Board Game Tier List: The Best Games, Head-to-Head
All 24 games here, ranked by 43 players. UNO leads: it wins 77.1% of its matchups (n = 105) and was champion in 10 of 43 brackets. Disagree? Your first pick is right here. No sign-up.
Size
PandemicCooperative disease fighting
ClueMurder mystery
Tap a poster to make your pick. Crowd numbers appear after you choose.
Board Games: the community’s best
Win rate across 885 head-to-head picks from 43 finished brackets. n is the number of matchups behind each win rate; only entrants with 30 or more are listed.
| # | Board game | W–L | Win rate | vs .500 | Titles | n |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | UNOCard shedding | 81–24 | 77.1% | 10 | 105 | |
| 2 | 86–34 | 71.7% | 6 | 120 | ||
| 3 | ChessStrategic classic | 71–33 | 68.3% | 6 | 104 | |
| 4 | BattleshipNaval combat | 59–41 | 59% | 1 | 100 | |
| 5 | Cards Against HumanityParty card game | 47–33 | 58.8% | 4 | 80 | |
| 6 | ClueMurder mystery | 48–35 | 57.8% | 3 | 83 | |
| 7 | 39–32 | 54.9% | 1 | 71 | ||
| 8 | 43–37 | 53.8% | 2 | 80 |
Board Games: the community tier list
From 885 head-to-head picks in 43 finished brackets. Placed by win rate, steadied toward 50% for entrants with few matchups: S is 75% or more, A 60%, B 50%, C 40%, D 25%.
Stier, win rate 75% or more
- Nobody yet
Atier, win rate 60% or more
- UNO
- Monopoly
- Chess
Btier, win rate 50% or more
- Battleship
- Cards Against Humanity
- Clue
- The Game of Life
- Connect Four
Ctier, win rate 40% or more
- Pictionary
- Settlers of Catan
- Jenga
- Scrabble
- Risk
- Sorry!
- Ticket to Ride
- Checkers
- + 3 more
Dtier, win rate 25% or more
- Backgammon
- Pandemic
- Wingspan
- Boggle
- Azul
Ftier, win rate 0% or more
- Nobody yet
How the Board Games bracket works
This board game tier list is played, not dragged into rows. You get one matchup at a time — Monopoly or Settlers of Catan? Chess or Scrabble? — and after 15 picks the bracket has a champion, with everything else placed by how far it got. A straight list invites you to hedge. A matchup does not, and that is what makes the final 24-deep order worth screenshotting.
This bracket runs 4 rounds at the default 16-slot size (Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final), drawn from a pool of 24 options. The draw is seeded: the same for everyone today, different tomorrow, and different again whenever you press New draw. You can also play it at 8 or 24 slots for a shorter or longer run.
15 picks, 4 rounds
- Round of 168 matchups
- Quarterfinals4 matchups
- Semifinals2 matchups
- Final1 matchup
Roughly 1-2 minutes start to finish at the default size.
All 24 entrants
All 24 entrants are listed below, including Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Chess and Scrabble. Updated
- MonopolyReal estate tradingPhoto: fir0002 / Wikimedia Commons · GFDL 1.2
- Settlers of CatanResource trading
- ChessStrategic classicPhoto: Alan Light / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- ScrabbleWord buildingPhoto: thebarrowboy / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- RiskWorld dominationPhoto: Jorge Royan / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- ClueMurder mystery
- Ticket to RideTrain routes
- CodenamesWord associationPhoto: JIP / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- PandemicCooperative disease fighting
- UNOCard shedding
- Cards Against HumanityParty card game
- JengaStacking blocks
- Trivial PursuitTrivia game
- BattleshipNaval combatPhoto via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Connect FourLine up fourPhoto: Jonathan Kellenberg / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- CheckersClassic board gamePhoto: Jud McCranie / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
- Sorry!Slide pursuitPhoto: myguitarzz on Flickr / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 2.0
- The Game of LifeLife simulationPhoto: 松岡明芳 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- PictionaryDrawing guessing
- BoggleWord searchPhoto: Stilfehler / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Apples to ApplesComparison party game
- BackgammonAncient strategy
- WingspanBird-themed engine building
- AzulTile-laying pattern
Tier list instead?
Load all 24 into the tier list maker and sort them into S through F yourself: same entrants, no matchups.
Open the tier list makerMissing something?
Build your own board game bracket with exactly the entrants you want, then share the link.
Open the bracket makerGetting a ranking you actually agree with
- Trust the first instinct. Overthinking a matchup usually produces a ranking you do not agree with later.
- Start at 16 slots. If the result feels too obvious, replay at 24 so more of the 24 options make the field.
- Use undo the moment you regret a pick. One reflex answer in an early round can knock out a favourite before it gets going.
Questions people ask
What is the best board game?
According to 43 BracketRanker players, UNO (Card shedding). It wins 77.1% of its head-to-head matchups (n = 105) and was champion in 10 of 43 brackets (23.3%).
How many options are in the Board Games bracket?
The pool holds 24 options. A default run uses 16 of them and takes 15 picks across 4 rounds: Round of 16, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, Final. Other field sizes are available too — 8, 16, 24 slots.
Which options are included?
Monopoly, Settlers of Catan, Chess, Scrabble, Risk, Clue, Ticket to Ride, Codenames, Pandemic, UNO, Cards Against Humanity and Jenga, plus 12 more. Every entrant is listed further down this page with its artwork.
How long does the Board Games bracket take?
About 1-2 minutes — 15 choices at the default size, or 7 if you drop to an 8-slot bracket. It works the same on a phone as on a desktop, no login is involved, and progress saves as you go.
How does this compare to a drag-and-drop tier list maker?
Both are here, and the bracket is closer to a tier list than it looks. It ends with a champion, a runner-up and then every other option grouped by the round it went out in — which is exactly a set of tiers, decided by 15 direct comparisons rather than by your first guess at a layout. What it deliberately does not do is claim a precise gap between two options that never met. If you would rather place the options into S through F rows yourself, the tier list maker loads all 24 of them at bracketranker.com/tier-list-maker.
How did everyone else rank these options?
Every completed bracket feeds the Board Games community results page, which aggregates win rates across all plays and tracks how often each of the 24 entrants takes the title. It updates continuously, so it moves as more people play.
Can I build my own board games bracket?
Use the bracket maker: add your own options, name it, and share the link so other people play the same field. That is the route to take when this pool of 24 is missing something you would have picked, or when you want a version scoped to one era, label or franchise.