Your Twitter friends told us about their perfect game night. Now find out the numbers behind that game night. Weight, year released, and more.
I decided to create a separate post for those of you who might want the raw data, along with some basic analysis. I thought it might be interesting to break down the games by a number of different criteria. Yes I know this is way overboard, but how often to you get information like this? Might as well right?
All of the data was retrieved from BoardGameGeek via their public API. I used the boardgamegeek Python library along with some handwriten code.
Game Night Games by Year
As you’d expect games from the last 5-10 years dominate the selections, but it was nice to see love for older games. Here’s to hoping that publishers will see this and more rapidly reprint older games to get them into the hands of those of us who are new to the hobby.
| 2016 | 4 |
| 2015 | 14 |
| 2014 | 8 |
| 2013 | 13 |
| 2012 | 9 |
| 2011 | 6 |
| 2010 | 8 |
| 2009 | 6 |
| 2008 | 6 |
| 2007 | 6 |
| 2006 | 2 |
| 2005 | 7 |
| 2004 | 3 |
| 2002 | 2 |
| 2001 | 2 |
| 2000 | 3 |
| 1990-1999 | 11 |
| 1980-1989 | 9 |
| 1970-1971 | 4 |
| 1800-1950 | 5 |
Game Night Games by Weight
From this chart it looks like the love for the middle weight games is high! Lighter games like 7 Wonders and Pandemic, to heavier games such as Through the Ages and Dominant Species.
| 4+ | 5 |
| 3+ | 26 |
| 2+ | 55 |
| 1+ | 38 |
| < 1 | 7 |
Games by Category
The category system on BoardGameGeek isn’t perfect, but it does at least allow publishers to apply tags to their games. “Card game” and “economic” shouldn’t both be considered categories, but as long as they’re all applied equally it should be fine.
| 37 | Card Game |
| 32 | Economic |
| 21 | Fantasy |
| 14 | Science Fiction |
| 12 | Fighting |
| 11 | Medieval |
| 11 | City Building |
| 11 | Bluffing |
| 10 | Deduction |
| 9 | Wargame |
| 9 | Dice |
| 9 | Adventure |
| 8 | Movies / TV / Radio theme |
| 8 | Horror |
| 7 | Territory Building |
| 7 | Negotiation |
| 6 | Party Game |
| 6 | Ancient |
| 6 | Abstract Strategy |
| 5 | Spies/Secret Agents |
| 5 | Renaissance |
| 5 | Novel-based |
| 5 | Miniatures |
| 5 | Industry / Manufacturing |
| 5 | Humor |
| 5 | Farming |
| 5 | Civilization |
| 4 | Nautical |
| 4 | Mythology |
| 4 | Exploration |
| 4 | Environmental |
| 4 | Animals |
| 4 | American West |
| 3 | Word Game |
| 3 | Travel |
| 3 | Religious |
| 3 | Political |
| 3 | Action / Dexterity |
| 2 | Transportation |
| 2 | Trains |
| 2 | Sports |
| 2 | Space Exploration |
| 2 | Real-time |
| 2 | Puzzle |
| 2 | Memory |
| 2 | Medical |
| 2 | Maze |
| 2 | Mafia |
| 2 | Comic Book / Strip |
| 2 | Collectible Components |
| 2 | Children’s Game |
| 2 | Arabian |
| 1 | Zombies |
| 1 | World War II |
| 1 | World War I |
| 1 | Video Game Theme |
| 1 | Racing |
| 1 | Print & Play |
| 1 | Prehistoric |
| 1 | Pirates |
| 1 | Age of Reason |
Game Night Games by Votes
Lastly here’s the most popular games as submitted by the 34 people in this list.
