Intro
Welcome to this week’s gaming post! A few weeks ago, I came across an article on Board Game Quest titled “Top 10 Influential Years in Board Gaming History” which got me thinking about my own journey in board gaming. I was curious to find out if I had a favorite year in board gaming and if I could deduce any industry trends from looking at my favorite games.
As a bit of background, I grew up playing board games with my dad and brother, but it wasn’t until around 2010 when my family was gifted Catan one year for Christmas that my journey into modern board gaming really begun. And it wasn’t until around 2017 that my collection started to seriously grow, and certainly within the last few years it has picked up even more steam especially after I started blogging. As I reflected on my journey, I decided to analyze my own Top 40 games as of last year, specifically grouped by the year in which each game was published, and below are a few of my takeaways. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it!
A Decade of Consistency: Every Year Delivers a Memorable Entry
I started out by grouping my Top 40 games from last year by published year. While there were a few peaks and valleys, I was surprised to find that over the last 12 years, at least one game from every year was featured among my Top 40. My biggest takeaway here is not to say there was not “stronger” years than others (more on that in a bit), but that each of the last 12 years has had at least one strong game that has appealed to my gaming taste. Plenty of discussion can be had on the topic of “are there too many games being released?”, but without the overall growth in the hobby, I don’t think you would have seen trends like this continue for the past 12 years.
Defining the Decade: The Years That Shaped the Hobby Most
Further examining the peaks and valleys, I would argue that 2016, 2018, and 2023 were especially strong years in the board gaming industry. 2016 introduced us to Great Western Trail, which has spawned a 2nd edition and three other spin offs, Scythe which was the second largest Kickstarter project at the time only behind Gloomhaven, Arkham Horror LCG, Lorenzo il Magnifico, Terraforming Mars, Star Wars: Rebellion, A Feast for Odin, and more. Just looking at the list of games, it’s hard to argue that 2016 wasn’t one of, if not the most, influential years in board gaming.
Meanwhile, 2018 brought us Brass: Birmingham, the number one rated game on BGG at the moment, Space Base, Underwater Cities, Everdell, and Quacks. And while there might be some recency bias at play, 2023 included Hegemony, Darwin’s Journey, Earth, and The White Castle.
Looking at one valley, I’d argue that the dip in 2021 and 2022 are likely attributed at least partially to the COVID-19 pandemic, although 2021 did bring us Ark Nova. That drop during those years could also be indicative of the jump back up in 2023.
Examining the Eras That Shaped My Favorites
Next, I wanted to look more holistically at these timeframes and find out if there was a specific era in board gaming that stood out. To do so, I grouped the games by different clusters: 2005-2015, 2016-2020, and 2021-2025. First off, I was surprised by how relatively similar the distribution was. Pre-2016 was the lowest, which isn’t surprising given that my collection didn’t really take off until around 2017, and looking at 2015 onwards makes up more than 80% of my favorite games. Another takeaway for me is that even with the recency bias of the 2021-2025 games, there is certainly an argument to made that 2015-2020 was the “golden era” for board gaming, which aligns to when crowdfunding really burst onto the scene.
Old Favorites Hold Strong, While New Games Prove their Staying Power
I next took it a bit further by seeing if there were any trends within my Top 40 by looking at the eras across each set of 10 games (e.g., top 10, 11-20, 21-30). First off, my older favorites are likely fairly entrenched at this point. While there’s only one game from pre-2016 still in my top 10, the rest all fall within the 11-30 range, so they’re less likely to fall out of my Top 40 anytime soon. I’ll admit that a few of them likely have some nostalgia for me, like Agricola and Railways of the World, but similarly, without those games, I don’t think I would have fallen in love with the hobby as much as I have.
Meanwhile, somewhat surprisingly, the newer games are fairly evenly distributed across my top 40. Certainly, “cult of the new” plays a part, but personally I find this argument to be a bit overstated as I doubt those in my top 10 are going anywhere anytime soon. That said, I’ll still be interested to see if those games, particularly from 2023 onwards, hold up over time.
2016–2020: My Personal Golden Era of Board Gaming
I touched on this a bit above, but I think there’s a strong argument to be made that the 2016-2020 era had the strongest game releases – my top 10 consists of the most games from those years. As I alluded to before, those years are when my collection truly started growing, and I started playing board games more regularly. I’ve already mentioned Gloomhaven, Great Western Trail, and Brass: Birmingham, but those years also brought heavy hitters like Lost Ruins of Arnak, The Crew, Dune: Imperium, and Wingspan. While not all of those games have been out for at least a decade, for me, all of those have managed to stand the test of time, and the fact that that era still makes up the largest percentage of the collection makes it even more impressive.
Closing
With that, those are five of my takeaways from analyzing my Top 40 games by the year in which they were published. To continue the conversation, I’m planning to write a follow-up post where I compare my distribution of games across years to the BGG Top 100. If you haven’t read the post I mentioned at the beginning from Board Game Quest on the Top 10 Most Influential Years in Board Gaming, I certainly recommend you check that our here. And I’ve love to know what your favorite years in board gaming are, or any other thoughts in the comments or future content suggestions in the comments below. Happy gaming!
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