With so many board games out there, it’s tough to know which ones are designed for grown-ups, and which ones are the best board games for groups of adults to sit down and play.
Video games are fantastic, but unfortunately, they’re not everyone’s cup of tea. They’re also not the easiest things to get into with friends, relatives, friend group, or a partner who just wants to spend a nice evening together. That’s where board games can step up, giving you something you’ll all enjoy playing without having to look at a screen or pick up a controller.
The best grown-up board games for adults to play that have longevity and replayability
Below, I’ve listed the best grown-up board games for adults that I’ve come across. My friends and I get together a couple of times a month to play board games and we’ve managed to have a great time with every single one of them. Some are easier to get into than others, but you should give all of them a chance if you can.
25. Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Players: 1-4
- Session length: 60-120 minutes per game
Arkham Horror: The Card Game is the perfect gateway game into the Arkham Horror universe. You set up a campaign, which can be changed in the future to keep things fresh, then build a deck for your character. The game unfolds as you explore the mystery at the heart of that particular session using the characters you’ve created and their abilities across every card you hold.
With games lasting between 1 and 2 hours, it’s definitely not the shortest board game out there. However, as I mentioned already, it’s a great way to open up a group of friends to lengthier games. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is also a game that you’ll learn as you go instead of one that requires an intense amount of setup and knowledge before it can be played.
24. Scrabble
- Players: 1-4
- Session length: 30-60 minutes per game
Most, if not all, people know of and have played Scrabble before, even if it’s the tiny travel version. This game is all about getting creative with letters, crafting the biggest words you can from the seven you have at any given time while optimizing your word placement to get the highest score possible.
It’s not a complex game, but it can certainly go on for a long time if you’re playing with a group of people who are really serious about it. For example, my mother-in-law plays Scrabble weekly and often requires a timer to keep her in check, but produces the longest words every turn. I have to go for a lot of two-letter words myself.
23. The Traitors Card Game
- Players: 4-6
- Session length: 40-60 minutes per game
For those familiar with the various iterations of the TV show, yes, this is the game of that show you and I adore. It was designed by the showmakers themselves, though with some of the challenges in the early series, I can’t say that fills me with too much confidence.
Think of The Traitors when trying to understand the card game, with a few Traitor characters and the remaining players all Faithful. The goal here is to work out who the Traitors are and get rid of them quickly, but you’ve got to act on what you know because you haven’t got morning-until-night to watch everyone before a roundtable in this game. What makes this a great game is that everyone knows the show, so everyone’s willing to give it a try at least once.
22. Blokus
- Players: 2-4
- Session length: 10-20 minutes per game
Blokus is a phenomenal little board game that my in-laws got my wife and I hooked on. Between two and four players each take a tile set, defined by color, and must set as many as they can out on the board in turns. The catch is that your pieces must only touch each other at corners, with no sides coming together to muddy the shapes.
This game gets really interesting because you have to find ways of sneaking through your opponent’s pieces in the corners where they’re connected, filling up the gaps behind them in their play space. By the end, you’ve all created a stained glass board that looks stunning and really satisfying. Nothing is better than laying down your last piece when everyone else gave up five turns ago, though.
21. Exploding Kittens
- Players: 2-5
- Session length: 10-15 minutes per game
Exploding Kittens is a very interesting game that can last a while or end incredibly fast, depending on the cards you’re dealt. It’s a Russian Roulette card game with cards featuring all sorts of kittens, from cute to absolutely terrifying.
It’ll last longer with more players, but it’s still a blast to play with just two people. The only thing I’ll say is that it gets old fast the fewer players there are. This is a game designed for larger parties, and there’s even a bigger Party version that opens it up for up to 10 players, which is a blast.
20. The Initiative
- Players: 1-4
- Session length: 30-60 minutes per game
The Initiative is a great board game that can carry you and a group through several sessions without the need to set up an entire D&D campaign. The game puts you in the shoes of teenagers in 1944 who stumble upon a game called The Key, and you’ll be playing it during a pivotal point in their lives.
What I love most about The Initiative is how the story moves forward. Each session starts with you reading a page from a comic book. Regardless of whether you fail or succeed in the previous mission, the story always moves on. Of course, winning will benefit you in the next session. It’s a game that you actively look forward to playing, and splitting it up over days or weeks only heightens the anticipation.
19. Men at Work
- Players: 2-5
- Session length: 30-45 minutes per game
With three gaming modes on offer, Men at Work builds upon stick-stacking games by bringing the corporate world into it. You’ve got to work with others to build a tower, without it all crashing down and killing someone. If you perform well, you might even earn Employee of the Month and a little bonus.
The frustrating and enjoyable part of this game is working with and against others. You want someone to set you up for an easy turn, but you also want them to fail so you stand a better chance of winning. This juxtaposition in gameplay really draws you in.
