Looking for a way to get the whole family together? Finding a game that’s interesting enough to tempt your teens away from their screens and appealing enough for the in-laws to get stuck into as well can be quite the challenge, but after months of testing I think I’ve found the best family board games that everyone will genuinely want to play.
From timeless classics to ruthless strategy games, there’s a lot of choice out there. It’s worth thinking about the age suitability (if you have young kids at home you may want to give some of the more involved board games a swerve), as well as player numbers. Take into consideration how long you’re willing to spend setting up a game, and whether you prefer a fast-paced, over in 10-minutes option, or something meatier for a family board game night.
Whatever your budget, I’ve rounded up the very best family board games that have received the hallowed thumbs up from my team of testers – ranging from primary school kids to grandparents. Get ready to make some room in that board game cupboard…
Read more: 10 best kids’ headphones for noise-free screen time
The best family board games for 2026 are:
- Best overall – Labyrinth: Was £24.99, now £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best budget option – Bananagrams: £24.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best drawing board game – I Suck at Drawing: £19.99, Amazon.co.uk
- Best family board game for all ages – Ticket to Ride: £43.94, Amazon.co.uk
Read more: 10 best kids’ scooters for first rides and fast glides
Labyrinth
Best: family board game overall
Why we love it
- Easy to understand
- Simple set-up
- Nice mix of strategy and luck
- Lots of themed variation available
Take note
- Maze pieces are a little stiff to move
This classic board game was an instant hit with all ages. The aim of the game is nice and simple – you have to slide pieces of the maze to be the first player to collect your treasures. We found setup straightforward and after the initial punching out of all the cardboard squares, setting up the game each time took just a few minutes.
While a lot of the game involves strategic thinking (you need to forward plan how you’re going to reach each of the treasure symbols on your cards), you’re at the mercy of the ever-changing maze as each player takes turns shifting the maze pieces to create their shortest route to success. The unpredictability is a huge part of the game’s appeal, even if our younger testers found it very frustrating to be foiled just as they were about to collect their final treasure!
I’ve played this in two-player mode and with a group of four and think the more players the better. Labyrinth is the game we came back to the most and the one that had the widest appeal across generations. It’s easy to get the gist of, quick to set up and play doesn’t drag; what’s not to love? It’s available in a range of different themes; we tried out the classic version, but you can choose everything from a Super Mario edition to K-Pop Demon Hunters.
Key specifications
Buy now £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
Bananagrams
Best: budget family board game
Why we love it
- Easily portable
- Very quick set up
- Quick play
Take note
- Younger children might struggle
Strictly speaking Bananagrams is not a board game, as there’s no board as such, but it proved so popular I felt it deserved its spot in my roundup. It’s essentially a fast-paced version of Scrabble, without the board. Each player has a number of letter tiles and has to build their own separate crossword grid, taking more from a central pile as they use up their personal stash; the winner is the first person to get rid of all their tiles, with none left in the central pile. Oh, and don’t forget to shout “BANANAS!” when you finish.
I thought this was going to be tricky for my seven-year-old who is still finding her way with spelling, but I was mistaken. She actually beat me in our first game (quite the humbling experience for someone who makes their living as a writer).
If you’ve drawn the short straw with a pile of Xs and Qs you can dump them, although for every tile dumped you need to take three more. There are enough tiles for up to eight players, and it can even be played solo. I love that the tiles come zipped up in a banana shaped pouch, making it perfect for taking on holiday or days out.
Key specifications
Buy now £24.99, Amazon.co.uk
Monopoly Pokémon
Best: update on a classic board game
Why we love it
- Great pace
- Cute figurines
- Clear instructions
Take note
- Don’t expect a copy of the traditional Monopoly game
Don’t be fooled by the name, Pokémon Monopoly isn’t just a carbon copy of the classic board game, more ‘inspired by’. While there are similarities of course, Pokémon Monopoly feels more fun, less cutthroat and doesn’t drag on anywhere near as long as our usual Monopoly games do (hooray for that!).
Here, you’re a Pokémon trainer who needs to catch different Pokémon types, and the first to complete their tracker mat wins. Along the way there’s trading (you pay with Poké balls, not paper money) and battling for different Pokémon through dice throwing, and the whole family got fully immersed in their quest.
