The Exciting Board Game Revolution: Top Picks to Watch in 2025!

The board game sector faces a considerable challenge ahead. The lineup for 2024 was exceptionally robust, and envisioning this year’s forthcoming games matching that set standard feels daunting. However, there remains hope, and each year I am consistently amazed by at least a few high-concept games that provide an extraordinary and immersive experience.

Predicting how the year will unfold before it officially commences is an impossibility, yet that won’t deter me from outlining several titles that are highly awaited. These nine games piqued my interest, promising a mix of engaging experiences. With some luck, a portion of my hopes will be realized, and we will revisit these titles again at the year’s conclusion.

Below are the prominent board games to watch for as we approach 2025.

Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game

Designer: Łukasz Woźniak

Immerse yourself in the role of an Edgerunner, battling through Night City utilizing heaps of dice and executing actions in real time. That’s the challenging pitch, and it sounds fantastic. This narrative-driven adventure game is powered by an app, with your smartphone or tablet managing enemy maneuvers alongside unexpected occurrences and plot twists. You need to respond swiftly, rolling the dice on your turn and then utilizing those rolls to navigate the board and inflict damage upon your adversaries.

The real-time format has previously proved successful, and it could seamlessly align with the dynamic action of the video game. Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game aims to encapsulate this essence and furnish a distinctive tabletop experience that delivers excitement and cinematic moments. There’s so much at play here that I worry it might all unravel, but that’s the thrill of discovery.

Don’t Starve: The Board Game

Creator: Rafał Pieczyński

Recent times have seen video game adaptations achieving tremendous success within the board game community. In 2024 alone, Slay the Spire: The Board Game and Dead Cells: The Board Game have shown to be exciting adaptations from the digital realm to the tabletop experience. Now, Don’t Starve: The Board Game is set to make its entrance, coming from the tabletop publisher responsible for the incredible adaptationFrostpunk: The Board Game.

Don’t Starve accommodates up to four participants navigating and enduring in a dreadful procedurally generated environment. You have the opportunity to tinker with both magic and science, intertwining them in your quest for survival against both the elements and the horrifying beings that inhabit the landscape. A blend of horror and survival gaming, this is poised to become an engaging encounter on the tabletop.

Renowned designer Reiner Knizia has crafted countless games throughout five decades. The publisher Bitewing Games has released several of his recent titles and has just revealed plans to release three additional games in 2025. The most compelling of these is Iliad, a two-player, 30-minute tile placement game set against the grand backdrop of Homer’s epic tale regarding the Trojan conflict.

This game resembles Knizia’s classical creations, featuring a streamlined rule set that encourages deep strategic depth. The objective is to arrange your soldier tiles in designated rows or columns to assemble the most power and collect tokens that symbolize the favor of the gods. It guarantees a nail-biting experience filled with tough compromises and careful hand management. The extent of the decision-making complexity is still unknown, but I am excited to dive into the challenge first-hand.

Designers: Leo Cunha, Nicole Lobo, and Daniel Pettersen de Lucena

Malediction poses an intriguing query: What if the beings you conjured in Magic: The Gathering truly manifested on a battleground and could be controlled? This forthcoming card game merges aspects of miniature skirmish gaming with two-player card battles. Both gaming styles are intricately combined within a somber and striking environment rich in detail.

The idea is ambitious. Each unique faction is sold individually and includes everything required to play, featuring a complete set of character standees for your monsters and fighters. Nevertheless, those equipped with the right resources and motivation may 3D print intricate miniatures for their warband, as each set comes with access to official STL files for the faction. Malediction is anticipated to launch on Gamefound shortly with a relatively swift release timeline, as the game is expected to be entirely accessible in the latter portion of 2025.

Creators: Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle

Molly House is a distinctive game that explores a specific segment of history. Participants assume the personas of gender-bending mollies from 18th-century England, partaking in social gatherings while evading moralistic constables. These experiences are illustrated through a hand of vice cards that symbolize interactions and longings disapproved by the Society for the Reformation of Manners. Players collaborate to host celebrations, yet they must tread carefully. An informant might have penetrated the circle, jeopardizing the whole community.

A significant part of this game’s allure from debut designer Jo Kelly is its status as a finalist for the 2021 Zenobia Award. Additionally, it boasts the involvement of Drew and Cole Wehrle in its production. Cole, well-known for designing successful titles such as Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right and Arcs: Conflict & Collapse in the Reach, along with the Wehrle siblings’ contribution to second editions of Pax Pamir and John Company, both modern classics that rank among the finest in historical board gaming. Molly House is poised to be the next major success for this publisher.

Designer: Bernard Grzybowski

This is one we won’t have to bide long for, as Purple Haze is already being delivered to crowdfunding backers and is expected to arrive in retail shortly thereafter. At first glance, this is a squad-oriented wargame where participants command a United States Marine unit undertaking missions in the daunting Vietnam jungle. However, it also aims to endorse a rich emergent narrative alongside scripted story segments. There exists a vibe here reminiscent of the classic Avalon Hill 1983 title Ambush!, wherein text paragraphs are referenced at pivotal moments during the mission. This element infuses vitality into the atmosphere and aspires to create something more significant by connecting a broader cohesive tale.

This game seems avant-garde for the wargame category, yet it reflects present narrative gaming inclinations from the broader hobby community. The opportunities are vast for a potential crossover success, and admirers of films like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket will discover a tone and attitude that resonates profoundly.

Revenant captivates with its imagery and narrative. An ancient celestial menace has reemerged, and participants are charged with executing humanity’s final hope. They are required to maintain and guard the Revenant, a modified imperial vessel safeguarding the knowledge of their culture. Loyalties may change unexpectedly, and the remnants of society remain delicate.

This serves as a direct continuation to Voidfall, an expansive 4X board game first launched in 2023. It carries forth the tale from that earlier installment, permitting a group to enact the final moments of a doomed populace.

In terms of mechanics, this is an intricate game centered on competitive worker placement where the assorted ships within the fleet are used to combat the voidborn and gather materials. It seems to be an engaging and complex strategic endeavor, undoubtedly deserving of attention.

Creator: Jarrod Carmichael

Shadow Moon Syndicates is an exquisite card game. Participants assume the positions of different criminal syndicate leaders, all competing for dominance over the mining settlement Shadow Moon. In each round, cards are utilized to shape regions of the colony, execute high-stakes operations, and gather teams of experts. Successfully managing your card hand is pivotal to the overall game strategy.

With such a vibrant and stylized backdrop, this game appears dynamic and evocative on the tabletop. It showcases an engaging concept and pits players against one another while engaging in dubious actions and covert operations.

Shadow Moon Syndicates radiates coolness, and it’s yet another game where I am keenly interested to see how it performs.

Designer: Jamey Stegmaier

Vantage stands as the most enigmatic title on this roster, as details remain limited. What is certain is that the publisher of Wingspan is releasing an open-world cooperative exploration game in 2025, anticipated to be truly one-of-a-kind.

As many as six individuals are dispersed throughout the realm and must investigate their surroundings. There are approximately 800 interconnected sites across 400 cards, alongside over 900 additional revealable cards awaiting discovery. These figures can be overwhelming, yet it’s hard to visualize what this translates to in practice. Vantage is based on liberation, granting each participant the complete power to engage and explore their individual environment from a first-person viewpoint. The more insights gained about this game, the more extraordinary it appears. Undoubtedly, it’s going to be one of the most discussed launches of 2025.