The 24 best board games for kids that they’ll love

A good board game can be a fun way to get the family together and encourage kids to take a break from phone, television and video game screens. A great board game inspires, encouraging strategy, teamwork and interactivity.

Over the last couple of years, several standout tabletop games launched for kids between ages 3 and 12 (see our list of the best board games for adults here). While classics like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders are top contenders for beginners and early gamers, there are plenty of kids board games to explore outside of the typical ones you’ll find crammed on the family room’s shelf.

To save you time browsing through the endless sea of board games online, we’ve compiled a few of the best, based on expert recommendations, high ratings and our past coverage. They’ll keep your little ones engaged and entertained.

Best board games for kids

Here are highly rated board games for kids ages 12 and under recommended to us by board game experts. We also included approximate playtime, number of players and appropriate ages, as recommended by game manufacturers and the board game review site BoardGameGeek.

W. Eric Martin, news editor of BoardGameGeek, recommended this game, which has a 4.8-star average rating from over 400 Amazon reviewers and is “like playing Ping-Pong,” but on a regular table. Players must use a magnetic “cat’s paw” to flick a yellow ball through the cat’s mouth to the opponent’s side of the board. Players win the round when they get rid of all the balls on the board.

“Each round lasts less than a minute, but your excitement level goes through the roof as you try to get rid of those last few balls,” Martin said.

• Ages: 7 and up
• Players: 2
• Playtime: 10 minutes

A 2021 American Tabletop Awards (ATTA) winner, this colorfully illustrated card game imagines a world where people suddenly hate artichokes — and your garden (aka, your hand of cards) is full of them. Your objective is to swap out your exclusively artichoke-filled deck and harvest fresh vegetables instead. Martin called this game, which earned a 4.5-star average rating from over 700 Amazon reviewers, “delightfully simple, yet engaging”

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 20 minutes

Both Martin and Michael Barnes, senior board game reviews editor at There Will Be Games, recommended the Jenga-like Animal Upon Animal, which involves carefully balancing colorful, chunky wooden animals on the back of a crocodile. Players roll a die to figure out their next move and win by getting rid of all of their animals first.

“The catch is, if any animals fall off the stack while you are placing one, you have to take them, which you don’t want,” Barnes said.

This highly rated game has earned a 4.8-star average rating from more than 1,000 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 4 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 15 minutes

One of this year’s Spiel Des Jahres winners (the gaming world’s top award) is this Pacific Northwest wildlife-themed tile-laying game. “It’s an easygoing game with more depth than expected,” said Barnes and its “appealing setting makes it easy for all ages to engage.” Players take turns populating their terrain with various wildlife and score points by creating harmonious ecosystems. The award-winning game has earned a 4.9-star average rating from 366 ratings.

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 1-4
• Playtime: 30-45 minutes

Last year, Barnes called this title “the best Disney board game published to date, offering players a chance to enact diabolic schemes straight from the classic films.” Disney Villainous, which has earned a 4.7-star average rating from over 5,800 reviews on Amazon, poses the question, ”What if popular Disney villains actually triumphed?” Each player controls one of six villains, with multiple expansions adding additional characters.

“This is a great choice for older kids and teens, but younger players will enjoy this with some help from older friends, siblings or parents,” Barnes said.

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 50 minutes

Another 2022 Spiel Des Jahres nominee, this UNO-like card game is “bright, colorful, exciting and absolutely accessible for anyone who can recognize numbers and understand the simple rules,” said Barnes. An abbreviation of “Don’t Let Llamas and Markers Accumulate,” the card game has players attempt to get rid of all their cards, or receive markers as a penalty. If they have any llama cards, they get a whopping 10-point marker. The pocket-sized game has a 4.7-star average rating from 657 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 20 minutes

Draftosaurus, which has a 4.8-star average rating from more than 400 reviewers on Amazon, transforms players into theme park proprietors.

“Functionally, it’s pretty simple,” Yurko told us. “At the end of the game, you’ve built up a cute (and unique) little dinosaur park, like a more colorful (and micro-scale) Jurassic Park.”

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 15 minutes

This board game, which has earned a 4.8-star average rating from over 4,100 Amazon reviewers, involves collecting colorful adventurer cards and earning dice to defeat various monsters.

“It’s a game that demonstrates some key gaming elements to kids quite well, such as gathering sets, taking risks, choosing between different opportunities and learning when to push your luck,” Barnes said. “Kids with an interest in fantasy will find a lot to enjoy in Dragonwood.”

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 20 minutes

American Table Top Awards committee member Eric Yurko recommended this stacking and balancing game, where players attempt to island hop across the South Pacific while successfully stacking various flotsam on their raft. “I’ve been really enjoying how easy it is to pick up, and I’ve even found that my more experienced gaming friends are enjoying it as well,” said Yurko. “Plus, the shapes are fun.” Flotsam Float has a 4.7-star average from 24 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 6 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 15-20 minutes

This two-player deduction game is a childhood favorite for good reason: It keeps players engaged by encouraging them to continually ask questions and formulate guesses. Each tile has a face, and players must ask questions to narrow down who it could be. If you guess correctly, you win, but if you guess wrong, your opponent gets the victory. This game has a 4.8-star average rating from more than 13,200 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 6 and up
• Players: 2
• Playtime: 20 minutes

This award-winning memory game includes 24 cards that players must match together each turn. The player with the most matching cards wins the game. The faces on the cards represent a diverse group of people. Kids will not only have fun jogging their memories throughout the game, they’ll also be introduced to an array of different countries, including Myanmar, Bolivia, Mongolia and Tanzania. The game has a 4.8-star average rating from over 600 reviewers on Amazon.