My seven- and 10-year-old were so desperate to play this that they took it upon themselves to learn the rules and played the game three times in a row, it was that much of a hit. Once the rest of the family had joined in, we understood why. Pokémon fans are going to love this, but its appeal goes far wider than this. It’s great fun, definitely brought out everyone’s competitive spirit and is now a firm favourite for family games nights.
Key specifications
Buy now £18.99, Amazon.co.uk
Kollide
Best: two-player board game
Why we love it
- Very quick set-up
- Can be playing in groups or as a single player
- Great fun
- Encourages strategic thinking
Take note
- Games can be over in just a couple of minutes
Kollide is a great antidote to “I’m bored!”. It was the simplest to set up out of all of the games we tested – just make sure you have a decent flat surface. You just need to lay out the ‘battlefield’ (a loop of black rope), share out the magnets and you’re good to go.
Each player takes it in turns to place their magnets inside the rope, one by one. So far, so straightforward. But as the battleground starts getting crowded the magnetic pull can attract other magnets and you have to pick up the whole lot. The winner is the person who gets rid of their magnets first, and after playing this many times I can tell you it is never a done deal until you successfully place your last magnet.
It’s a fun idea, with plenty of tension during gameplay, and while we found it worked best with two players, there’s enough magnets for up to four players at a time. It’s the perfect family board game when you’re short of time and something all ages can enjoy.
Key specifications
Buy now £14.99, Amazon.co.uk
I Suck at Drawing
Best: drawing board game
Why we love it
- Very silly
- No maximum number of players
- Good party game
- Includes a spare pen
Take note
- No timer included
Exploding Kittens has cornered the market when it comes to silly games kids and adults alike love, and I Suck At Drawing is no exception. The aim of the game is much like Pictionary, where other people have to guess what you’re drawing for you to gain points. The catch? Here, you have to draw without looking.
Inside the box you’ll find a white board, in an ornate plastic frame, along with two whiteboard pens (one is a spare), point tokens and cards which feature both an easy (1 point) and hard (2 point) word on them. You’re playing against the clock here, but there’s no timer included so you’ll need to have a clock or phone handy to countdown a 60-second timer.
This is the kind of game that ends up in hysterical laugher as drawings go haywire and guesses get more obscure. Everyone from our youngest testers to grandparents loved this and I think it’s a brilliant game to get out at parties, especially as there’s no maximum number of players. The simple setup and clear instructions made this an easy favourite for a lively games evening.
Key specifications
Buy now £19.99, Amazon.co.uk
Oh My Pigeons!
Best: quick play family board game
Why we love it
- Quick to figure out
- Game play is genuinely fun
- Pigeon figurines are cute
- Simple enough for younger children
Take note
- Easy to lose pigeons
If you’re after a fun game to keep a group of children entertained, Oh My Pigeons! is a great bet. Every kid that played this game absolutely loved it (the rule where the last person to see a pigeon goes first went down very well), and it’s so easy to follow that my seven-year-old was able to set it up and work out gameplay on her own in just a few minutes. While it’s recommended for ages eight and up, I think this is purely to stop young children putting the cute pigeon figurines in their mouths. We had kids as young as six who loved playing the game, but its appeal isn’t just for younger players – the adults enjoyed it too.
Every player has their own ‘bench’ which they fill with three pigeons. The aim is to fill your board with all nine pigeons – the first to do so is the winner. It’s a quick card and dice setup so doesn’t take up much room, but you will need to set up on a flat surface for a pigeon ambush. This was the highlight of the game where, if you rolled the bird poo symbol you had to flick the dice towards another player’s bench, knocking off as many pigeons as possible, which you get to keep. Games are over in just 10-15 minutes, making this addictive, silly fun.
Key specifications
Buy now £12.99, Amazon.co.uk
Catan
Best: strategy family board game
Why we love it
- The game is different every time
- Handy app to go through rules and gameplay
- Great multi-generational game
- Expansion packs available
Take note
- Games can go on a long time
Catan is the polar opposite of Oh My Pigeons! Instead of a quick play, this is the ultimate traditional board game that will engross the whole family for an evening. It’s not one to rush through, instead it’s an immersive strategy game that will take anything from an hour to more than three hours to complete.
