The best Black Friday board game deals we’ve seen in years are still available

3 weeks ago 52

Sharing board games with friends and loved ones is always a highlight of the holiday season for me. Taking one of my favorite, obscure board games down off the shelf and teaching it to someone new is how the hobby grows, after all. This holiday season you can literally give that joy away with an incredible slate of Black Friday deals from Amazon, with the sales continuing through the weekend and into Monday. Grab an old favorite or one of the hot new titles on sale here for the first time, and get those dice rolling.

The biggest surprise this Black Friday season is just how many high-profile crowdfunded games are available at a steep discount. I count nearly half a dozen Zombicide variants for one, but also Marvel: United X-Men, Bloodborne: The Board Game, and even the recent CMON hit Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City. If you’re looking for something more complicated, look below for miniatures games like Star Wars: Shatterpoint and Star Wars: Legion. And if you’re interested in starting a board gaming group in earnest, look no further than Pandemic Legacy Season 1, its sequel and its prequel, as well as Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West. You can find even more of our favorite board games on sale below.

The best crowdfunded board game deals

$24

Players: 1-5, ages 14+
Playtime: 40 min.

Marvel United: X-Men, with its delightful chibi-style miniatures, lets players build a team of mutant heroes or take control of a supervillain to try to thwart the heroes’ plans.

$89

Players: 1-4, ages 13+
Playtime: 60 min.

Best known for the Cyberpunk Red: Combat Zone miniatures skirmish game, Monster Fight Club also made this miniatures-packed title. The board game takes its inspiration from the video game, including the “loot and shoot” mechanics in the form of randomized dice rolls.

$84

Players: 1-4, aged 14+
Playtime: 90-120 mins.

From the miniatures masters at CMON, this action board game raised nearly $900,000 on Kickstarter. Unlike the prequel games published by Monster Fight Club, this game occurs in the same timeline as the Cyberpunk 2077 video game.

$82

Players: 1-6, aged 14+
Playtime: 60 mins.

The remastered Zombicide is a beer-and-peanuts cooperative action game with multiple scenarios inside each box. Clearly inspired by late-2000s zombie video games like Left 4 Dead and pulp movies from the 1980s, it’s easy to teach and relatively quick to play. The miniatures are also top notch, and great fodder for painters new or old.

Bloodborne: The Board Game, is a thrilling adaptation of the hit FromSoft game and on sale for $79.97 (was $109.99).
Exploding Kittens blew up on Kickstarter thanks to The Oatmeal’s art, and you can grab the original version of the game for just $9.99 (was $20).
Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game earned more than $9 million on Kickstarter, and you can have a copy now for $104.99 (was $130). The expansion, Clash of the Sinister Six, is also on sale for $48.36 (was $60).
Similarly, Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game - Guardians of the Galaxy adds your favorite pangalactic superfamily to the party for $40.30 (was $50).
Zombicide: Green Horde can bolster your collection for $88.32 (was $109.99).
Zombicide: Undead or Alive takes the undead action to the wild west for $83.76 (was $87.25).

The best modern classic board game deals

$88

Players: 1-5 players, ages 14+
Playtime: 120-180 min.

An accompanying app will help guide you through Arkham’s cursed mansions in this co-op board game with a Lovecraftian horror bent. With four campaigns to choose from, players can find the exact level of difficulty for any occasion.

$35

Players: 2-7, aged 10+
Playtime: 42 min.

One player takes on the role of a ghost, while the other players take on the tole of mediums trying to communicate during a seance in this cooperative paranormal board game. It’s a mystery, too — the ghost was a murder victim who must reveal the circumstances of their death using only a series of cryptic vision cards to convey the situation.

$32

Back in 2019, Polygon asked four leading board game designers for their picks for the most influential board games of the decade. 7 Wonders made it on practically everyone’s list. The base game accommodates up to seven players, and with its signature brand of simultaneous play everyone can feel engaged the whole way through.

$132

Players: 3-6 players, aged 14+
Playtime: 240-480 mins.

The fourth edition of Twilight Imperium, the essential, galaxy-spanning 4X board game from Fantasy Flight Games, will take up your entire day to play. It’s worth it.

