Board Games We Love for Kids and Families

These “gateway games” are for kids age 2 to 5 and introduce the basic concepts of board games: taking a turn, following rules, sequential logic and decision-making, solving a problem, using a game mechanism (dice, cards), and collecting tokens or prizes.

According to Brian Mayer, a library technology and gaming specialist in New York, a challenge with designing these kinds of games is that “with younger kids you want a much simpler rule set because they aren’t reading the rules, they’re playing based on how they remember.” The games we’ve highlighted here are challenging, interesting, and variable enough to keep kids engaged over multiple rounds, but because they don’t require reading or memorizing complicated rules, young kids will be able to play independently fairly quickly.

A great first board game: First Orchard

How you play: Kids work together to gather all the fruits from the trees before a pesky raven gets to them. Based on a die roll, players will either pick a fruit to add to the communal basket, or move the raven one space closer to the trees.

Why it’s great: Mayer said he recommends First Orchard for families with young kids getting started with games: “It introduces turn-taking and simple but purposeful choices.” We like that it is a non-competitive, cooperative game, and that it works equally well single-player as with a group. Wirecutter editor Winnie Yang has played First Orchard with her toddler and noted that even the setup process—matching the colored fruits to the corresponding trees—is part of the fun and challenge for young players. “It really feels like every part of this game helps toddlers learn something,” she said.

Ages: 2 to 5
Players: 1 to 5
Length: 10 to 15 minutes

A cooperative strategy game: Max

How you play: Kids work together to help a bird, mouse, and squirrel escape the prowling advances of a hungry cat named Max. On each turn, a player rolls two dice with colored dots. Depending on the combination, they’ll either move one or more of the critters or move Max.

Why it’s great: Mayer recommends Max because it requires kids to make strategic choices and plan ahead to help the creatures evade Max—for example, by deciding which of the three animals to move at each turn, or, if Max gets too close, whether to give one of four available “treats” to Max, which sends him back to the starting position. Max works as a single-player game or with up to eight players, making it fun for small or large groups of kids.

Ages: 4 to 7
Players: 1 to 8
Length: 15 to 20 minutes

Challenging card stacking: Rhino Hero

How you play: Players take turns carefully stacking L-shaped “wall” cards and flat “roof” cards to build a common tower. The roof cards have symbols that show players how to place the the walls, and when to move the wooden rhino superhero to the upper story, increasing the precarity as the card tower grows taller and taller. The game ends when a player successfully places all of their roof cards, or makes the tower topple.

Why it’s great: Rhino Hero, which made the recommended list for the 2012 Kinderspiel des Jahres, is a favorite of Mayer’s and one of the best-rated kids games on BoardGameGeek. It doesn’t require much strategy beyond deft handling and a light touch, making it accessible for kids of different ages. The double-sided roof cards offer both easy and expert modes (with the latter requiring you to place the wall cards in more-challenging, less-stable configurations), and reviews on Amazon and BoardGameGeek indicate that it’s fun and challenging for older kids, as well. An expanded version of this game, Rhino Hero: Super Battle, adds three new superheroes and villainous spider monkeys, and is one of the best-rated kids games on BoardGameGeek.

Ages: 5+
Players: 2 to 5
Length: 5 to 15 minutes

An introductory abstract card game: Set Junior

How you play: Set Junior, the kids version of the classic abstract card game, uses a double-sided board and cards with different combinations of color and symbols for beginner and more challenging play modes. On the beginner side, kids match cards to corresponding spots on the board, striving to create a “set” of three matched cards in a row. On the more challenging side, 10 cards are laid out on the game board and kids race to spot three-card “sets” in which all cards have different attributes (for example, one red oval, two green squiggles and three purple diamonds) or the same attributes (for example, three cards with three purple diamonds).

Why it’s great: Set Junior introduces fundamental card-game skills—including strategy, recalling rules, and quickly identifying patterns and combinations—that can be applied to more advanced card and tile games, like Go Fish, Rummikub, or Poker.

Ages: 3 to 6
Players: 2 to 4
Length: 15 to 20 minutes

A cooperative memory game: Dinosaur Escape

How you play: Players roll the die to reveal either a number or a volcano. The former moves the player’s dinosaur in any direction on the board, while the latter adds one piece to the five-piece volcano at the board’s center. As young dinosaur experts know, volcanoes are bad news for dinos. The object of the game is to get the dinosaurs to safety without completing the volcano—or being run back to the start by a T. rex token.

