We’ve gathered the top board games for families released in the last year. If you’re ready to give your family board games an upgrade, you’ve come to the right place. So you’re not stuck choosing between Battleship and Clue for your next FHE activity.
Most Popular Family Board Games
Sometimes the masses are right. If you’re looking for a new family board game that your friends may have heard about, this is a great place to start.
Fabled Fruit
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-5
Game Length: 20-30 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $39.49
Why Your Family Will Love It: This “Fable” game changes every time you play, allowing you to get into more detailed strategy over time.
Dream Home
Age level: 7+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 20-40 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $33.81
Why Your Family Will Love It: Sure you add up points for whose house looks the best, but the fun of this game is the fun of putting together your own home, and the beautiful tiles to do it with.
New York Slice
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-6
Game Length: 30 minutes
Complexity: Easy
Cost: $23.04
Why Your Family Will Love It: With menu-like instructions, photorealistic pizza tiles, slicing and eating actions, no game will make you feel more like you’re eating pizza.
Family Board Games for All Ages
Finding fun family board games for adults and children can be tricky. These family games are simple enough for children but have the complexity that will keep adults engaged as well.
Agricola: Family Edition
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 1-4
Game Length: 45 minutes
Complexity: Difficult
Cost: $36.17
Why Your Family Will Love It: A simplified version of Agricola, one of the greatest games of all time, Agricola: Family Edition simplifies the game enough that a family of older kids can enjoy one with time to spare for FHE.
Oceanos
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-5
Game Length: 30-45 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $32.68
Why Your Family Will Love It: Build a submarine and start exploring the ocean. You choose how to win by finding species, collecting treasures, discovering coral reefs, and of course avoiding the Kraken
Evolution: The Beginning
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-5
Game Length: 30-40 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $24.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: This aggressive board game has you managing a species and making sure they get to eat. But once the watering hole starts to run dry you better watch out for carnivore cards, which will have your family eating each other up before game’s end.
Best Board Games for 6-year-olds
Often the best family board games leave the youngest children out. But there are great family board games for kids as young as pre-school.
Go Cuckoo!
Age level: 4+
Number of Players: 2-5
Game Length: 10-15 minutes
Complexity: Very Easy
Cost: $19.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: If you enjoy games that require dexterity (like Jenga) this nest building game is fun for families even with very young children.
Dice Drivin’
Age level: 6+
Number of Players: 2-5
Game Length: 10-30 minutes
Complexity: Easy
Cost: $22.50
Why Your Family Will Love It: This car race allows you to customize your game length and uses a tile-based track, so no two games will be the same. Each car has different strengths, and players need to make a single simple strategic decision each turn.
Ice Cool
Age level: 5+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 20 minutes
Complexity: Very Easy
Cost: $31.50
Why Your Family Will Love It: If you’re done winning with your head and ready to win with a flick of the wrist, you’ll love this game. The gorgeous, interactive “ice” board is simply fun to play with.
Dingo’s Dreams
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 20-30 minutes
Complexity: Very Easy
Cost: $24.00
Why Your Family Will Love It: Play as a gorgeously rendered Koala, Hedgehog, Kangaroo, or Dingo as you make patterns with the tiles of your “dreamscape.” The game includes both a beginner and more advanced level for older children.
Board Games for Big Groups
It’s hard to describe something as “one of the top board games for families” if only half your family can play. These fun board games for the family fit as many as eight players.
Magic Maze
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 1-8
Game Length: 3-15 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: Releases in the US summer 2017, but currently available free as a Print & Play
Why Your Family Will Love It: You have to work together, but can’t talk to each other, and must operate with an hourglass ticking down. This game will keep your heart running.
Escape the Room: Mystery at the Stargazer’s Manor
Age level: 10+
Number of Players: 3-8
Game Length: 90 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $17.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: Be transported to an 1869 astronomy observatory. Work together as a team to solve a series of puzzles before time runs out, all win or lose together.
Sushi Go Party!
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-8
Game Length: 20 minutes
Complexity: Easy
Cost: $19.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: This mix and match game puts you in the role of a sushi chef. The rules and basic gameplay are very simple, but that betrays a strategic depth that will keep you coming back.
Best Quick Board Games
Sometimes the best family games are the ones that you can play before the brownies finish baking. These family games each take less than fifteen minutes.
Herbaceous
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 1-4
Game Length: 15-20 minutes
Complexity: Easy
Cost: $17.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: This fifteen-minute game turns you into herb gardeners. You are trying to collect different types of herb sets with a game mechanism that is the perfect combination of strategy and luck.
Happy Salmon
Age level: 6+
Number of Players: 3-6
Game Length: 2 minutes
Complexity: Very Easy
Cost: $12.50
Why Your Family Will Love It: To get rid of your cards, find another player with the same card, perform the action on the card then discard. This freewheeling game will have you high-fiving, fist bumping, and wiggling your arms like a salmon all night.
Kingdomino
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 15-20 minutes
Complexity: 1.26
Cost: $19.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: This updated take on dominoes, where you build a kingdom instead of just connecting numbers, was just nominated for the prestigious “Spiel des Jahres” award.
The Best Family Board Games
Here they are the top board games for families. If you choose any of the best family games on this list, we recommend these.
Flamme Rouge
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 30-45 minutes
Complexity: Difficult
Cost: $44.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: To win this bike race, you must work together to save energy in slipstreams, but then choose the right moment to make the run for the finish line. With many different mechanics, this game will never leave you bored.
Junk Art
Age level: 6+
Number of Players: 2-6
Game Length: 30 minutes
Complexity: Easy
Cost: $27.19
Why Your Family Will Love It: The best family games challenge everyone, yet put everyone on equal footing. Junk Art, where you use plastic blocks to build contraptions in ten different game modes, delivers.
Santorini
Age level: 8+
Number of Players: 2-4
Game Length: 20 minutes
Complexity: Medium
Cost: $49.99
Why Your Family Will Love It: Santorini is based on a simple move-and-build mechanic that betrays its incredible strategic depth. This is one game you will return to over and over again.
