Top Board Games of 2025

You’ve been asking and asking about our top board games of 2025.* Every year we keep track of what we play (and who wins), and sometime around the new year, I tally them up and post our most played board games for the year. 

I’ve kept you waiting for three long months, and now I’m finally ready to reveal our top five from 2025!

Our top board games are determined by how many game nights they are played at (as opposed to how many times they are played. It wouldn't be fair to calculate a thirty minute game we play five times in one night against a two hour game we play once). Also, some of the games we play are "card" games or "dice" games, or what have you. If you are bothered by me using the term "board games" for them collectively, I will leave you in your discomfort with no apologies. 

Without further ado, here is our list from 2025:

5th Place

In fifth place, we had a tie between Qwirkle, Qwixx, and Ticket to Ride: Europe. 

4th Place

Coming in fourth is a game I'm really bad at: Take 5. I kind of loathe this game. It's usually a given that I will lose Take 5 and Karma (Karma didn't earn a spot on this list - thank heavens. Stupid game. Grumble, grumble). 

3rd Place

Five Crowns came in third, which surprised me because I didn't realize we played this as often as we do. 

2nd Place

It's no surprise that Bohnanza made the list this year. It usually does. We have been Bohnanza fans for about 20 years. I bought this for my brother for Christmas one year. Then I borrowed it and never gave it back. 

(Sorry, Bubba. IOU a Bohnanza. Or did I already replace it? I don't remember. I know it's crossed my mind frequently for the past decade as I've faced my guilt). 

1st Place

For the third year in a row, Ark Nova reigns supreme. I can't believe we've been playing it for so long because it still seems like it's a new game to us. This one (in my opinion) was really hard to learn, but now that we've got it down, we are master zoo builders. I play Ark Nova on my phone every day, and Carlie makes sure we play it regularly at the table. 

Now you can sleep better after waiting so long for this news. I hope the thrill was worth the anticipation. 

*Not really. 

Our Top Board Games of 2024

At the end of every year I post a list of our top board games for the year. I never got around to posting our top board games of 2024, and I've been getting countless texts and emails about it (and by that I mean I've gotten exactly zero text messages and emails about it). 

Since you've all been harassing me about it, I carved out some time this evening to finally write my board game post for 2024. 

First, let's look at some of our top board games from years past:

2019: 7 Wonders

2020, 2021, & 2022: Wingspan

2023: Ark Nova

We still play Wingspan all the time, but it doesn't make our top ten list anymore because we play it exclusively on our phones (and not at Game Night). It's definitely still our favorite game. 

At the end of 2024, we were shocked to calculate our top ten board games because there were so many games that we didn't play at all! Like 7 Wonders! (we made sure to play it last week after a long hiatus). Time flies when you're having fun! (and it's easy to skip a few board games without even realizing it). 

Here are our top ten from 2024 as determined from our Game Night Ledger:

#10: Puerto Rico

#9: Qwirkle

#8: Agricola

#7: Princes of Florence

#6: Viticulture

#5: Azul

#4: Bohnanza

#3: Quixx

#2: Five Crowns

#1: Ark Nova

The Ledger has spoken. 

Ark Nova reigns for the second year in a row (and is already thriving in 2025)! It was a brutal one to learn, but now that we know how to play it, we love it. We don't care much for the Marine expansion, though, and have stopped using it. I'm finding that I don't care for many expansion packs to board games (the Wingspan ones are okay, but a lot of the other games' expansions cease to impress me. I usually like the original game better). 

Here's to more excellent gaming in 2025!

The Foods

After my post about board games, my sister-in-law, who shall remain nameless, informed me that she wasn't impressed by my list of board games, and she would rather know what food we eat at Game Night. 

Oh, I'll tell you about food!

First let me tell you about how Game Night works. We usually start at 4:00 on Saturdays (not all Saturdays, but probably once or twice a month. Occasionally we have to miss a month... because life... but we get together as often as our schedules allow). We take turns hosting. The host decides what's for dinner (sometimes we counsel) and lets the non-host know what to bring for the meal. 

Some of our most common foods at Game Night include pizza, hamburgers, chips, Cretor's popcorn, veggies and dip, Oreos, and "refreshing beverages" (I'm currently 15 hours soda sober - MLK Day was my last hurrah... unless I change my mind and move to Chinese New Year... or Presidents Day).

(Side note: Did you know that there are Chinese New Year Legos?)

One option for the host is to declare a smorgasbord. That's when you bring whatever you're craving or whatever you need to use up from your house with no consideration of whether the foods go together. We started off 2023 with a smorgasbord of clam chowder and breakfast casserole. 

We also have Dip Night which is when our meal consists entirely of dips. 

Here are the other meals we had last year (unfortunately I didn't keep adequate track of sides, snack foods, and desserts. I commit to better record keeping in 2024).