Why it's great: Four years old is around the age when kids can really listen to, understand, and follow most simple game instructions, said Keewa Nurullah, owner of the Chicago children’s shop Kido. The game relies heavily on memory and cooperative team strategy, but its playing time is short enough to keep kids’ attention for the duration. It helps that 4-year-olds tend to love dinosaurs, too.

Ages: 4+
Players: 2-4
Time: 20 minutes

Designed for kids around age 6 to 10, these games have more-complex structure and rules, build more-advanced skills, and offer some heightened competition (though not all the games here are competitive). These games have engaging themes and unique designs to introduce kids to dexterity, resource strategy, and memory exercises, providing a foundation from which kids can explore and try new games in those genres and beyond.

Next level tic-tac-toe, with kittens: Boop

How you play: Boop is a game about kittens and cats fighting for space on a bed. To win, players have to line up three cats in a row before their opponent does. The catch is that every time a piece is placed, that cat (or kitten) “boops” any adjacent pieces (even the player’s own) one space away. Manipulating the finer rules of when boops happen and maneuvering your opponents’ pieces without ruining your game plan makes this cute game surprisingly tricky.

Why it’s great: First of all, it’s adorable. That isn’t exactly a unique property (especially among kids’ games) but what makes Boop stand out is that its cuddly aesthetic disguises a surprisingly interesting two-player game—one in which a bunch of simple decisions lead to complicated long-term plays. Its core concept is one that anyone familiar with tic-tac-toe can grasp, but it provides strategic depth that the classic game just can’t match.

Ages: 10+
Players: 2
Time: 15 minutes

A first resource-strategy game: My First Stone Age

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How you play: My First Stone Age is the kids version of acclaimed family game Stone Age. Both are resource-strategy games: The objective is to collect resources (tusks, fruits, animals) that you can then redeem for huts, which you use to build your Stone Age village. Players move around the game board by selecting and flipping over tiles placed around the board; these tiles indicate how many spaces to move or which spot to jump to. Each time a player earns a hut, the tiles get flipped back over, so remembering the location of tiles becomes an additional strategy in navigating the game.

Why it’s great: My First Stone Age won the 2016 Kinderspiel des Jahres award, and the jury praised the game for distilling complex game elements like those found in beloved adult games such as Settlers of Catan and the original Stone Age—collecting, allocating, and redeeming resources; and planning and trading—into a game that’s appropriate and accessible for kids as young as 5.

Ages: 5+
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 15 to 20 minutes

A strategic environmental game: Planet

How you play: A gorgeous strategy game that encourages environmental consciousness, Planet lets kids build a thriving ecosystem from a blank slate—a 12-sided, three-dimensional one. Players take turns adding magnetic tiles of terrain (such as forests, oceans, and mountains) to their planet. Based on their terrain, they also compete to collect animal cards. The player who has the most desert terrain, for instance, wins the snake card.

Why it’s great: “It gets you thinking about the animals and their habitats,” said Mayer, who recommended the game. The rules are simple to pick up but flexible enough to allow various playing strategies, which makes the game very replayable. The stunning 3D design also adds a pleasant tactile twist.

Ages: 8+
Players: 4
Time: 30 to 45 minutes

A memory and mapping game: The Magic Labyrinth

How you play: In The Magic Labyrinth players have to figure out how to retrieve objects from the game board while navigating a maze concealed underneath. The game board has two layers: On the bottom layer, players set up plastic barriers to create the “magic labyrinth.” The top layer is a grid with no predefined path. The pawns are magnetic, and as the player moves their pawn around the grid, it drags a metal ball along the underside of the board—until it hits one of the walls, which causes the ball to detach and roll down a chute, ending the turn and sending the player back to the starting point. The trick is to figure out, through trial and error and mental mapping, the location and configuration of the invisible walls, and thus chart a clear path to the object.

Why it’s great: Mayer is a fan of the game, which also won the Kinderspiel des Jahres prize in 2009, because it requires memory and spatial awareness: “You have to mentally map and remember where the walls are, building that knowledge set while you’re exploring and racing around the board.”

Ages: 6+
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 25 minutes

A cooperative tile-laying game: Race to the Treasure

How you play: Race to the Treasure is a cooperative game where kids collectively work to gather three keys to unlock a treasure before an ogre reaches it. First, the players roll two dice to determine where on the grid to place the keys. They then take turns drawing game tiles that show either a piece of the path (which players must decide where and how to place on the board), the ogre (which moves him one space closer to the goal), or an “ogre snack” (which sends the ogre back one space).

