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Best board games 2026: top picks for adults and families
Louise puts everyday products to the test, cutting through the hype to show what delivers in real life.
The best board games pull you away from the alluring glow of your smart devices and bring you together to create fun, lasting memories.
To help you find the best board game to buy this year, we enlisted a small army of novices and avid board game experts – who collectively own more than 300 games.
We rounded up the most popular games, from Azul to Dobble. After many hours of playing (and a bit of arguing over who won) we found the best family board games, best board games for adults, two-player games and card games.
How our tests find you the best
Over 25 board games tested
We played the most popular games out there (it’s a tough job) to bring you the 25 best.
Over 30 testers
From casual players to avid gamers, our testers spent hours playing and gave honest verdicts you can trust.
Replayability
We look for games that stay fresh, exciting, and fun no matter how many times you play.
We also test
Rule clarity, gameplay and visual appeal. Everything that makes a game a winner.
The board games we tested
Discover the hot new board games as well as the most popular classic games if you're in the mood for an oldy but goody.
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| Board game | Price | Type of game | What we liked |
|---|---|---|---|
Sign up to unlock for free Get instant access to these results, plus more reviews of household essentials, by signing up for a free account. Unlock tableAlready have an account? | 'Social deduction' game | ||
| Mind-reading party game | |||
| Logic quiz game | |||
| Deck-building game | |||
| Snap-like card game | |||
| Odd-one-out party game | |||
| Racing and card play game | |||
| Bag builder, push-your-luck game | |||
| Strategy tile-placement game | |||
| Railway route-building game | |||
| Co-operative strategy game | |||
| Route-building and trading game | |||
| Classic property trading game | |||
| Classic strategy game | |||
| Classic guessing game | |||
| Classic word-description team game | |||
| Classic word game | |||
| Strategy tile-placement game | |||
| Co-operative game | |||
| Buying and selling card game | |||
| Strategy tableau builder | |||
| Speed and observation card game | |||
| Card-collection game | |||
| Quick-playing card game | |||
| Co-operative mind-reading card game |
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The games we tested are listed in alphabetical order below.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the best games from our tests.
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Family board games
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Herd Mentality
Type of game Odd-one-out party game
Need to know 4+ players; age 10+; approximately 20 minutes to play; Herd Mentality rules
How to play In this game you score by matching the group’s answer. A question is read, everyone writes an answer, then reveals.
Those who choose the most common answer earn a point; first to eight wins.
But if your answer is unique, you get the pink cow – holding it means you can’t win until someone else ends up with it.
Mycelia
Type of game Mushroom deck building game
Need to know 1-4 players; age 9+; approximately 60 minutes to play; Mycelia rules
How to play Each player gets a double‑sided forest board and places 20 dewdrop tokens according to the chosen setup pattern.
Players start with the same small deck of basic cards. On your turn, play three cards to move or remove dewdrops and collect leaves, which can be spent to buy stronger cards from the shared marketplace. You can also use basic actions to shift or clear dewdrops.
After each turn, you draw new cards and refill the marketplace, with occasional shrine events redistributing dewdrops.
The game ends when a player clears all dewdrops from their board.
Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza
Type of game Snap-like card game
Need to know 2-8 players; age 8+; approximately 10 minutes to play; Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza rules
How to play Players flip cards while saying ‘Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza.’ When the card matches the word, you slam the pile. Last to slam collects the pile. First out of cards wins.
Watch out for special cards that have everyone performing actions before snapping.
The 1% Club
Type of game Logic quiz game
Need to know 3-6 players; age 8+; approximately 45 minutes to play
How to play Like the quiz show, The 1% Club challenges players with a ladder of logic questions, starting with one 90% of the public can answer and climbing toward the fiendish 1% brain teaser.
All questions are multiple choice and puzzle based, not obscure trivia. But beware: one wrong answer and you’re out. Play continues until one player remains, who then tackles the ultimate 1% question.
Crack it and you win the £100,000 grand prize (game money only, sadly).
The Traitors
Type of game Social deduction game
Need to know 4-6 players; age 12+; approximately 60 minutes to play; The Traitors rules
How to play Think of the TV show – just without the castle, cloaks or Claudia. You secretly become Faithfuls or Traitors, working together to build a communal prize pot while trying to spot (or hide) the traitorous sabotage.
Each round you:
- Complete a mission to earn gold
- Vote to banish whoever you suspect
- Compete for a reward in the Armoury
- Try to survive the Traitor 'murders'.
After four rounds, there’s a final banishment.
The top two gold-holders face off in a bluffing endgame, secretly choosing Faithful or Traitor to decide who walks away with the prize pot.
