The Best Board Games of 2025

One of the main reasons the greatest board games have become so popular is that they bring people together in one place to enjoy each other’s company. This is especially valuable in a time when so much of our social interaction happens online. Classic board games like Monopoly, Scrabble, and Settlers of Catan have been beloved for years, while modern board games introduce fresh challenges and new themes. Although gathering friends from outside has been challenging recently, we’ve all been looking for ways to have fun with family at home, and board games are perfect for that.

This list of the most popular board games is continually updated with new entries that we think are worth your time and attention. From strategy board games to family board games and party board games, our selection ensures there’s something for everyone. Whether you’re a fan of cooperative board games where players work together to achieve a common goal, or prefer competitive board games where it’s every person for themselves, you’ll find the perfect game here.

Splendor Duel

Marvel Splendor takes the classic Splendor gameplay and puts it in the Marvel universe. Instead of Renaissance merchants trading jewels, you’re recruiting Marvel heroes and gathering Infinity Stones to stop Thanos.

The core of the game is still about building up resources and creating powerful combos. Each turn you collect gems, recruit heroes, and unlock stronger cards that get you closer to victory. What makes it fun is how many different ways there are to win: focus on assembling iconic heroes, aim for key Infinity Stones, or complete big objectives that give you a final push over your opponents.

You can teach it in a few minutes, but there’s real depth once you get into it. Strategy fans will enjoy the layers of planning, and Marvel fans will love seeing favorite characters tied into the mechanics.

Games play quickly, usually under half an hour, so it’s easy to fit in a couple of rounds on game night. It’s colorful, fast, and feels like Splendor with just the right amount of Marvel flavor.

Players: 2-4
Ages: 10+
Time to play: 30+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $31.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Asmodee Ticket to Ride Board Game (2025 Refresh)

This train game has you connecting cities across America. You get plastic trains and collect colored cards to claim railway routes on the board.

Here’s the deal: there’s a deck of train cards in different colors. You draw some, then when you have enough matching ones, you can take a route between two cities. Boston to New York might cost 2 red cards, while cross-country routes need way more.

You also start with destination tickets showing two cities you’re supposed to connect, like Portland to Nashville or whatever. Connect them and you get bonus points. Miss the connection and you lose those same points, which really stings.

The tricky bit is everyone wants the same popular routes. You might desperately need that Denver to Kansas City line, but if someone else grabs it first, you’re stuck finding a longer way around. Leads to a lot of “are you kidding me?” moments.

The board shows actual old railroad lines from around 1900. It’s a big colorful map that looks good on the table. Games run about an hour, maybe longer with more people.

Players: 2-5
Ages: 8+
Time to play: 30-60 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $49.99
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Bananagrams Oceanic Edition

This is Bananagrams but with an ocean theme. You still get 144 letter tiles and race to build crossword grids, just with some sea creature artwork on the packaging.

So you dump out a pile of letter tiles and everyone grabs some. Then it’s a free-for-all – you’re making words that connect to each other, building your own little crossword on the table. No board or anything, just whatever space you’ve got.

First person to use up all their tiles shouts “Bananas!” and everyone else groans because they have to draw more tiles from the center. Then you keep going until someone wins.

It gets pretty chaotic. You’ll have a nice setup going, then get stuck with a Q or Z and have to tear everything apart. The ocean theme is just decoration – doesn’t change how you play at all.

What’s good about it is nobody’s waiting for turns. Everyone’s frantically rearranging their letters at the same time. Games are fast, maybe 15 minutes, so you end up playing several rounds.

Works with mixed ages too. Sure, adults know more words, but kids are often quicker at shuffling tiles around.

Comes with plenty of tiles for bigger groups and travels well.

Players: 2-8
Ages: 8+
Time to play: 15+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $15.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Ticket to Ride Rails & Sails

This is Ticket to Ride but now you can take boats too. The board flips between a world map and the Great Lakes region, so you’re building routes across continents and oceans instead of just land.

You still collect colored cards, but now there are train cards and ship cards. Some routes need trains, others need ships, and a few require both. The ship routes go across water – like from Europe to North America or between islands. Takes more cards usually, but they’re worth good points.

The world map side is huge. You can connect Tokyo to London or run cargo ships around Africa. Feels pretty epic when you complete a long international route. The Great Lakes side is more focused on boats moving between ports around the lakes.

Same basic rules as regular Ticket to Ride – collect cards, claim routes, complete your destination tickets. But now you’re thinking about whether to go by land or sea, and some destinations force you to use both trains and ships.

Games take longer than the original, maybe 90 minutes. There’s more routes to consider and the maps are bigger. Still easy to learn if you know the basic Ticket to Ride rules.

The double-sided board is nice – gives you two completely different games in one box. World map feels grand and sprawling, Great Lakes is tighter and more tactical.

