My Top 100 Games - as of 2025

 Rank     Last           Name  

1             1                Space Hulk

2             2                Circus Imperium       

3             4                Diplomacy

4             3                Family Business

5             6                Assault on Hoth

6             7                Illuminati 

7             10              OGRE

8             5                 Warhammer 40,000 (up to 3rd)

9             9                  Bosworth

10           8                  Icebergs

 

11           12                Risk 

12           11                Walk the Plank

13           22                Car Wars (up to 5th)

14           NEW            Acquire  

15           14                Cash ‘n’ Guns – second edition

16           34                Daytona 500

17           NEW            Tetris Link

18           NEW            Tiki Topple 

19           NEW            Super Mario Bros. Power Up Card Game

20           NEW            No Thanks

 

21           NEW               Downforce

22           NEW                King of Tokyo

23           NEW                Don’t Look Back

24           NEW                Unmatched – Little Red Riding Hood VS Beowulf

25           18 – 1st Ed     Groo the Game – 2nd edition

26           26                     Blood Bowl

27           26                     Fortress America

28           NEW                 Samurai Jack: Back to the Past

29           NEW                 Fallout Shelter

30           31                     Tsuro

 

31           15                     Sushi Go 

32           NEW                 Pandemic: Contagion 

33           NEW                Marvel Splendor 

34           27                     Go           

35           28                     Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit

36           19                     Race Day

37           29                     Conquest of the Empire

38           30                     Battle Masters

39           33                     Battleship Galaxies

40           NEW                 Transformers Armada: Battle for Cybertron

 

41           36                    Car Wars Card Game 

42           38                    Guillotine 

43           37                    Camel Cup  

44           13                    Survive: Escape  from Atlantis

45           NEW                Disney Haunted Mansion: Call of the Spirits

46           NEW                Monopoly Empire

47           83                    Canasta   

48           35                    Rocketville           

49           NEW                Cathedral

50           20                    Highlander: The Card Game

 

51           NEW               Sorry! Sliders

52           82                   Resistance        

53           89                   Colt Express        

54           NEW               Love Letter: Batman     

55           84                   Wits and Wagers Family

56           NEW               Blitz Bowl

57           21                   Crimson Skies (WizKids)  

58           41                   Hey, That’s My Fish!     

59           16                   Bang: The Dice Game

60           51                   Zombie Dice

 

61           53                   Dilbert Card Game

62           52                   Cthulhu Dice

63           23                   Scoville           

64           NEW               Disney Villainous 

65           NEW               Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game

66           NEW               Tantrix

67           42                   Pitch Six

68           NEW               Get Lucky

69           NEW               Dust Tactics Revised Core

70           54                   Rules with No Name

 

71           50                   Zombies!!!             

72           56                   Shogun (Ikusa)           

73           81                   Monopoly            

74           57                   Aliens

75           62                   Chess    

76           59                   Canvas Eagles

77           40                   Horrorclix     

78           63                   Girl Genius: The Works       

79           45                   Cardline – Animals

80           24                   Heroclix

 

81           58                   Search for the Emperor’s Treasure

82           47                   Timeline: Music & Cinema 

83           48                   Spooks

84           65                   INWO

85           17                   Monty Python Fluxx

86           64                   Elixir

87           90                   Word Thief       

88           86                   Iota 

89           NEW               Space Marine Adventures: Rise of the Orks

90           NEW               Pamplona: Viva San Fermin!

 

91           39                  Star Wars Miniatures: Starship Battles

92           60                  Dragon Dice

93           NEW              Timeline Challenge

94           NEW              Space Marine Adventures: Labyrinth of the Necrons

95           92                  Yahtzee: Free For All

96           NEW              Domination    

97           61                  Pente

98           NEW              Exago

99           44                  Blokus Trigon

100        46                   Blokus

    

Top 100 Games - as of 2025 - overview

I last did a list of my top 100 games back to the end of 2015.  It is a good exercise but not something that I would want to do every year.  But to revisit a decade later seemed like a good idea.  

So 30 new games made it into my top 100.  Well, new to me.  The oldest of these new games Is Domination from 1963, and Acquire from 1964, and the newest games are  Groo the Card Game second edition, and Munchkin – The Nightmare Before Christmas, both from 2023.

 

Some of my games have slipped.  My top 12 remains my top 12 but the order has changed slightly.  But there are 5 games that are new to the list that dropped in the top 20.

The highest game to have fallen off of my top 100 was Pandemic, which was 43 last time.  This was replaced by Pandemic Contagion, but even Pandemic Hot Spot: North America ranked higher than it and helped to drive it off of the list.

 

The game to have dropped the farthest and still remain on the list was Monty Python Fluxx which fell 68 points.  This is probably due to us not having played it in the last five years.  The game that was on the list before that has risen the most is Canasta, which rose 36 points, despite not having been played in the last five years.

