Best Board Games for Families

It’s always a good time to play a good game with your family. Whether it’s throwing a ball around outside, dealing out a favorite card game, or busting out a favorite family board game, family play is good for everyone — parents, included.

Board games can be some of the best family games to play. Plan a family night tonight!

What is a board game?

Technically, a board game is a table top game that includes a playing board or surface along with playing pieces that you move on the board, such as in chess, checkers, or backgammon.

As these types of strategy games have evolved, the playing surfaces have changed; some may not be exactly flat as a board but vertical or shaped.

Why Play Board Games

They’re screen free. Any time you get the family to put down their devices is a good time. It helps everyone’s brain and interpersonal communication skills.

Board games are easy to set up. With a classic board game, you don’t have to spend time searching for a family fun activity. Just open the box and set up the game.

There are games for multiple players and varying skills. There are so many options for board games and even ways that you can customize them for your particular family. 

You build great memories with board games. Playing board games together as a family builds shared memories, especially when you revisit some of the best board games for families, classics like Clue or Monopoly over and over again. Cozying up on a fall evening with a board game is top of the list of fun fall activities for kids.

Board games make great gifts. Near Christmas you can usually find the best board games for families on sale as they make great frugal gifts. Watch the prices so you can snatch them up to gift to friends and family.

The Best Board Games for Families

Looking for some new games to add to your family game night? These are some of the best board games for families:

Mancala – Mancala is a strategy game where you move the stones from cup to cup on a playing board, with the intent to capture your opponent’s pieces.

Qwirkle – Qwirkle involves matching colors and shapes on tiles to earn points.

Gobblet – Gobblet involves nesting wooden pieces that must be strategically placed on the board to complete a consecutive line.

Yahtzee – Yahtzee is a dice game based on poker, where you want to roll a hand based on certain numbers to earn points. While it does not include a physical board, it is often categorized as a board game.

Boggle – Boggle is a timed, lettered dice game where you create words based on the letters shown on the dice. There is a Boggle Jr. option as well which is great for beginning readers and spellers.

Monopoly – Monopoly is a board game where you move around the board, buying property and paying or collecting rent. There are many, many adaptations of this classic board game, from many, many versions of Monopoly Jr. to those that manifest a favorite movie, book, tv show, or even your hometown. The best, in my experience, was Monopoly Empire which allows for very quick game play. Watch for it used at garage sales and thrift stores as it’s been discontinued.

Connect Four – The board for Connect Four is a vertical standing slot, similar to tic-tac-toe. Players take turns adding tokens until someone connects four tokens of the same color.

Scrabble – Scrabble is a board game in which you create words based on the tiles you draw from a bag. Points are won based on the length and complexity of the words formed. Quiddler is a fun card game adapted from Scrabble.

Clue – Originally named Cluedo, this game has been around for almost 60 years. Find out whodunnit based on a process of elimination.

Abducktion – Aliens and little plastic ducks? What’s not to love? This quick-play strategy game requires you to match your ducks to the cards to gain points.

Trivial Pursuit – The original Trivial Pursuit swept the 80s by storm as players worked to fill their pieces with wedges of different colors, representing different information categories, such as History, Literature, or Sports and Leisure. The Trivial Pursuit Family version was a huge hit with our kids with its separate adult and kids cards.

Blokus – Blokus is a fun game of laying tile pieces across the board so as to place all your pieces and prevent your opponents from laying theirs.

Other popular board games include: Catan, Ticket to Ride, Everdell, Life, Sorry, and Battleship. Shop all our recs on Amazon.

Ways to Customize the Best Board Games for Families

Most board games come with special tokens, cards, and rules, but don’t hesitate to change these out to better suit your family culture. Here are some ideas — just stay consistent with the family strategy that you create:

1. Use your kids’ favorite action figures for playing pieces instead of what comes in the box.
2. Set a time limit and customize the rules to suit your own family. I created The Smart Mom’s Guide to Playing Monopoly before they made easier adaptations of the classic board game.
3. Write trivia cards for family lore instead of using cards that come with the boxed board game.
4. Has your board games collection grown too large but you’re not sure what to discard? Tape every box shut and set a reminder on your calendar for six months from now. In six months’ time, donate whatever games have not been played. You’ll know because they’ll still be taped shut. Pro tip: don’t tell your kids you’re doing this!

Have you got a favorite board game for families? Let us know in the comments!