Wavelength
Type of game Mind-reading party game
Need to know 2-12 players; age 14+; approximately 45 minutes to play; Wavelength rules
How to play Players split into two teams. Each turn, one player is the Psychic, who draws a category card and secretly sets the dial along a hidden spectrum.
All the categories are conversation-starters, such as believable/unbelievable or legal/illegal.
The Psychic gives a single-word or short-phrase clue to help their team guess the dial’s position. The closer the guess, the more points scored (up to four per round).
Teams alternate turns over several rounds. The first team to reach 10 points wins.
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Board games for adults
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Carcassonne
Type of game Strategy tile-placement game
Need to know 2-5 players; age 7+; approximately 45 minutes to play; Carcassonne rules
How to play Draw a square tile and place it so its fields, roads, chapels, or castles connect to the existing layout.
You can then place wooden figures (called meeples) on the tile to claim that feature.
Completed roads, chapels and castles score points, with bigger areas earning more.
Heat: Pedal to the Metal
Type of game Racing and card play
Need to know 1-6 players; age 10+; approximately 30-60 minutes to play; Heat: Pedal to the Metal rules
How to play Each player has an identical deck of numbered cards and has seven each turn to choose from. You choose which cards to play and your car will move as many spaces as the numbers on the cards. The snag is that the number of cards you play is limited by the gear your car is in.
You can shift gears on the playmat representing your car’s cabin each turn. Higher gears mean you must play more cards, which is fine on a long straight, but as you approach a corner and need to slow down, if your car is in too high a gear and you exceed the speed of the corner, you’ll spin out.
It’s not easy to make the most of your hand and there are stress cards peppered through everyone’s decks. You’ll have to play these and when you do, you’ll add a random amount of speed, which could really scupper your corner.
Pandemic
Type of game Co-operative strategy game
Need to know 2-4 players; age 8+; approximately 60 minutes to play; Pandemic rules
How to play Players take on roles with special abilities and cooperate to stop four diseases.
Each turn you take four actions, then draw cards and reveal new infections.
Collect five same-colour cards and reach a research station to discover a cure.
Quacks
Type of game Bag builder, push your luck
Need to know 2-4 players; age 10+; approximately 45-80 minutes to play; Quacks rules
How to play You’re a potion brewer with a bag of ingredients, a cauldron and thirst for points. Each turn, players draw identically shaped ingredients blindly from their bag and place them in their cauldron. The cauldron is full of spaces spiralling out from the centre and the further you get along this track, the more points your brew will be worth and the more money you’ll have for new ingredients at the end of the turn.
The number on the ingredient tells you how many steps along this track you can place it, which makes some things you draw from your bag more valuable than others.
Sounds simple enough, but be careful: it could all blow up in your face. Among the safe ingredients are cherry bombs and if you end up with too many of those in your cauldron, the potion’s ruined. Quacks cleverly tempers this frustration by asking you to choose between points or cash to buy ingredients if you potion ends up in the bin, while successful brewers get both.
Between rounds you can buy ingredients for your bag that give you special abilities when you draw them. You’ll get more cherry bombs as the rounds go on, too, to make sure the jeopardy is maintained.
The player with the most points at the end is the winner.
Settlers of Catan
Type of game Route-building and trading game
Need to know 3-4 players; age 10+; approximately 60-90 minutes to play; Settlers of Catan rules
How to play You start by creating the map with a variety of terrain, hills, forest, mountains, fields, pasture and desert.
Next, you take your starting settlements, cities and roads, placing two roads and settlements each.
Each turn you roll for resources, trade or build. Expanding your network earns victory points, and the first to reach 10 wins.
Ticket to Ride
Type of game Railway route-building game
Need to know 2-5 players; age 8+; approximately 60-120 minutes to play; Ticket to Ride rules
How to play Collect coloured train cards to claim routes across the USA (or other maps).
You score for each route you build and earn bonuses for completing destination cards that link specific cities. The highest score wins.
Variants add twists: Europe includes ferries and tunnels, while Ticket to Ride London offers a quicker, bus-route version.
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Two-player board games
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7 Wonders Duel
Type of game Strategy tableau builder
Need to know 2 players; age 10+; approximately 30 minutes to play; 7 Wonders Duel rules
How to play Over three ages, you take cards that provide resources, military power, or scientific development to develop your civilisation. Cards get stronger each age.
You win through military supremacy, scientific victory or by having the most points at the end.
Azul
Type of game Abstract strategy tile-placement game
Need to know 2-4 players; age 8+; approximately 45 minutes to play; Azul rules
How to play Each player gets a board (start with the standard side). On your turn, grab all tiles of one colour from a factory display or the centre and place them in a row on your board’s pattern lines – one colour per row, only if it fits. Extra tiles that don’t fit go to your floor line as penalties.