| 9 | Codenames |
| 6 | 6 Nimmt! |
| 5 | 7 Wonders |
| 4 | Terra Mystica |
| 4 | Castles of Burgundy |
| 4 | Power Grid |
| 3 | Sentinels of the Multiverse |
| 3 | Pandemic |
| 3 | Lords of Waterdeep |
| 3 | Dominion |
| 3 | Betrayal at House on the Hill |
| 3 | Las Vegas |
| 2 | Yspahan |
| 2 | Trajan |
| 2 | Ticket to Ride |
| 2 | Through the Ages |
| 2 | T.I.M.E. Stories |
| 2 | Settlers of Catan |
| 2 | Puerto Rico |
| 2 | Keyflower |
| 2 | Hanabi |
| 2 | Flick ‘Em Up! |
| 2 | Five Tribes |
| 2 | Dominant Species |
| 2 | Carcassonne |
| 2 | Burgle Bros |
| 2 | Blood Rage |
| 2 | Bang! |
| 2 | Alchemists |
| 2 | Magic: the Gathering |
| 1 | Zhanguo |
| 1 | Zendo |
| 1 | Yakitori |
| 1 | Witch of Salem |
| 1 | Viticulture |
| 1 | Twilight imperium 3rd |
| 1 | TurfMaster |
| 1 | Tokaido |
| 1 | Times Up: Title Recall |
| 1 | Tichu |
| 1 | The Speicherstadt |
| 1 | The Resistance |
| 1 | The Networks |
| 1 | The Grizzled |
| 1 | The Great Dalmuti |
| 1 | The Gallerist |
| 1 | Takenoko |
| 1 | TI3 |
| 1 | Survive |
| 1 | Succession |
| 1 | Steam Works |
| 1 | Star Wars: Rebellion |
| 1 | Small World |
| 1 | Sheriff of Nottingham |
| 1 | Shadows over Camelot |
| 1 | Set |
| 1 | Sentinels of the Universe |
| 1 | Samurai |
| 1 | Rococo |
| 1 | Resistance |
| 1 | Redacted |
| 1 | Railways of the world |
| 1 | Race For the Galaxy |
| 1 | Ponzi Scheme |
| 1 | Pathfinder |
| 1 | Parade |
| 1 | Pandemic Legacy |
| 1 | Orleans |
| 1 | Oh Hell |
| 1 | Nyet! |
| 1 | Neue Heimat |
| 1 | Munchkin |
| 1 | Montage |
| 1 | Monopoly |
| 1 | Medici |
| 1 | Mahjong |
| 1 | Mage Knight |
| 1 | Macao |
| 1 | Luna |
| 1 | Love Letter |
| 1 | Libertalia |
| 1 | Liars Dice |
| 1 | Legends Untold |
| 1 | Legendary Encounters: Aliens |
| 1 | Le Havre |
| 1 | La Boca |
| 1 | King Of Tokyo |
| 1 | Infamy |
| 1 | Illuminati |
| 1 | Greed |
| 1 | Gold West |
| 1 | Glory to Rome |
| 1 | Ginkgopolis |
| 1 | GOSU |
| 1 | Four Dragons |
| 1 | Forbidden Desert |
| 1 | For Sale |
| 1 | Food Chain Magnate |
| 1 | Firenze |
| 1 | Finca |
| 1 | Feng Shui RPG |
| 1 | Dungeons & Dragons |
| 1 | Dungeon Lords |
| 1 | Diamonds |
| 1 | Dead of Winter |
| 1 | D&D 5th Edition RPG |
| 1 | D&D 5e |
| 1 | Crokinole |
| 1 | Coup |
| 1 | Council of Four |
| 1 | Concordia |
| 1 | Concept |
| 1 | Colosseum |
| 1 | Chaos In the Old World |
| 1 | Caverna |
| 1 | Castles of Burgundy: The Card Game |
| 1 | Carson City |
| 1 | Call of Cathulu |
| 1 | Ca$h n Gun$ |
| 1 | Bruges |
| 1 | Broom Service |
| 1 | Brass |
| 1 | Bora Bora |
| 1 | Biblios |
| 1 | Battlestar Galactica |
| 1 | Battlemist |
| 1 | BattleLore 2nd Edition |
| 1 | BattleCon |
| 1 | Arkham Horror |
| 1 | Arcadia Quest |
| 1 | Animal Upon Animal |
| 1 | Android: Netrunner |
| 1 | Anagrams |
| 1 | Agents of SMERSH |
| 1 | 51st State |
| 1 | Turn the Tide |
| 1 | Forbidden Island |
| 1 | Isle of Skye |
| 1 | Cockroach Poker |
Download the raw data in Google spreadsheet format if you’re interested in working with it on your own.
