Are Board Games Popular? - TableTop Temple

The Rise in Popularity of Table Top Games

In this article we will look at the rise in popularity of tabletop games. This includes both card and board games as the industries are closely linked. The history of board games can be traced back as early as 3000BC for games such as checkers, but I want to focus on the rise of the board game market from the late 90s all the way to the present day. But, are board games popular in 2022? It will come as no surprise that the board game market is smaller than its relatively younger cousin the video games. However, there is certainly an overlap in the player base as well as theory and mechanics used in both. There are some board games that play like video game and some video games that play like board games – the total war franchise jumps to mind.

The Rise in Popularity of Table Top Games
Board Game Popularity in Numbers
The Asmodee Effect
The Snow Ball Effect
Advances in software and computing
KickStarter
The Snowball Effect Part 2 – Generational Gaming:
Proliferation of party games
Case Studies
Magic the Gathering
Dungeons and Dragons
Warhammer
So, Are Board Games Popular?
List of Sources

Board Game Popularity in Numbers

A 1991 estimate for the global board game market was over $1.2 billion, by the end of 2022 it will reach $3.3 billion so a year on year increase of healthy 10% per year. Looking forwards to 2012 and article in The Guardian described board games as “making a comeback” inspired by classic board games such as Settlers of Catan (1995) and Ticket to ride (2004) clearly the meteoric success of Asmodee games who owns the intellectual property for both of these games should be owed much of the success of reviving the board game industry. Another article from 2014 estimated that the bulk of this growth had occurred since 2010 and that the 2010s were a “golden era for board games”.

The Asmodee Effect

As discussed Asmodee’s biggest successes are the classic board games Settlers of Catan and Ticket to ride. The business itself was founded in 1995 and since then has sold over 40 million copies between these two titles. Part of Asmodee’s success in the industry should be credited to the fact that board games are their business. Unlike Hasbro, for example who, are primarily a toy manufacturer who publish board games, Asmodee is a board game publisher foremost.

The Snow Ball Effect

Towards the beginning of the 2010s Catan and Ticket to ride had hit their critical mass. By this I mean, let’s say you get invited to random game night featuring one of those games and you have a good time, so you buy the game and host some other people, then some of those guests do the and the cycle continues, like a snowball effect. In fact this is the way I learnt about both of these titles.

This is compounded by the 2010s explosion of social media – in July of that year Facebook had hit 500 million users. Social media makes it easier than ever to talk about games. In the 90s it was significantly harder to connect and share interests with people online, but now we can do it from the comforts of our phone.

Advances in software and computing

There are also virtual tabletop programs that allow online players to play a variety of existing and new board games through tools needed to manipulate the game board. There are generalized programs such as Vassal, Tabletopia and Tabletop Simulator the latter of which has over 2 million downloads. Again, drawing our attention back to TTR, there have been 110,663,602 online sessions of the game on Asmodee’s official website of all time. On Colonist.io the Catan online alternative there are over 50,000 daily games. The internet has massively increased the proliferation of board games.

Table top Simulator made Board Games Popular in the virtual world too — (Image Credit: Eneba)

KickStarter

Kickstarter launched in 2009 and acts as a global crowdfunding platform. In 2018, tabletop games raised $165 million on Kickstarter. Many successful games such as Scythe, Gloomhaven and Viticulture were began as Kickstarter projects. This coupled with Chinese production has greatly decreased the cost of manufacture for board game allowing year and year more board games to enter the global market.

The Snowball Effect Part 2 – Generational Gaming:

We’ve already established that the more people who play board games the more they will spread and exchange board games to their friends and acquaintances. Well, there is multiplicative effect of generational or family gaming. In the 90s and early 00s many of today’s young adults will have been introduced to family board games by their parents which they will likewise pass this onto their children. Board games have a longer lifespan then other games; this is not to say that they can’t rise and fall in popularity, but whereas in the videogame industry, where games are limited by their consoles – and therefore when a new console comes out many old games become redundant – board games are not. In a way, they are their “self-contained console”.

Proliferation of party games

The proliferation of party games has brought table top games into the mainstream, the most popular of which – Cards against humanity – Ironically enough was a Kickstarter as discussed earlier. The game released in 2011 and after one month became the number 1 game on amazon in the first 3 years after it’s released it was estimated to have made £12 million in profit. Its first expansion released later in 2011 sold out in 3 days. Cards against humanity spawned many other successful party games such as exploding kittens (another Kickstarter) has even led to a Netflix series. Driven by Amazon’s recommendation algorithm these games have seen fantastic success in the 2010s.

Card against humanity made Board Games Popular as party games — (Image Credit: Amazon)

Case Studies

Now, we will discuss the 3 most influential table top games during the 90s and 00s and show how influential they are in the table top industry and how they have benefitted the industry as a whole.

Magic the Gathering

Magic the Gathering has survived and grew where many of its competitors like Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon could not. It became the first trading card game to have over 35 million players. Magic blew up between 2008 and 2016 where over 20 billion cards were printed – South Park even made an episode about it which I would recommend whole heartedly (S18 E8). A lot of people have commented that the popularity of the game stems both from its originality, but also the forming of connections, it’s played in person and it promotes communication, interaction and socialisation.

Dungeons and Dragons

In 1997 Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) was bought by Wizards of the Coast who also had created Magic the gathering. As discussed above this business knew how to make a game popular and D&D shared many of the socialisation features that led to Magic’s success. In 1997 D&D had roughly 4 million players world-wide, by 2020 over 50 million people had played the game and it had seen 7 years of consecutive growth. A key reason for its success was that it became a pop culture phenomenon and the release of Stranger things in 2016 helped push its growth even further.

Warhammer

Our last case study is Warhammer. Since 1977 Games Workshop had released UK imprints of Dungeons and Dragons, after a management buyout in 1991 by Tom Kirby and Bryan Ansell in 1991 the company refocused its efforts into their own brand products Warhammer and Warhammer 40k. Games Workshop essentially created the genre of table top miniature gaming and enjoys an unrivalled market position. On average the business launces 400 new product lines per year. Across their portfolio they produces over 30 million miniatures annually. Between 2017 and 2020 they had over £150 million in sales per year. The lion share of its interests lie in the UK and N. America, but their worldwide influence cannot be understated. As you can see they re-organised their business in the 90s and now they are reaping the benefits.

So, Are Board Games Popular?

To sum up, in 1991 estimate for the global board game market was over $1.2 billion today it’s 3 times the size – $3.3 billion. There is a clear snowball effect that leads to more and more people having the chance to play board games, this then encourages board game sales. They’re social, cooperative and encourage communication between players. We can see two case studies of Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons thriving spreading through pop culture and word of mouth. In 4 years’ time the global board game market is projected to increase another billion dollars. But if we had to pin this down to answer the question: “why have table top games risen in popularity?” well, that’s easy, they’re fun.