18. What Do You Meme?
- Players: 3-20
- Session length: 15-30 minutes per game
What Do You Meme? is a fun little card game you can play with a massive group. The more people there are, the better, but I’ve played this with a smaller bunch and it was still good. The game throws all sorts of challenges at you that you need to answer by creating your own memes. That might sound easy, but trust me, it’s not.
One of the challenges is to create a meme that responds to a riddle or question. The person asking the question is the judge of who wins, so you’ve also got to play to personal preferences, making every single time you sit down to play unique.
17. Coup
- Players: 2-6
- Session length: 15 minutes per game
Coup is a fabulous game to whip out with a group of people who all want to play together, but don’t have much time. It’s simple: you need to be the last one with influence at the end of the game. You’re the head of a controlling family and must collect as much power, equating to face-down character cards, as possible. You achieve this through bribery, bluffing, and manipulation.
Don’t let the surface-level simplicity put you off. This is a game where I like to adopt a persona when playing, to make it more interesting. You can create lifelong rivalries or friendships out of thin air, and cause everyone else to work with or against you. There’s more than enough space to make your own fun with this one.
16. Chronicles of Crime
- Players: 1-4
- Session length: 60-90 minutes per game
In Chronicles of Crime, you use an app to dive into a crime and must solve it as quickly as possible. The application might be one extra thing you need, but it makes for endless replayability. There are also optional VR glasses you can buy to get into the crime even deeper, but they’re not essential.
A group of people solving a crime together always makes for an interesting session. Everyone has a different opinion, and you’ll often have to convince others of your hypothesis over their own. There’s so much scope for conversations to overrun and for your characters to emerge.
15. Wormholes
- Players: 1-5
- Session length: 45-60 minutes per game
In Wormholes, you ferry passengers from one part of the universe to the next as quickly as you can. You’re a captain and want to beat every other captain to have the best reputation and the most cash at the end of the game.
The trouble is, you’ve got to work out the best route that’s going to earn you the most money and reputation. This is all done by building wormholes, but everyone else is doing the same thing. The board gets cluttered fast with this one, making for an intricate evening of deals.
14. The Light in the Mist
- Players: 1-4
- Session length: 5+ hours per game
Yes, five hours of your life is an incredibly long time to ask of you for an adult board game, but this one is very different from anything else you’ll have played. The Light in the Mist is a Tarot deck puzzle game that will take you on a journey unlike any other you’ve played before.
The disappearance of a friend leads to the discovery of a mysterious item and the beginning of a life-changing journey. You’ll use the cards in this game to open portals, cast spells, travel great distances, and so much more. It’s a narrative experience you’ve got to let yourself get lost in, one that’s worth the amount of time it asks of you.
13. Pandemic
- Players: 2-4
- Session length: 45 minutes per game
If you prefer adult board games that task you with working together instead of competing against one another, then Pandemic is for you. Players work cooperatively using their character’s strengths to cure a disease before it completely overruns the world.
You’ll only succeed if you think about how you can work with others to contain and eradicate outbreaks and epidemics. I like this one for exactly this reason. It’s just nice to sometimes sit down and work with a group of players instead of against them.
12. Cluedo
- Players: 2-6
- Session length: 45 minutes per game
Cluedo needs a very little introduction. I’ve played hours of this, both as a board game and on my smartphone, because I just can’t get enough of it. Every player is gathered in a single location for an evening when someone is murdered, and the guests must figure out who did it, where, when, and with what.
This game is fantastic because of its near-infinite replayability. No game is the same, with a new person being the murderer every time, even if they’re physically the same person. It’s another game in which you can bring out a character to enhance the enjoyment or frustration of fellow players. It’s been around for donkey’s years and is definitely an adult board game you should try out if you haven’t already.
11. Songbirds
- Players: 2-4
- Session length: 20 minutes per game
In Songbirds, players take on the role of forest spirits who must guide their bird to as many points on the board as possible. It’s a pretty simple game consisting of grids that you build up over the course of each game until the board is full, and you must count out who emerges as the victor. But that rapid completion time only makes it a better adult board game, because you actively want to jump into another game as soon as one finishes.
10. 7 Wonders
- Players: 3-7
- Session length: 30 minutes per game
7 Wonders is a game that feels very similar to the Civilization 4X games. Each player controls a great city of antiquity and must develop it through scientific discoveries, military conquests, huge commercial booms, and building prestigious structures to set them apart from every other city in the game. If you really love the idea of large-scale building within an adult board game, this is one to play.
9. Carcassonne
- Players: 2-5
- Session length: 45 minutes per game
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Carcassonne from my friend group. They keep begging me to come over and play it, and I take that as a sign this is a decent board game because we’re too old, tired, and limited on our free time to waste what little of it there is on a bad adult board game.
