Guest Contributor

The Rise of Digital Platforms for Online Play

March 10, 2023

5 Min Read

More and more players are playing traditional board games via online platforms. Find out more.

Discover a new era of tech startups revolutionizing the board game industry. Several companies have unveiled digital game board technology, similar to a small table-sized iPad, allowing players to engage in various digitized board games.

Wizama has debuted Square One.
In May, The Last Gameboard secured $4 million in funding and plans to launch its beta next month.
The Infinity Game Table offers fully digitized gameplay.
SquareOne and The Last Gameboard allow players to use physical pieces and cards on their tablets.
Board Game Arena, Tabletopia, and Yucata all bring the tabletop experience to the small screen.

How do board games go online?

Small game boards with a limited audience and high prices, may only appeal to superfans. However, with the increasing popularity of digital tabletop games, big-name board game makers like Hasbro and Asmodee are blending the digital and physical versions of their projects. Mobile tabletop game downloads soared during 2020, and developers are eager to catch up to the trend. While this isn’t a new concept, Hasbro has made many of its popular games available digitally since 2021. And now it seems the trend is taking off even more.

Board game enthusiasts, rejoice! The clunky virtual tabletop platforms of the past are becoming a thing of the past. Shail Mehta, the creator of the Last Gameboard, has developed a touchscreen gameboard that merges the best of both worlds: players can enjoy the tactile experience of playing with physical pieces while also viewing the game digitally. Mehta’s goal was to create a technology that keeps the essence of traditional board gaming alive in the 21st century.

Discover a vast collection of tabletop games with popular companies, where users can effortlessly switch between them. The Last Gameboard presents a subscription model of $15 per month that provides access to popular releases from game-makers such as Asmodee. On the other hand, other game boards allow users to purchase digital tabletop games as they would from an app store. The Last Gameboard website currently shows Dominos and Terraforming Mars as part of its games, with more to follow, according to Mehta.

Does this have a future?

Discover the latest trend in tabletop gaming! While mobile sales boomed during the pandemic, they are starting to level off. As a result, exciting opportunities are around for digital game board platforms that don’t rely on mobile devices.

According to Craig Chapple, a mobile insights strategist at SensorTower, spending on U.S. mobile tabletop games increased by a remarkable 40.1% from July 2020 to July 2021, reaching $703.8 million. However, game installs during this period dropped by 12.1%. App Annie’s data also confirmed this trend, showing a decrease in downloads of tabletop games on iOS and Google Play from 154 million in January to August 2020 to 112 million in the same period in 2021. number of devices, the number of mobile app installs will continue to grow.

Several game development companies are now retrofitting board games for digital platforms, a growing part of their business model. Asmodee, the second-largest board game maker after Hasbro, is prioritizing the development of digital versions of their popular titles such as Catan and Pandemic. They recently acquired the online platform, Board Game Maker, which boasted 5 million members at the time of acquisition and saw 600% growth in 2020.

Hasbro, one of the world’s largest traditional board game makers, is experiencing rapid growth in digital gaming. In the last quarter, their digital gaming revenue surged by 118% compared to the previous year. The success was fueled by the mobile launch of their most popular games, including Magic: The Gathering Arena. Hasbro’s CEO, Brian Goldner, believes that digital will continue to be an essential part of their business. The trend towards digital tabletop gaming is further supported by the popularity of Twitch, where online board games, such as Dungeons & Dragons, are enjoying a revival. Critic is one of the most popular channels for fans on Twitch and YouTube.

When you play online, you should always think about online security. Unscrupulous game makers can steal user data and sell it. A good protection option is to hide personal data with a VPN. Let’s think about what does a VPN hide and how effective is it? To understand what VPN hide is, you need to understand how the service works. By creating an encrypted communication channel, VPN hides your IP address, and personal data that is stored in the browser and protects against tracking.

Most Popular Online Games

The most popular online board game platforms each have different player bases which means the popular games vary from site to site. Here’s a list of the current most popular games on each of the 3 biggest platforms.