33 games we’ll still be playing in 9 years

It’s hard to believe our family has been reviewing board games for 9 years!

We’ve reviewed over 400 games and written over 350 other game and family-related articles! And our video reviews have close to 1.8 million views!

That not only adds up to a lot of games, but also to a time of time – making and editing videos, taking and editing photos, writing and publishing content, managing a website, and socializing it all.

The great part though is that it also means a lot of time with my wife and kids sitting around and talking with our kids face to face as we play games. It’s hard to put a number on how many hours of together-time we’ve spent playing games.

When they were younger, there were plenty of moments of frustration and anger. Then as they developed and continued to learn good sportsmanship, most game time brought laughter (even in hot competitive moments).

And now that 2 of them have left home and the other 2 are in high school with various other activities pulling them away from home, the amount of game time together has dwindled. Instead, my wife and I look for any activity we can to interact with them. Here and there it will include some game time.

But it also means the type of games we’re playing together has changed.

I’m sure you’ll find the same with your family.

With all that on my mind, I’ve been reflecting about the games we’ve played the most over the past 9 years and trying to predict the games we’ll still be playing 9 years from now.

It’s interesting to think about. Because in 9 years, all our kids will be out of the house and we’ll most likely have grandkids in the mix (woah, that’s weird to think about). That means more 2-player and lighter games hitting the table for my wife and I. And it also means pulling out younger kid games again for grandkids. But I’ll also still have game nights with my boys, so games they love to play make the list as well.

For sure we’ll add more new family board games into the mix in the coming years, but those can’t really be predicted. So instead, this list only includes currently existing board games, card games, dice games, and party games.

• Sequence
• Ticket to Ride: Europe
• Telestrations
• Codenames: Duet
• Patchwork
• 7 Wonders
• 7 Wonders Duel
• City Square Off
• Century: Golem edition
• Deception: Murder in Hong Kong
• Pandemic
• Potion Explosion
• Roll Through the Ages
• Carcassonne (various versions)
• Clue (various versions)
• Tsuro
• Wits & Wagers Family
• Kingdom Builder
• Dominion
• Kingdomino
• Karuba
• Memoir ’44
• RoboRally
• Thunderstone Quest
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• The Resistance
• Code 777
• Ultimate Mastermind
• Sounds Like a Plan
• Catch Phrase
• Reverse Charades
• Spot It
• Animal Upon Animal

When I look over our board games, I see many more that could potentially make the list (that’s why they’re staying on our shelves). But this list represents the games I see us still playing with regularity in 9 years.

These are the board games standing the test of time in our family.

(The list of games I see us still playing at our monthly game night with buddies in 9 years will have to be its own list…)

What family board games will your family still be playing in 9 years?

Note: Hitting this 9-year mark has also prompted me to make a switch to our website design as well. Regular visitors will have already noticed a big visual change on our site. Over the next few weeks you’ll see a few more changes as we work through our design ideas. Thanks for your feedback and patience.