The Best Family Board Games for Every Age

Five  is the age children start to learn what it means to lose gracefully (or not so gracefully). A good mix of cooperative and competitive games works well, so they can ease into a bit of friendly competition without every game night ending in tears. 

For an introduction to competitive gaming, The Sandcastles of Burgundy is our favorite. Players decorate their village ahead of Queen Crab's beach party, rolling dice each turn to either search sandcastles for decorations or transport ones they've already found back to their village. Whilst it’s designed to be played competitively, it’s super easy to adjust gameplay, meaning you can team up to help children understand the rules better. 

Next up is Junior Labyrinth, a maze game where players shift tiles to create a path to hidden treasures. The rules are simple and the paths are easy to follow, with just enough unpredictable twists along the way to make it fun for everyone. It also comes in themed editions like Paw Patrol, Bluey and Spidey and Friends, so you can pick your little one's favorite characters to make it even more exciting. 

If your child is a Minecraft fan, you really can’t go wrong with the Junior Minecraft Builders and Biomes game. It’s a cooperative version of the popular Minecraft Builders and Biomes game. Players work together to build a farm for the animals they collect as they turn over cards, racing to finish before zombies or creepers get in the way. It captures Minecraft's distinct visual style, and gameplay revolves around finding resources and building with tools, just like the computer game. Up to four players can play so it’s the perfect option for a family game night, especially if you have older children who love Minecraft too.  

For a bit of healthy competition, the Disney Enchanted Forest range is perfect, available in a classic Disney edition or Disney Princess. Thirteen enchanted trees are scattered across the board, each one hiding a different Disney character underneath. At the start of each round, a card is revealed at the castle showing which character everyone needs to find. Players take turns rolling and moving around the board, and landing exactly next to a tree lets you peek underneath to see who's hiding there. Once you think you've spotted the right character, race to the castle and guess which tree they're under.The really competitive part? You can land on a space occupied by an opponent and send them back to the start. With games lasting 30-45 minutes, it's a great fit for six year olds, and one where they can compete fairly against the grown-ups.

At eight, children can fairly compete with adults, and they are definitely ready for games that involve more thinking than simple roll and move gameplay. 

A great pick at this stage is Villainous Unstoppable, a faster, more streamlined version of the original Villainous game. You play as one of four Disney villains -  Maleficent, Ursula, Hades or Scar -  racing to complete your own evil scheme before the heroes stop you. Turns are built around moving, playing a card and carrying out actions to defeat the heroes, or blocking opponents by playing hero tiles in their realm. It's designed for ages 7 and up, so it's quick to pick up even if you've never played the original.  

If your family prefers working together over playing against each other, Chronicles of Light is an excellent pick. It’s a cooperative adventure game where you and your family team up as Disney heroines (Moana, Belle, Violet and Maid Marian) to fight back against the Darkness before it overwhelms your team. There are no traditional turns -  instead, players share actions across the team each round and work together to decide how to use them, racing to complete quests and defeat villains before time runs out. With modular map tiles and a choice of quests for each character every game plays out differently, so it's a great one to play on repeat. Play takes between 45-60 minutes, so it’s a great one for older children who can focus for a bit longer.

Despite its playful theme, Mycelia is the perfect game for this age group. It’s a strategic, deck-building board game that’s an excellent introduction to this style of game. Players collect leaves and draw cards to recruit mushroom helpers. Every mushroom card adds new mechanics to the game, increasing the complexity as you play, making it a great pick for families who haven't tried this style of game before. The race is to clear your own board of gem dewdrops first, slowing down opponents by triggering them to pick up more dewdrops as you go. With multiple ways to play the game, including a solo mode, it’s another pick with great replayability.

If you fancy something a little more challenging, Gloomies could be the perfect option. It shares a similar whimsical design to Mycelia but is much more strategic, with gameplay split across two distinct halves. In the Planting Phase, players take turns placing flower cards from their hand onto a shared grid, lining them up in rows to pick up bonuses like stardust, or extra cards - this phase runs until the grid fills up. Then the board resets, and in the Harvesting Phase, you use the exact same cards as before, but this time you're picking the flowers to complete alien order cards. It's all about hand management and forward planning, with the player with the most points at the end of both phases taking the win.

Once your kids hit their teens, the door opens to some brilliant games that are as fun for adults as they are for older children. And if your family are fans of Disney, Marvel or Star Wars, Villainous will be an absolute winner. 

Villainous is Ravensburger’s hugely popular asymmetric board game, with a twist. Instead of playing to defeat the bad guys, you play as them. In Villainous, each player takes on the role of a different villain, from Maleficent to Captain Hook, Thanos to Taskmaster and Darth Vader to Kylo Ren. Each one has their own unique play style, set of rules and win conditions. And because no two villains play the same, every game pans out differently, meaning you and your family will be replaying this for hours. There are also loads of expansion packs so you can add more characters and keep expanding the gameplay.

Another absolute must is Horrified, a cooperative board game where players work together to defeat monsters from across different universes and dimensions. Think Medusa and the Minotaur, Frankenstein and Dracula, Bigfoot and the Banshee of the Badlands. Team up to strategise, solve problems, and survive the invasion together. And again, because of the scalability and different ways to defeat each monster, it’s really replayable and will probably become a firm family favorite.