The Most Fun and Engaging Board Games for Kids in 2024

Keeping kids entertained all day long can be very challenging, whether you’re a parent, teacher, daycare attendant, babysitter, or even an older sibling. Fortunately, a fun board game can lead to hours of enjoyment, quality time with family, and a myriad of learning opportunities.

We’ve compiled a list of the most fun and engaging board games for kids that you should try in 2024!

While board games typically appeal to adults, these games require expert skills and don’t suit a child’s developing needs.

The good news is many game companies devote time to making games accessible for kids. Not only do kids get a kick out of these games, but they’re also fun for the whole family.

One of the biggest appeals of many of these games is that they require nimble fingers and plenty of dexterity to win. Kids can play games, use their hands and build this vital skill. (After all, dexterity not only helps kids increase flexible thinking, problem-solving, and self-control.)

Contents:

• Best Board Games for Kids: Most Popular in 2024
• Online Board Games for Kids
• Fun Board Games for Kids
• Math Board Games for Kids
• Cooperative Board Games for Kids
• Classic Board Games for Kids
• Educational Board Games for Kids
• Family Time Board Games for Kids and Adults
• Strategy Board Games for Kids
• Other Interesting Board Games for Kids

Best Board Games for Kids: Most Popular in 2024

1. Sushi Go!

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 5
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 15–20 minutes

Sushi Go is a ‘pick and pass’ card game, where players aim to pick the best sushi dishes as they ‘whizz by.’ Players are given a hand of cards and set out to gain points by discarding the cards they don’t want to the player on the left. After three full rounds of passing, whoever ends up with the most points, wins!

Purchase on Amazon ($11.97), eBay ($10.92), or their official website GameWright ($13.99).

2. Exploding Kittens

Credit: explodingkittens.com

• Number of players: 2 to 5 (combine two decks for 6 to 9 players)
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 15 minutes

This fun card game has been a popular choice for families and friend groups for years, and with its many new iterations, it remains a fun game to play in 2024. The gameplay is simple enough—you take turns to draw cards and do everything you can to avoid drawing an exploding card and getting booted out of the game.

Purchase on Amazon ($19.99), eBay ($20.00+), or their official website ($19.99).

3. Catan Junior

Credit: catan.com/junior

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 30 minutes

This simplified version of the classic Settlers of Catan is perfect for kids with a thirst for adventure. Build your pirate lair and set sail through a ring of islands to gather resources and gold to launch new ships and build more lairs. Instead of cards, you can keep track of your resources through tiles that you can lay out in front of you.

Purchase on Amazon ($24.49) or Catan’s official website ($34.99).

Online Board Games for Kids

4. Pictionary

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 or more
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 30 minutes

This online version of the classic game is a great way to connect with family and friends from far away. Just set up a private room and take turns using your mouse to illustrate an assigned word, and get points by guessing the word correctly. You can even make your own game with customized words and set your own time limits.

Purchase a physical version of the game on Amazon ($11.99) or Walmart ($16.24).

5. Mancala

Credit: ebay.com

• Number of players: 2 or more
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 7 minutes to 3 hours

Hearing Mancala stones’ satisfying clink cannot be replicated online, but their website can provide a welcome diversion and a fun strategy game. Move the stones around the board until every stone is in your “store” or your opponent’s. The winner has the most number of stones in their store.

Purchase a physical version of the game on Amazon ($24.99) or Aliexpress ($10.35+).

6. Battleship

Credit: shop.hasbro.com

• Number of players: 2
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 30 minutes

This official digital version of this popular game can be played online with family and friends all over the world. Challenge each other on classic mode or level up to Commander mode with more tactical strategies. Just sink your opponent’s ships before they can do damage to yours!

Purchase a physical version of the game on Amazon ($16.99) or Hasbro’s official website ($16.99).

Fun Board Games for Kids

7. Disney Eye Found It!

Credit: ebay.com

• Number of players: 1 to 6
• Minimum age recommendation: 4
• Play time: 15 minutes

This game board folds out into a gorgeous maze that’s six feet long! You just need to bring Cinderella home before midnight. You’ll meet many of your favorite Disney characters along the way. With this entertainment, your kids can develop their motor and critical thinking skills, memory retention, object identification, and focus.

