We can all probably list a game or two that we played in our younger years with family members – Clue, Monopoly, Scrabble, or even obscure games that just became family favorites. What games are those games for your family? Or, more importantly, what games could become that special for your family? Whether you prefer card games, or dexterity games, or whether your family is old or young, we’ve collated the best board games for your family. Each one can facilitate some beautiful wholesome moments of connection, giving you the best excuse to get together, spend some quality time with family, and create incredible memories during family game night. Classic games like Cranium and tic-tac-toe have stood the test of time, engaging families across generations.
What are the Best Family Board Games for Families?
Family board games are a fantastic way to bring together players of all ages, fostering family bonding and creating engaging game nights. They offer inclusivity and enjoyment, making them suitable for various skill levels and ensuring everyone has a great time.
Dixit
By: Libellud
Players: 3-8
Time: 30 minutes
Choose your words carefully with Dixit
Dixit is a fantastic game of beautiful abstract art, and a delve into how we might use language. Whilst that might sound fancy, actually it’s an easy, engaging and fun game that’s perfect for all ages and interests.
Players have a hand of cards that have different images on them. The images are beautiful but often unusual – like an abacus of planets, or a cat behind a moon for example – which are sometimes described as dreamlike and are certainly whimsical. One player will need to give a hint, place down a card that suits that, and fellow players will use the same hint to select cards from their hand. Votes then take place as to which card is thought to be the hint givers card, but the twist here is that the most points are for splitting the vote. You don’t want to give a hint so that everyone knows it’s yours, but equally, you don’t want to be too vague that you get no votes at all.
Dixit draws you in with pretty pictures and has you pondering your precise words (and how your fellow players might consider them). Whilst this is a truly fun element, it’s also letting families share moments of thought and reflection, and of how others might think too. Like other cooperative games, Dixit fosters teamwork and collaboration among players. Plus, outside of the rules, there’s no reading necessary, so no one needs to feel excluded.
Check out our full Dixit game review here.
Ticket to Ride: New York
By: Days of Wonder
Players: 2-4
Time: 10-15 minutes
Good things come in small packages – Ticket to Ride: New York is a fantastic alternative to the classic game Ticket to Ride.
Ticket to Ride is very much a family favorite for many, and often a pathway into playing even more board games. It falls back on a familiar concept – everyone knows trains and understands there are routes to take. At its simplest, it is just connecting routes for points by getting enough cards of that color. Points are earned for completed routes, as well as overarching goals, and unsurprisingly it is a race to get more points than your opponents by the end of the game. You end up with a map of a location covered in tiny trains claiming routes, and one very pleased winner!
The classic version covers North America, with a version focussing on Europe being almost equally popular. However, a variation on Ticket to Ride is their city range, which includes the likes of San Francisco, London, and New York. These are slightly more specialized versions of the original game, with nods to the city in which it is based but are notably smaller and quicker to play. For Ticket to Ride: New York, the setting is the 1960’s, and the trains are switched for cabs. You can get through a game in about 15 minutes in a quick run.
Certainly, you could play either the original variant or this smaller one (or even others – Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West is a sprawling explorative game that prioritizes the experience, meaning you can only play it once, which has won award upon award), but sometimes the shorter version earns its place on the shelf. With a less intimidating box, less storage space, less time, but all the best parts of the gameplay, it’s a great option to try something different.
Wavelength
By: CMYK
Players: 2-12
Time: 30-45 minutes
Read the minds of family members, to find out if you really are on the same wavelength.
Wavelength is a fantastic family board game. It’s all about trying to figure out where something lies on a spectrum, based on a clue given by one player. As a cooperative game, it encourages players to work together to figure out clues and understand each other’s thinking. It may sound simple, but the prompts are fantastic at really making you think, and as a player, puzzling over exactly what the clue giver may have been thinking!
The game is best in action. Inside the box is a wheel, which, after a spin, points to a certain area. It’s a half circle, but let’s say the highlighted area, if it were a clock, is at 9:30. One player sees this, and then pulls the cover over it so no one else can see where it landed. It is that player’s job to give a clue that lets the other players figure out where it pointed, based on a prompt drawn.
The prompts could be anything – Hot/Cold, Best Food/Worst Food for example. If it were Hero to the left, and Villain to the right, you might consider saying something like “Hercules” – he’s a near perfect hero – and hope that your fellow players think the same of him. They’ll move the pointer to where they think they’re being guided to, and the answer is then revealed. The game gets much harder when it’s more opinion based, such as when something is the best or worst. You’ll see players trying to figure out what they’d think of it, before watching them switch to trying to second guess what you would have thought – but perhaps you were trying to think of what they would think!
