Do Board Games Actually Sell well?
Total revenue in the Board Games segment is projected to reach US$3.07bn in 2022. Total revenue is expected to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2022-2026) of 8.39%, resulting in a projected market volume of US$4.24bn by 2026. Its no surprise that modernisation has led to growth in all industries. In the table top industry Board game apps emulate the look and feel of traditional board games while often adding new digital features. However, for this article, we’ll just count sales of the physical copy of best selling board games.
10 Game of Life
Let’s kick off out list with the game of life. This delightful little trinket simulates a person’s travels through their life, from early adulthood to retirement, you can go to college get a job get married and even children along the way – basically the 1960s version of the Sims. A game takes around 1 hour and when you’re done you’ll want to play it all over again – this bad boy has sold around 50 million copies.
9) Candy Land
I’ve not actually played this one before, so I had to watch a very helpful YouTube video. A game takes around 15–21 minutes, this game is mostly aimed at children, the game has sold over 60million copies, but that will pale in comparison to some of the games later in our list. Seems like there is no easy way to win in this one (a bit like life really).
8) Battleships
Originally a pen and paper game played widely during WW1 Milton Bradley had the genius idea of releasing it as a plastic game in 1967. Almost 100 million copies have been sold since and Hasbro makes more than155 million Battleship game pieces every year. There’s also a drinking version which I may or may not have played, or is it that I don’t remember?
7) Trivial Pursuit
Not the kind of quiz I enjoy, but apparently over 100 million copies have been enjoyed since it’s release in 1981, it’s a long one taking up to 80 minutes. I think we all know the pain of not finding the answer for history round and tearing your hair out trying to get that yellow piece of cheese. No real strategy on this one, just be smart really…
6) Cluedo
Cludeo Or Clue to our cousins across the pond. A Christmas staple for my family, 10 to 60 minutes is how long it should take, especially when your cousin seems to get the answer in the first room… moving on. Cluedo was the 3rd highest selling game during the coronavirus Pandemic. Its targeted at 3-6 players, but I think it’s perfect for a family of 4. Strategy for this one is to pay attention to the questions other people ask, if you hear them repeat the same object multiple times, it’s likely they have it – a high risk high reward strategy, you just need to hope you’re not being bluffed!
5) Scrabble
150 million sets have been sold worldwide and roughly one-third of American and half of British homes have a Scrabble set. The average total points in a game of scrabble is between 600 to 700 total points. You would probably bawk at the 1982 record set by Karl Khoshnaw with “CAZIQUES” with a whopping 392 points. It has also inspired some online games which I am also bad at, such as, WordFeud and Words With Friends. Quick tip you’ll get the most points out of layering words, see if you can create two or three different words by placing your own. In the example below, my opponent played “Fique” (somehow) on their first turn, I played “Plot”, but I also played “Of” and “Ti” at the same time for extra points:
4) Monopoly
Monopoly or as I call it, one way to ruin Christmas, the other is Uncle Jerry drinking too much Gin! The game has been translated into 47 languages and played in 114 countries. It’s sold more than 275 million copies since its creation in 1935. A fun fact is that Hasbro prints £30 billion in Monopoly money each year, no wonder inflation is at a high at the moment! There’s too many strategies to count with this one, some people like the stations, some people go all out on Mayfair, I myself try to stay humble and control the first row, it’s really up to you!
3) Backgammon
Well, I best you’re surprised that Monopoly was not number 1 on our board games list. Unsurprisingly, the games that have survived longest have made the most sales. The Backgammon family of games was played almost 5000 years ago in ancient Persia. The modern day version was played in 17th century England. A typical game can last 5–60 minutes, to be honest I’m not the biggest fan of this one – a bit too much luck involved!
2) Checkers
This is one of the first game’s I learnt to play (and one of the games I was worse at as well!). The origins of it can be traced as far back as 3000BC, and now as recently as 2007 some computer scientists from the University of Alberta have mathematically figured out how from a freshly set board the perfect sequence of moves to result in a draw – computers ruin everything don’t they? Casual games usually last 10 to 30 minutes; tournament games last anywhere from about 60 minutes to 3 hours or more. For me I think the best trick is to keep a piece along the edges of the board, they can’t be captured there and you can treat it a bit like enemy territory in an outpost.
1) Chess
With 3 million copies sold yearly in the United States alone, Chess is the best-selling board game ever. Chess as we know it today was first played in the 15th century, but various versions of chess had been played up to 900 years before this in Persia, modern day Iran. There’s a lot of variety in this one Casual games usually last 10 to 60 minutes; tournament games last anywhere from about 10 minutes in Blitz chess to around 6 hours. The golden rule for this game is development, you should try to move as many pieces as possible without moving the same piece twice, and you’ll add pressure to your opponent and the more pieces in play the deeper strategy you can play. did you know there are even more possible variations of chess games than there are atoms in the entire universe – its called Shannon’s law -10^120, try putting that in your calculator!
Best Selling Board Games: Industry Monopoly or Flop?
We can see that the board game industry is alive and well going into 2023, we reached the $3 billion market value of Board games earlier this year. Across the titles here alone we have over 1 billion sales from the start of records which is truly mind boggling. It comes as no surprise that Chess comes in at our number 1 best selling board game of all time. Its been around the longest and it has a thriving tournament scene which fosters competition.