Purchase on Amazon ($17).

8. Where’s Bear?

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1
• Minimum age recommendation: 2
• Play time: 30 minutes

In this game for toddlers, you can conceal a bear underneath one of six nesting boxes and get your kid to guess where it is. The little ones can easily point to or describe the box. Older kids can also play along by finding hidden images in every block.

Purchase on Amazon ($18.99).

9. Kanoodle Head-to-Head

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 1 minute

This fun 2D and 3D solo board game involves arranging puzzle pieces to complete over 200 challenges. It is a great way to enhance your kid’s problem-solving and strategic thinking skills. And the best part—it’s perfectly portable, so you can bring it with you even when you travel!

There’s also a junior version ($12.97) for 4 to 6-year-olds.

Purchase on Amazon ($13.99) or Board Game Geek ($5.00+).

10. Spot It!

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 8
• Minimum age recommendations: 6
• Play time: 15 minutes

This is a fabulous card game to play with the entire family, at home, or even on vacation. Spot It! helps kids develop focus, fine motor, and observational skills and tests the fastest reflexes by having players identify and call out matching symbols. The best part? Spot It! Comes with 5 different modes of play.

Purchase on Amazon ($12.00) or from the official website.

Math Board Games for Kids

11. Money Bags

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 10–15 minutes

Kids who play this game can practice exchanging, counting, and collecting money with paper dollar bills and plastic coins. Players can solve challenges like figuring out how not to use quarters if they want to get 38 cents from the bank. Collect the most money to win!

This is a fun and simple way to develop mathematical skills at home.

Purchase on Amazon ($19.40) or eBay ($12.00+).

12. Sum Swamp

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 5
• Play time: 15 minutes+

Simply doing subtraction and addition—using two numbered dice and one with “-” and “+” signs—can make your choice of critters move around the marsh. Kids playing the game may take as long as they need to solve the equations to get some arithmetic practice as they play.

Purchase on Amazon ($19.99) or eBay ($11.99+).

13. High Seas ADDventure

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 5
• Play time: 45–60 minutes

Race your fish, whale, turtle, or octopus to the island paradise at the center by adding numbers to make 10. Drawing a shark or octopus card will add an element of surprise and make the game more exciting.

Purchase on Amazon ($17.74) or eBay ($13.95).

Cooperative Board Games for Kids

14. Hanabi

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 5
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 20–30 minutes

All players are dealt five cards, and they can see everyone else’s cards but not theirs. The group must help each other play the right cards to create the proper sequence and launch a magnificent display of fireworks.

This game is fantastic for deduction, memory retention, communication, and team building.

Purchase on Amazon ($10.99) or eBay ($7.99+).

15. Castle Panic

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 10
• Play time: 60 minutes

Castle Panic is an excellent choice if you want a fun tabletop cooperative game for the whole family to enjoy. Draw cards and plan your strategies to slay monsters attacking from the edges of the board and defend your castle. The goal is to defeat all invading monsters and keep at least one castle standing. The player with the most victory points ends the game as the Master Slayer.

Purchase on Amazon ($25.99) or eBay ($12.99+).

16. Feed the Woozle

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 5
• Minimum age recommendation: 3
• Play time: 15 minutes

Woozle is a monster who loves to eat silly snacks. This cooperative game lets preschoolers work with (and not against) four players to count out the right types and amounts of food to feed Woozle. They may also work to match the pairs of food cards.

This game comes with three levels of play, so your child can enjoy it for several years and practice cooperation.

Purchase on Amazon ($22.95) or eBay ($14.04+).

17. Outfoxed

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 5
• Play time: 20 minutes

Outfoxed is an easy way for young children to get a taste of their first board game with the rest of the family. It can easily be their gateway to bigger and more complicated endeavors later on.

The objective is to find the guilty fox by eliminating suspects and uncovering clues. It is a cooperative game, so you can strategize with your co-players to keep the culprit from escaping. Whoever finds the guilty fox wins.

Purchase on Amazon ($18.97) or eBay ($10.00+).