It’s a game that works brilliantly in practice, with a tactile wheel component, and tons of prompts suitable for all ages – plus, you can easily create and add in your own. In fact, Wavelength works with so many audiences (just change your prompts accordingly), but it’s perfect for families – no prior knowledge of trivia or facts are required, because it’s all about what the clue giver might think. A versatile game that promises a lot of fun.
We also recommend Wavelength as one of our Best Party Games.
CDSK
By: Randolph
Players: 2-16
Time: 40-80 minutes
Upgrade your trivia night to a fantastic family game, with CDSK.
We might once have said that Trivial Pursuit is a family game, but these days we have even greater trivia options – and one such is CDSK. Whilst it has a familiar format of a question and an answer, with a token moving towards the end goal, it’s less about what you know, and far more about how confident you are in that knowledge.
Each question card has a topic, and a list of ten questions on it that increase in difficulty. The player will be asked to declare how well they know that topic and are asked the question that lines up with their response. These could be incredibly easy – on the topic of Pies, the question would range from “Do you want pie right now?” to a question on which politician banned pies in the 17th century. If the player gets the answer right, they move forward that many points, so it can be a game of pushing your luck – if you think you could bet a six, but you need an eight to overtake your opponent, you might choose to risk it.
The reason this works so well for families is that slow and steady frequently does win the race. You don’t need to know everything about the topics that could come up, and you certainly won’t – the topics vary significantly – but that means there’s not a huge advantage to being older and having more knowledge. Consistency in the easier questions could be the difference between a win or a loss. It’s a great family game, one you can explain and get playing in mere moments. CDSK is a fantastic addition to any collection of family board games, fostering inclusivity and enjoyment for players of all ages.
In the Footsteps of Darwin
Players: 2-5
Time: 20-30 minutes
A lesson on Charles Darwin in a fun board game.
One of the biggest awards in board gaming is the Spiel des Jahres, a German award that picks the best family game from those released in German. Huge names like Catan have been previous winners, and so one can relatively confidently find perfect family games within its winners and nominees. In the Footsteps of Darwin is one such game, which was nominated for the prestigious award this year.
The game sees you supporting Darwin in his research for On the Origin of Species. Players will sail on famous ship The Beagle, looking to discover animals, with the goal of collecting twelve tiles, obtaining animal or historical figures from the column or row where the ship currently is. Which tiles you collect depend on the element you’re trying to strive for, such as a specific collection of animals, all of which you’re hoping will demonstrate that you have the bigger contribution to the book than your fellow players. It’s a fun game, with a little historical theming, that means you can play and learn at the same time.
In the Footsteps of Darwin is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for younger players, with simpler rules and engaging gameplay.
Whilst games that have an educational element can sometimes feel dry and uninspired, In the Footsteps of Darwin is a game that is inspired by its theme, rather than restricted by it. The game feels like a labour of love from its creators, with stunning art and gorgeous components. It’s a phenomenal game to look at, and one the family will find themselves requesting again and again.
ICECOOL
By: Brain Games
Players: 2-4
Time: 30 minutes
Flicking, twisting, moving – ICECOOL is a guaranteed win for the family.
The best thing about ICECOOL, is that anyone can do it, but you’ve got to keep playing to get truly epic at it. ICECOOL is specifically designed to engage young kids with its simple rules and fun gameplay. ICECOOL is another game recognised by the Spiel des Jahres awards, much like In the Footsteps of Darwin above, but this time it won the Kinderspiel des Jahres Award, which is specifically aimed at games for children, as well as a whole host of other gaming awards.
ICECOOL asks you to flick a penguin around, where you’re trying to pick up fish quickly before being caught by the hall monitor. The inside of the box where you play resembles a cartoon version of what a penguin school could look like, complete with walls and doors, and it’s up to you to negotiate those hurdles. You might think it’s a simple task of flicking them from room to room, but with some perfectly placed inclines and a practice or two, you can have the penguins heading around corners, and pulling off some incredible feats of dexterity.
Unsurprisingly, this game saw its time on TikTok, with some extra-impressive trick shots.
It’s always nice for a game to appeal to the younger family members, but which the older ones can really get their teeth into. You can watch as people begin flicking penguins hesitantly, with perhaps some reluctance, only to begin to get competitive, watch with bated breath for that incredible shot, and cheer along when something cool happens. Practice does make you better at this game, but where that fails, there’s an element of luck (accidentally doing an incredible trick shot is still completing an incredible trick shot) that sees everyone being absorbed, smiling and getting involved.
