Which new board games should you consider adding to your collection in 2025? We recommend all the titles on our prestigious, all-time list of the best board games, of course - but brand new games are coming out constantly that deserve your attention. That's why we've created this up-to-date shortlist of our favorite new titles, as well as the upcoming board games that should be firmly on your radar.
Board games often release at odd times, with retailers, convention goers, and crowdfunding backers all receiving copies at different times. Because of this, we've covered our personal favorites from 2024 and 2025.
New board games sections:
2025's new board games
We can't lie: 2025 has been a banner year for top tier board game releases. Two new titles - The Old King's Crown and Molly House - have joined our all time board game hall of fame, but they're not the only sparkling new games out this year. Here's a rundown of 2025 releases not to miss.
The Old King's Crown
Pros:
- Strategic, meaningful decisions
- Excellent pacing
- Incredible artwork
Cons:
- Physically enormous
- Can be a complex teach
The Old King's Crown is a curious and enchanting hybrid of bluffing card game, engine building strategy game, and fantasy fever dream. Its grab bag of familiar mechanics, masterfully stitched together in new and intriguing combinations, make it perhaps the biggest out-of-left-field Indie sensation board game of 2025. Wargamer editor Alex Evans called this "the most captivating game I've ever played"
Read our The Old King's Crown review.
Molly House
Molly House
Pros:
- Mechanics perfectly capture the theme
- Emotive gameplay
- Gorgeous art
Cons:
- Heavily luck-based
- Components can be hard to tell apart
Molly House is a complex card-drafting game where you aim to create as much joy as possible for the 18th-century queer community of London - without getting caught by constables or hidden informers among your peers. This is yet another elegant, thematic design from Cole Wehrle (Root, Arcs), and although it can be fiddly at first, its strategy soon unfolds like the plot of a dramatic novel. It tells a fascinating story of marginalized community, hidden desire, and the tension between protecting yourself or the only people that understand you.
Read our Molly House review.
General Orders: Sengoku Jidai
Pros:
- Tense, elegant gameplay
- Great blend of theme and mechanics
Cons:
- Small board can be fiddly
- Surprisingly complex
General Orders: Sengoku Jidai proves that the best things really do come in tiny packages. This is a head-to-head strategy game that can be decided in the first round, if you're not careful - but once you've mastered its systems, it feels as elegant as a classic abstract strategy game.
Both players are tussling over a tiny hex-grid map, aiming either to empty out the enemy capital, or hold the most victory point hexes at the end of the game. You've got everything you'd expect from a traditional wargame here, but what makes it sing is the orders system, which borrows ideas from worker placement games. Combine that with a very dense map, and you have a game that cuts to the chase like a well placed katana.
Read our General Orders Sengoku Jidai review.
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth
Pros:
- Strategic but approachable
- Varied campaign scenarios
Cons:
- Luck can really swing a game
Star Wars: Battle of Hoth deploys the tried-and-tested rules of beloved WW2 game Memoir' 44, bringing its intriguing yet accessible strategy to the snowy tundras of Hoth. Our editor Alex tested it at the UK Games Expo earlier in 2025, and it's a cracking strategy game with easy-to-learn mechanics and oodles of Star Wars theme. A bit like the Millennium Falcon, this might look like a rust bucket of a design, but it's got it where it counts.
Luthier
Pros:
- Rich, deep strategy
- Gorgeous components
Cons:
- Challenging to master
- Takes so, so long to play
In Luthier, you'll be crafting quality musical instruments for the elites of the 18th century. Each customer has specific desires, and you only have so long to fulfill their orders before you lose their favor. With the best resources so scarce, you'll have to bid for the best outcomes and find ways to make your crafting process more efficient. With many paths to victory, Luthier is immensely deep and replayable - provided you have several hours to spare for each playthrough.
The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship
Pros:
- Incredibly thematic
- Huge replay value
Cons:
- Prone to useless turns
- Fiddly setup
Though their themes couldn't be more different, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship shares a lot of DNA with Matt Leacock's previous masterpiece, Pandemic. In this thematic co-op, everyone has control of two famous Fellowship, and you'll use them and their unique powers to fend off enemy forces at key locations. All the while, you must conceal Frodo from the watchful Eye of Sauron and his Nazgûl buddies. It's an excellent recreation of what makes Tolkien's original story so tense and exciting.
We haven't shared our full review for this game yet, but you can check out the early playthrough we had with designer Matt Leacock.
Lost Lumina
Pros:
- Easy to learn
- Lovely components
- Unique mechanics
Cons:
- Quite simple strategy game
The premise of Lost Lumina is simple: two players draft a force of charismatic animal hero cards, who will then lead their forces over a compact area control game. The combat system involves second guessing which hero card your opponent might play while making your own selection, trying to eke the maximum advantage out of your hand. So it's the combat system from strategy epic Game of Thrones, condensed into ten to twenty minute games.
