.

In doing this, Terraforming Mars quickly shows players how many fun and challenging mechanics it packs into its game. Like a mash-up of Catan and Ticket to Ride, Terraforming Mars starts out as a simple resource management game until everyone is ready to start implementing their plans and sabotaging other players. The game also has five expansions available that add new planets and new corporations, ensuring that even veteran players can get a lot of unique playtime out of the game.

Terraforming Mars is the best board game currently because while it is complex enough for very experienced players, it’s also fairly straightforward once the game begins, making it easy to add in new players. The game is also one of those rare titles that can be played by just two people, making it great for a nerdy date night. Terraforming Mars is an excellent addition to a new board game library, or even a well-stocked one, because it will be taken down to be played for years to come.

Wingspan, originally released in 2020, received rave reviews. This 1-5 player game can be a bit complicated to play the first time, but after that, it’s a superbly fun resource management game that moves quickly between turns. Using objective cards to guide players toward individual goals, the competitiveness of the gameplay is often less antagonistic than in other resource management games.

This unique game not only provides lots of real-world information about various species of birds, but it also features exceptionally beautiful art. Every card is wonderfully illustrated in a style similar to zoological sketches but with bright watercolors added. If players opt for the deluxe edition, the game also comes with high-quality tokens that fans of tabletop minis will adore. The replayability is high with this game, plus there are three expansions adding oceanic birds, European birds, and (just released earlier this year) Asian birds!

Cascadia was chosen as the winner of the American Tabletop Awards for strategy games, but it often feels like some kind of cozy resource management game instead. While it’s a bit pared down compared to other strategy games, it does make for a great introduction to more serious tabletop gaming. It can also offer a lighthearted break to veteran strategy game players.

With puzzle elements baked into the tile-laying and token-drafting mechanics, this game is a quick and fun experience for new players – even kids! Plus, all the cards feature wonderful art and provide basic information about the various creatures living in the Pacific Northwest. Overall, this un-intimidating nature game presents a good opportunity to bridge the gap between absolute beginners and more experienced players.

Ticket to Ride is one of the greatest board games of all time for one simple reason: it’s incredibly easy for players new to tabletop to enjoy. The game’s instructions are simply written and easy to parse, while the base board is almost completely self-explanatory. Another great draw to the game is its colorful design, which helps unpracticed eyes follow each player’s movements and find their own pieces amongst a mass of train cars. The game plays through quickly too, so it calls for really low commitment, which new gamers love.

Playing the game can be pretty luck-based, but careful planning is definitely necessary to win. While very young kids won’t have a lot of fun with the game, it is perfectly suitable for anyone over the age of 8, even seniors who may only think of Monopoly when asked about board games. The wide appeal and ease of play, while still offering an engaging experience, is exactly why Ticket to Ride is the absolute best introductory tabletop game.

Wingspan is already an extremely fun game, but after playing for a few years, it’s time for an expansion. Wingspan has a total of three expansions currently: European, Oceania, and Asia. The most recent one, Wingspan Asia, is by far the best expansion seen in a while. This expansion gives players a lot of bang for their buck, offering more than 150 new pieces, including 90 new bird cards, as well as two new modes that expand the playability significantly.

The game also comes with new player mat that somewhat speeds up gameplay when experienced players are at the table. There’s also a new mode for single players and couples to play, along with new rules for 6-7 players. These player expansions are always a welcome sight when it comes to popular board games, and Wingspan Asia does a good job of keeping the game balanced. That being said, 7 players make the game very slow compared to a smaller group. However, with so many new pieces, nearly 100 new birds, and more ways to play with friends than ever before, Wingspan Asia is tough to beat as the best board game expansion.

Flamecraft is a charming tabletop game that got its start on Kickstarter. The game revolves around flamekeepers (players) and their dragon artisan partners who are working to grow their businesses and become the best in their trade. The super cute art and vibrant design might suggest that this game is solely for newcomers, but players used to tabletop games will find plenty to love about the engine-building mechanics.