18. Magic Mountain

Credit: boardgamegeek.com

• Number of players: 2 to 6
• Minimum age recommendation: 5
• Play time: 15 minutes

This cooperative game has a magic theme, with parents and kids working together to save the villagers from villains. Using a ball, players must find the best path to roll it down the mountain. But be warned! Every color piece the ball hits moves that piece closer to the village. Beat the villains to the village to win the game.

Buy this game at Walmart ($47.99) or on Board Game Geek.

Classic Board Games for Kids

19. Monopoly

Credit: monopoly.hasbro.com

• Number of players: 2 to 8
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 60 to 90 minutes

Monopoly is a property trading game where players can deal, buy, sell, scheme, and dream their way to becoming wealthy. In this classic real estate game, there can only be one winner.

The game has speed cards, city editions, expansion packs, and junior editions (for kids aged 5 and up) where players can learn how to save, sell, buy, and negotiate. Players interact with one another nearly as much as the board, so it can teach a lot about good sportsmanship and self-preservation.

Purchase on Amazon ($19.99), eBay ($10.00+), or Hasbro’s official website.

20. Chess

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 10 to 60 minutes

Enthusiasts say that children as young as six can be taught chess if they show interest in the game. It is a fantastic way to exercise both sides of their brains and help them develop high-end strategic thinking and problem-solving skills. It also enhances creativity, concentration, and memory.

Purchase a chess set on Amazon ($13.81+) or eBay ($5.00+).

21. Scrabble

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 20 to 90 minutes

This classic game is a great way to expand children’s vocabulary and develop their strategic skills. The best part is that there are so many different ways to play—you can pair kids and adults and pit teams against each other every round, and even invent your own scoring system to accommodate everyone in the family.

There’s also a junior version ($14.96) for children aged 5 and up.

Purchase on Amazon ($18.99), eBay ($9.95+), or Hasbro’s official website ($21.99).

22. Clue

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 3 to 6
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 60 minutes

Clue is a suspenseful and fun mystery game that involves figuring out which of the six suspects is responsible for the murder of Mr. Boddy of Tudor Mansion. The goal is to find out who killed him, where, and with what weapon. Players take turns rolling the die to explore the mansion and figure out what happened. The player that makes the correct accusation wins!

Purchase on Amazon ($11.84), eBay ($8.00+), or Hasbro’s official website ($11.99).

23. Twister

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 15 minutes

This fun party game has been a crowd favorite since its invention in the 1960s. Instead of sitting around a table, you and your family will stretch those muscles.

Just plant your hands and feet in different circles on a large plastic mat spread on the floor. The mat has four rows of green, red, blue, and yellow circles, and the spinner dictates where you will place each body part. If your elbow or knee touches the mat, you’re eliminated. The last one standing wins.

Purchase on Amazon ($19.84), eBay ($4.99+), or Hasbro’s official website ($19.00).

24. Snakes and Ladders

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 4
• Play time: 15 to 45 minutes

This classic game is great fun for kids as young as four years old. All players start at the bottom of the board and take turns rolling the die to move forward and upward. Landing on a ladder takes you higher more quickly, but landing on a snake will take you several steps back.

With this game, kids can practice number recognition and counting as they go along the board. The chances to jump up or slide down make the game fun and exciting!

Purchase on Amazon ($10.99) or eBay ($8.26+).

25. Guess Who?

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 5–10 minutes

This tabletop guessing game is a fun game to play with kids. Using yes or no questions, both players try to guess the identity of the other’s mystery character—the first one to guess wins the game! With 48 face cards and 24 mystery cards, you have dozens of opportunities to stymie your opponent.

Purchase on Amazon ($10.97), eBay ($0.99), or Hasbro’s official website ($11.99).

Educational Board Games for Kids

26. Qwirkle

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 35–40 minutes

Qwirkle is a fun mix-and-match game that’s similar to dominoes—all you need to do is match the wood tiles and line them up by color or shape. It’s an excellent game for kids to develop pattern recognition and strategic thinking skills.

Match six tiles in a row and score big with a Qwirkle. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!

Purchase on Amazon ($24.95) or eBay ($9.99+).

