Here are the Best Board Games for Every Age & Occasion
Game on! 🙌
Board games and card games are such a fun and frugal source of entertainment for the whole family – and they make great gifts, too! But finding ways to save money when buying games is even better, right?!
If you’re looking to add to your game collection while saving a few bucks at the same time, check out these tips before purchasing:
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- Read reviews. If you’re searching for age-appropriate games, try to find reviews that mention those ages and give honest feedback.
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- Make your own version of a game. You may be able to recreate a game with items you already have on hand (dice, a deck of cards, paper, pencils, timer, etc). Plus, you can often find the game manuals online or on the manufacturer’s website.
If you’re looking to add to your game collection or just want to change up your family game night, here are some fun and popular games for all ages – and some of these are our faves, too!
Best Kids Games:
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- Roll & Play (intended for toddlers)
- Spot It! (ages 7 and up)
- Connect 4 Shots (ages 8 and up)
- Lite Brite (ages 4 and up)
- Zingo! (ages 4 and up)
- The Scrambled States of America (ages 8 and up)
- Dixit (ages 8 and up)
- Smart A** (ages 12 and up)
“Ok it has a funny name, but it’s actually a really great, fast-moving trivia game with lots of geography, history, and pop culture questions. My husband always wins, but we still try to beat him every time!” – Smart A** review from Lina at Hip2Save
“Scrambled States has been a favorite of my kiddos, their friends, my nieces, nephews, etc and has made it past my “purges” 13x!” – Irene at Hip2Save
Best Strategy Games:
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- Carcassonne (ages 8 and up)
- Latice Hawaii (ages 8 and up)
- PENTE (ages 8 and up)
- Disney Villainous (ages 10 and up)
- Sequence (ages 7 and up)
- Ticket to Ride (ages 8 and up)
“We picked up Ticket to Ride for our 8 & 10 year olds last Christmas. It was worth the $ and has been played a lot! Its a great learning game for geography and strategy!” – Hip2Save reader, Jane
Best Group Games:
Best Family Games:
“The Game of Things is a fun, entertaining game for any size group and for all ages! Whatever the situation, it’s guaranteed to bring on the laughs. Playing the game is easy and it’s hilarious to see each participant’s responses. We love this game so much that I’ve gifted it to other families! -Irene at Hip2Save
“We have had this game for roughly three days now and have played Throw Throw Burrito every night since receiving it in the mail. My family has multiple closets full of games and this is our favorite, hands down.” -Amazon review
Best Adult Games:
I got Throw Throw Burrito two weeks ago when you had it posted here. We LOVE it!
Thank you for this list. You all are doing such a great job passing on info and the perfect deals for these scary times!
You’re SO welcome, TJ! BIG thanks to YOU for your kind words!🥰 I’ll be sure to pass this along to the team! SO happy you have been enjoying the deals! 🙌
What ages do you have in your home? We are always looking for a new game. Thanks
Four kids. 20, 18, 13 and 7. They all love it!
Bananagrams is a family favorite — even my sisters and their kids love this game. If you like word games (or playing scrabble), then I definitely recommend this game.
Our favorite is Perquacky— it’s a word game where you roll dice and spell out words from the letters that show up.
How neat! Thanks for sharing!
Had a wonderful time playing good ole’ Clue and Life with my young adult kiddos yesterday.
Aww, Clue is fun! We have that one too! My son and I regularly play Jenga!
We love “Spot It”! Fun for all ages! Purchasing for neighbors as well.
Thanks for the feedback, Sandra! Good to know how much fun that one has been!
Our all time favorite for teens/adults is Chronology. It’s very quick to learn and to play, and just about everyone we’ve played it with has gone out and bought their own copy.
Thanks for letting us know what your favorite has been, Melie! I’ll have to check that one out!
You missed the best strategy game of all time! Dominion, and all its expansions. It’s a different game every time you play it! It never seems to go on sale though.
Also, Wingspan is a really fun strategy game in which people can also learn a lot about birds.
Thanks for the suggestions!