Sloppy joes, carrot cake

Chicken Philly cheese steak sandwiches (for the record, I don't like these)

Roast beef sandwiches

Hamburgers

Tacos and Tres Leches

Hawaiian Haystacks

Pulled Pork

Ribs

Carne Asada

Philly cheese steak sandwiches (beef) and pasta salad

Green bean and potato casserole

Sliders, corn dip, and chips and salsa

Zucchini chicken casserole

Chicken nachos

Enchiladas (honey lime and Scotty's favorite)

Chicken pot pie crumble

Chili mac

Pizza (Papa Murphy's)

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Now, tell me that's not the most fascinating thing you've read today!

2023 Games in Review

Every year I like to do a re-cap of the games we played. Scotty and I enjoy strategy board games, and we have gotten together with our friends Chad and Carlie for regular game nights for over 15 years. We’ve been keeping a Game Night Ledger since 2018 documenting what games we played each night, who won, and what we had for dinner. 

It’s very fancy and scientific.

The ledger comes in handy in dealing with arguments regarding who “always” wins and who “never” wins. We’ve solved many a dispute by checking the records. 

The ledger also allows us to go back through the year and declare our top board games (FYI - we use the term “board games” but some are card games or dice games). 

On game night, we usually start off with the more complicated strategy games and play until our brains are fried or a member of our party is ready to kill another member of our party (usually it’s Carlie wanting Scotty dead), and then we switch to the lower brain power games or cooperative games to promote friendliness. 

I usually make a list of our top ten games for the year, but there are usually a lot of ties, so this time, I’m going to do runners up and our top five. 

Let’s start with second runners up:

Cartographers, Splendor, Hacienda, Savannah Park, Take 5, Wingspan, 7 Wonders, TransAmerica, and Five Crowns tie for second runners up (second runners up didn’t earn a photo on the blog his year).

This is the first time that 7 Wonders and Wingspan have been this far down the list. I, personally, have kind of tired of 7 Wonders, but it reigned supreme for many years. It’s fitting that it has moved down the list as we have taken interest in other things. I still absolutely LOVE Wingspan and consider it my (probably) favorite game, but we have gotten lazy and rarely want to get out the actual board game since we can play it on our phones. I play it on my phone everyday. They just released the Oceania expansion in November, so that was a big day in the Brittish household.

Here are our first runners up:

Quiddler, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Azul

And now our top five:

5. Risk

We play two different editions of Risk. One of them (Scotty’s copy) is single-mission, but Chad’s edition is four missions. Risk is an old classic, and we love it, but there are some holes in the rules, and they are always changing the rules in new editions, so playing Risk outside of our game circle requires a formal meeting to discuss rules. 

4. Quixx

Quixx is one of our powered down games that we play when our brains are fried. We also love Bloom which is made by the company and is just darn cute!

3. Bohnanza

Bohnanza has been one of our favorite games for many years! This is another end of game night selection that we bring out when we need a brain break. 

(I never win Bohnanza. Check the ledger).

About two weeks ago, we discovered a rule that we haven’t been following. This is always a shaming experience for us. Who are we, as gamers, to not live up to the rules? We are embarrassed and sad. 

But that’s a reminder that you need to revisit the rules occasionally because, after years of playing a game, you develop habits and forget things. 

2. Love Letter

Love Letter is an old favorite that makes our list every year. It’s nice and simple - another great game to end the night with. We prefer the original edition which is no longer on the market. They’ve made some updates that we don’t like as much, but we had to upgrade our game because our old one was so worn out that we could tell which cards were which based on their wear and tear. The new edition has instructions on what to remove if you want the “original” variation. 

And our NUMBER ONE game from 2023 is… Ark Nova!

I bought Ark Nova for my birthday last year, and we spent a lot of time and brain power on this game in 2023. It took a while to learn, and we are still constantly referring to the rule book. This game is so easy to botch because there is so much going on, but we love it!

They released a marine expansion in October, so we’ve added that to the mix.

It took us a few hours to make all the changes and learn the rules for the expansion. Talk about a commitment! 

Can’t wait to see what Gaming 2024 looks like (it better be good)!

Dip Night

We have regular game nights with our friends Chad and Carlie. We’ve been doing this for about 16 years. We started when our oldest kids were babies. Now we each have four kids of the same age and opposite gender. Our youngest are now 8. Time flies when you’re breeding and playing board games.

Anyway, game night usually starts at 4:00 pm on Saturdays, and we have dinner. We take turns hosting. Occasionally we like to have Dip Night where dinner consists exclusively of dips. 

We had such an occasion over the weekend. Our dips were:

Neiman Marcus Dip

This was my first time trying this dip. It was good - a lot like a cheese ball with bacon in it. It also has slivered almonds, which I love because I appreciate a little crunch.

