Purpose-built gaming tables make tabletop gaming quicker, easier, and more enjoyable, with built-in board game-focused features like card holders; storage bins for dice and accessories; cup holders to prevent spillages; and ingenious ways of transforming back into regular dining tables. Sadly, they don’t tend to come cheap – and nobody should drop thousands on a luxury table they know nothing about – so we’ve created this guide to the best ones we’ve found.
Board game tables are a serious upgrade for the discerning tabletop gamer. Sure, nabbing the best board games of the year is a must; the best couples board games make a great date night; and organizing your collection with nifty board game storage solutions will streamline each session – but if you really want to invest in your gaming experience, a board gaming table is the ultimate choice.
We’ve compiled this list of the best gaming tables to save you some effort in picking out the ideal piece. Every table on this list is designed with some flavor of tabletop gaming or lobbying in mind, whether that be an easy card game, a sprawling strategy board game, or a miniature wargame like Warhammer 40k. Though these are inherently pricey products, we’ve also done our best to showcase a selection of products for different price ranges too.
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Best gaming tables:
Wyrmwood Prophecy
Best gaming table overall
Wyrmwood Prophecy specifications:
Seating capacity |
10 |
Material |
Wood (your choice) and felt inset |
Size (L x W x D) |
88 x 52 x 33 inches |
Assembly required |
No |
Reasons to buy
- Lift mechanism makes arranging your play space easy
- Customizable and comes with all sorts of accessories
Let’s climb a few rungs higher up the price scale. Gorgeous, classic, and maybe even infamous, the Wyrmwood Prophecy is perhaps the ‘definitive’ gaming table. Boasting all the bespoke features you could ask for in a luxurious handcrafted package, this premium option will cater to every one of your tabletop needs.
While other tables might include a sunken play area that can be covered for storage, the Prophecy cuts out the middleman with its hand-cranked lift mechanism. Play a game on the table’s flat surface, before lowering the central play area and covering it.
Your game will sit safe and sound until you’re reading to lift the lid, crank up the play area, and resume the game, right where you left off. It means you can play on a flat surface without having to awkwardly reach into the recess while being able to keep everything in one place when you’re done.
Additional accessories can be attached to the table’s perimeter, too, using a magnetic rail system. Add cup holders, dice trays, card shelves, or a ‘master shelf’ to accommodate your GM screen and tabletop RPG books. You can even customise the Prophecy with a gridded, wet-erase battlemat, or an acrylic overlay that lets you annotate maps and notes.
This table, however, is as expensive as it sounds. After placing a $7,000 (£6,245) deposit, you’ll have to shell out extra for its various customisable gubbins. Available in a range of wood and fabric options, this is a table for those who really love convenience, and have the wallet to match.
Game Theory Origins
Best games table for dining
Game Theory Origins specifications:
Seating capacity |
8 |
Material |
Solid wood |
Size (L x W x H) |
72 x 48 x 32 inches |
Assembly required |
Yes |
Reasons to buy
- Room for lots of people
- Removable dining surface
- Protects dices and small pieces
Reasons to avoid
- Varnish is plasticky
- Wobbly leg toppers
Originally launched as a Kickstarter, the Game Theory Origins is now available for anybody to buy. It’s a fantastic product that is sturdy and well-made. It’s ideal for anybody who something that can be both a gaming table and a dining table, as it comes with an easily removable surface that’s made for eating your meals off.
With the dining top off, you have a table surface that’s surrounded by a raised edge that’s about 10cm high. This acts as a kind of protective barrier that helps you avoid situations where your dice roll onto the floor and under your sofa. There are also cup holders on the edge, which eliminate the risk of drinks getting spilled on anything – they also work well for storing any game pieces you might not want lying around.
There are some slight issues with the varnishing, which can give everything a bit of a plasticky feeling. Rest assured, it is a sold wood construct, so you don’t need to worry about it having the quality of plastic, but the unvarnished wood (which was available in earlier models) does feel nicer. The leg toppers can be a bit wobbly too, and in rare occasions might even pop out, but these are relatively minor annoyances.
All in all, it’s a brilliant table that’s just as well suited to hosting the best party games, as it is for a warm family dinner. It could easily be the social center of your home and is likely to last you many years to come.