We have loved Dominion for many years! My husband just got Wingspan for his birthday in February and it’s our current favorite! We also play a lot of Agricola, Viticulture, 7 Wonders, and Catan-games that take a lot of thought and a lot of time!
We love Dominion!!! It’s a great one! If you like Dominion, you should check out Splendor. We’ve played it almost every day since Christmas!! 😂 Azul is really fun as well!
Another great family and strategy game is Skyjo. We got it last week and our girls want to play it every night. Also love our new addition game of Exploding Kittens, it’s a ton of fun for us to play. Oldies we’ve played and enjoy are Qwarkle and Big Boggle, while nothing beats a solid old fashion game of Monopoly.
Thank you so much for all these suggestions!
Cards against Humanity is very graphic and vulgar. Not even suitable for some adults.
That’s pretty obvious from the name alone. That game is amazing
We love to play exploding kittens. My 7 and 10 year olds play. Wondering why it is classified as an “adult” game?
Yes we have exploding kittens as well for my 8 and 10 year old. I was wondering the same thing 😂
It was designed for adults, which is why it is labeled that way. But it is suitable for kids that are raised to be able to handle that type of game. “Despite the name, it’s not an especially violent title and does not feature any sexual references or foul language; it’s important to note that the goal of the game involves trying to get someone else to get the exploding kitten card, so younger players who aren’t as ready for this kind of competition may have hard feelings when people deliberately take their cards.”
UNO Flip is a fun card game. My family is obsessed with Tenzi.
Thanks!
Hey, I need IDEAS for game with broad age ranges? Youngest is 4, oldest is 14. So far, we’ve had success with Spot it and Sushi party Go. But, gosh! I would love some recommendations.
Play Nine is a fun one! On the box it says ages 8 to adult, but even our 4 year old understands it and loves it. It sure has been getting some great use.
thanks!
Pictureka. It is a find the pictures in the pictures game. There are different variations of the game. There is a board game, card game and a dice game. It is easy and fun.
Loonacy is a card game our whole family likes and my kids were able to start playing it before they were 4.
We purchased What Do You Meme Family Edition and we have loved it. My 11 year old and 8 year old both have had so much fun playing it.
How fun! Glad to hear that one was a hit!
LOVE Ticket to Ride! Can be played with 2-5 people. We play with kids age 14, 11 and 8. I had the youngest study the map and cards a bit before playing so he could acclimate where everything is. Fun!
Rummikub is our go to family game.
We really enjoy The Game of Things. Just played it this weekend with some cousins: 5 adults and an 11-year-old and 6-year-old. The 6yo was teamed up with an adult and it worked out great.
The one glitch is that it can feel less than fair if you know the other players’ handwriting.
For my younger kiddo 9, we have loved Gamewright games- Rat a Tat Cat, Sleeping Queens & Dragonwood (good for all ages). She also enjoys Catan Junior, Mancala (2 person), and Enchanted Forest which is a memory game but for a little older population. The whole family enjoys and old Mad Magazine game I had as a kid-Lots of laughs. Both kids 9 & 13 enjoy playing life and the 9 year old enjoyed Life junior for the last few years.
Awesome! Thanks so much for letting us know which games your family has enjoyed most!
Our family of three households play Blank Slate virtually using FaceTime. Ages that play have been 7 – 86. Great for keeping Grandpa’s brain sharp. It’s not household against household it’s whoever you match words with so it’s like we’re all together even when we can’t be. Saturday night game night is something we look forward to while in quarantine.
My 11 year old loves Risk Europe. I like it far more than traditional Risk because of the different rules and set up. It’s also amazing how much history he has been inspired to learn because of playing it.
Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza is our new favorite game! Played it with a bunch of adults and had so much fun! Plus it is just a deck of cards, so it travels well!
Thanks for the feedback, Heather! Good to know that one has been so much fun!
Love this list! Also, wanted to say that Sequence is a great game. My husband, daughter, and I have played this game a lot and really enjoy it!
Thanks for commenting, SueJo! SO glad you are loving the list! Thanks for sharing your favorite!