When a row fills up, move its tiles to the matching spots on your mosaic wall and score points for all connected tiles.
A round ends when all tiles are taken. The game ends when someone completes a horizontal row. Add bonus points for finished rows, columns, and sets of all five colours. The highest score wins.
Jaipur
Type of game Buying and selling card game
Need to know 2 players; age 12+; approximately 30 minutes to play; Jaipur rules
How to play Played in rounds, you take goods from the market and sell them for points.
The player with the most points wins the round. The overall winner is the first to win two rounds.
Score more points for selling multiples of the same goods, but watch out: repeated sales of the same type score less over time.
Sky Team
Type of game Co-operative game
Need to know 2 players; 12+; approximately 20 minutes to play; Sky Team rules
How to play In this dice-placement game, two players try to land a plane safely.
Each round begins with strategy discussion, after which you roll your dice in secret and must place them without speaking.
You’ll use dice to manage the plane’s axis, control speed, clear traffic, deploy flaps, landing gear, and brakes.
By the end of the final round, you must be aligned with the runway, have no planes in your path, have all required systems deployed, and have reduced your speed enough to complete a safe landing.
Treat yourself and your guests to a glass of the best prosecco and sparkling wines, best red wines and best Champagne
Top five classic board games
We dug into the bestselling board game charts from: Amazon, Argos, Smyths, The Works and Zatu Games and crunched the numbers to come up with this overall list of the bestselling classic games you might want to add to your board game cupboard this year.
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Register for free to get instant access to our test results and Best Buy recommendations.
| Classic board game | Price | Type of game | What we liked |
|---|---|---|---|
Sign up to unlock for free Get instant access to these results, plus more reviews of household essentials, by signing up for a free account. Unlock tableAlready have an account? | Property trading game | ||
| Strategy game | |||
| Guessing game | |||
| Word-description team game | |||
| Word game |
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The games we tested are listed in alphabetical order below.
Only logged-in Which? members can view the best games from our tests.
Find brilliant gifts from our latest gift guides: best gifts for mums, best gifts for dads and best gifts for gamers
Card games
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Dobble
Type of game Speed and observation card game
Need to know 2-8 players; age 6+; approximately 15 minutes to play; Dobble rules
How to play You can play five different games with the Dobble cards, but they all share the same goal: spot the matching symbol between cards and call it out first.
It’s trickier than it sounds. You need sharp eyes and quick reflexes. Each card contains 8 colourful symbols, from a mix of 50 symbols – everything from cheese to dinosaurs, cacti to snowmen.
Monopoly Deal
Type of game Quick-playing card game
Need to know 2-5 players; age 8+; approximately 15 minutes to play; Monopoly Deal rules
How to play You want to be the first player to collect three full property sets of different colours.
You do this by drawing property cards, putting money in your bank, and playing action cards to help yourself or hinder your opponents.
The game plays fast, so expect your family to want to play a few rounds.
Sushi Go Party!
Type of game Card-collection game
Need to know 2-8 players; age 8+; approximately 30 minutes to play; Sushi Go Party! rules
How to play Over three rounds, players draft sushi cards to build the highest-scoring combinations.
Each round, you choose a menu and deal cards. Pick one card from your hand, then pass the rest clockwise. Everyone sees which cards others keep.
Score points by collecting strong combinations, and try to block opponents from completing theirs.
The Mind
Type of game Co-operative mind-reading card game
Need to know 2-4 players; age 8+; approximately 15 minutes to play; The Mind rules
How to play You complete each level by playing numbered cards from lowest to highest.
You can’t communicate and don’t know your opponents’ cards. Play cards when you feel yours is next.
Higher levels increase the sequence length, requiring focus, cooperation and a bit of intuition.
How we test board games
More than 30 volunteers of different ages and sexes took up our challenge to play, give their verdict on and vote for their favourites from the most popular board games.
Our testers included some self-confessed board game enthusiasts who own more than 300 board games between them.
Everyone gave us expert insight, gleaned from hours of playing these games, to help you decide the right game to add (or start) your collection this year.
We regularly revisit the board games on sale to see if there are any more popular games that need testing and when we find them we do.
Why you can trust us: at Which? we're free from manufacturer and retailer influence. Find out more about our impartiality and how your support helps us to stay editorially independent.
Page last checked March 2026. We aren't able to show every retailer, and cheaper prices may be available. Top five classic board games analysis carried out October 2023: best-selling board games at retailers may change over time.