The Best Board Games of All Time: Ranked by Decade

Not only is Pandemic Legacy Season 1 the best board game of the last decade, it’s one of the best legacy-style board games of all-time, according to Bryan Truong, founder of Game Cows, one of the web’s leading board game blogs. “It wasn’t the first legacy-style game,” Truong tells RAVE Reviews in an email, but it did elevate the board game subgenre into the mainstream. “It kicked off a huge craze of customizable board games and revolutionized how we look at the lifespan of a game,” he says. 

Like the classic version of the game, played with two to four players, a virus is on the loose. In a race against time, the story arc morphs over the course of a year, with new challenges, objectives, and rules. Events are triggered and strategies revealed as tools are unlocked and characters develop. “A legacy game reacts and evolves as you play it,” Truong explains. If your character dies, they remain dead. If players fail to save a city, it’s scratched off the board. “You literally alter the components of the game as you play by writing, adding stickers, or straight up destroying pieces,” Truong continues.

“It is one of the most unique tabletop experiences I’ve had,” Truong says, and game designers Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau took all the lessons learned from the classic Pandemic and its expansions, weaving them together with incredible storytelling and tense gameplay. The game is suitable for ages 14 and up. 

Winner of one of the most prestigious awards in the gaming industry, the KennerSpiel des Jahres, or Connoisseur’s Game of the Year, Stonemaier Games’ Wingspan is the next board game in our ranking. It comes recommended to us by Kristen Seikaly, founder of Cats and Dice, a website dedicated to all things tabletop gaming. In the engine-building game, for one to five players, new and exotic birds are attracted to the aviary in one of three habitats. All the while, players gain food to feed birds in their aviary so that the birds will lay eggs, all while drawing from 170 beautifully illustrated bird cards.

“This game about collecting birds from 2019 has enough depth to engage serious board gamers while also having a welcoming theme for newcomers,” Seikaly says. “I personally love discovering new things about birds, each and every game from the beautiful and in-depth bird cards central to the game.” Wingspan also ranks near the top-20 in Boardgamegeek Top 100 Board Games of all time, she says. For ages 14 and up.

It could be said the next board game in our ranking, Azul, from 2017, is a gateway to modern board gaming. In the game, players make the best tile mosaic wall they can on their personal board. Tiles are claimed and arranged to score points, and extra points are awarded for collecting tiles of the same color or for creating particular patterns. Penalties come from taking tiles a player can’t use, and strategy comes from choosing tiles that will benefit you while also limiting your opponent’s options on their next turn.

With simple rules and varied gameplay, this game for two to four players starts slowly, but tension soon builds as the board game fills up. Eventually, play becomes cutthroat as opponents are forced to take tiles leading to a loss of points while mitigating point loss on your own board. To play the game well requires critical thinking and the ability to plan ahead. Most learn the game in one round, but it takes time to build an effective strategy. 

“I enjoy trying to beat my high score every time while also completing as much of the mosaic as possible while also completing as much of the mosaic as possible to rack up bonus points,” says Kristen Seikaly, of the board game blog Cats and Dice. For ages 8 and up.

The next pick in our ranking of the best board games of the last decade is Codenames, our pick for best party game of the last decade. In gameplay, two rival spymasters hold crucial information: the identity of 25 agents, otherwise known only by their codename. Playing with cards and a timer, teams are assigned a color. They then compete to uncover the true identity of each secret agent through single word clues. Additional objectives include guessing words matching the team color while avoiding colors of opposing teams. Just don’t encounter the assassin!

As well as parties, fans of the game call it a great choice for family game night, and it’s appropriate for ages 14 and up. It stands ups well under repeat play and is a little bit different each time. A Disney version of the game is another popular choice. Otherwise, Codenames is a great party game for those who still want to think, says Seikaly from Cats and Dice.

“This game is a favorite of mine for people who don’t play a lot of games and for those who enjoy word games,” she says.

Rounding out the top five in our ranking of the best board games of the last decade is Modern Art. For three to five players, this game turns art auctions into a competition. Through five different kinds of auctions, players bargain for the best deal using cards with beautifully rendered art masterpieces and an auctioneer’s gavel. Through gameplay, artists’ works gain value as they’re bought and sold. But what might be valuable one season, may not be as valuable the next season; track the trends to win the game. After four rounds of auctions, the player who’s amassed the most wealth for their museum is the winner.

