The Dicea ranking

The best board games already awarded

The only ranking built purely from games already crowned by a major award, easy to find anywhere and enjoyed by everyone. Three categories, five games each, and gift ideas that actually land.

Kids Classics Experts

The method

How this ranking is built

Three rules, nothing else. They explain the games that made it as much as the ones that did not.

Award winners onlyEvery game on this page has already won one of the four major awards. Nothing picked on a hunch.
A lasting markWe keep the ones that shaped board gaming and are still named years later.
Still excellent todayThey have aged well, they sit on every shop shelf and they please a wide crowd: the definition of a safe gift.

The top five

Best board game for kids

Games that genuinely hold a table with children, and that adults happily play again.

No. 1
Dragomino
- Spiel des Jahres 2021
- As d'Or 2021
This is Kingdomino in a short version, made for younger players. You pick a tile, lay it against a matching landscape, then turn over an egg: sometimes a baby dragon hatches. A game lasts a quarter of an hour and the adults never get bored.
No. 2
Mooki Island
- Spiel des Jahres 2026
- As d'Or 2026
Everyone takes a card and lays it in front of them: the goal is to gather as many Mookies as you can in each family, without the prankster spider stealing your prize. Ten minutes, from age four, and already real little tactics behind it.
No. 3
ICECOOL
- Spiel des Jahres 2017
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2017
You flick weighted penguins through the corridors of a school. They curve, they hop over walls and they sail through doorways. One player is the hall monitor, chasing the others while they try to swipe fish.
No. 4
Mysterium Kids: Captain Echo's Treasure
- Spiel des Jahres 2023
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2023
The ghost captain cannot speak: he taps on a barrel, and the crew has to work out from the sound which card he means. Everyone plays together against the game, with no reading and no counting, so it works very early.
No. 5
The Magic Labyrinth
- Spiel des Jahres 2009
A maze of walls you cannot see hides under the board. A magnet drags a ball beneath each pawn, and it drops the moment you hit a partition: back to the start you go. Little by little, everyone memorises the right path.

Also in the running

Two games that came very close, and what keeps them out of the five.

Concept Kids: Animals
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2019
You get an animal guessed by dropping tokens on icons, without saying a word. Cooperative, no reading at all, and the smallest box on this page.
Outfoxed!
- As d'Or 2018
A cooperative whodunit where you gather clues to rule out suspects before the fox slips away. Excellent, but less of a landmark than the five above.

The top five

Best modern classic

The safest bets in modern board gaming: five minutes to explain, and nobody gets bored.

No. 1
Catan
- Spiel des Jahres 1995
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 1995
You settle an island made of hexes. On every dice roll the land produces wood, grain or ore, which you then trade around the table before laying down roads and settlements. The haggling counts as much as the luck.
No. 2
Carcassonne
- Spiel des Jahres 2001
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2001
Each turn you draw a tile, add it to the landscape, then place a follower on it to claim a road, a city or a field. There is nothing to memorise: it is all on the table, and the board draws itself as you play.
No. 3
Azul
- Spiel des Jahres 2018
- As d'Or 2018
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2018
You take ceramic tiles from displays, knowing that whatever you leave behind will help the next player. You then lay them on your wall to score, but every spare tile costs you points. That is where the tension comes from.
No. 4
Wingspan
- Spiel des Jahres 2019
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2019
- Golden Geek Awards 2019
You attract birds into three habitats. Each one triggers a small power, and chaining them slowly turns your aviary into a scoring machine. Food dice are rolled inside a birdfeeder, and the artwork is outstanding.
No. 5
Ticket to Ride
- Spiel des Jahres 2004
- As d'Or 2005
You collect matching train cards to claim railway lines and connect the cities printed on your tickets. All the fun comes from the moment someone cuts your route. The rules take two minutes to explain.

Also in the running

Two games that came very close, and what keeps them out of the five.

Dixit
- Spiel des Jahres 2010
- As d'Or 2009
You give a cryptic clue about a dreamlike picture, then everyone votes. Wonderfully inclusive with non-gamers, but it really needs a proper group.
7 Wonders
- Spiel des Jahres 2011
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2011
Three ages of simultaneous drafting to build your city and its wonder. Excellent, but much better at four to six players than at two.

The top five

Best game for experienced players

For someone who already owns a few games and wants more depth, without ever becoming unapproachable.

No. 1
Terraforming Mars
- As d'Or 2018
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2017
You make Mars habitable. Every card you play raises the temperature, the oxygen or the oceans, and grows a production engine that eventually runs away with itself. With two hundred cards, no two games are alike.
No. 2
Scythe
- As d'Or 2017
- Golden Geek Awards 2016
An alternate 1920s Eastern Europe, with steam-powered mechs. Every faction starts somewhere different and advances on its own action board. Battles are rare, but they often decide the whole game.
No. 3
Ark Nova
- As d'Or 2023
- Deutscher Spiele Preis 2022
- Golden Geek Awards 2021
You build a modern zoo: raise enclosures, house animals, fund conservation projects. Two score tracks move towards each other, and the game ends the moment they cross. Dense, but hugely replayable.
No. 4
Dune: Imperium
- As d'Or 2022
Deck-building and worker placement in a single turn: you send agents across Arrakis, then reveal your hand for intrigue and combat. It is short for how dense it is, and the theme really carries the game.
No. 5
Root
- Golden Geek Awards 2018
Four factions play completely different games in the same forest: the cats produce, the birds chain decrees, the alliance foments revolt and the vagabond runs errands. Cult and gorgeous, but it takes real learning.

Also in the running

Two games that came very close, and what keeps them out of the five.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion
- Golden Geek Awards 2020
A dungeon campaign of twenty-five scenarios, with a tutorial built in. The best way into legacy games, but a big commitment of time.
Quacks
- Spiel des Jahres 2018
You pull ingredients from a bag for as long as you dare, without blowing up your pot. Lighter than the rest of the list, and perfect for a push-your-luck fan.