Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Five & Dime 2008: Joining the "In" Crowd

These are games that have appeared on the Five & Dime lists before... and have risen in overall playing percentages.

Gamepercentage gain from 2007
Agricola+54.16%
Pandemic+49.70%
Race for the Galaxy+41.03%
Kingsburg+13.99%
Galaxy Trucker+10.60%
Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries+8.39%
Brass+8.09%
Oregon+8.09%
Tichu+8.07%
Airships+7.46%
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization+6.28%
10 Days/Europa Tour+6.14%
Jamaica+5.29%
Time's Up/Celebrities+5.07%
Power Grid/Funkenschlag+4.97%

There are two main reasons that games appear on this list:
  1. They were reprinted and/or had another game added to their franchise this year (Time's Up, Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries, Through the Ages).
  2. They were "Essen"/end of the year games... they were released late in 2006 and were only played 5+ times by a couple of folks in 2006 (Agricola, Pandemic, Race for the Galaxy, Kingsburg, Galaxy Trucker, Brass, Oregon, Airships, Jamaica).

As always, the interesting games here are the ones that can not be explained by these reasons:

  • Tichu, which continues a steadily growing reign as "king of the gamer card games".
  • Through the Ages, which did get a new edition but moreover got some real exposure and increased the fan base.
  • Power Grid continues to do well... it doesn't seem to be slumping much after 5+ years.
  • ".
  • And I'm loath to explain the growth of 10 Days... though we did play USA at least 5 times last year.

2 comments:

ironcates said...

I was surprised to see 10 days at Cost Plus, may be related in a small way.

Joe Huber said...

King of gamer card games?

Sorry, but that's still Bridge....