Best Selling Board Games and Card Games
The other day I was looking at what the recent top selling board games are – to see what consumers feel are the best board games. There a few different sources to check to find out which board games are sold the most. One of those sources is ICv2 which tracks a number of gaming hobbies.
They periodically post a list of top selling hobby games based on interviews with retailers, distributors, and manufacturers. The most recent is from this summer and lists the Top 10 Board Games – Summer 2012 and Top 10 Card Games – Summer 2012.
Click on the game name to see our video and written review.
| Top 10 Hobby Games | ||
| Rank | Top 10 Board Games | Top 10 Card Games |
| 1 | Settlers of Catan | Munchkin |
| 2 | Ticket to Ride | Dominion |
| 3 | Small World | 7 Wonders |
| 4 | Eclipse | Ascension |
| 5 | Descent | Quarriors |
| 6 | Mage Knight | BANG! |
| 7 | Pandemic | Lord of the Rings LCG |
| 8 | Carcassonne | Dixit |
| 9 | Call of Cthulhu | Infiltration |
| 10 | Tsuro | Fluxx |
Speaking from the board game hobby industry, we feel pretty confident in this source. But we’d say the majority of board games that a family buys aren’t from a game hobby store. Most are purchased at big box stores where there’s typically just a small selection of great board games and card games.
Another place a lot of families buy games is online – the most popular being Amazon. Its like another huge big box store but with a much wider range of games. And Amazon makes it easy to see what the Best Sellers are. Browse to a category on Amazon and you can easily get to their Best Sellers.
Among their list of Top 100 Best Selling Board Games are a lot of the board games we’ve reviewed.
One of the cool things you can see on the Amazon list is how long each game has been on the Best Sellers list. For example, Spot It is currently at the #1 spot on both the Board Games and Card Games Best Sellers list and has spent 711 days in the Top 100 of the Games category overall.
| Board Game Review | Spot in the Top 100 Board Games | Days in the Top 100 Games |
|---|---|---|
| Spot It | 1 | 711 |
| Qwirkle | 4 | 1,202 |
| Ticket to Ride | 7 | 490 |
| Settlers of Catan | 9 | 1,797 |
| Wits and Wagers | 16 | 987 |
| Clue | 23 | 758 |
| Blokus | 30 | 1,271 |
| Wits and Wagers Family | 34 | 71 |
| Ticket to Ride: Europe | 36 | 1,426 |
| Pandemic | 39 | 925 |
| Dominion | 40 | 1,197 |
| Carcassonne | 42 | 1,186 |
| Reverse Charades | 56 | 9 |
| 7 Wonders | 60 | |
| Sequence | 70 | |
| Say Anything Family Edition | 73 | |
| Dixit Odyssey | 78 | |
| Tsuro | 96 |
Looking at the Card Games Best Sellers list there are a bunch more that we’ve reviewed as well. Of course we have no idea why Forbidden Island shows up on the card games list instead of board games, but it’s great to see it on a best sellers list regardless.
| Card Game Review | Spot in Top 100 Card Games | Days in Top 100 Games |
|---|---|---|
| Spot It | 1 | 711 |
| Forbidden Island | 12 | 920 |
| Tell Tale | 32 | |
| BANG! | 47 | |
| Anomia | 53 |
What’s amazing to see is how long some board games have been on the Top 100 Best Selling Games lists. A few that we haven’t posted reviews of but still enjoy playing as a family are:
- Apples to Apples – 1,716 days in the top 100
- Rummikub – 1,975 days
- Set – 2,260 days
- Taboo
- Racko-O
- Pit
- Skip Bo
- Jenga
And what about the most popular family board games that everyone is familiar with? How long have some of them been in the Top 100 Board Game Best Sellers on Amazon?
- Monopoly – 2,712 days
- Sorry – 2,738 days
- The Game of Life – 2,779 days
- Trouble – 2,914 days
- Candy Land – 3,160 days
That’s over 7 years for Monopoly and almost 9 years for Candy Land!
These best selling lists have some great family board games and card games – a ton of which we haven’t posted reviews of. But if you like to get a glimpse of what a game is like before you buy it, then definitely take a look at our game reviews lists and see which we’ve rated the highest.
Starting last week we also started posting Top X lists of members of our family to show what’s at the top of their board game, card game, and party game lists.
So far we’ve posted:
- Mom’s Top 12 Board Games
- Jaden’s Top 11 Board Games
- Trevor, Brooke, Caleb and Dad are still to come.
We’ll also be updating our Board Game Gift Guide later this week for 2012.
There are plenty to choose from and it’s hard to go wrong. Board games are just a great way to get the family together and have some fun!
Very interesting post. I have 5 copies of Candy Land myself. No Monopoly or Sorry though.
The top hobby games is kind of interesting too. Is it by number of copies sold or is there an element of cost? Just wondering because Eclipse is very expensive, I find it surprising it’s #4.