In Carcassonne, you develop a medieval fortress city tile by tile. You convert the countryside, gain followers, and then use them to help you claim victory over your opponents. It’s a little combative but it’s very much more about the city-building aspect than tiresome war.
8. Dustbiters
- Players: 2
- Session length: 15 minutes per game
Dustbiters is a post-apocalyptic car-based card game based on quick rounds that are all about having as much fun as possible without getting bogged down in too many rules. Created by a small team, it’s the result of a lot of playtesting, with the aim of making something that never gets old because you pull it out to play at the pub or when you’re out for a cheeky coffee.
You only get three moves per turn and must use them to destroy or outlast your opponents. Every vehicle is different, and you have to work with the cards you’re dealt. I love this type of game because there’s a lot of chance involved, but strategy can carry you through a bad hand, too.
7. Wingspan
- Players: 1-5
- Session length: 40-70 minutes per game
I won’t lie to you, Wingspan is a slog. The video game is much easier to get into and play, but this was an adult board game first and a pretty popular one at that. The reason it’s so difficult to get into is that it’s got a few bonkers rules you won’t have encountered before, but they make for a great session once you actually start to play.
The goal of the game is to become a bird watcher and collector and collect your birds. You’ve got to get food, identify each species, and make the most of the time you have to beat your opponents. There are even expansions to Wingspan that make it go on for longer, but you’re going to want to master this base game first.
6. Any Exit Game
- Players: Almost any number
- Session length: Depends on the game.
The Exit games are incredible, but you can only play most of them once. They’re basically escape room games, or mysteries that are incredibly involved and can last for hours if you want them to. They each have some reusable elements, but also parts that you’ll need to rip, soak, and do all manner of other things to so you can uncover clues that will help you complete them. I think these are some of the best adult board games out there, and you will, too, once you try them out.
5. Codenames
- Players: 2-8
- Session length: 20 minutes per game
My wife introduced me to Codenames, which is how you know it’s good. It’s a game about being a spymaster and making contact with your spies before your opponent does, a type of Cold War minigame. You guess words of the right color while simultaneously avoiding the words of your opponent’s color, which gets super tricky by the endgame.
This game is relatively cheap and very replayable. It’s an adult board game you can introduce pretty much anyone to and guarantee they’ll have a good time with it. The rules are simple, the box is small and unimposing, and everyone has a bit of a laugh when they eventually give it a try.
4. Alice is Missing
- Players: 3-5
- Session length: 2-3 hours per game
If you go with one adult board game from this list, let it be Alice is Missing. It’s a silent roleplaying game, yes, where you play as friends searching for the titular missing Alice. You spend a good chunk of the early game creating a character and figuring out who they are before even playing.
The bulk of the game, and what makes it silent, is using your phone. You’ll be texting the other players, trying to figure out where Alice is through the information you’ve been given. It’s so different, but also really enjoyable and a good game to whack out if your group needs something completely off the rails to try out.
3. Ticket to Ride
- Players: 2-5
- Session length: 30-60 minutes per game
Ticket to Ride is another game on this list that’s been around long enough and is popular enough to have video game versions that I’ve played. The goal is to build your railway before your opponent and build the best adventure through Europe possible.
What makes this a particularly good adult board game is that it’s easy to learn. Sure, it’s complicated once you’ve played a few rounds and want to try to create the longest track possible, but it’s a good one you can pick up with a bunch of friends without fear of reading about it for three hours before playing.
2. Risk
- Players: 2-5
- Session length: 60 minutes+ per game
Risk really is a game that could go on forever. I once played one that went over multiple evenings across a few weeks. We had to take pictures of the board each time to make sure we set everything up correctly at the next session and could continue.
This is one of the best adult board games on the market for exactly that reason. It can go on and on; it can cause friendships to end, and it’s a glorious battle about overthrowing your neighbors and betraying everyone. You’ll be building an army and throwing your friends under the bus before you know it. It’s also shockingly easy to learn, so there’s no need to be afraid to dive in.
1. Settlers of Catan
- Players: 3-4
- Session length: 60 minutes+ per game
You really do need at least three players for Settlers of Catan, because trading is a big part of the game. Every player begins with settlements on specific tiles, and those tiles award resources on certain dice rolls. Players roll the dice each turn and must build or trade to build if they want to win. The thing is, everyone wants to win.
I can’t get enough of this game. I put on a proper character and go hell for leather, trying to beat my friends in strange ways. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t, but we’ve never had a bad game. Getting into it as a newcomer isn’t too challenging if you’re in a group who get it, so pick it up, throw everyone into it, and fight it out for the longest road, biggest army, and build as many cities as you can with all the sheep you’ll accumulate.
Published: Apr 29, 2024 10:03 am