Every round, players gather items, place dragons, and cast enchantments to enhance their shops or grow their reputation. There are 200 items and 42 different artisan dragons, along with dozens more enchantments and fancy dragons. All this adds up to a lot of options every turn on how best to defeat opponents. The replayability of this game is incredible thanks to the wide variety of play styles that can result in a win. In addition to all this, the game is fairly affordable, so players don’t need to commit much to give Flamecraft a try. For players looking to add a unique tabletop game to their collection, Flamecraft is the perfect indie game.

Players who have exhausted the many haunts and scenarios of past Betrayal games have 50 new scenarios to plot and betray one another over in Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Third Edition. Of course, Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Third Edition is also a great entry point for new players to the series as the mechanics are more refined and the stories told by the game are more robust than ever.

The game plays out in the familiar two-part adventure. One part is a mad dash collect-a-thon adventure through a haunted mansion, the other a somewhat randomly selected scenario of horror and betrayal. This edition of the game builds on this foundation, bringing more clearly executed rules, better backstories, and updated player models. It’s a great game for any player to jump into and get a good dose of unexpected horror.

Holy Grail Games has brought back the classic Rallyman gameplay, along with its Dirt expansion, in this standalone title with updated equipment. In Rallyman: DIRT, players push their luck with dice rolls propelling them along the track. Racers can re-roll dice to go great distances or get too greedy and accumulate enough ‘warning’ dice to spin out of control.

A classic simulation game of sorts, players will need to navigate through tight turns, drifts, and, of course, muddy tracks. This edition’s new hexagonal track tiles make it easy for players to race through nearly any course they can imagine. In fact, course creation through the arrangement of the hex tiles can be half the fun as beautiful tracks emerge in front of the crafter’s eyes due to the new artwork, which is much improved over the original 2009 release.

Pandemic Legacy builds upon one of the most popular cooperative tabletop games of the last 10 years. Made for four players, Pandemic Legacy offers a story-based experience that changes as players progress through each mission. Players choose between pre-built characters to begin the game, each bringing with them their own set of unique skills and abilities for fighting disease outbreaks.

This game is seriously in-depth, with the first season designed to last a party an entire year to complete. The game now has three total seasons too, giving even more lasting power to the title. Player groups who are looking for an engaging legacy game to keep them busy during game night should absolutely pick up Pandemic Legacy, especially given the fact that it’s incredibly affordable and often listed at less than $50!

Following up on the immensely popular Gloomhaven, Cephalofair Games recently released an even bigger and more complicated dungeon crawler: Frosthaven. This massive game sends players to a town in need, each tasked with their own goals along with overarching, cooperative ones.

Just like with Gloomhaven, there are tons of cards, tokens, and other various pieces that make for a pretty intimidating first peek to less experienced players. Veterans, on the other hand, will relish the high-quality parts and attention to detail that can be found throughout the set. Offering 16 new characters and nearly 100 possible scenarios, players can count on enjoying hundreds of hours of adventures. Plus, characters from Gloomhaven, Forgotten Circles, and Jaws of the Lion are fully playable as well, allowing existing parties to seamlessly continue their journeys.

A finalist of the 2022 Board Game Awards, Crescent Moon is an area control game that uses rounds to gather points across 3 or 4 in-game years. With its hex-shaped board pieces and the social aspects that include haggling and forming table alliances, this four to five-player game is like an evolved form of Catan.

Managing resources, raising armies, and generally attempting to control the board are the touchstones of the game. There are many different empires that players can lead and tons of strategies for victory, many of which hinge upon collaborating or sabotaging other players. Although it’s a very long game, for those who love to mix resource management, table talk, and unique characters with independent mechanics, there’s nothing quite like Crescent Moon.

Nerds like a lot of things, but there’s something they love above all else: correcting people! Fans of College Humor’s virtual progeny, Dropout, have been enjoying one of the best trivia shows airing right now: Um, Actually. Now, the show is available to play at home with this comprehensive trivia card game. The base version of the game comes with five nerdy categories, with the deluxe version adding four more, allowing players to choose from comics, cartoons, fantasy, sci-fi, games, anime, horror, ’80s and ’90s, and community-created trivia every game.

