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Board game sales are booming as people seek off-screen connections
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this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2026
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Board Games
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Hi, I hope this is the right place but can someone suggest me a board game for a family that goes five years old up? For example we play with Exploding kittens. Edit: to everyone whom replied thank you so much! I'll look your suggestions and see what could work. I must say that this is an awesome community!
Carcassonne. When you start, it may be easier to exclude playing farmers, which is pretty common and totally fine. There are lots of expansions you could get in the future that change the gameplay a bit to make it a bit more strategic and offer different paths to victory. The base game is still great though.
You can start small.
Town66 has simple, sudoku-like placement rules, which little kids have no problems with.
Have you considered TTRPGs? I've started my 4 year old on a game called Hero Kids and he loves it!
Depending on your child, this one might be good. It says 8+ They may not strategize for high score, but it is as easy as matching ends of dominos. So can be fun for young ones if you don't play competitively.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/204583/kingdomino
There is a similar game, Dragomino, for 5+ but we haven't tried it
I got Catan Junior for my little brother, who was 5 at the time and I believe my step dad said he grasped it pretty well
My first Castle panic was fun.
How's their attention span? Stuffed fables is an awesome game, as is cora quest.
Concept kids is a blast, makes everyone think
Zombie kids is a legacy co-op game that was fun
Piggy back brigade is easy fun
Big groups enjoy green team wins
It really depends on the kid though, age ranges are sometimes really hit or miss
Our kid is train centric, so if you want a list of train games, ask and I'll spend a bit sorting through what we have.
Edit: Magical Athlete is amazing.
Train centric? So ticket to ride is in their future, yeah?
We have almost all of the ticket to ride, including legends of the West (legacy)
Before that: engine engine number nine, rail wreck, rail pass
And Lego trains, ho and o scale trains...
Eventually they'll want to play empyreal, but it's a lot.
On Kickstarter recently: spirit train
I'm sure I'm missing some, but that feels close to complete.
(Not trains, but they've played some spirit Island recently and it's gone well, so harder train games are likely in my future)
Edit: also railroad ink (all), railroad tiles (all)
Shout out to the little plastic train company for extra minis. https://littleplastictrain.com/
The same company that makes Exploding Kittens makes a couple other fun party games that a 5 year old would probably eat up. Throw Throw Burrito (alternatively, Throw Throw Avocado), Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, Poetry for Neanderthals, On a Scale of One to T-Rex, Hand-to-Hand Wombat, Bears vs Babies.
Some of these might be a taaaad too complex for a 5 year old, but I think they could learn most of the concepts or you could slightly trim the rules to make them easier for a 5 year old. They are all fun and hugely silly, which a 5 year old should love.
My First Castle Panic is going to be fun for kids as is almost any game made by the HABA company
If you want something adults will also be able to enjoy past the first playthrough, Coconuts is also a spectacular choice!
Here's an interesting game, Tak.
It's an interesting game, and part of the rules are helping your opponent to not lose.
Tsuro is great for kids, most kids know how to follow a line.