Why it’s great: Mayer recommends Race to the Treasure because it builds on skills introduced in early cooperative games like First Orchard, while adding more-complex game mechanics, decision-making, and strategy. By rolling dice (one with letters, one with numbers, which correspond to rows and columns on the game board), each game unfolds differently. And because players work together instead of against each other, the game fosters discussion and collaborative thinking, and allows players of different ages and skill levels to enjoy the game together.

Ages: 5 to 8
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 15 to 20 minutes

Family games should be complex and challenging enough to be genuinely engaging for adults and kids alike. Some of the games we recommend take less than half an hour to play, while others unfold over hours or even multiple game sessions.

When kids are ready for family-style games will depend on the individual kid and their experience with and interest in board games. Mayer told us that many kids are able to start playing simpler family games with some guidance around age 8, and be fully engaged in the game by age 10. (We’ve also included some family games suitable for younger kids.)

A party game for all ages: The Fuzzies

How you play: Like Jenga, The Fuzzies is a game of precision and fine motor control. Players draw from a deck of cards to find out which of the titular fuzzies they’ll try to pull from a tower and place higher up. But if any get knocked off in the process, the player gets a “punishment” that will apply on their next turn, making it slightly more difficult to complete (and more fun for everyone else to watch).

Why it’s great: The Fuzzies is essentially a quick, colorful, and silly version of Jenga. The static cling of the little pieces makes placing them way more interesting than it is in Jenga, and it allows you to leave little traps for other players. And when those traps are sprung, the game doesn’t end—it just gets more entertaining. The stickiness of the pieces also makes the tower look more like an abstract sculpture than Jenga’s typically sleek skyscraper, and it takes on more-irregular, gravity-defying shapes as the game progresses.

As an added bonus, this game is way easier to reset than traditional block tower puzzles. Rather than painstakingly stacking each piece, you just gather all of the pieces, throw them in the cup that the game comes in, and press the base of the tower down into it. When you’re ready to play again, you remove the cup, and the tower is stacked and ready to play.

Ages: 6+
Players: 2+
Time: 15 minutes

A fast “pick and pass” card game: Sushi Go

How you play: Sushi Go is a rapid-fire “pick and pass” card game. In the same genre as classic games such as Spoons and Pig, each round players select a single card from their hand before passing the rest to the next player. The cards are sushi themed, with cartoon illustrations of sashimi, nigiri, dumplings, and other delicacies. Players try to build various sets of cards to earn points. Similar to a kaiten (conveyor-belt) sushi joint, the trick is to select the dishes you want (or want to keep out of the hands of your competitors) before they pass by.

Why it’s great: The fast-paced game is popular on Amazon, with more than a thousand five-star reviews. Mayer said Sushi Go is great for families because the game, which doesn’t require reading or number recognition, is accessible for younger kids while remaining fun for older kids and adults. (Mayer pointed out that kids younger than 8 or so may need some help remembering how many points the cards and combinations are worth.)

Ages: 5+
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 20 minutes

A story-telling game: Dixit

How you play: Players are each dealt six cards with provocative and fantastical illustrations. Each round, one player is the lead player, who chooses a card (without revealing it) and makes a short statement—a sentence, poem, story, song, or even a single word—about what’s shown. The other players select from their own cards to choose the one they think best fits with the lead player’s statement. In a sort of inverse Apples to Apples, the lead player lays out all the selected cards, and the other players vote on which one was the one the lead player originally described. You earn points if you correctly identify the lead player’s card or someone else votes for your card, but Dixit’s scoring system rewards being sufficiently cryptic but not abstruse: If everyone or no one correctly identifies the lead player’s card, the lead player doesn’t earn any points.

Why it’s great: Because it doesn’t require reading, counting, or much rule memorization, Dixit can be played by kids and adults with a wide range of skill levels. Dixit won the 2010 Spiel des Jahres prize for general audience games, and its uniqueness lies in how it fosters and rewards creativity, storytelling, and discourse rather than quick calculation or shrewd strategizing.

Ages: 6+
Players: 3 to 6
Length: 30 minutes

A family tile-laying strategy game: Karuba

How you play: In Karuba, each player has an island-shaped game board on which they place, at various points along the edges, four adventurer figures and four corresponding temples. (Players choose where to put the pieces, but all players must arrange their boards identically.) Each player also has a set of numbered tiles showing a segment of path. The designated “lead adventurer” selects and calls out which tile to use for each turn; players decide whether to place the tile on the board or redeem it in order to move one of the adventurers toward its temple—you earn points whenever an adventurer reaches its temple. If you land on a special tile, you’re rewarded with gems or gold pieces, also worth points.