 

These are the ones that almost made the top 100:

 

100

Rank     Previous             Game

101        NEW                   Dixit!

102        NEW                   For Sale!

103        NEW                   Dune (Parker Brothers 1984)

104        55                       Fluxx

105        69                       Unexploded Cow

106        78                       Chill: Black Manor Morn

107        87                        Empire Builder

108        NEW                    Space Marine Adventures: Doomsday Countdown

109        NEW                    Bob Ross: Art of Chill Game

110        91                        Qwirkle

 

111        NEW                    Lanterns

112        85                        Scrabble Slam

113        NEW                   Unspeakable Words

114        67                       Quiddler

115        70                       Junta

116        71                       Toss Up!

117        72                        Risk: Balance of Power

118        73                       Star Warriors

119        77                       Hive

120        79                       Filthy Rich

Top 100 Games - as of 2015

This is my list as of the end of 2015.

1 - Space Hulk
2 - Circus Imperium
3 - Family Business
4 - Diplomacy
5 - Warhammer 40,000
6 - Assault on Hoth
7 - Illuminati
8 - Icebergs
9 - Bosworth
10 - OGRE Designer’s Edition

11 - Walk The Plank
12 - Risk
13 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis
14 - Cash ‘n’ Guns – second edition
15 - Sushi Go
16 - Bang: The Dice Game
17 - Monty Python Fluxx
18 - Groo: The Game
19 - Race Day
20 - Highlander:The Card Game

21 - Crimson Skies
22 - Car Wars
23 - Scoville
24 - Heroclix
25 - Blood Bowl 3rd
26 - Fortress America
27 - Go
28 - Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
29 - Conquest of the Empire
30 - Battle Masters

31 - Tsuro
32 - King of Tokyo
33 - Battleship Galaxies
34 - Daytona 500
35 - Rocketville
36 - Car Wars Card Game
37 - Camel Cup
38 - Guillotine
39 - Star Wars Miniatures: Starship Battles
40 - Horrorclix

41 - Hey, That's My Fish!
42 - Pitch Six
43 - Pandemic
44 - Blokus Trigon
45 - Cardline – Animals
46 - Blokus
47 - Timeline: Music & Cinema
48 - Spooks
49 - Bohnanza
50 - Zombies!!!

51 - Zombie Dice
52 - Cthulhu Dice
53 - Dilbert card game
54 - Rules With No Name
55 - Fluxx
56 - Shogun (Ikusa)
57 - Aliens
58 - Search for the Emperor’s Treasure
59 - Canvas Eagles
60 - Dragon Dice

61 - Pente
62 - Chess
63 - Girl Genius: The Works
64 - Elixir
65 - INWO
66 - Star Wars Starfighter Battle Books
67 - Quiddler
68 - Monsters Menace America
69 - Unexploded Cow
70 - Junta

71 - Toss Up!
72 - Risk: Balance of Power
73 - Star Warriors
74 - Martian Dice
75 - Yetisburg
76 - Risk: Battlefield
77 - Hive
78 - Chill: Black Manor Morn
79 - Filthy Rich
80 - Roll For It!

81 - Monopoly
82 - Resistance
83 - Canasta
84 - Wits and Wagers Family
85 - Scrabble Slam
86 - Iota
87 - Empire Builder
88 - Monsterpocalypse
89 - Colt Express
90 - Word Thief

91 - Qwirkle
92 - Yahtzee Free For All
93 - Blood Royale
94 - Heroscape Master Set: Rise of the Valkyrie
95 - Poo: The card game
96 - Bejeweled Frenzy
97 - Stack
98 - The x-files Card Game
99 - Nuclear War
100 - Scrabble


I am not sure how often I will go back and revise this but it was a good experience to have done it. I recommend it as a thought experiment to anyone who has played a bunch of games. A warning though - I know that it is making me look at my new purchases a little bit closer.

Top 100 games to 2015 - overview

I finally have my list together to the end of 2015. I went through the games played in the last 10 years that I had noted on BoardGameGeek and slotted them in to my list. There were 29 games that I could even not remember that were still important enough to find their way on to my top 100 list. Although none of these games ended up in the top 30.

A few interesting notes. 52 of the games on my top 100 list were published before 2000 and 31 of the games on my top 100 list haven’t even been played since 2000. I don’t have any games from 2015 on my list yet.

This tells me that I’m not really a member of the ‘cult of the new’, where I automatically rank the newer games higher. In fact, some of the newer games on my list may slide down over the next few years. I’ve already seen this with Get Bit, which would have still been on this list had Walk The Plank not come out and not only easily replaced it but hastened it’s slide off the list.

A lot more of the order games are pretty stable in their rankings. There is always the chance that a newer game may replace it but the older games are pretty entrenched.

