The concept of a board game cafe might be familiar to many, but most would be surprised that they have a very short history. While it is hard to pin down where and when the first board game cafe sprung up, board game expert Tristan Donovan suggests that the first board bar was established in South Korea in 2004. It was not until 2010 that the first board game cafe sprung up in North America – Snakes and Lattes. The model was incredibly popular, in 2016 5000 board game cafes launches in the US alone.
Table of Contents
- How Does a Board Game Cafe Work?
- What Audiences are They Targeted At?
- Board Game Cafes Near Me
- Distribution of Board Game Bars by Country
- Distribution of Board Game Bars By Continent
- Hall of Fame
- What Have We Learnt About Board Game Cafes?
How Does a Board Game Cafe Work?
The Basic Business Model
The most popular board game cafe model is one that has a small entry fee for customers, typically between $3-$5. This fee may cover playing for the whole night or just a few hours, typically three. They may then charge you another dollar per hour thereafter. Patrons can then play any of the available games, this may range anywhere from 100 at a small establishment to more than 1500 at some of the most popular board game bars.
Why Do I Have to Pay for Entrance?
You may think that an entry fee and recurring charges may be a little harsh on customers. There are two key reasons for it:
First, the fee helps pay for new board games and maintenance of old ones. Board games vary in durability; card based games, for example, can tear much easier than those that use plastic and wooden components. However, the more durable a board game is, the better the materials that were used in its production and therefore a higher retail price for consumers.
Second, board game cafes retain customers much longer than a normal cafe. The average Starbucks sees a customer entering and leaving within around 30 minutes, while some stay much longer, others just come in for a takeaway, leaving within minutes; this means the average ends up around the half an hour mark. This high turnover of customers leads to high revenue. The typical board game lasts around one hour and that is only if you play one. This means the very nature of being a board game cafe can make you around half as much revenue as a normal cafe. Another issue with a slow turnover of customer is that when your cafe is full you cannot hold any more customers for that period and need to wait for people to leave before you can make any more money.
To sum it up, the board game cafe needs to make money somehow.
Other Business Models
There are some other models that have seen moderate success:
- Some board game cafes wave the entrance fee if you spend a certain amount of money on food and drinks. You would be surprised, but the most profitable area of a board game bar is actually the restaurant part.
- Recurring Memberships are another way to get repeat customers. While turnover of customers is low as discussed previously, retention and customer loyalty is very high. If the board game cafe can get regular membership revenue streams, then it can help keep them afloat.
- A loyalty card, where the tenth visit is free, for example, is another way to retain customer. It is a small loss to cafe, but a great show of faith.
- Holding designated events and evenings can be another way to drum up support. Magic the Gathering and D&D 5e nights are exceedingly popular.
- Offering private rooms for a fee is is popular especially with Dungeons and Dragons players who like to be immersed in the game.
- Retailing games on the side can also be a great source of income for board game cafes. In a lot of cases, you will be able to get a wholesale discount if you have been established for some time. Typically this is done both online and in-store.
- A donation model can bring in a few extra dollars here and there. Board game cafes are, more often than not, a labour of love. You probably will not become a millionaire doing this so sometimes members of the community will gift donations, both games and money, to help keep their local cafe afloat.
What Audiences are They Targeted At?
Board Game Cafes are targeted at pretty much anybody. Complete beginners can be taught rules by staff and experts. On the other hand, hardened board game veterans can still learn a thing or two! Private rooms see a lot of repeated play from D&D enthusiasts because campaigns can take a very long time and need a lot of space to play properly. Board game bars are also a popular date spot. It is a relaxed, friendly atmosphere and at the end of the day, everyone enjoys playing games.
Board Game Cafes Near Me
Below is a map of board game Cafe’s globally. Special thanks should be given to the board game cafes Facebook group. As you may remember in the introduction around 5000 board game cafes were established in only the US in 2016. The map below has less than 1000, there are two key reasons for this:
- The list is a self-submitted survey to the Facebook group. It relies on the owners finding the group and interacting with the admins. Two further things work in favour of this dataset though. First, the group has been around since 2015, businesses have had plenty of time to submit. Second, this is the most established board game cafe Facebook group, if someone was going to find a group, this would be it.
- Unfortunately, businesses to close down. According to Forbes, fewer than 50% of small business pass the 5 year mark – It’s tough to make an honest living!
Without any further ado:
Distribution of Board Game Bars by Country
Now it is time for a bit of analysis based on the data above. There were 850 entries across 64 countries. We broke it into a top 5 to see it a bit more clearly and the US comes out strongly on top with 28%, more than double Canada’s second place at 14%.
| Country | Number of Bars |
| United States | 238 |
| Canada | 117 |
| United Kingdom | 105 |
| France | 58 |
| Japan | 25 |
| Other | 307 |
If we broke down the “Other” Category we would see 59 countries with numbers of board game bars ranging from 1 (South Africa) to 21 (Brazil) – Japan was quite lucky to snag the 4th spot. This being said, the average of bars in “other” countries was pretty low, at 5.
Distribution of Board Game Bars By Continent
However, looking at the pie chart we just created, it is a bit unfair to categorise just by country. The US, for example, is the 4th largest country in the world and one of the most populous, it makes sense there are more board game bars there. If we compare by continents the chart comes out a little different. In this case, North America only boasts an 8% lead over Europe.
| Continent | Number of Bars |
| Asia | 121 |
| Europe | 310 |
| North America | 372 |
| Other | 47 |
Hall of Fame
We wanted to add a short section describing some of the most successful and influential board game bars out there.
Snakes and Lattes
Snakes and Lattes is where it all began. Established in 2010 in Toronto by Ben Castanie and Aurelia Peynet, the chain now has three Canadian venues and four American ones. The typical number of games in its venues ranges from 1000-3000. Its a piece of history and began board game bar boom of the 2010s.
Locations: The Annex, College and Midtown in Toronto. Chicago, Tempe, Tucson and Provo in the US.
Hexagon Board Game Cafe
The Hexagon Board Game Cafe is well known in Edmonton with its primary venue boasting over 1000 games. It was founded by Kellie Ho and Randy Wong, both of whom had a passion for the board game Settlers of Catan. They began the store in 2014 with a personal board game collection of around 400 games – talk about passion! The success of the first store led them to opening a second location just two years later. Again, a year after that they were forced to relocate their primary venue because they could not keep up with demand.
Locations: Edmonton, Calgary, Canada.
Zulus Board Game Cafe
Zulus is amongst the most popular Board Game Cafes in the US. It was established in 2016 and is known for its community orientated feeling and american style meals. It is the Washington hub for games like Magic the Gathering, Dungeons and Dragons, and the Digimon trading card game.
Location: Washington, USA
Draughts Waterloo
Draughts Waterloo is amongst the most popular board game cafes in London. It is perfectly situated next to waterloo train station to have access not only to London clientele, but also the rest of the southern home counties too. Draughts has a library of around 1000 games and its Waterloo venue was so successful that they also opened up a Hackney venue too.
Locations: Waterloo, Hackey, United Kingdom
What Have We Learnt About Board Game Cafes?
Outside of Asia, Canada was the first country to try the board game cafe model, at Snakes and Lattes. The popularity of board game bars absolutely soared in the following years and they have become popular with people from all walks of life. However, we must remember, board game cafes are hard to run. They can be expensive and they don’t always work, but are always an absolute joy to visit. So why don’t you do your local cafe a favour and drop in?