Why it’s great: Karuba was a runner-up for the Spiel des Jahres prize in 2016 and is recommended by Mayer, who pointed out that the independent nature of the play makes it well-suited to people who prefer games that are less directly competitive. “Players do not directly impact other players, other than [by] the race to reach a temple earlier than the other player. It really comes down to the interesting choices players make with their placements of the paths,” he told us. “Even though each player is placing the same path tiles each turn, very quickly players will have unique boards.” Karuba is complex enough to appeal to more experienced players, but the quick pace (the game takes only about half an hour) and adventure theme make it appropriate for younger players.

Ages: 8+
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 30 to 40 minutes

Dominoes for the whole family: Kingdomino

How you play: Players select tiles showing different terrains (water, forest, fields) and align them to create a kingdom grid. The rules are few and fairly simple—a tile must connect to another tile with the same terrain type, and the grid must remain a certain size—but the dynamic game structure (the order in which players select new tiles constantly changes) and complex decisions make the game a challenging puzzle.

Why it’s great: If you love playing dominoes, Kingdomino is a novel take and a great way to introduce younger kids to the strategy and puzzle-like challenge of the game. Kingdomino won the general 2017 Spiel des Jahres prize, but the theme, quick pace, and ease with which the game can be learned make it an excellent family game to play with kids as young as 8. Wirecutter senior staff writer Kimber Streams, who has played Kingdomino with adults, found the game “fun and easy to learn” but said a grown-up should either read the rules (carefully—the rule book can be confusing) or watch an instructional video beforehand to make sure they can help younger kids understand how to play.

Ages: 8+
Players: 2 to 4
Time: 15 to 20 minutes

An at-home escape room: Exit, The Game – The House of Riddles

How you play: Exit: The Game – The House of Riddles is part of a series of hands-on, escape-room-style games that can be played at home. Up to four players are “locked” in an abandoned house and must figure out a series of riddles and puzzles so that they can “escape.” The game comes with a set of cards, a decoder wheel, and other paper pieces that players must write or draw on or cut up during the gameplay, meaning you can play the game only once.

Why it’s great: This game is a fun way for older kids to work together to solve a mystery, said Brian Mayer, a library technology and gaming specialist in New York. The Exit series won the 2017 Kennerspiel des Jahres award, which focuses on more challenging games. There are about a dozen games in the series, with themes like “The Sunken Treasure” and “The Secret Lab,” but Mayer recommends “The House of Riddles” as a good introduction for 10-year-olds. Taking up to about one to two hours to complete, these games can be an entertaining activity for a sleepover or a stormy afternoon.

Ages: 10+
Players: 1 to 4
Time: 60 to 120 minutes

A first family legacy game: Charterstone

How you play: Charterstone is a legacy game, which means that instead of resetting each time you play, the board is permanently altered, changing the structure and outcome of future games. In Charterstone, players compete to build structures and cultivate available land. Over the course of 12 sessions, players will unlock new rules, storylines, and game pieces, and add stickers that permanently alter the rule book and game board. Charterstone’s official age range is 10 and older, but, as always, parents should judge whether it’s a good fit based on their child’s experience and enthusiasm. The game also includes a way to play with “automa,” automated opponents that can replace missing characters, so committed players can stick with the game even if some people drop out.

Why it’s great: Charterstone is a complicated, expansive game with intricate rules to master, numerous cards and pieces to keep track of, and sophisticated strategies to deploy. But Mayer said this complexity is precisely why legacy games like Charterstone are especially suited to families. Though competitive, the crux of the game is about the shared experience of discovery as it unfolds. “Over the course of playing the game as a family, over multiple rounds, you’re discovering this narrative, which is amazing and very much unique and novel. ... You’re crafting something that is yours,” he explained.

Ages: 10+
Players: 1 to 6
Time: 60 to 90 minutes per game

A suspiciously satisfying party game: Chameleon

How you play: The Chameleon is a social deduction game, which means you’re not so much playing the game as manipulating the other players. A deck of cards with code words is shuffled and dealt, and every player except one (the person with the chameleon card) knows what the specific code word is. Each participant (including the chameleon) takes a turn shouting out a word that relates to the code word. What ensues is an interactive game of finger-pointing and deductive reasoning, as the non-chameleons try to identify the chameleon and the chameleon tries to guess the secret word.

