Monday, January 30, 2006

Five & Dime 2005: Most Played Games

GameScore200520042003
Ticket To Ride69543.94%73.64%new
San Juan51034.85%59.09%new
For Sale45530.81%7.27%11.84%
Ingenious44530.30%27.27%new
Diamant42028.79%newnew
Ticket To Ride: Europe35527.78%newnew
Shadows Over Camelot32527.78%newnew
Lost Cities38526.26%23.64%30.26%
Carcassonne35024.75%28.18%44.74%
Puerto Rico35523.74%39.09%63.16%
Blokus32523.23%16.36%13.16%
St Petersburg32523.23%55.45%new
Ra31522.22%28.18%26.32%
Geschenkt/No Merci35521.21%newnew
Take 6/Category 528021.21%18.18%21.05%
Settlers of Catan27520.71%17.27%28.95%
Memoir '4431020.20%20.91%new
Power Grid27519.70%33.64%5.26%
Coloretto26518.69%22.73%36.84%
Liar's Dice24017.17%33.64%31.58%
Alhambra21516.67%30.91%23.68%
Transamerica/europa23516.16%16.36%28.95%
Bohnanza22015.15%15.45%22.37%
Schotten-Totten20515.15%8.18%26.32%
Louis XIV19515.15%newnew
"score" is computed by giving a game 5 points for each person playing it 5-9 times and 10 points for each person playing 10+ times

the percentage numbers for each year are the percent of respondents who reported playing the game 5+ or 10+ times

Wow.

This year, a record 198 gamers (3 groups and 195 individuals) chimed in with their five & dime lists. Of that group, there were 66 who participated last year.

Last year I predicted that Ticket to Ride would drop due to TtR:Europe... and I was paritally right. Ticket to Ride did drop... but it looks to me like a substantial percentage of that drop was the much larger sampling poll. OTOH, I think I blew it with blaming the drop on TtR:Europe - the vast majority of people who played TtR also played TtR:Europe.

I was surprised to see Ingenious (Einfach Genial) grow in popularity... this is probably due to the English release. For Sale's resurgence can also be attributed to the English release.

I'm still waiting for Carcassonne to reach a saturation point - in other words, "When will the next Carc expansion cause the whole franchise to 'jump the shark'?" (Hasn't happened yet...)

I was right in predicting that Hansa & Attika would drop out of the top 25, though Attika was still in the top 50. I was surprised by St Petersburg holding on - in some corners, it's become "cool" to diss the game.

But I was (happily) wrong about Memoir '44... it held in position, which is prety amazing. I'm guessing that the expansions and the great support from Days of Wonder helped that happen.

Shadows Over Camelot will not be here next year - I'm not saying it's a bad game, just that it won't have a lot of people playing it 5+ times. Louis XIV will drop off as well - but that's not a surprise to anyone, right?!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not to steal any thunder from upcoming posts, but here's a quick recap of the #1 game from past years:

1998, Bohnanza
1999, Lost Cities
2000, Settlers of Catan
2001, Carcassonne
2002, Puerto Rico
2003, Puerto Rico
2004, Ticket to Ride

So with a repeat in 2005, TtR joins Puerto Rico as the only two-time Five & Dime champions!

Anonymous said...

Ra's position on the list probably has something to do with its recent republication, too.

Anonymous said...

FWIW, I played NO Ticket to Ride last year (much to my surprise), only TtR: Europe. So in my particular case, your prediction was correct :)