Best played with a group of four or more, each round one player acts as the host while the others scramble to figure out what’s wrong with the statement on the card. The answers are often as nitpicky as, “Um, actually Picard is an admiral, not a captain.” Along with this, players must say “Um, actually” or else their answer doesn’t count, and their friends can steal the answer (almost) verbatim. It’s a ton of fun and leads to great conversations about fan-favorite franchises.

Game night often begins with a lot of nonsense chatter and catching up with everyone at the table. Many groups like to get started with quick and simple games. Codenames is perfect for small groups waiting for the rest of their friends to show up.

This easy party game is all about dropping hints and references to try to get teammates to guess which “codenames” are correct. With words like “star” and “Amsterdam” on the board, it can be a challenge to get players to make the right connections. Two players are designated “spymasters” (i.e. team leaders), and they are limited to a single word and a single number to tell their team which cards are their codenames.

It’s a ton of fun that builds with each round, as players begin to learn how to parse clues from each other. Perfect for close friends, double dates, and families, Codenames is the best party board game.

How to Choose a Good Board Game

The world of board games has exploded in the past 10 years, flooding the market with everything from low-quality card games and super engaging, years-long legacy RPGs. It’s difficult to know which adorable party game is actually a ton of fun or which gritty-looking box calls for strategy versus dumb luck. For the best results, players should choose board games that match their play style, the number of people they want to play with, and how easy or difficult it is to play.

Number of Players

Board games are most often designed for three to five players, and most gamers agree that this is the ideal number. However, smaller and larger groups can join in on the fun too. Board games for two people are especially popular and don’t always pit players against each other, although competitive two-player games like Rallyman are much more common.

Related: Best Board Games For 5 Players

Games that allow more than five players are somewhat rare, especially outside of the RPG genre, but plenty of games have expansions that allow for more players to join in. For instance, Wingspan and Catan both have packs to balance in extra players.

Game Duration

Depending on the setting, players will prefer longer or shorter games. Party games are always best if they have play times under 20 minutes so that groups can get warmed up and move on to other games or head out to their event. Similarly, games with kids under 12 shouldn’t run longer than about 45 minutes, as most children will get antsy, bored, and simply won’t take their turns, which is no fun for anyone. Card games and simple board-and-token games are most often the quickest options for parties and families.

On the other side of things, long games are perfect for regular meetups and allow for more in-depth stories to be told. So-called “legacy” games, such as Pandemic Legacy and Axis and Allies Legacy, are designed for long sessions that reveal new adventures or tasks that can be tackled during another game night. Players should think about how long they want to be seated at the table before picking out their next board game.

Complexity

Whether players are beginners or veterans makes a huge difference in the type of games they’ll enjoy. While Wingspan is an amazing game with beautiful art, it’s hardly ideal for complete beginners thanks to its basic deck-building aspects that assume players are familiar with that style of gameplay.

At the same time, easier games such as Cascadia may be too simple for advanced players and lead to everyone waiting for their next turn to do something they planned out four turns ago. Typically, it’s best to choose a difficulty level that serves the majority of a group, as more experienced players can help newcomers and a group of fresh players puts everyone on a level playing field.

More: Simple But Great Board Games

FAQ

Q: What is the oldest popular board game?

Of games that are still popular today, Go (also known as ‘Weiqi’) is among the oldest. The game’s popularity partly stems from its high strategic depth despite using shockingly simple rules. Modern AI also factors into Go’s modern popularity, with artificial intelligence AlphaGo beating Lee Sedol. AlphaGo’s unusual moves shocked students and novices of the game, which is over 2,000 years old, for their ingenuity. Ultimately, this sparked an increased interest in the game.

Q: What are the top board games for adults?

The top board games for adults include Azul, Wingspan, and Betrayal at the House on the Hill, among others. Games that are good for adults tend to rely less on simple decisions and luck, focusing more on depth and displays of skill. Lighter games for adults often display themes of alcohol use, dirty jokes, and offensive materials. Games that are considered great for kids, such as Connect Four, can be surprisingly suitable for adults as well. Going back to a simpler game that was played heavily in youth and applying strategies gained as an adult can be relaxing and help one see their own growth.