We’ve listed ICECOOL as one of the top 6 dexterity games for kids too!
Scout
By: Oink Games
Players: 2-5
Time: 15 minutes
The card game Scout may be a little different to Uno, but it’s just as fun! Scout is designed to be accessible and enjoyable for younger kids, with simple rules and engaging gameplay.
Nestled in a tiny box smaller than most phones (though admittedly thicker), is Scout, a card game of numbers and combinations. The goal is to score as many points as you can, and you do so by laying down combinations of cards – that might be because they’re the same number, or it might be that you’ve got a run of ascending cards. Sounds simple, right?
Whilst the logic is, Scout puts a fun twist on it, by making it that you can’t change the order of the cards in your hand. Once you’ve picked them up, that’s it, there’s no moving them. Instead, you need to play down the card combinations, but the combination must be better than the one before it, and/or you can scout for a card from combinations that have been played by other players, which you can add to your hand wherever you want to. You get points for what you put down, but additional points when someone scouts your cards, but the nice additional part is that the cards actually contain two numbers, so when scouting, there are more choices that might help you get that perfect combination.
Scout starts off as a simple card game of looking for patterns in your hand, but after a while it becomes about what combinations you can make – if you play THESE CARDS, that will move THESE cards next to each other, which you can play again, or you can take THAT CARD to make an even better run…Before you know it, you’re planning three steps ahead and launching into some truly epic combinations. It’s a quick game to play, easy to understand, and conveniently sized, making it easy to take with you and launch into an impromptu game with.
If you enjoy card games, we’ve got a list of great ones to spice up your game night!
Just One
By: Repos Production
Players: 3-7
Time: 20 minutes
Offer the best clue – that no one else has given!
Just One is a guessing style game with a fun twist – that’s best explained by getting playing. It has quickly become one of the favorite games for many families due to its engaging and fun gameplay. Perhaps you’re the guessing player. You’ve picked a number (let’s say 3), and the hinting players now know that on the list of words, they need to get you to guess the third word on the card.
Unbeknownst to you, the players are writing their hints, and sharing them amongst themselves. One writes down “Paddling”, the other writes down “Table”. The other two though, write down the word “Swimming”. There can be only one of any hint – and the penalty is that now, “Swimming” is taken away entirely. The clues are revealed, and now you need to figure out what the original word is from the hints “Paddling” and “Table”.
In this example, the word was Pool – but if you guessed that already, that’s half the fun! The hint giving players need to figure out not only how to make you guess the word, but how to do so in a way that no one else will have attempted to do. Of course, you could go for the obvious one, but you’ll have to hope no one else does!
Just One as a result is a simple, easy to play game that has you not only trying to figure out words from obscure clues, but on the other side, trying to read the minds of your fellow players as to what kind of hint they may give – or figure out if they’re trying to think differently themselves. It’s a fun mix of social play and questions, after all, no one ever thinks exactly the same, and an insight into a family member’s thought process can offer some hilarious results. It’s made even better by the fact it’s quite easy to play virtually – so if you’ve a blended family, or perhaps family members at college or living elsewhere, you can still have the best game night.
We recommend Just One in our best Party Games
Conclusion
Whatever your family composition, whether you’ve got older family members, especially young family members, or any and all in between, board games have always been a unifying choice. Many of the games mentioned are designed for three to eight players, making them versatile and suitable for various group sizes. What better than to sit and make memories together? Our list offers board games to suit different experience levels, ensuring that the games can be ready to play quickly, easily, and will hold the players attention, no matter how young or old they may be. In no time at all, it’ll be “remember when this happened?”, followed by “can we play this again?”.
If you’re looking for games suitable for a younger family member, we’ve curated a number of lists to find you the very best board games for their age and development, whether they’re 4 or 13!
FAQ
What age is Scout suitable for younger kids?
Scout is suitable for players aged 8 and above, making it a great choice for families and fun gatherings.
How long does a game of Just One typically last?
A game of Just One usually lasts around 20 minutes, making it perfect for quick rounds or extended play sessions.
Can the games be played virtually?
Yes, many of these games, including Just One and Wavelength can easily be played virtually.
How many players can enjoy these games at once?
Scout accommodates 2 to 5 players, while Just One can be played with 3 to 7 players, ensuring fun for various group sizes.
Are these games easy to learn for new players?
Absolutely! Both games feature simple rules and gameplay mechanics, making them easy for new players to pick up and enjoy without any prior experience.