What are the best board games of all time?
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This is totally subjective, but I love:
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- Brass: Birmingham
- Star Wars Rebellion
- Dune Imperium Uprising
- Sid Meier’s Civilization 2010 (with 2 expansions)
- Ashes: Reborn
- Last Word
- Twilight Imperium 4
That’s a tough one! I do have personal favorites, but I’m always a little hesitant to claim “best of all time” publicly, since games can be so subjective. I'll try to stick with more universal picks. So, I’d say Pandemic is one of the best of all time. It’s a cooperative game about trying to save the world from diseases (it came out long before COVID) but it’s widely considered the definitive cooperative board game. Another one would be Ra, an auction game set in ancient Egypt, where you’re collecting items to build the best civilization. It’s fantastic. And, if I could pick one more, I’d go with Codenames. You play on teams with a clue giver who gives one-word hints to help their team guess certain words in a grid. It’s a race against the other team, and it’s fascinating both to give and interpret the clues. Just a super fun and clever team game.
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Catchphrase is one of my all-time favorite board games, because everybody can play it and it's funny. It's always hilarious every time we play it, no matter who we're playing with, and whatever age everyone is. And so, that's one of my favorites. Personally. I also like board games. I also love the board game Pandemic because it's easy to learn and fun to play.
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The most popular board games are the best-sellers for a reason! If you're looking for some classic games, your best options are:
If you want to try some games that aren't as common but are favorites in the board game community, there are a ton of options, including:
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- Chess
- Monopoly
- Battleship
- Clue
- Scrabble
- Catan
- Risk
- Rummikub
- Ticket to Ride
- Othello
- Stratego
- Blokus
- UNO
- Sequence
- Pictionary
- Scattergories
If you want to try some games that aren't as common but are favorites in the board game community, there are a ton of options, including:
- Wingspan - Attract rare birds with special powers to your nature preserve
- Azul - Place mosaic tiles to build beautiful patterns
- Brass: Birmingham - Strategically connect shipping networks in industrial England and build your industry
- Pandemic - Work together to save the planet from a deadly disease
- Gloomhaven - Crawl through dungeons and defeat monsters with tactical cardplay
- King of Tokyo - Battle as kaiju monsters in this fun variation on king-of-the-hill
- Terraforming Mars - Develop Mars into a habitable planet better than the other players
- Lost Cities - Go on daring expeditions to earn the most points
- 7 Wonders - Trade goods and race to build the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
- Dominion - Add building and villager cards to your deck to earn the most victory points
- The Resistance - Work together to find the hidden traitor foiling your missions
- Carcassonne - Build castles and sprawling landscapes one tile at a time
- Spirit Island - Cooperate as island spirits to take down invaders who just arrived
- Root - Wage war as woodland creatures fighting to control a forest
- Scythe - Explore a steampunk map and upgrade mechs to control the board
That’s a really good question and honestly, kind of a tough one. “Best of all time” depends a lot on who you’re playing with and what kind of games you enjoy. But if I had to pick a few that almost everyone loves, I’d start with Catan. It’s such a solid game about building settlements and trading resources easy to learn, but still competitive and fun every single time.
Then there’s Ticket to Ride, which is one of those games you can play with family or friends without anyone feeling left out. It’s simple but has just enough strategy to keep you thinking.
For word lovers, I’ve always had a soft spot for Scrabble and Codenames. They both get your brain working in a fun way. And if you enjoy that kind of word-based challenge, you might actually like something like Crossword Puzzle for Adults it’s not a board game technically, but it gives that same relaxing, focused feeling you get when you’re deep into a crossword or word search.
And if you want something more social, I’d say Codenames or Dixit are great picks they’re creative, funny, and never play the same way twice
So yeah, it’s hard to crown a single “best,” but those are the ones I keep coming back to again and again.
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Then there’s Ticket to Ride, which is one of those games you can play with family or friends without anyone feeling left out. It’s simple but has just enough strategy to keep you thinking.
For word lovers, I’ve always had a soft spot for Scrabble and Codenames. They both get your brain working in a fun way. And if you enjoy that kind of word-based challenge, you might actually like something like Crossword Puzzle for Adults it’s not a board game technically, but it gives that same relaxing, focused feeling you get when you’re deep into a crossword or word search.
And if you want something more social, I’d say Codenames or Dixit are great picks they’re creative, funny, and never play the same way twice
So yeah, it’s hard to crown a single “best,” but those are the ones I keep coming back to again and again.
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