Players: 2-5
Ages: 10+
Time to play: 60-120 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $76.98
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My First Orchard

This is the classic Game of Orchard adapted for toddlers. Instead of playing competitively in turns, all the players work together to pick fruit before the raven reaches the orchard. It’s a quiet introduction to board games that even 2-year-olds can enjoy.

The rules are very straightforward: roll the big colored die, pick the matching fruit, and place it in your basket. If the raven shows up, he moves one step closer to the orchard. The game ends when all the fruit is picked (players win) or when the raven gets there first (the raven wins).

The pieces are wooden fruits—apples, pears, plums, and cherries—in big chunky sizes perfect for small hands. They’re durable, safe, and sustainably produced in Germany.

It’s not all play: kids learn to take turns, learn colors, count, and develop fine motor skills. And because it’s cooperative, children also learn about teamwork and supporting one another.

Simple to learn, fast-paced to play, and an excellent means of quality time spent together as a family at the dining table. A true introduction to the board game world that has been savored for generations.

Players: 1–4
Ages: 2+
Time to play: 10–15 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $26.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

HeroQuest

HeroQuest is back, and it still feels like stepping into a living dungeon. Each game turns your table into a tiny fantasy world full of corridors, traps and monsters. You’re not just rolling dice — you’re creeping through shadowy halls and opening doors to whatever’s waiting on the other side.

You can choose one of four classic heroes — the tough Barbarian, sturdy Dwarf, nimble Elf or powerful Wizard. Together you’ll face Zargon’s dark magic, uncover treasures, and try to survive each quest. It’s a cooperative adventure, but each character still has their own role and style.

The box is crammed with over sixty detailed miniatures and bits of furniture that make the dungeon feel real. Cards, booklets and boards are covered with moody fantasy artwork that pulls you straight into the setting.

There are 14 built-in quests to play through, and when you’ve finished those you can start creating your own dungeons and stories. That mix of ready-made adventures and DIY scenarios is what keeps the game fresh year after year.

Players: 2-5
Ages: 14+
Time to play: 45-60 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $99.90
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Splendor

If you know Splendor, you know Marvel Splendor—same addictive gameplay, but now you’re building a team of superheroes instead of collecting Renaissance jewels. Your goal? Gather Infinity Stones and stop Thanos.
The core loop is satisfying: collect resources, recruit heroes, and build combos that snowball into victory.

What keeps things interesting is that you’re never locked into one strategy. Maybe you’re racing to assemble the Avengers. Maybe you’re hoarding Infinity Stones. Or maybe you’re going for those high-value objective cards that can swing the game in the final turns.

It takes about five minutes to teach, but there’s enough depth here for strategy fans to appreciate.Marvel fans will get a kick out of seeing their favorite heroes, and the theme does real work here—it’s not just slapped on top of the game.

Players: 2–4
Ages: 10+
Play Time: ~30 minutes
Rating: 4.9/5
List Price: $47.49
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Cascadia

Take a voyage to the Pacific Northwest as you compete to create the most harmonious ecosystem in Cascadia! Turns are simple: select a tile set, place each tile into your expanding ecosystem, earn points by fulfilling wildlife targets, and create extensive habitat corridors. With varying scoring goals, each game of Cascadia brings a new spatial puzzle to your table.

Players: 1-4
Ages: 10+
Time to play: 30-45 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $31.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Century: Spice Road Board

Introducing Century, a series of exciting and wonderfully addictive stand-alone, mixable games. Each title in the series is set in a different century, from the 15th to the 17th, showcasing the major trading systems and routes of these eras. While quick and easy to learn, the Century trilogy will fully engage even the most strategic players.

Explore the vibrant spice trading road and its colorful markets, brought to life by the stunning artwork of internationally renowned artist Fernanda Suárez. The simple and elegant game mechanics, combined with a touch of deck-building, offer endless strategies and decisions.

Century: Spice Road is truly an outstanding game, capturing the essence of historical trade with engaging gameplay and beautiful design.

Players: 2-4
Ages: 8+
Time to play: 30-45 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $39.99
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The Red Dragon Inn

You and your adventuring partners have spent the entire day battling through the dungeon, defeating monsters, and collecting their loot. Now you are back in the city, healed up, refreshed, and ready to party at the Red Dragon Inn. Drink, bet, and joke with your friends. But don’t forget to keep an eye on your gold. If you run out, you’ll have to spend the night in the stables. Oh, and try not to get too drunk or too beaten up. If you pass out, your comrades will continue the party without you and take your belongings. The last conscious adventurer with gold wins the game.

Players: 2-4
Ages: 13+
Time to play: 30-60 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $33.78
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Asmodee Harmonies Board Game

You’re building landscapes in three dimensions. Not flat terrain—actual 3D environments where you stack colored tiles on top of each other, creating hills and valleys and plateaus. It sounds simple until you start playing and realize that height matters. A lot.

