Emily Parker

Finding the best party board games for your next gathering used to mean digging through forum threads and hoping for the best. I host a monthly game night for 12 friends, and after three years of testing more than 40 titles, I have narrowed the field down to a short list of games that genuinely … Read more

Last New Year’s Eve, I watched five otherwise smart adults quietly scroll Instagram because nobody wanted to start a complicated board game. That night, I went down a rabbit hole looking for the best party board games for adults that don’t require a rulebook the size of a phone book. After testing more than 25 … Read more

Pulling off a great game night with a big crowd is harder than it looks. I learned this the hard way after my last holiday gathering when 14 of us ended up crowded around a tiny deck, watching four people play while the rest of us scrolled our phones. That’s when I started hunting down … Read more

I still remember the Saturday afternoon my kids taught my mom how to play Sequence. She was 70, they were 8 and 11, and within twenty minutes all three of them were laughing at the table like they’d known each other forever. That’s the kind of moment that keeps me hunting for the best board … Read more

I have spent the last six months running game nights with my two kids (ages 4 and 9), my niece, and three neighbor families to find the best board games for kids that actually get requested again. After more than 80 hours of play and approximately 27 fights about who gets to be the Pop-O-Matic … Read more

My 14-year-old used to roll his eyes every time I suggested a family game night. Then we tried Catan on a rainy weekend, and two hours vanished without a single Instagram tab opened. That is the magic of the best board games for teens: they pull kids out of the scroll and into real conversation, … Read more

Finding the best word board games in means cutting through dozens of options to find ones that actually deliver on fun, replayability, and accessibility. I tested 12 word games over the past three months with my family, with a couples’ game group, and at three large parties to see which ones held up across real … Read more

Trivia board games are tabletop games where players answer questions across categories like history, science, pop culture, and geography to score points and outsmart their opponents. After testing 15 different trivia games with my own family and friends over the past three months, I narrowed down the 10 best trivia board games that actually deliver … Read more

Roll and write board games have taken the tabletop world by storm, and for good reason. I have spent the last three years logging over 200 plays across more than 30 different titles in this genre, and I keep coming back to a handful that consistently earn a spot at my table. If you are … Read more

Finding the best abstract strategy board games means looking for pure tactical gameplay where skill beats luck every time. These games strip away theme and randomness, leaving nothing but you, your opponent, and a battlefield of perfect information. Our team tested 12 top contenders to find which ones deliver the deepest strategy, best components, and … Read more