Experienced gamer Jill Sandy of the lifestyle blog Constant Delights recommends the game. What she likes most of all is the mix of trade and negotiation at the heart of the gameplay. “I’ve played this game many times,” she says. It starts slow, she says, but as the pace increases, players can easily swing outcomes in their favor. “The game is well thought out,” she says. The game is appropriate for ages 14 and up, and the fan-favorite wooden auction gavel is new in the 2019 updated edition.

Looking for a board game to help blow off some pent-up anxiety about politics and current affairs? Then the award-winning board game Election Night! could be for you.

Winner of the 2019 Parent’s Choice Gold Award, Election Night! is an all-ages board game, breaking down the complex political process in a clear and exciting way. In gameplay, you’ll compete for the presidency, vying for the states with the most representation or locking down smaller states across the board. 

The game uses the patent-pending PlaySmart Dice, a uniquely numbered 12-sided dice system. For family play, the system makes challenging math facts easier to learn through well-conceived gameplay.

The game also comes with a double-sided game board, two dry erase markers, and two decks of strategy cards. Perhaps best of all, Election Night! is versatile enough to be interesting to players of all skill levels. 

Election Night! is also the winner of the Mom’s Choice Gold Award, among many others.

Who doesn’t like to look at pictures of cute doggos? We Rate Dogs, the card game based on the popular Twitter account, lets players do just that as they choose their favorite pups to enter and win a competitive dog show. It’s also our choice for best board game of the last decade for kids.

Suitable for up to six players ages 8 and up, this fun, fast-paced card game has players rate cute canines in six fun categories, including floof, sass, “boopability,” zoom, ears, and wag.

Players can also knock their opponents’ dogs down in the rankings using action cards, while also improving their own dog in the standings. The goal: to be named the best in show.

But don’t worry, all the dogs are winners.  

The game includes 50 dog cards, 100 event cards, one category die, winner’s circle board, first player card, and player tokens.

The next game in our ranking, Oh My God, Stacy! brings us back to the classic high school movies of the 1980s. 

In the game, you’ll play cards throughout the school day, collecting and stealing gear, messing with your classmates, forming bonds, and, of course, scoring max cool points. But a twist comes every day with morning announcements.

With fast-paced gameplay, Oh My God, Stacy! is for up to 12 players ages 14 and up, and comes with 152 cards, including action, gear, and morning announcements, among others, and pizza slice tokens.

Oh My God, Stacy! is the perfect game to take Gen X on a walk down memory lane but also appropriate for anyone familiar with cliques, jocks, preppies, punks, and squares at school.

Enjoy dinner while managing to avoid becoming dinner with Donner Dinner Party, the next board game in our ranking.

In this game, players recreate the story of the ill-fated Donner Party in a game of social deduction, pitting cannibals and pioneers against one another in a fight for survival.

A fast-paced game with a wicked twist, Donner Dinner Party is set in the winter of 1846. You can play a pioneer hunting for food while striving to eliminate the cannibals from the party. If you play as a cannibal, you’ll eat the pioneers one by one until you’re the last one standing. 

Here’s how the game works: Each round, players receive cards before “foraging for food.” The cards indicate what they may have found, like nothing, fish, or poisonous berries. Players then add one card face down to the communal dinner pot for dinner. If there’s sufficient food cards to feed the number of players, the round ends and everyone survives. There’s a wicked twist, though, and nothing is quite what it seems.

Rowdy and irreverent, this game is suitable for up to 10 players ages 12 and up. The game includes a game board, playing cards, and 62 identity cards, including pioneers, cannibals, and more.

The next game in our ranking, Carcassonne, comes to us from Shawna Newman of geekymatters.com, a site dedicated to all things “geeky.” 

Carcassonne is inspired by the medieval fortress in Southern France of the same name. A tile-laying game, players fill in the countryside around the fortified city, choosing from tiles that depict cities, roads, monasteries, and fields. 

Players can then add their followers on the ever-expanding board, like knights, monks, farmers, and thieves, each scoring points differently. And because the board is always changing, so are the opportunities.

“Since you build out the board as you play, each game is different,” Newman tells RAVE Reviews, “so it’s always something new. As a result, it’s easy to get addicted to this game and keep replaying it.”

