Boardgames ranked by BGG plays: 2004 - 2021

[danisthirty]

Yo dudes.

I saw the following video on the Facebook BGG group this morning and found it really interesting:



The video is based on data collected from BGG over a 17 year period! In the creator's own words:

"Video for all months of 2004-2021. For every month I listed 10 games with the largest number of unique BoardGameGeek users who have played the game at least once in an entire month.
Actually this video is the history of modern board games. It shows when and what games were played the most and how long the interest in every popular game lasted."

The fact that the data is limited to only plays that were recorded on BGG will skew the results entirely in favour of more modern/ hobby boardgames that most of us are familiar with, rather than the likes of chess or snakes and ladders which most of the world are familiar with. But I think the insight is still valuable in terms of the context in which the data was recorded. With this in mind, I think it's quite amazing to see Carcassonne holding its own against the competition at a time when boardgaming was really taking off and there was so much choice available to boardgame players. Other games rise, and fall, but Carcassonne's always there, steadily and consistently holding onto its place in the top 10 for more than a decade.

Linkback: https://www.carcassonnecentral.com/community/index.php?topic=5659.0

[cicerunner]

"games with the largest number of unique BoardGameGeek users who have played the game at least once in a [...] month"

That's a really clever choice of data point because it helps offset the other failings you mention. At first I thought it was "monthly play count" which I think I've seen in one of these videos before but that tends to exaggerate currently popular games, short games over long ones and games that "geeky people are likely to log" vs less geeky ones which get logged proportionately less. (All this my subjective presumption but I think this rationale is reasonable.)

Just counting whether a unique user "logged a play or not this month" really smooths the data in terms of highlighting broad, enduring appeal. And that is Carcassonne.

[ Even this awful C2.2 I think is a response to positioning Carcassonne in precisely that place. But that's a discussion for another thread. ]   

[KBellon]

I would have expected Catan to keep up with Carcassonne 

But maybe that's because it feels that Catan is more popular than Carcassonne in the Benelux.
Not sure if it's the same everywhere.

[Bumsakalaka]

Interesting. Here in Slovakia I know a lot of people which have Catan. A lot of them didn't know about Carcassonne or they play just basic game and then no that Catan is better then Carcassonne (read C.basic game).
But I know very few players of Carcassonne here. From my large family and large group of closed friends before I discovered forums in order Czech, German and finally Carcassone Central, only one play Carcassonne. He had all large expansions. Me and my daughter was addicted after few plays. I think HiG uses bad strategy. Maybe BigBox has to be Basic game. But it will be not simple for beginners.

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