Allplay Jasper
Best midrange gaming table
Allplay Jasper specifications:
Seating capacity |
6 or 8 |
Material |
Dark Walnut Wood or Natural Wood, plus fabric inset |
Size |
42 x 66 inches (regular), 42 x 82 inches (long) |
Assembly required |
Yes |
Reasons to buy
- More affordable than other high-end gaming tables
- Plenty of customizable accessories
- Can double up as a dining table
Reasons to avoid
- Noticeable drop in quality compared to premium gaming tables
On the more affordable end of the spectrum sits the Allplay Jasper. Solid and straightforward, it boasts all the most important features of a gaming table. A sunken play area lets you set up games and play to your heart’s content, knowing no dice will make a daring exit off the table, and no careless knock will send your game pieces skittering over the edge.
If you’re pressed for space, the Jasper‘s optional ‘table topper’ can be placed over the recess, transforming your gaming space into an ordinary dining room table at your convenience. The idea is for the table to double as your gaming station and dining area, saving space and faff.
Except this isn’t a normal table. Customisable cup holders, wine glass holders, interior wing shelves, and dark walnut or natural finish will make it stand out from your average piece of four-legged furniture.
The interior play area is wide enough to accommodate the biggest games, and not so deep that you’ll be straining your neck as you crane over to get a look at the action. Coming in at $799 (£713), and an additional $419 (£374) for the topper, this won’t be covered by your loose change, but it’s a much cheaper option than our first two picks – and the basic functionality of leaving your games mid-way through without any packing up could be enough to make it worthwhile for you.
All4Jig Jigsaw table
Best jigsaw table
All4Jig Jigsaw table specifications:
Seating capacity |
1 or 2 |
Material |
Wood and felt, metal frame |
Size |
25 x 34 inches |
Assembly required |
Yes |
Reasons to buy
- A more affordable budget option
- Portable thanks to fold-down features
Reasons to avoid
- Easy to knock dice and components off the table
- Not designed for dining, so it’ll need its own space in your home
Now we’re getting into the generic, Amazon offerings for those on a more normal budget – starting with this jigsaw table. Even if you won’t be fitting together little pieces of shaped cardstock, they offer a good size playing area that will cater to the most popular board games, and feature convenient storage draws for game components.
This wooden table has been primarily designed with jigsaw puzzles in mind, but really it’s quite a versatile product. You could easily use it for playing mahjong or solitaire by yourself, or even put a chair on the opposite side so that you can play one of the best two-player card games with somebody. If you like virtual RPGs you could use that as the spot from which you host the games.
It’s not going to work for bigger, chunkier games, and you certainly can’t eat off of it. However, if you’ve got the room for it, and you love a bit of solo play, then this jigsaw table may be the ideal choice for you.
Jumbl Puzzle Board
Best low gaming table
Jumbl Puzzle Board specifications:
Seating capacity |
0 (kind of) |
Material |
Wood |
Size (L x W x H) |
38.35 x 30.15 x 4 inches |
Assembly required |
No |
Reasons to buy
- No assembly required
- Great for casual gaming
- Doubles as coffee table
Reasons to avoid
- Short legs won’t be for everyone
- Not suited for longs sessions
Do you like the idea of getting a few friends around to sit on the sofa with a glass of wine for a bit of light board or card gaming? The Jumbl Puzzle Board is essentially a coffee table that’s perfect for gaming in a more casual setting.
Like the Jigsaw Table above, this is another product that was specifically designed with puzzles in mind, but this one in particular has a lot of features that make it ideal for gaming. Draws on the sides and end are great for storing cards or other game tokens (without having to balance them on your lap or plop them on the floor) and a slight rise around the table’s edges means that you reduce the risk of die rolling onto the ground.
If you’ve got it positioned in a corner piece sofa, you can easily get about four or five people around it – but it’s very much something you need the right setup for. It’s the kind of thing that you’d probably replace an existing coffee table with. If you don’t have any kind of communal sofa area in your home though, you’re probably not going to be able to find an appropriate place for this.
You’re also probably not going to enjoy using this table if you do a lot of intense gaming sessions that may last three hours or more. This is definitely a casual choice. After a certain length of time, your back and neck will start to ache as you have to lean forward to see and access the table. Still, it’s very easy to imagine a scenario where someone regularly has friends over for socialising and a bit of light gaming, and in that scenario, the Jumbl table is ideal. Not having to build it is a nice bonus too.