Wargamer Tim had a quick demo of Lost Lumina at UK Games Expo and came away slightly rabid about playing more.
Orloj: The Prague Astronomical Clock
Pros:
- Gorgeous to look at
- Excellent take on worker placement
Cons:
- Quite fiddly
- Complex to learn
One of the prettiest looking eurogames we've seen in a hot minute, Orloj has you competing to design bits of the titular historic timepiece (which you can visit in real life at the old town hall in Prague, Czechia). You'll place workers to build new clock face dials, recruit new specialists to your team, and (in true euro style) have to balance that against gathering key resources and buying upgrades to set up combo plays for big points.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary (a.k.a. Arten Garten in the original German) is, in all ways, the younger sibling of ultra-crunchy title Ark Nova - one of our favorites. It comes from the same designer, and it's still about managing a zoo, but it comes with streamlined and simplified versions of the original game's mechanics.
As we mentioned when Sanctuary was announced, it can be tough to get Ark Nova to the table - particularly if your pals aren't as keen on six-hour gaming sessions as you are. Early reviews of this game, which began reaching punters in November and December 2025, pitch this as an excellent middle ground for those not willing to dive straight into Ark Nova's crunchiness.
2024's new board games
Even as 2025 draws to a close, many players are still discovering 2024's new board games for the first time. That might be because these titles turned up in retail stores a little late. Or, perhaps these players waited for awards season to wrap before trying something new.
Here are our favorites from 2024 that got a thorough testing:
Arcs
Arcs is the space emperor of recent strategy games. Its combination of trick-taking card game and careful wargame is unexpected, but the combo feels excellent in play. Every turn can completely upend the power struggle you take part in.
The luck-based elements of the game often frustrate the best-laid plans. Thematically, though, these mechanics nail that scrappy space opera theme. Arcs' highs and lows are deliberate, and they never tell the same story twice. Between the campaign mode and regular play, this is a game you can return to again and again.
You can learn more in our full Arcs board game review.
Flip 7
Possibly our new favorite party game ever, Flip 7 is fast-paced and surprisingly moreish for its simple rules. It takes your basic 'stick or twist' rules from Blackjack, but it stacks the decks with odd probabilities and special abilities. Everyone is racing to 200 points, but you better be careful when deciding to draw a new card from the deck. Draw two of the same number (which is more likely for more valuable cards), and you'll go bust for that round.
Harmonies
Harmonies is an elegant tile-drafting game that's as strategic as it is soothing. You'll draft delectable-looking tiles and gorgeous animal cards, carefully building the right habitats to attract rare animals over a series of turns. It's a mid-weight game that's relaxing enough for casual gaming sessions and puzzle-like enough to keep fans of heavier games engaged.
Fromage
There's a buttery-smooth strategy to cheese-making board game Fromage that's a delight to uncover. You'll use chunks of dairy to choose actions at the same time as your fellow foodies, worker placement style. The catch is that you can only choose options from the segment of the board in front of you. Once everyone has placed a cheese wedge, the entire board spins like a Lazy Susan, revealing your next set of actions. Tactile and strategic, there's a lot to love here for mid-weight board game fans.
Upcoming board games
Here are a few of the upcoming board games slated for release in 2025 which you should absolutely keep an eye on - we'll certainly be looking to get our sweaty reviewing hands on them ASAP!
Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game
Estimated release: December 2025
Billed as a "story driven tactical action game" for 1-4 players, Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game offers "42+ hours of gameplay" in its campaign, plus an "endless Afterlife mode". There was some controversy when this was first announced, given how many board gamers have been burned by big, licensed IP board game adaptations, loaded up with millions of crowdfunding dollars, that puts beautiful miniatures before well-designed gameplay.
As journalists, we're both skeptical and open minded, however - and as nerdy gamers with a liking for neon signs, techwear, and weird future slang, we're very excited to try out a fully loaded, tabletop tactical RPG adventure in Night City. We'll see, choom. We'll see.
Sanibel
Release: January 16, 2026
Elizabeth Hargrave, designer of the hit bird board game Wingspan, is back with another soothing nature title. Sanibel takes places on the Florida island of the same name, which is famous for its beautiful shells. Players will comb its beaches, drafting and placing tiles in the most satisfying, points-laden combinations. We're huge fans of Wingspan, tile games, and cozy tabletop titles, so this sounds right up our alley.
Brass Pittsburgh
Estimated release: 2026
Brass: Birmingham is widely lauded as one of the greatest modern board games, so it's natural that there'd be plenty of hype surrounding its follow-up. Brass: Pittsburgh promises to build on the same economic strategy mechanics as previous Brass games, but it will also apparently innovate in some new and exciting ways.
We don't know too much about this game yet, including when it will be widely available. When it was announced, publisher Roxley predicted a 2026 retail release date, but we won't know more until the Gamefound crowdfunder launches on February 3.
For more tabletop recommendations, here are the best card games around right now. We can also point you to the greatest tabletop RPGs of all time.