• Ages: 3 and up
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 30 minutes

Brian Mayer, a school library administrator and game designer, called this game a “simple and accessible social word game for kids and the whole family.” Players take turns giving each other clues to try and discover a mystery word. Players can only write down “just one” clue, so “the fun and frustration comes from coming up with unique clue words, so there is as much information for the person guessing the mystery clue,” said Mayer. It has a 4.8-star average rating from 1,023 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 3-7
• Playtime: 20 minutes

Yurko called this game an “excellent fit for families. In Kites, players play cards to keep their kites in the air, racing against a sand timer. When the sand timer runs out, the game is over. “It’s a beautifully detailed, hectic, and frenetic game and I appreciate how easy it is to pick up and play,” said Yurko.

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 10 minutes

Another Spiel des Jahres 2022 winner, Magic Mountain is “a fun kinetic cooperative race game for the whole family, where the players try to beat the game by dropping marbles down a tilted board, kind of like Plinko,” said Damerst. The ultimate goal is to have the marbles knock down the evil witches without hitting any of the friendly villagers.

• Ages: 5 and up
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 20 minutes

You’ll likely recognize Minecraft: Builders & Biomes from the popular computer game that inspired it. You mine resources, build structures and earn points. Players also have the chance to fight traditional Minecraft monsters like Creepers and Endermen.

“One of the coolest features is the big ‘resource cube’ shared by all players and composed of smaller wooden blocks representing various resources — players get to ‘mine’ the cube and get what they need to complete their projects,” Barnes said.

The game has a 4.6-star average rating from over 4,400 Amazon reviewers.

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 30 to 60 minutes

The children’s version of the popular tile-laying game Carcassonne, My First Carcassonne has players place tiles to build a city and create a network of streets, houses and green spaces. The game has earned a 4.8-star average rating from more than 300 Amazon reviewers.

“It’s a simple, puzzle-like game with gentle competition and a satisfying sense of creating a village with other players,” said Barnes.

• Ages: 4 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 10 to 20 minutes

Mayer also recommended this kids version of the award-winning Quacks of Quedlinburg game, which has kids racing their animals in the medieval village’s big race. Players grab food tokens from their bags to feed their animals, advancing them forward in the race. It’s a “fun and simple race game that gives younger kids opportunities to make strategic decisions,” said Mayer.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 3-7
• Playtime: 20 minutes

A card-stacking game that offers the challenge of Jenga, Rhino Hero players use cards to create walls and roofs for a shared building — all while attempting not to knock it over. A wooden, superheroic rhinoceros also moves around the building from floor to floor.

“Everyone gets to feel like they’re in a shared movie, each player taking a turn moving the hero through the scenery — until someone gets careless and destroys the building, that is,” Martin said.

• Ages: 5 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 5 to 15 minutes

Shadows in the Forest is “a wonderfully atmospheric game meant to be played in the dark,” Barnes said. Players play forest creatures called Shadowlings, which need to avoid being seen by the Seeker, represented by an LED lantern. “The board features 3D trees that block the light and give the Shadowlings actual shadows in which to hide,” Barnes said. The game has a 4.6-star average rating from over 1,800 Amazon reviewers and comes with a miniature lantern and glow-in-the-dark die.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-7
• Playtime: 15 minutes

In Ticket to Ride, which has a 4.9-star average rating from over 16,500 Amazon reviewers, players connect cities with train tracks — and block others from doing the same. In a previous board games guide, Lincoln Damerst, the director of media at BoardGameGeek, told us Ticket to Ride is his “go-to recommendation, especially for new gamers.” It even has its own Amazon Alexa skill to teach you how to play.

“The magic of Ticket to Ride is that you can play it casually, focusing only on your own tickets, or cutthroat, with you trying to sabotage other players in their city-connecting efforts,” Martin said.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 30 to 60 minutes

The Mind is a game in which all the players try to discard the numbered cards in their hand in ascending order into a shared discard pile — “but you can’t talk or give clues about the cards in your hand,” Martin said. The cards range from one to 100, and the strategy involves playing the card you think is the lowest of the round — if no one holds a lower number than the card you played, you win that round. The game has a 4.7-star average rating from more than 4,300 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 20 minutes

Yeti in My Spaghetti has a lot of what can capture a young kid’s attention: a fun premise, easy-to-follow rules and pretend food. The game is similar to the classic Pick Up Sticks, where players need to move and collect sticks without disturbing the others in the pile. In Yeti in My Spaghetti, though, players must move the “pasta noodles” without letting the yeti fall into the bowl. It has a 4.7-star average rating from more than 8,400 reviewers on Amazon and can keep kids busy without taking too much time — they’ll be able to play multiple rounds within an hour.

• Ages: 4 and up
• Players: 2+
• Playtime: 15 minutes

With a 4.8-star average rating from over 19,800 reviewers on Amazon, Zingo is a fun take on classic bingo where kids get a tile that matches a square on their respective boards. The first one to cover their board with matching tiles calls out “Zingo!” This is good practice for pre-readers and early readers, since each tile is represented by a picture. The game has won multiple awards, including the 2002 Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal Award and the 2011 ASTRA Best Toys for Kids Award.

• Ages: 4 and up
• Players: 2-7
• Playtime: 5 minutes

In this board game, players work together to defend their school from hordes of zombies, according to Barnes. He said it’s a great game to “show kids the value of listening to others and evaluating situations to determine better outcomes for everyone.” It’s also a “legacy” game, meaning you can unlock characters and other content for future playthroughs every time you play. Available in versions for both younger kids and teens, Zombie Kidz: Evolution is highly rated, earning a 4.8-star average rating from over 500 reviews on Amazon.

• Ages: 7 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 5 to 15 minutes

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