Chess table
Best decorative gaming table
Chess table specifications:
Seating capacity |
2 |
Material |
Wood |
Size (L x W x H) |
18 x 18 x 29 inches |
Assembly required |
Minimal |
Reasons to buy
- A budget-friendly gaming table
- A pleasing decorative piece for chess fans
Reasons to avoid
- Small size limits your gaming options
A well-known classic, there’s never a bad time to suggest a game of chess. Having a chess table ensures you always have a space in your home to play. As far as gaming tables go, this is a small but fairly versatile option – you’re not going to fit War of the Ring or Twilight Imperium on its surface anytime soon, but it’s perfect if you want to play smaller classic board games, try a quick card game, or even learn how to play chess for the first time.
This Amazon example passes muster with us – it’s on the cheaper side compared to more ornate-looking options, at $139.98 (£115.84) but it’s also got a polished, classic feel. If you’re after a wider range, however, be sure to check out our guide to the best chess tables.
If you lift up the top, there’s storage for your pieces – and a backgammon board on the other side. Who doesn’t want two games in one when it comes to gaming tables?
Barrington card game table
Best gaming table for card games
Barrington card game table specifications:
Seating capacity |
Up to 10 |
Material |
Felt, Metal |
Size (L x W x H) |
42 x 42 x 5 inches |
Assembly required |
No |
Reasons to buy
- High build quality
- Large and foldable
- Just like you’d find in a casino
Reasons to avoid
- Reports of poor assembly
- Availability outside the US
The Barrington gaming table is just like something you’d find in a casino. If you love having your friends round to play poker, blackjack, or any of the classic card games, then this is the ideal table for you. It has markings in the middle to show people where to place their cards, and cup holders around the edge to reduce the risk of spilled drinks ruining the cards. There are even comfortable armrests along the edge to keep everyone happy when the games run into the night.
It’s a really sturdy product and it’s easy to see why this is the best-reviewed poker table on Amazon. It’s a large product that can easily fit ten people around it, so it’s perfect even for relatively large gatherings. You don’t need to worry about it taking up loads of space in your house though, because its foldable design means that it be easily stored away between game nights.
Conveniently, it comes pre-assembled, which saves you from the sometimes arduous task of putting a table together. Having said that, there have been a few (rare) reports from people who have found that the assembly job wasn’t carried out properly, with screws not always securely, or sometimes even missing altogether. You probably won’t face this problem, but I guess this is a risk you always have to take when getting something pre-assembled.
Besides that, there’s not a lot to criticize here. Readers in the UK will have a hard time tracking it down, but if you’re in the US or Canada it won’t be a problem. It’s a fantastic product at a very reasonable price.
FAQ – How to choose a gaming table
If you’re in the market for a board gaming table, there’s a heck of a lot of choice and an extremely wide range of prices to navigate. And, if you’re planning on splashing the cash on a serious table, you should be sure what your needs and preferences are first, to make a smart, future-proof decision. Furniture is a big deal, y’all – gaming furniture is doubly so.
Here are some key questions you should ask yourself when shopping for a gaming table:
How many people do you want to be able to play?
There’s simply no point investing in a vast, 12-seater surface if your plans mainly include just you and your partner playing two-player board games every other evening. Likewise, if you’re hoping to run massive tabletop RPG sessions for a party of eight, a 3.5-foot-square chess table ain’t gonna cut it.
Think carefully about the maximum player count you want to be able to accommodate at your table, and limit your search accordingly. We’ve listed the seating capacity of each table on this list so you can get an idea of what they can accommodate.
What types of games do you normally play?
Tabletop games are becoming an ever more diverse species, and different board game types can take up wildly different amounts of space. Not only that, but each variety or genre of game can require an entirely different type and configuration of play surfaces, and benefit from different features and accessories in the table you’re using.
If you mainly play one-on-one trading card games, you may not need a huge play area, but you might get extra value from a tabletop printed with playmat markings, or extra areas to the sides of the board for your sideboard of cards; deck boxes; counters and tokens; or other bits and bobs.