Of the 856 game plays that I have recorded since 2006, 279 plays are by games in my top 100 list. This means that two thirds of the games that I have played in the last 10 years are not even in my top 100 list. This shows that I am willing to give new games a chance or even play games that I don’t love if someone else does.
About 20% of my plays were for games made before 2000, 37% of the plays were for games published between 2000 and 2005, 22% of the plays were for games published between 2006 and 2010, and 21% of the plays were for new games published after 2010.

The other thing about this is that it does make me look a bit closer when buying new games. If it's part of a set, or filling in a collection, I'll still get it but, if I don't think it will replace a game on my top 200, I have to seriously think about it. I still have a lot of games that could probably find a nice home on my top 100 that I haven't even gotten around to playing yet.

Top 100 games - so far

Off the top of my head, after a bit of time, I have the following as my Top 100 Games. Next I have to work through BGG a bit closer to see what else I have missed. Looking at my plays alone, I already see some that will be slotting into here.

Top
1 - Space Hulk
2 - Circus Imperium
3 - Family Business
4 - Diplomacy
5 - Warhammer 40,000
6 - Assault on Hoth
7 - Illuminati
8 - Icebergs
9 - Bosworth
10 - OGRE Designer’s Edition

Upper
11 - Walk The Plank
12 - Risk
13 - Survive: Escape from Atlantis
14 - Cash ‘n’ Guns – second edition
15 - Sushi Go
16 - Bang: The Dice Game
17 - Monty Python Fluxx
18 - Groo: The Game
19 - Race Day
20 - Highlander:The Card Game
21 - Crimson Skies
22 - Car Wars
23 - Scoville
24 - Heroclix
25 - Blood Bowl 3rd
26 - Fortress America
27 - Go
28 - Star Wars: The Queen’s Gambit
29 - Conquest of the Empire
30 - Battle Masters
31- Tsuro
32 - Battleship Galaxies
33 - Daytona 500
34 - Rocketville
35 - Car Wars Card Game
36 - Camel Cup
37 - Horrorclix
38 - Pandemic
39 - Cardline – Animals
40 - Fluxx

Mid
41 - Shogun (Ikusa)
42 - Aliens
43 - Search for the Emperor’s Treasure
44 - Canvas Eagles
45 - Dragon Dice
46 - Pente
47 - Chess
48 - Girl Genius: The Works
49 - INWO
50 - Monsters Menace America
51 - Unexploded Cow
52 - Junta
53 - Toss Up!
54 - Star Warriors
55 - Yetisburg
56 - Risk: Battlefield
57 - Hive
58 - Chill: Black Manor Morn
59 - Timeline – Music & Cinema
60 - Filthy Rich
61 - Roll For It!
62 - Monopoly
63 - Resistance
64 - Canasta
65 - Wits and Wagers Family
66 - Iota
67 - Empire Builder
68 - Colt Express
69 - Word Thief
70 - Qwirkle
71 - Blood Royale
72 - Bejeweled Frenzy
73 - Stack
74 - The x-files Card Game
75 - Nuclear War
76 - Scrabble
77 - Michigan Rummy
78 - Takenoko
79 - Eurorails
80 - Express
81 - Attack of the Mutants!
82 - Battle for Moscow
83 - Fairy Meat
84 - Young Jedi CCG
85 - Payday
86 - Awful Green Things from Outer Space
87 - Space Crusade
88 - Double Solitaire
89 - G’nerts
90 - No Thanks
91 - Get Lucky
92 - Heroquest
93 - Exago
94 - Devil Bunny Needs a Ham
95 - Dixit!
96 - Castellan
97 - Battle Cry – 150 Anniversary
98 - Straw
99 - Cribbage
100 - Revolution

Top 100 games - overview

As a thought experiment, creating a top 100 list is interesting. I first took my top 10 games and put them on the list. I then created three groups – upper, mid, and below. Then, starting with classic games and working forward, I put the games into the three groups. As more games filled in, it became pretty easy to decide if I liked one better or worse than another.

Once I had more than 100 games in the list, I kept adding games until I had enough that none of the games in my below group were in my top 100. Depending on how many games you have played, this may be harder for to do. I then waited a bit to see if there were any more games that came to mind.

I don’t have anything published in the last 15 years in my top 10 – with the exception of the newest edition of Ogre and 40K, but the older editions of those would still be in the same spots. A lot of my list consists of older games that have managed to hold their own against the newer games. Some of this is due to nostalgia, even though we may not have played that game in the last 10 years. Actually, almost half of my list, about 45 games, have not been played in over a decade. I have been tracking my plays on BoardGameGeek.com since 2006. In that time I have played 164 distinct games for a total of 856 plays.

Some of the newer games on my list may fade as we play them less or they get replaced by even newer games. In checking dates and plays I came across a bunch of games that I had forgotten about so that already has updates to this list.