Each color represents a different terrain type, and animals want specific patterns before they’ll settle in your world. The fox needs a particular arrangement of forest and meadow. The bear wants something else entirely. You’re essentially solving spatial puzzles while simultaneously trying to create the most valuable ecosystem possible.

The tiles themselves are gorgeous—Libellud knows how to make a game look good—and those 120 wooden animal tokens give real weight to your decisions. When you finally place that eagle on the mountain you’ve been building for three turns, it feels earned.

What makes the game clever is how everything connects. That hill you’re building to attract deer might block the river pattern you need for herons. Every choice cascades into the next, and before you know it you’ve created this complex little world that somehow reflects the decisions you made ten minutes ago.

There’s a solo mode when you want to puzzle things out on your own, plus an expert variant that adds nature spirits into the mix for experienced players looking for more challenge. The base game already offers plenty of depth—the expert mode just turns that dial even higher.

Players: 1-4
Ages: 10+
Time to play: 30+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $31.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Twilight Imperium

For two decades, Twilight Imperium has captivated players with its rich storytelling and strategic depth. Now, gamers can explore the next chapter in the Twilight Imperium saga with Twilight Imperium 4th Edition, a monumental game of galactic conquest for 3 to 6 players. Each player takes control of one of 17 unique civilizations, vying for interstellar dominance through warfare, trade, shifting alliances, and political maneuvering. Each faction offers a radically different play experience, from the wormhole-hopping Ghosts of Creuss to the trade-savvy Emirates of Hacan. All of these civilizations have multiple paths to victory, but only one will claim the throne of Mecatol Rex and become the new rulers of the galaxy.

Players: 2-6
Ages: 14+
Time to play: 60+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $131.99
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Camel Up

In Camel Up, up to eight players bet on five racing camels, trying to predict which ones will place first and second in a fast-paced race around a pyramid. The unpredictable outcomes will have everyone laughing out loud as the race unfolds.

Players must carefully strategize where to place their bets, but camels don’t always race in an orderly fashion. Sometimes they land on top of each other, hitching a ride towards the finish line.

Who will move next? It all depends on the dice that come out of the pyramid dice shaker, which releases one die at a time when players pause their betting to see who’s actually advancing.

This edition features new artwork, an updated game board and pyramid design, and engraved dice. New game modes, including crazy rogue camels that run in the opposite direction, add extra excitement and variability. You never know how the race will end!

Players: 3-8
Ages: 8+
Time to play: 45+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $31.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Rio Grande Games Dominion: Intrigue

Something’s afoot. The steward gives you a knowing smile, as if he’s hiding a secret—or perhaps he thinks you are. There are secret plots brewing, you’re sure of it. At the very least, you have your own. A passing servant whispers, “The eggs are on the plate.” You hurriedly search your codebook before realizing it means breakfast is ready. Perfect. Everything is going according to plan.

Dominion: Intrigue 2nd Edition is the first expansion to the game of Dominion, introducing 26 new Kingdom cards. These include victory cards that have effects before the end of the game, cards that interact with victory cards, and underlings that offer you a choice in their actions. This edition replaces six cards and adds one new card compared to the first edition.

Dominion: Intrigue 2nd Edition no longer includes Basic cards and cannot be played as a stand-alone expansion; you need the Basic cards and rulebook from Dominion. To expand the game to 5-6 players, you will need the Base Cards set. This edition can be combined with any other Dominion expansions you have.

Players: 2-4
Ages: 14+
Time to play: 30+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $33.76
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Spirit Island: Branch & Claw

Colonizers are attempting to conquer and ravage the island wherever they explore. As the island’s Spirits, it’s up to you to defend your home from these invading forces!

This expansion introduces two brand-new and exciting Spirits, adding even more variety and vitality to your game!

An all-new adversary, France (Plantation Colony), has been added to increase the challenge!

These Spirits bring more than just new mechanics; they utilize new token types such as Wilds, Beasts, Disease, and Strife, adding depth and complexity to your gameplay.

Players: 1-4
Ages: 14+
Time to play: 90+ Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $29.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon

Carcassonne 20th Anniversary Edition

Celebrate two decades of Carcassonne with this special edition, featuring upgraded visuals, extra tiles, and enhanced gameplay to the classic tile-placement game.

As you play, build the vibrant medieval landscape of Carcassonne, complete with cities, roads, monasteries, and fields.

The Carcassonne 20th Anniversary Edition includes the complete base game, allowing you to experience the beloved game that has captured hearts for over 20 years.

Compatible with all Carcassonne expansions, this special edition offers a gateway to explore a multitude of expansions and add-ons.

Immerse yourself in the upgraded visuals, extra tiles, and enhanced gameplay that pay tribute to Carcassonne’s enduring legacy.

Players: 2-5
Ages: 7+
Time to play: 30-45 Min
Review: 4.9/5
List Price: $39.99
Buy: Click To Buy On Amazon