27. Recycle Rally

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 3 to 5
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 45 minutes

Recycle Rally is a fun game that encourages environmental consciousness and teaches children the importance of recycling. Players drive recycling trucks around town and collect valuable materials. But if too many items get left behind, all collections are incinerated, and everyone will lose! Players need to discover how they can work together.

The game itself is crafted with plastic-free, recycled, and recyclable materials!

Purchase on Amazon ($19.95) or eBay ($15+).

28. Cat Crimes

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 5 minutes to 1 hour+

This single-player logic game incorporates 60 challenges that will keep puzzle-loving kids entertained for hours. The various brain teasers can help develop myriad skills, including logical reasoning, critical thinking, formal logic, planning, and spatial reasoning—all done with the help of cute and naughty cats committing crimes.

Purchase on Amazon ($12.99) or eBay ($7.99+).

29. Word on the Street Junior

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 8
• Minimum age recommendation: 7+
• Play time: 20–30 minutes

This fun word game encourages teamwork and develops kids’ vocabulary skills. Just line up the letters from A to Z, take turns flipping category cards, and come up with an answer within 30 seconds. There are over 400 categories available, so you can play for as long and as many times as you want!

You can take the game to another level and make it better by assigning teams—pair up younger and older kids so they can work together to figure out the answers.

Purchase on Amazon ($21.28) or eBay ($26.58).

30. Animal Upon Animal

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendations: 4
• Play time: 15 minutes

Animal Upon Animal is an educational game with 29 wooden animals and a die with corresponding symbols. The aim of the game is to stack as many animals, one atop the other until a player has no animals left. An added bonus? This game helps kids to get creative with problem-solving, develop fine motor skills, and refine hand-eye coordination.

Purchase on Amazon ($24.99) or from the game’s official website, Haba ($24.99).

Family Time Board Games for Kids and Adults

31. SET: The Family Game of Visual Perception

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1 to 20
• Minimum age recommendation: 3
• Play time: 20 minutes

SET is a fun and fast-moving card game that you can play with as many people as you want. From a lineup of 12 cards, all you need to do is spot three-card sets with common attributes such as shape, fill, and color. The person with the most sets at the end of the game wins!

Purchase on Amazon ($11.99).

32. Uno

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 10
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 3.5 hours

The classic beloved UNO card game involves players taking turns matching a card they’re holding with the card on top of the deck based on number or color. The game is made much more fun and exciting by the 32 special action cards that will tell you to reverse, skip, or draw more cards. The person with one card left shouts “UNO!” and the winner is the first to get rid of all their cards.

Purchase on Amazon ($9.99) or eBay ($6.25).

33. Candy Land

Credit: shop.hasbro.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 3
• Play time: 15–20 minutes

Candy Land is another classic game that families have been playing for decades. Players race to the castle and encounter delicious surprises along the way. Kids as young as 3 years old can play—there’s no reading required, just colorful illustrations and sweet destinations!

Purchase on Amazon ($11.99) or eBay ($5.99+).

34. Ticket to Ride

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 5
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 45–60 minutes

This spiel des jahres, an award-winning game is a role-playing multiplayer adventure board game that lets players compete to travel by rail to North American cities. Players collect cards to show which railway routes are connected—longer routes earn more points. The player with the most points wins the game.

Purchase on Amazon ($32.77) or eBay ($14.10+).

35. Cascadia

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 1 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 10
• Play time: 35–40 minutes

Cascadia is a strategy game that the whole family can play! Together, players must journey to the Pacific Northwest to create the most harmonious ecosystem in Cascadia. The wildlife tiles determine points, and gathering groups of the same tiles is important to earn the highest score.

Purchase on Amazon, or from Cascadia’s official website.

Strategy Board Games for Kids

36. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 10
• Play time: 30–90 minutes+

You can pick your favorite Harry Potter character (Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, or Neville Longbottom) and play seven successive games to defend Hogwarts and battle with the Dark Lord and his minions. As you progress, you’ll collect cards to gain skills and influence in the game to beat the forces of evil that you run into.

This tabletop and deck-building game will lead to hours of fun even for kids who aren’t familiar with the Harry Potter franchise. And if you’re looking for more, The Monster Box of Monsters Expansion is available, too!

