Five & Dime 2008: Most Played Games

Game	Score	2008	2007	2006
Race for the Galaxy	880	59.63%	18.60%	new
Dominion	850	59.63%	new	new
Agricola	800	60.87%	6.71%	new
Pandemic	650	50.31%	0.61%	new
Tichu	320	24.84%	16.77%	23.28%
Stone Age	290	24.22%	new	new
Ticket To Ride	275	23.60%	25.61%	28.45%
10 Days/Europa Tour	230	19.25%	13.11%	25.86%
Power Grid	225	21.74%	16.77%	24.14%
Lost Cities	210	18.01%	23.48%	18.10%
Settlers of Catan	195	17.39%	17.99%	25.00%
Diamant/Incan Gold	185	16.77%	21.95%	27.59%
Crokinole	170	15.53%	10.98%	13.79%
Loopin' Louie	170	14.91%	13.11%	21.55%
6 Nimmt/Category 5	160	15.53%	10.98%	19.83%
Kingsburg	160	14.91%	0.91%	new
Carcassonne	155	13.66%	25.00%	21.55%
Ingenious	150	12.42%	20.12%	28.45%
Mr. Jack	150	12.42%	10.37%	4.31%
In the Year of the Dragon	145	14.91%	new	new
No Thanks/Geschenkt	145	13.04%	22.56%	25.86%
Notre Dame	140	13.66%	26.52%	new
Hanging Gardens	140	12.42%	new	new
Ra	135	12.42%	22.87%	29.31%
Ticket to Ride: The Card Game	135	11.80%	new	new
Fairy Tale	135	10.56%	10.06%	3.45%

26th place with a score of 130: Galaxy Trucker - 13.04%, Liars Dice - 12.42% San Juan - 12.42% Sorry! Sliders - 11.80% Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization - 9.94% Hive - 9.32%.

"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

It's Year Eleven - I'm kind of stunned this is still going on 11 years later. We were substantially down on entries this year (161 from our 2007 high of 328) but the numbers still seem to bear what I've been seeing during the past year. Ticket to Ride was finally shoved out of first place on the overall plays list by some powerhouse games: Agricola, Race for the Galaxy, Dominion and Pandemic. With three of those games getting highly-anticipated expansions, I'm guessing that all of them BUT Agricola will be back at the top of this list next year. (Note: this is not Agricola backlash - I'm a big enough fan to have bought vegimeeples - but I don't think this will see nearly as many plays in the next year.)

I've wondered for a number of years when Carcassonne would "jump the shark" - and I think it's finally happened with the release of the Catapult expansion. Losing almost 50% of the regular playing audience probably isn't a good sign, either.

Both BattleLore & Memoir '44 took major hits - which is not particularly surprising with the delays in new game-changing expansions for Battlelore but somewhat of a surprise with Memoir having 3 different expansions. My guess for next year is that the Campaign Book (Memoir) and the Heroes pack (Battlelore) should juice both of these franchises. I correctly predicted the slippage of Notre Dame (not like that was difficult) & the ascendancy of Race for the Galaxy (though I was wrong - it DID make #1 on this list). My "prophecy" about San Juan losing ground due to Race is problematic - while it did drop again, it has dropped roughly the same amount every year since the introduction of the game. I'm not sure you can blame that on Race for the Galaxy.

Four games that will NOT be back next year: Hanging Gardens, Ticket to Ride Card Game, Kingsburg & Stone Age. Again, not saying anything bad about those games, but they won't see consistent 5+ play in a lot of groups with new stuff fighting for board time.

The big questions for 2009:

• Will Dominion & Race for the Galaxy find any real challengers? My guess: probably not.
• Will Power Grid continue to grow in popularity? My prediction: I think it's reached the zenith of popularlity (for a heavy 2+ hour game) but I don't think it will lose much ground..
• Where will Small World end up? My prediction: it will be on this list... at least in the top ten and probably in the top five. (Ah, the advantages of waiting until the Gathering is finished to make my predictions.)

In fact, what do you think about any of this? Use the comments area (and keep it clean & friendly!)