“The game is so easy to learn, anyone can play it,” Newman continues. “This means it’s perfect for couples, families, and game nights with friends.” For 2–5 players, ages 8 and up.

Not every game promotes the active use of such a wide variety of smarts, sillies, and even artistic abilities than Cranium, the next game in our ranking of the best contemporary board games.

In the game, players spell, act, draw, or just make guesses as they parade through a brightly colored game board. The one minute you have to complete your task feels fleeting, which only adds to the frantic fun of the game. 

Gameplay lasts around one hour, and in a mixed group of talented people, everyone’s niche ability will have its moment in the sun. But it’s not a jack-of-all-trades skills test, plenty of luck is required, too.

The board, set pieces, and cards require players to take notes. The broad range of skills needed to win may be silly but are sure to lighten the mood of any group willing to take it on for an evening.

Up next in our ranking is Trivial Pursuit, the game by which true trivia buffs are born and our choice for the best board game of the 1980s.

The game allows for both single player or team play, and with six challenging categories spanning “Geography” to “Sports and Leisure,” the pursuit of knowledge has never been more engaging. 

The board itself is a circle with spokes connected to a central hub. Dice rolls determine advancement and, along with question cards, some spaces on the board allow for extra turns.

The player’s piece is sometimes called a “cheese” because it resembles a cheese wheel, with triangular sections to be filled when a section has been mastered. The player that fills their wheel first and answers a question inside the hub of the trivia wheel wins the game.

Variations of Trivial Pursuit abound, with questions adapted for younger players as well as themed versions. And while general knowledge is required, memory and knowledge in specific subject matter is most often tested by repeated gameplay.

Connect Four, employing  simple logic, deduction, and abstract strategy, is our pick for the best board game of the 1970s.

Game play begins after each player chooses a color side and one player launches one of their 21 colored disc pieces down the chosen column grid. 

The second player reacts to their opponent’s decision and makes strategic defensive or offensive moves. Blocking and holding your opponent at bay is part of the fun.

When one player is able to vertically, horizontally, or diagonally reach the coveted four connections, they are the winner, and the slide trigger is released, sending all the pieces down to start again.

Quick paced and rapidly understood, this Hasbro mainstay is good for all ages. Although less technical in many respects than other heavy strategy and grid-based board games on this list, Connect Four is a gem.

Limber up, because we’re about to talk about Twister, the classic game in which players themselves serve as the key board game.

In Milton Bradley’s creative socializer, first released in 1966, a plastic mat serves as the board with six rows of circles in bold primary colors guiding the placement of the players’ hands and feet. 

The spinner assigns a limb to a color, which forces players to adapt to the spin and, of course, the other player’s bodies on the mat. A player who touches the mat with anything other than hands or feet is eliminated. 

Two player options make the game competitive. In this version, no circle can be shared by two players — more than four players make it nearly impossible but quite comical.

Twister tests physical flexibility and creativity in movement as well as strength and endurance. The game also teaches social skills. Those who need tons of personal space may not enjoy it, but yoga practitioners may find it a fun application of their skills.

Although Scrabble technically came out in 1949, it rocketed to popularity in the 1950s, and is commonly considered among the best board games of the decade. In this simple but absolutely classic board game, players use lettered tiles to form words, crossword style. The player that uses up all their letter tiles while spelling words that give them the highest point value wins the game.

Arrange your words strategically across squares assigned bonuses like “triple word score,” and you maximize your score. Any words from the standard dictionary counts, but there are even Scrabble-specific dictionaries to get the creativity flowing.

Most of all, Scrabble encourages linguistic skills, developed vocabulary, good spelling, and imaginative associations between letters. The game also encourages numeracy and arithmetic skills for tabulating totals and keeping score. 

Since the 1940s, Clue has helped us all become detectives, as players gather information to successfully deduce who, where, and how a crime was committed. 

A mansion is the setting for the board. Players move around rooms, hallways, and secret spaces as they evaluate suspects, determine which weapon was used, and where the crime was committed. 

The plot commences with secretly stashing one card from each category in a closed “fact envelope.” Players then roll dice to move around the mansion, stopping along the way to deduce the answer hidden in the envelope. 

Once a player feels confident they have deducted the facts of the case, they venture to make an accusation. If they are wrong, they must sit out and effectively lose the game, but if they successfully solve the three components correctly, they become the winner.