Italian Hoagie Dip

This was really more like a salad, but the recipe calls it a dip, so it’s valid. The flavors were great, but it was hard to get it to stay on a piece of bread. I ended up tearing up little bits of bread, mixing them in the “dip,” and eating it with a fork… like a salad! I’m not sure if I’d make this again… considering I could just have a sandwich.

Seven(ish) Layer Dip

Carlie made seven(ish) layer dip with Chad’s homemade guacamole. Chad is our designated guacamole maker.

Spinach Artichoke Dip

Carlie brought this one. I think she went the Costco route on this one. I didn’t ask.

Scotty stretched the rules a bit and made some Buffalo wings on the smoker (I didn’t get a photo). He said they count for “dip” because you can dip them in ranch or bleu cheese… which no one did. This was his first time smoking wings. 

For sweets we had:

Oreo Dip

Zoe helped me make this, and we sampled it right away, and it was delicious! I liked it more before it sat, and the Oreos got soft. It was still good later, though. We dipped strawberries and apples in it.

Brownie Batter Dip

We’ve had this one at Dip Night before. Zoe asked if she could eat just this dip by licking it straight off her plate. I let her… because it was Dip Night, so why not?

Dip Night was a success, and since I know there are two of you who care (Cyndi and Krystle), here’s our game selection and winner list for the night: 

Ark Nova: Scotty

Splendor: Britt

Azul: Britt

Bohnanza: Britt & Chad tie

Ticket to Ride (Europe): Britt

Five Crowns: Carlie

Quixx: Carlie

Quixx: Britt

(Scotty, who normally dominates Game Night is not handling this well).

Top Twelve Board Games of 2022

For the past few years, I've compiled a list of our top ten board games for the year. The list is based on our game night ledger - the official record of the games we play at every game night and who wins. I tally how many game nights each game was played (as opposed to how many times we played it - since some games are shorter and can easily be played multiple times) to determine our top ten each year. 

This year flew by in terms of gaming. As I reviewed the ledger, I was surprised how many games we didn't play in 2022 (Mariposas, for example, which is one of my favorites!) My list of Games to Play Immediately is now excessively long, and I'm going to need Scotty, Chad, and Carlie to take at least two weeks off work so we can rent a cabin in the woods and catch up on our gaming. 

For this year's list, I ended up doing the Top Twelve because of a few ties. Here they are: 

#12: Thurn and Taxis

Thurn and Taxis (rhymes with axis) is an oldie but goodie that we’ve been playing for about 15 years.

#11: Quixx

Quixx was new to us this year. It’s a simple and fun dice game. 

#10: Princes of Florence

Princes of Florence is a game we laugh about because we always forget how to score it. 

#9: Qwirkle

For the record: I never win Qwirkle.

#8: Love Letter

We had to buy a new copy of Love Letter this year because ours was so beat up! We miss the original game and artwork. Change can be hard.

#7: Bloom

I love the bright colors of Bloom - another dice game by the same company that did Quixx.

#6: Splendor

We’ve enjoyed Splendor for many years now. 

#5: Viticulture

Viticulture was new to us this year. It’s a fun game, but a little on the long side. Sometimes I wonder, “How are we still playing this game?”

#4: Bohnanza

“Beans,” as we call it.

#3: Take 5

Take 5 is another new game for us this year. 

#2: 7 Wonders

7 Wonders is one of our favorites and has been in the top three every year.

#1: Wingspan

And there she is… our Number One for three years running: Wingspan. I play at least one round every day on my phone. But that doesn’t count toward our tally. It’s just a favorite all around! 

Here are our lists from past years: 

2019

2020

2021

Top Board Games of 2021

As you know, we love board games (particularly strategy board games) and play them pretty regularly with our friends, Chad and Carlie. A few years ago we started keeping a Game Night Ledger because we often found ourselves in arguments about who wins what the most. The Ledger has proven to be very handy, and not a Game Night goes by where we don't have to refer to The Ledger in some capacity. The Ledger is also very useful in that we can use it to determine our Top Ten games each year. 

To ascertain our Top Ten, we count the number of Game Nights we played each game (rather than the number of times we played each game - because some games are super short and we can play them several times in one night, and that doesn't mean they should be ranked higher than a game that takes two hours) (don't think too hard about this. Just know that we have a good system for naming our Top Ten, and you can trust us). 

Without further ado, here are our Top Ten games of 2021:

 #10: Karma

(a game I always lose)

#9: Hacienda

(one of my personal favorites)

#8: Risk

#7: Azul

#6: Raccoon Tycoon

(i.e. the game that nearly got us divorced)

#5: Bohnanza

#4: Mariposas

#3: 7 Wonders

(formerly our first place winner)

#2: Love Letter

#1: Wingspan

(two years running)

Other board game posts:

Top Board Games of 2020

Top Board Games of 2019