Set up itself is lengthy, with five sheets of cardboard shapes to push out and assemble. Then there’s the instructions. If the 12-page booklet feels a little overwhelming I’d recommend scanning the QR code on the back of the box to download the app, which gives a detailed walkthrough of gameplay and helped us get the gist relatively quickly.
Catan is a new island and the players are settlers, who must build settlements and establish communities to score Victory Points and win the game. You need to collect resource cards – which feature anything from bricks to sheep – and trade these with other players (for a price). It definitely gets interesting when players refuse to trade – there was a lot of negotiating during our games which helped up the friendly rivalry.
It’s suitable for kids aged 10 and up, mainly due to the more complex gameplay. Catan is a game that may feel a bit too complicated at first go, but after playing once or twice it became much clearer – even for my 10-year-old tester. We also had younger family members ‘join our teams’ so they could be involved without getting bogged down in the instructions. Once you’ve cracked Catan, there are expansion packs you can buy separately to extend gameplay and switch things up a bit, which I think is a great touch.
Key specifications
Buy now £34.89, Amazon.co.uk
Lego Ninjago: Destiny’s Bounty
Best: family board game for Lego fans
Why we love it
- Includes exclusive Minifigure
- Everyone works together
- Increasing levels of difficulty
Take note
- Set up takes a bit of time
- Easy to lose pieces
Of course a game featuring Lego pieces and minifigures was going to get the thumbs up from our Lego-mad testers. Destiny’s Bounty Adventures is a cool Ninjago-themed game suitable for two to four players, aged eight and up. Similar to Catan, the instruction booklet is quite long, but again the QR code included a link to a video which I found very helpful in explaining the rules.
Initially setup takes a while as you need to sort various Lego pieces into different character boxes. Once we were set up we were all able to work through the game slowly as we became more familiar with the various event and adventure cards.
Two things I loved about the game: one, that you can upgrade your minifigure with various cool accessories and weapons, and two, that unlike any other game in my roundup, this relies on collaboration as you work as a team to defeat the villains. Perfect for easing any sibling rivalry.
The board can be set up in two-, three- or four-player mode and the game can be played in various levels of difficulty. We started at the lowest level – Adventure One – and found that tricky enough while we got our heads around the rules. I like that there’s the option of upping the difficulty level as you get to grips with the game – and I love that there are little cardboard boxes for storing all elements of the game, making set up far easier next time around.
Key specifications
Buy now £34.55, Amazon.co.uk
Ticket to Ride
Best: family board game for all ages
Why we love it
- Really engaging game
- Fun for all ages
- Expansion packs available
- Clear, illustrated instruction booklet
Take note
- Games can go on for longer than an hour
Ticket To Ride is a fantastic strategy game with a lot in common with Catan, but instead of building your own settlement the aim is to connect cities by building your own cross-country train lines. You do this by collecting coloured train cards to ‘claim’ railway lines across the map on the playing board – and the longer the route the more points you get.
I found Ticket to Ride much easier to get my head around than Catan, with the whole family understanding the rules after a quick read through. And, as is the case with most games like this, the more times you play the simpler it becomes.
What I really liked about the game was that it felt like a ‘proper’ traditional board game but was still quick to set up and get started. The board itself is larger than any of the others we tested, so make sure you have plenty of room. Games sat in that sweet spot of around an hour, so long enough to really get stuck in, without younger players getting bored (or grown-ups losing the will to live).
My 10-year-old was a big fan of Ticket to Ride, and even though it’s aimed at ages eight and up, my seven-year-old was able to join in no problem.
Key specifications
Buy now £43.93, Amazon.co.uk
Articulate
Best: classic family board game
Why we love it
- Fun teamwork game
- No maximum number of players
- Wide range of topics covered
Take note
- Not suitable for young children
Articulate is an absolute classic and one of those rare games that appeals to teens as much as it does to adults. Gameplay couldn’t be simpler, with teams split into describers and guessers who take turns trying to describe the word on a card without any ‘rhymes with’ or ‘starts with’ clues. You’re against the timer and the pressure makes for some very funny and incredibly obscure, panicky descriptions!
Words fall into one of six categories: Person, World, Object, Nature, Action and Random. While our older teens rarely had to ‘pass’ on a word, our younger players struggled with some of the ‘Person’ entries (like Sandie Shaw and Robbie Coltrane) although others like SpongeBob SquarePants and Marcus Rashford were no problem.