While solving a murder, Clue is never graphic. The game teaches deductive reasoning, fact-based research skills, and story and plot development. It also encourages the development of significant strategic and critical-thinking skills.

One thing’s for certain, players won’t be sorry playing the Hasbro classic board game Sorry!  

In the game, up to four players or two teams of two draw cards to move their three pawns, borrowing from the classic chess piece shape, out of their safety area. 

It’s here where the negotiation and antics begin as players target their opponents while racing around the game board. The objective is to make it all around and return to one’s home space first.

The original game version features four pawns per player, but an upgraded version was released in 2013 using only three pawns along with new fire and ice tokens that give your pawns additional strengths. 

The jumping and sliding, elementary counting, and probability all keep players returning to say Sorry! 

Monopoly is the most easily identifiable board game on the planet. As we wrote earlier, Monopoly has been around in one form or another since 1903 and is a must-have for any board game collection.

In this multplayer classic, players use a board, set pieces, two stacks of cards, and a bank of cash — the famous “Monopoly money” — to buy property, collect rent, and succeed in this game-ified version of American-style capitalism–for better or worse.

Players can land in jail, and when a full board rotation is completed, you’ll collect $200. Players use their money to buy property or for property ownership upgrades like the iconic greenhouses and red hotels, but if renovation costs are due, this can also backfire.

Monopoly’s lessons extend into personal finance and interpersonal negotiations, basic arithmetic and risk management skills. One drawback to Monopoly, though, is games can last for hours.

Yahtzee, the next board game in our ranking, is a fixture on game shelves around the world. In the game, players shake and roll their way to a full house, straight, or the elusive “Yahtzee” to generate the highest score and win. And although the game of Yahtzee itself was patented in the 1950s, it’s based on dice games that were played in Germany at least as far back as the 19th century.

Yahtzee is not a difficult game to play — a scorecard, dice, shaker, and writing utensil are the only apparatus needed in the game. After rolling the five dice, players choose which scoring category they are vying for in that round. 

Each player has up to three shakes per turn to create the best scoring mix of that category. After 13 rounds, the scores are tabulated and the winner is declared.

As much fun and passion as this game generates, it also involves quite complex mental operations involving probability and overall quantitative skills.

A classic parlor game that’s been around in one form or another since at least the 1850s, Bunco is played with dice and a bell. Players team up and roll the dice, the first round, rolling for ones, second round twos, and so on. The objective being to get the highest score. 

If someone gets a Bunco, or all dice in the current same denomination, they ring the bell, and the round stops. Then, simply trade partners and do it all over again. Pretty simple, but with Bunco, that’s kind of the point. Or rather, the point is to be social, to laugh, engage, and get to know other people at the party. 

This combination of easy-to-learn rules and social interaction have both contributed to Bunco being one of the most enduringly popular games in our ranking. You can play with up to 12 players, and modern Bunco sets come complete with everything you need to get started. Appropriate for ages 8 and up. 

The ancient Chinese game of Go is up next in our list of the best board games pre-1920s. Some estimate the game has been played in one form or another for the past 4,000 years! Played with pieces called “stones,” some white and some black, the objective is to surround an opponent’s stones on all orthogonally adjacent points. Once surrounded, the piece is captured, not unlike chess, and at the end of the game, those who’ve captured the most stones win the game.

Most modern Go sets come complete with a board, bakelite game pieces, or stones, and bowls to keep the pieces organized. Go is limited to two players, meaning it’s not the best choice for parties, but it’s easy to learn and fun to play for all ages. Sets don’t tend to come with rules, but plenty of online tutorials are available to help you get started, and for serious players, Go clubs exist in many communities around the world.

Another classic game in our ranking is Checkers, sometimes called Draughts. Played since approximately 3,000 BCE, opponents use light- and dark-colored pieces in alternating turns to move to any unoccupied adjacent square. If an opponent’s piece is adjacent, but the square one beyond that piece is free, that piece may be “jumped,” or captured. That piece is no longer in the game. 

After advancing across the board diagonally forward and reaching the farthest edge of the board, that piece becomes a “king,” designated by an additional game piece being placed on top. That piece can now move and capture backwards. Uncrowned pieces are called “men.” At the end of play, the players with the most pieces captured from the opponent wins. Fun for up to two players, Checkers is a great starting point for teaching kids 8 and up about strategy. Lots of different game sets exist of varying quality and varying size. 