7 Wonders Architects, the faster-playing version of 7 Wonders, is $37.49 (was $49.99).
Azul, the lovely tile-laying game, is $19.99 (was $39.99). You can also snag the Summer Pavilion variant for $35.61 (was $39.99).
Arkham Horror’s fantastic third edition will fill your holiday with horror and vice for $63.99 (was $79.99).
Animal Upon Animal is a stacking dexterity game that makes a tremendous stocking stuffer at $15.99 (was $19.99). You can also pick up the limited edition Christmas variant for $22.99 (was $29.99).
Camel Up, a wacky racing game now in its second edition, is $19.99 (was $39.99).
Catan, the late Klaus Teuber’s game of viking colonization, is down to $25 (was $54.99).
Catan Starfarers turns the game of Viking colonization into exoplanetary exploration and is on sale for $69.99 (was $99.99).
Century Big Box, which includes three games by Emerson Matsuuchi, is $73.99 (was $79.99).
Dead of Winter, a perennial favorite semi-cooperative survival strategy game with an excellent sense of humor, is $52.49 (was $59.95).
Memoir ’44, an easy to play WWII game with lots of expansions, is $48.49 (was $64.99).
Pandemic, one of the best entry points to the modern board gaming hobby, is just $22.50 (was $44.99)
Pandemic Legacy Season 2, available in two variants that are identical save for the color of the box, is $41.49 (was $79.99). You can also have the prequel, Pandemic Legacy Season 0, for $69.90 (was $79.99)
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, the original ephemera-filled mystery puzzle game, is on sale for $46.49 (was $57.99). Multiple standalone sequels are on sale too; The Baker Street Irregulars and Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures are on sale for $46.34, and Carlton House & Queen’s Park Adventures is $46.49.
Small World has a lighter theme compared to other area control games, like Risk. Snag it for $54.11 (was $59.99).
Splendor, the award-winning game about gem collecting in the Renaissance, is $19.99 (was $39.99)
Ticket to Ride, the family-friendly game for travelers of all stripes, is $25 (was $54.99).
TIME Stories, a well-regarded storytelling mystery game with multiple time-hopping narratives, is $38.99 (was $59.99).
The Prophecy of Kings expansion for Twilight Imperium is down to $64.99 (was $109.99).
Unfathomable, a reskin of the legendary hidden role masterpiece Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game is a steal at $63.99 (was $79.99).

The best two-player board game deals

$22

Players: 2, aged 10+
Playtime: 30 min.

7 Wonders Duel is a two-player variant of the classic board game 7 Wonders. Players acquire cards in the interest of advancing either military or scientific developments, with the goal of either reaching their opponent’s capital through military might, or becoming a culturally dominant force through scientific discoveries.

$27

Players: 2, aged 10+
Playtime: 30 min.

The two-player version of the gem-collecting hit, in which players take on the role of jewelers designing adornments for royalty. The mechanics of the game revolve around competing to accrue the highest-quality gems.

$72

Players: 2, ages 10+
Playtime: 20-40 min.

Restoration Games has done what it does best and restored a 1983 classic where two players face off and try to destroy each other’s castles by way of — you guessed it — crossbows and catapults. If your kids say, “this is like Angry Birds,” just let it ride.

$48

A Little Wordy, which plays a bit like Scrabble but in reverse, is $9.99 (was $12.30).
The Mind, a raucous guessing game that’s a riot as a two-player duel, is $10.51 (was $14.95).
Pandemic World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King works well with just two players, since all you have to do is double up on your heroes. It’s down to $39.99 (was $59.99).
Patchwork Halloween Edition is a spooky variation on the classic quilting strategy game, is $21.50 (was $29.99).
Tacocat Spelled Backwards, an explicitly two-player game all about palindromes, is $8.04 (was $14.99).

The best party game deals

$21

Players: 1-100, aged 10+
Playtime: 25 min.

Welcome To… is a joyful roll-and-write game that can occupy a whole house full of wannabe homebuilders. Set in an idyllic 1950s neighborhood, game play is simultaneous and communal, allowing everyone to participate in improving the town.

$10

Players: 3-7, aged 8+
Playtime: 20-60 min.

Just One is a family-friendly word guessing game. It’s a cooperative party game in which players provide one-word clues to guess one word, with duplicate clues being discarded.

$25

Players: 2-12, aged 4+
Playtime: 20 mins.

The family-friendly version of the hit party guessing game that will have your family roaring.

$20

Players: 3-10, aged 8+
Playtime: 30 mins.

A novel guessing game that pulls at trivial, color-based minutia that you didn’t even know was lurking in your brain.

Bridgerton: A Love Letter Card Game takes the classic pocket-sized hidden role game and gives it a fun Netflix twist for $13.99 (was $19.94).
Captain Sonar is about communication, mostly. But it’s also a simulation of submarine warfare for 2-8 players, and there is simply nothing else like it. Grab it for $47.17 (was $54.99).
Hedbanz, the updated 2023 version of the hit party game, is now just $8.50 (was $16.99).
Infinity Gauntlet: A Love Letter Game is here to translate the hidden-role card game to Marvel fans for just $14.46 (was $16.99). You can also have the original, Renaissance-themed version of Love Letter for $9.99 (was $14.99) or the the Star Wars-themed Jabba’s Palace: A Love Letter Game for $11.99 (was $14.99).
Moose Match Mayhem, another speed-matching game from the team behind Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, is up for grabs at $7.28 (was $9.99).
So Clover, the hit cooperative word association game, is a small box that packs a punch at $17.75 (was $24.99).
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, the bane of middle school bus drivers all around the United States, is $8 (was $9.99).