If you want to play full-sized miniature wargames, you’ll need to take careful note of the official battlefield sizes to use in each game and ensure the tables you’re looking at can accommodate that. But you should also consider features that might help with keeping your dice, cards, rulebooks, and other accouterments to hand, safe, and easily accessible. Being mindful of the range of games you want to accommodate will help you narrow down the options here.
How much space do you have available?
This is a pretty obvious one, but, if you’re anything as excitable as we are about buying new things, it’s probably a useful reminder: you need to be very sure of exactly where your table is going to be used, and how much space is available there.
If you’ve got a massive game room, palatial dining room, or cavernous garage where an eight-foot-by-six-foot monster tabletop will fit with miles to spare – well, good for you. Crack on. For the rest of us, any customized gaming surface needs to fit comfortably within our existing living space – and that means taking very careful measurements of the whole space before you go shopping and then comparing them against the measurements for each table.
When you’re doing so, remember you also need to take into account the seats – be they chairs, benches, bar stools, whatever – because it would not be a very fun time if you dropped thousands on the perfect table, only to find there’s no room for anyone to sit down!
If you’re limited on space overall, or your gaming area is a multi-function space in your home, you should consider folding tables that can be collapsed and put away when not in use. Alternatively, of course, many gaming tables can also be used as, er, regular tables. Which brings us to…
Do you need to use your table for non-gaming purposes?
One of the real clinchers for many people buying gaming tables these days is knowing their purchase isn’t purely a custom-made hobby item, but also functions as perfectly usable, regular household furniture, and won’t stick out like a sore thumb in your living room, dining room, kitchen, or wherever.
A huge, many-drawered, RGB LED-lit, wifi-enabled gaming table with a horizontal 60-inch OLED TV in the tabletop, a built-in sound system, smoke machines, dice towers embedded for every seat, and an animatronic goblin assistant named Neil would be fantastic for game nights – but not so great for dinner parties with your friends, neighbors, or members of the PTA.
So, you need to decide if your table is going to have to do double duty between games and dinner/coffee/working from home.
If so, the solutions come in two flavors:
- Tables whose gaming features are subtle, unobtrusive, or even removable – like a coffee table with extra drawers, attachments, or pop-out trays
- Tables with a sunken gaming space that gets covered over when it’s time to use the table for non-gaming needs. Typically, this is done with either a detachable, hard, one-piece tabletop that sits over the game surface, or with a series of interlocking wooden ‘leaves’ (planks) that slide in over the top to form a solid tabletop, hiding away the games underneath.
Both have their advantages. The former is simpler, normally cheaper, and requires less effort to transition between ‘modes’ – while the latter introduces the truly magical option of saving your game; you can leave the game in progress, cover it over for dinner, and come back two hours (or weeks) later to pick up where you left off.
Thinking carefully about which is going to work best for you will focus on how you want to use your table and how it’ll fit into your home life.
Do you need to be able to transport your table?
This is a simple one, but it’s worth taking into account: if you move around a lot, or want to be able to take your table to family and friends’ houses for game nights, it stands to reason one of your top priorities will be portability.
At a stroke, this rules out the most luxurious and expensive tables on the market, all of which are heavy, wooden, extremely stationary bits of kit. But there is a surprisingly wide and growing range of collapsible and transportable gaming tables out there, suitable for a variety of different game types and player counts.
If this is you, think about your requirements and the limitations they place on your options before you start – there’s no use falling in love with something that you’ll end up leaving behind when you go on trips, and not being able to use.
What kind of visual look and features do you want your table to have?
Only once you’ve considered all those more boring practicalities should you move on to the sexier bit of your selection process: how do you want your table to look, feel, and operate?
We won’t give you too much guidance here: you know (or should discover for yourself) what materials, styles, and colors of furniture you like best – and it won’t take you much shopping around to see the bewildering array of optional extras, accessories, and plugins available for many gaming tables on the market, from phone chargers to drinks fridges.
Just keep your budget in mind and think through exactly how each aspect of the table is going to be used and enjoyed – don’t let yourself slip into paying mega bucks for a shiny extra that’ll end up in your closet gathering dust. That said, enjoy choosing the perfect table for you! All being well, it’ll be with you for a lifetime, so falling in love with it is no bad thing.
If you’re fitting out your home for tabletop gaming perfection, you should also check out our guides on the best display shelves for miniatures, and the top lego storage solutions money can buy.