I think this is one of the best multi-generational games around. Suggestions of Articulate weren’t met with groans from our teen testers, so that has to be a positive. If you have lots of younger children in your family, I’d suggest Articulate for Kids, which is suitable from age six and up, instead.
Key specifications
Buy now £18, Amazon.co.uk
Hitster
Best: family board game for parties
Why we love it
- Good music knowledge quiz
- Gets everyone talking (and singing)
- Real mix of music genres dating back to the ‘30s
Take note
- Will need internet access and the app
I love a music game, so Hitster was right up my street. In fact, Hitster was a hit (excuse the pun) with my whole family and a game we returned to numerous times over the course of testing. It’s a super fun interactive game that tests your knowledge on a mix of songs released – according to the box – in the ‘last 100 years’. During our games we came across music from the 1950s to 2010s, so can’t confirm if the music selection really does go all the way back to the 1920s.
You will need to download the free app and have access to Spotify (a premium account works best but it does work with the free version, too). While this was straightforward enough – and something you only have to do once – I did find it a little frustrating there were no printed instructions in the box, just an online how-to accessed via a QR code on the box.
To play, scan the QR code on one of the playing cards, then listen to the music clip to guess the year the song was released. You need to place it in chronological order alongside your other music cards, and the first person to correctly place 10 cards in their timeline wins.
It’s incredibly easy to pick up and was one of those games that attracted more players as we went on. While some of the songs – particularly those from the 1930s and 1940s – were hard to place, you can make an educated guess, and we found the game worked perfectly if younger kids teamed up with older family members.
Key specifications
Buy now £19.99, Amazon.co.uk
The Traitors: Second Edition
Best: family board game for fans of The Traitors
Why we love it
- Comes with its own mini round table
- Brings the TV show to life
- Great strategy and deception game
Take note
- Blindfolds aren’t very comfortable
- Set-up takes time
Poker faces at the ready! The second edition of The Traitors board game is a faithful (see what I did there?) rendition of the hit TV show and provided us with a very entertaining night in.
The game comes with its own round table and blindfolds (although don’t expect the fancy satin masks from the TV, these are made from rather scratchy felt) and takes you through four phases – Mission, Banishment, Armoury and Murder – as you and your fellow players try to guess who the traitor is.
Setup first time around takes a bit of time, as you need to assemble all the different components (such as gold pieces and voting stands) and the instructions are quite lengthy to read through, so I defaulted to the QR code, which led me to clear video instructions instead.
You will need pens for each player to write on their voting cards, and some assignments require each player to have a smartphone, so try to have all of these handy before you start.
We played this with fans of The Traitors and those who’d never watched it before, and while those familiar with the TV show definitely found the game easier to understand, lack of prior Traitors knowledge didn’t affect the fun we all had.
I loved all the nods to the show, including the dagger spinner, and our group of six got fully absorbed into the game. All that was missing was Claudia Winkleman. There are six different adventures you can play, as well as the option to buy an expansion pack when you’ve worked your way through them all. I think this is perfect for proper games nights or a Traitors-themed party, just put aside around an hour and a half to play.
Key specifications
Buy now £24.99, Amazon.co.uk
What is the best family board game?
As far as family favourites go, it has to be Labyrinth, which everyone loved. It was easy to set up, simple to understand and never got boring. If you prefer a longer game, Ticket To Ride is well worth a try – and, for silly fun, I love Oh My Pigeons!
How I tested family board games
Over the course of a month and a half we worked our way through a stack of board games, navigating tricky set-ups, instruction sheets and competitive siblings. I looked closely at how easy instructions were to follow, how quickly we were able to start play and how much everyone – from seven-year-olds to pensioners – enjoyed themselves. Over time I was able to see which games were the most requested and which were the ones we all wanted to play again. You can read about my testing criteria in more detail at the end of this review.
It was a group effort to decide which of the games we tested deserved to be included. During play, we considered:
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Sarah Dawson is a writer specialising in recommending the best parenting buys and products for kids, having tested everything from walkie talkies to kids’ smartwatches. To bring you her verdict on her top picks, Sarah recruits family members and younger testers who put products through their paces during hands-on testing.