The best strategy board game deals

$45

Players: 1-4, aged 14+
Playtime: 45-180 min.

A two-player take on a classic, Arkham Horror: The Card Game’s Lovecraftian themes are sure to delight any horror fan with cultists, ancient monsters, madness, and more. Choose a character and work together to build decks to rival the forces plaguing the city of Arkham. The unpredictability of the encounter deck helps keep playthroughs fresh and outcomes uncertain.

$136

Players: 1-4, aged 14+
Playtime: 240-480 mins.

Descent: Legends of the Dark offers a massive, cooperative dungeon crawling experience for up to four players, and comes packaged with more than enough miniatures to brush up on your mini-painting skills.

$45

Players: 2-8, aged 10+
Playtime: 45 mins.

The spiritual successor to Mysterium (see what I did there?), Obscurio puts a similarly-shaped board on the table for a very different experience. Enter the Sorcerer’s Library to battle their illusions in this semi-cooperative hidden role game.

Army of the Dead: A Zombicide Game matches one of Netflix’s pulp classics with clever miniatures and a solid ruleset and is on sale for $88.69 (was $109.99).
Catan Junior, an extremely forgiving entree for younger players new to modern board games, is $22.81 (was $34.99).
Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger, which replicates the act of reading those beloved childhood novels, is just $20.99 (was $29.99).
Cthulhu: Death May Die, a cooperative horror mystery game from CMON with lots of minis, is $79.99 (was $109.99).
Dixit Disney Edition takes the classic game about using art to interpret your dreams to the Magic Kingdom. Grab it for $34.99 (was $40).
Dune: House Secrets features licensed character art from the films and a compelling, narrative adventure to boot. It’s on sale for $21.90 (was $45).
Elder Sign, a cooperative exploration of the Cthulhu mythos with lots of custom dice, is $29.99 (was $39.99).
The Lord of the Rings Strategy Board Game has just enough miniatures to make the elaborate adventure game a delight on the table. It’s down to just $87.99 (was $109.99).

$90

Players: 2-5, aged 10+
Playtime: 20-90 min.

Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West is a high-concept legacy-style campaign game we think you’ll love. Instead of retelling American history, Legends of the West tosses it right out the window. In its place is a transcontinental mystery, with players expanding outward across a landscape that, by the end of 12 linked games, displays only a passing resemblance to our continent. The results are surprising and really something special.

$52

Players: 1-8, aged 14+
Playtime: 90-120 mins.

Twilight Inscription is a roll-and-write strategy game, featuring the space cats of the Twilight Imperium franchise. Playable solo, or with up to eight players, this clever game summarizes the epic galactic conquest of Twilight Imperium into a single afternoon.

$40

Players: 2-4, aged 12+
Playtime: 60 mins.

Stranger Things: Upside down, from Netflix via the legendary board game designer Rob Daviau, is a snappy little press-your-luck style cooperative adventure game.

The original version of Marvel: Crisis Protocol, filled with amazingly detailed Marvel miniatures, is $79.96 (was $99.95).
Plague Inc, which is literally the opposite of Pandemic with players trying to infect the world for fun and profit, is $32.99 (was $44.99).
Res Arcana, a game of elemental mage duels, is $27.99 (was $39.99).
Star Wars: Rebellion is perhaps the most thrilling exploration of the original trilogy to ever grace the tabletop, and you can have it for $98.99 (was $109.99).
Star Wars: Legion is a popular miniatures wargame, and the two-player starter set is a great way to get into painting miniatures. It’s on sale for $80.99 (was $119.99).
Star Wars: Shatterpoint, the hit new miniatures skirmish game, is surprisingly up for sale at just $131.99 (was $164.99).
Ticket to Ride Europe let’s you plan the next family vacation in style, now at just $30.00 (was $47.99).
Ticket to Ride: First Journey, another game that bridges the wide age gaps common among parties in the holiday season, is now $27.99 (was $34.99).
Small World of Warcraft, a mix of Risk-style territory control and the beloved characters from Azeroth, is down to $34.99 (was $46.90).

Looking for more? Check out all of Polygon’s favorite Black Friday deals, including great discounts on video games and gaming accessories, Dungeons & Dragons, Magic: The Gathering, and Legos. And subscribe to our newsletter below to get great deals delivered to your inbox every week.