One of the most iconic games in history is the sixth pick in our ranking of the 10 best board games since the 1920s. Chess is an incredibly complex game that many spend years mastering, but gameplay is versatile enough for whole families to enjoy. It’s too much to go into all the details of how to play chess here, but on a checkered game board, pieces based on medieval warfare such as kings, queens, knights, and castles engage in combat.

Each piece is limited in how it moves across the board, and, like Checkers, the objective is to “jump” your opponents pieces while also strategically pinning the opposing king. The player who has done so has won the game, though simplified versions are also fun in which the player who takes the most opposing game pieces wins. 

Chess sets are traditionally wooden, as are the game pieces, but these days many are made from plastic or also high-end metals like brass. Picking up an adequate chess set can be as cheap or as expensive as you choose. The two-player game is generally considered suitable for ages 6 and up, but advanced play takes time—and those who gain mastery start young. 

Played in China since at least the 1600s, rules to the ancient game of mahjong vary widely. Most commonly, though, the game involves both skill and chance. Played with a little more than 140 tiles representing Chinese characters symbols, the game uses dice to dictate the direction of the four winds as players take turns discarding tiles and picking new ones from the “wall.” When a player builds a valid “hand” with Mahjong tiles, that player wins, similar to the Western card game rummy. Many play the game with an element of betting.

These days, Mahjong sets are available in all sorts of styles and made from all sorts of materials — such as wood and plastic — and include extra chips, dice, pushers, and betting chips. Most come with bags to keep all the pieces organized. Four-player Mahjong is the most common way to play the game, though three- and even two-player Mahjong variations exist with their own sets of rules. The game is recommended for ages 12 years and older. 

Like many ancient games that continue to be played today, the modern version of Dominoes got its start in China around the 1800s, though mentions of the game go all the way back to the 12th and 13th centuries. There are a few different ways to play Dominoes. One common way is to shuffle the tiles and place them face down. After the tiles are shuffled, each player draws a domino. 

The order in which the dominoes are drawn can vary, but the most common order is left to right. Most often, the first player sets their domino of choice on the board, and the next player matches the marks on the open side, or the side with matching “pips.” There are also a few different ways to score the game, but most often the game is over when one player runs out of dominoes. The total number of pips on the remaining dominoes in the opponent’s hand are subtracted from their final score.

Modern Dominoes sets are made from all sorts of material like plastic and wood, and it’s most often played with between two and four players. The game can be as simple or as complicated as you choose. It’s fun to explore different rules and order of play, but the simplest versions of the game can be fun to play with children as young as 5.

Backgammon has been played in some form or another for about the past 5,000 years, and like a lot of games that have been around a long time, gameplay and rules related to Backgammon vary somewhat. Most often, though, the game is played between two people with a board, dice in a cup, and 15 checkers of different colors. A backgammon board consists of 24 triangles, called points or pips, divided into quadrants split between the home board and outer board, as well as an opponent’s home board and outer board. 

After the checkers or pieces are arranged in a certain order on the board. Dice rolls dictate how far a checker can be moved, and the basic objective is to get all of one’s own checkers to the home board and then off the board entirely. Gameplay is limited to two players. Backgammon sets are common and vary widely in quality. Most sets are portable, coming with nice felt-lined carrying cases that include everything you need to get started. Backgammon is good for both young and old, but the game is generally recommended for ages 14 and up. 

Based on a series of children’s books, Uncle Wiggly was first published by Milton Bradley in 1916. A racing game in the “Goose Game” style, there isn’t much strategy involved to play the game other than moving along the board from Uncle Wiggly’s Bungalow to Dr. Possum’s house based on the random draw of a card. To begin the game designed for two to four players, four game pieces are placed at Uncle Wiggly’s Bungalow. The first player draws a yellow card from the deck and follows the instructions on the card, moving forward. 

Sometimes the card instructs a player to draw a red card, which can instruct the player to move forward or a certain number of spaces backward. When a player reaches Dr. Possum’s House, that player has won the game. Although there’s not much strategy, and the game may not remain interesting to adults for very long, Uncle Wiggly features classic design and is a great way to introduce children to the basic concept upon which many modern board games follow.