Purchase on Amazon ($43.99) or eBay ($20+).

37. Dominoes

Credit: thegracemuseum.org

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 8
• Play time: 15 minutes

In this classic strategy game, each player draws seven dominoes and takes turns laying one down to match an open end of a domino train already on the table. Lay down your heaviest tiles first so you won’t be left with a higher score than the other players. The first person who gets 150 points wins.

Purchase from Amazon ($12.99) or eBay ($9.00).

38. Connect 4

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2
• Minimum age recommendation: 6
• Play time: 1–10 minutes

Connect 4 is an expanded game of tic-tac-toe—the goal is to get four in a row. You can use the blue blockers to keep your opponent from doing the same and battle it out with your red and gold discs. This game seems simple, but it takes wit, strategic thinking, and a thirst for winning to bring down your opponent.

Purchase on Amazon ($10.99) or eBay ($6.99+).

39. Azul

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum Age Recommendation: 8
• Play time: 30–45 minutes

This tile placement game uses gorgeous resin pieces with fun and eye-catching designs. The rules are simple: just choose tiles from the available market pieces and add them in a row on the board. The game ends when one player fills a full horizontal line on their tile wall, and the points are tallied. The player with the most points wins.

Purchase on Amazon ($31.99) or eBay ($15.10+).

40. Labyrinth

Credit: amazon.com

• Number of players: 2 to 4
• Minimum age recommendation: 7
• Play time: 30 minutes

Labyrinth is a fun strategy game where no two adventures are ever the same due to the shifting maze and the different cards and routes you can take. The first player to complete the quest and return to the start of the maze wins.

Purchase on Amazon ($24.99) or eBay ($10.80).

Other Interesting Board Games for Kids

1. Hoot Owl Hoot – Amazon ($15.99) or eBay ($8.99+)
2. Cahoots – Amazon ($14.40) or eBay ($9.59+)
3. 5-Minute Dungeon – Amazon ($46.99) or eBay ($14.49+)
4. Forbidden Island – Amazon ($19.99)or eBay ($8.99+)
5. Boggle – Amazon ($17.99) or eBay ($9.50)
6. Backgammon – Amazon ($29.95) or eBay ($15.00+)
7. Checkers – Amazon ($10.10) or eBay ($10.00+)
8. Farkle – Amazon ($11.99) or eBay ($7.50)
9. Yahtzee – Amazon ($8.84) or eBay ($12.00+)
10. Smath – Amazon ($14.50) or eBay ($6.25+)

If your children spend more time playing with friends than you expected, don’t panic! You can make sure that they’re safe with the Findmykids app.

Board Games for Kids: Hours of Entertainment and Learning

Whenever the family gathers around to play a board game, children can significantly benefit. These games are some of the best, most rewarding ways to develop much-needed cognitive, social, and emotional skills far away from phones, tablets, and TV screens.

Here are some of them:

• attention span;
• communication skills;
• complex thought processes;
• context clues;
• creativity and imagination;
• critical thinking;
• decision making;
• dexterity;
• educational expansion in terms of history, science, geography, etc;
• empathy;
• focus;
• following the rules;
• form social connections;
• frustration tolerance;
• hand-eye coordination;
• healthy competition;
• language skills;
• making good decisions;
• memory;
• organizing;
• pattern recognition;
• planning;
• practicing patience;
• resilience;
• respecting boundaries and restrictions;
• self-confidence;
• spatial awareness;
• spelling;
• strategy;
• systematic thinking;
• tactical thinking;
• understanding how other people think;
• working with a team.

The games on this list are some of the best that the industry has to offer—they are readily available, simple to play, and so much fun for the whole family.
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In conclusion, we highly recommend exploring the diverse selection of the most enjoyable and educational board games for kids in 2024. This guide serves as a valuable resource to help you select the perfect games based on your children’s preferences and interests. By structuring your game nights with these engaging options, you can create memorable experiences that foster laughter, bonding, and skill development. Embrace the joy of board gaming and embark on exciting adventures that will surely create lasting memories for your family.

And if your favorite game isn’t on this list, leave a comment and tell us all about why you love it!

Picture on front page: Leszek Glasner/Shuttertock