Why it’s great: Social deduction games are great for parties and family get-togethers. Because they involve more theatrics and conversation than arcane rules, they can draw in even the most ardent anti-board-gamers. Plus, everyone likes the thrill of pulling one over on family and friends. The Chameleon is a great introduction to social deduction games because it’s simple to learn but also deeply strategic; truly artful deception can lead to chaos and hilarity. The game is technically for three to eight players, but we think it’s best played in groups of six or seven.

Ages: 14+
Players: 3 to 8
Time: 15 minutes

To find our favorite board games for kids and families, we spoke to half a dozen experts, including Brian Mayer, a library technology and gaming specialist in New York and co-author (with Christopher Harris) of Libraries Got Game: Aligned Learning Through Modern Board Games, a book about using board games in the classroom and libraries; and Christoph Schlewinski, a jury member for the Kinderspiel des Jahres—an offshoot of the Spiel des Jahres awards, considered by many to be the most prestigious board games judging organization.

Early in our research and interviews, we realized that there are many excellent kid board games, with more novel and interesting games coming out each year. As with adult board games, Mayer said there’s been an effort to develop children’s board games that are more challenging, thoughtfully designed, and engaging than those of the past.

“Growing up, we played games that were very different from the games we see now,” Mayer said. “There was a lower sense of engagement with the kids, oftentimes there weren’t choices. … You roll the dice and do what the dice tells you.”

Today, however, a great board game for kids can do so much more: It can help teach teamwork, decision-making, logic, creativity, communication, gross and fine motor skills, and many other areas central to learning and development.

Schlewinski, who along with the six other jury members of the Kinderspiel des Jahres award tests about 150 children’s games each year, told us that in addition to considering the structure and challenge of the game, the jury seeks games that are developed with kids in mind: “Kids games need to be made for kids. That sounds logical, but in reality it’s surprisingly often not the case.” This can be defined by the physical components of the game, such as whether the game pieces are durable enough for young kids, or appropriately sized for still-developing fine motor skills, Schlewinski said. But also important is what he describes as the “world” of the game: “The theme and scenario that the game has the players enter into needs to be appropriate, engaging, and compelling for kids.”

Schlewinski also noted that parents shouldn’t get stuck on seeking out so-called educational games, such as those that deliberately teach math, spelling, or other skills. “For us jurors, every game is an educational game, because every game teaches something,” he said.

From talking with experts, reading reviews on sites like BoardGameGeek, and polling staff members who have played games themselves or with kids, we identified a few criteria that a great board game for kids should offer:

• Inclusive play: Mayer stresses that a well-designed game, especially one for young players, should accommodate a range of skill levels and keep all players involved in the game until the end.
• Active play: Even the simplest game should let kids be active players who make meaningful choices, develop strategies, and discover new things.
• Replayability: A game that unfolds in exactly the same way each time you play will quickly become stale. A great game will be dynamic and variable enough to let kids develop new skills, experiment with strategies, and spark them to play again and again.

In this guide we recommend games that involve different skills and types of game play, some of which go beyond the bounds of the traditional board games many people are familiar with. Some of these include:

• Tile-laying games: Like dominoes, these games require you to strategically arrange tiles or other game pieces to make patterns or create a path.
• Dexterity games: These games can involve stacking cards, building structures, flicking game pieces, or hitting targets.
• Cooperative games: Instead of competing against one another, players work together to reach a goal, solve a puzzle, or race against the game. In Libraries Got Game, Mayer and Harris explain that cooperative games can be good choices for younger players and family settings because they allow players with different skill levels to play together; foster communication; and remove the emotional aspect of competition when young kids are learning the basics of game play.
• Legacy games: These games develop and change over multiple rounds of play, revealing new content and rules.
• Creativity games: These are games that challenge players to tell a story, act, draw, or engage in other open-ended imaginative competition.

For this guide, we organized games into three age-based categories: preschool (ages 2 to 5); elementary (6 to 10); and family (suitable for kids and adults to play together). While we’ve given estimated age ranges for each game in this guide, you’ll want to consider the skills, readiness, interests, and preferences of all your players when selecting a game for kids. “Ages on boxes are not necessarily about the complexity and challenge of play, but more about little bits that don’t pass certain safety requirements,” Mayer told us. (The CPSC has more info on that topic.)

Whether you’re looking for more games that are similar to the ones we recommend in this guide, or games that are entirely different, there are a number of helpful resources you can turn to. BoardGameGeek is the largest collection of user reviews and other information about board games, and lets you search by genre and theme, among other criteria. Mayer recommends independent game reviewers like Major Fun and the Dice Tower podcast to learn more about games. And our guide to adult board games includes options for families and more-advanced kid players.