Five & Dime 2005: Most Played Games

Game	Score	2005	2004	2003
Ticket To Ride	695	43.94%	73.64%	new
San Juan	510	34.85%	59.09%	new
For Sale	455	30.81%	7.27%	11.84%
Ingenious	445	30.30%	27.27%	new
Diamant	420	28.79%	new	new
Ticket To Ride: Europe	355	27.78%	new	new
Shadows Over Camelot	325	27.78%	new	new
Lost Cities	385	26.26%	23.64%	30.26%
Carcassonne	350	24.75%	28.18%	44.74%
Puerto Rico	355	23.74%	39.09%	63.16%
Blokus	325	23.23%	16.36%	13.16%
St Petersburg	325	23.23%	55.45%	new
Ra	315	22.22%	28.18%	26.32%
Geschenkt/No Merci	355	21.21%	new	new
Take 6/Category 5	280	21.21%	18.18%	21.05%
Settlers of Catan	275	20.71%	17.27%	28.95%
Memoir '44	310	20.20%	20.91%	new
Power Grid	275	19.70%	33.64%	5.26%
Coloretto	265	18.69%	22.73%	36.84%
Liar's Dice	240	17.17%	33.64%	31.58%
Alhambra	215	16.67%	30.91%	23.68%
Transamerica/europa	235	16.16%	16.36%	28.95%
Bohnanza	220	15.15%	15.45%	22.37%
Schotten-Totten	205	15.15%	8.18%	26.32%
Louis XIV	195	15.15%	new	new

"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?!