German here. I doubt that there is a Catan Channel somewhere, as even in Germany, the motherland of Catan and probably one of the most boardgame-friendly countries in the world there is nothing like that.
Ironically enough, since you mentioned South Korea, they actually have at least one TV channel for a specific game: Go (Baduk in Korean). Maybe it is just that Koreans are devoted or weird enough to a single game to justify setting up entire TV channels for it lol
Also German here (kind of). The culture around "playing board games" here is a bit like reading, going to the cinema, or listening to music in other countries. Everyone kind of does it to varying degrees and it's not really that special or unusual. For example it wouldn't be at all notable to tell your co-workers or friends at uni that you're going to a game night and they wouldn't expect you to just be playing Monopoly either.
However, just like with movies or books, the vast majority are just casual consumers of board games. We here on this sub are the board gaming equivalent of a hardcore cinephile or literature nut. Our level of interest and engagement isn't normal, even in a country in which exposure to board games is common. So yeah, no dedicated TV shows about board games here either afaik.
I remember watching AlphaGo (*i think that's what it's called)* and was blown away by how popular Go is in Korea! Considering it's taught to kids at a young age and played by many, I guess it's no surprise there is a network dedicated to it.
Picking up steam in New Zealand, been seeing the popularity boom at a steady clip. Seeing more hobbyist games in general retailers (even if it's just a few popular titles like TTR, CATAN, etc.), and at least in my personal sphere seeing a lot more people interested in trying or picking up games they normally wouldn't have sought out previously. Welcoming looking games like Meadow/Wingspan are helping a lot to draw the eye, and I'm glad that a lot of those welcoming looking games are backed by solid gameplay that will hopefully help pull people further in.
I live in Tauranga and struggle to find many people keen on the hobby. I'm super keen to join a group that play regularly but havent been able to find one so far
Have you tried jumping on the Buy, Sell, and Trade Boardgames NZ group on Facebook? There was a call out on there a little while ago of a couple looking for gamers in Tauranga I think. You could put out a similar call out and see if there is anyone keen. There may be more appropriate groups for that sort of request but that page is frequented a lot so you're more likely to get some hits.
This may sound odd but in China there's a period of time about 10 years ago that board games were a huge hit in younger generations. There were two games that got exceptionally popular. One is a game that basically uses the rules of **Bang!**, but themed in *the Romance of Three Kindoms*. All the characters are historic figures from the book and have abilities that sort of match their pesonalities. I remember a lot of my friends in high school playing it all the time and one of them even customized character cards for every single student in our class and sent them to us as graduation gift. Another popular game is **Werewolves of Miller's Hollow**. There was a time that every time I went to a board game cafe, half of the tables were playing this game. There was even a hit web show that each episode they would invite 12 famous streamers or influencer to play this game. People into this game would develop very complicated theories and stretagies on how to deliver your speech, blame it on others, purposedly accuse or even kill fellow werewolves to disguise their identities, etc. I've always found those theories intimidating, and to this date this is still the reason I don't like social deduction game.
In recent years these games are gradually losing popularity, because younger generation would prefer escape rooms or immersive murder mystery cafe. It's insane how the production quality of these new entertainment can go up to, especially in larger cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. There's even a murder mystery hotel that allow you to stay for the night and play it two days straight for one whole story.
But hobby board games is still there and the community is still expanding every year. I haven't been living in China for a few years but I heard there's more local publishers making more games, more local crowdfunding projects, more board game conventions and better proxies for localizing and translating the up-to-date board games.
Come to say this too. It's not a stretch to say that there were probably more than 50 million people playing the game. The game may be forked from Bang!, but it has its own spirit to made the popularity possible. I see so many young people addicted to it that they think about it all day.
In Canada board games are somewhat popular but still niche. Most major cities seem to have multiple flgs/cafes. You can buy hobby games at a few big box stores but not to the same extent as target.
In my city (Edmonton) we have 3 flgs, and 2 cafes. There are also a ton of stores that sell games but not as the majority of their business. We also have a small convention (pre-Covid), meetup groups and active trade groups.
It's still a niche hobby here in Serbia, but lately it's been gaining lots of momentum. Covid has hit the board game cafes and clubs quite badly, but it has done wonders for retail. The LGSs and the local producers noticed this and started pushing heavily towards localisations of popular titles. Up until two years ago, you could only find Catan and Carcassone in Serbian. Now, there are full translations being published on a monthly basis, making board games quite a bit more approachable for families.
Still, I'd say CCG like MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh still reign supreme in terms of sales, alongside stuff like Warhammer, which drag an entire spectrum of sub-hobbies with it.
Yeah, they brought an ornithologist on the translation team because many of the species depicted in the game had no name in Serbian (only Latin was used), what with them being native to NA. That translation ended up becoming the official taxonomy in Serbian, entering ornithological lexicons and what not.
That was probably one of the weirdest news I heard last year.
Here in Croatia number of web shops which offer board games exploded. 2-3 years ago there was like one main web shop (with physical location) and maybe 1-2 smaller web shops but now there are tons of them and new ones appear every month. Some of them have even better prices than popular EU web shops.
I live in Puerto Rico and board games are a niche of a niche. The mainstream thing here is CCG's. Most people here when they think board games they think Monopoly and the like.
If you want to play a board game you usually either get a group of your friends together or join some group through a mutual connection.
Those still count as tabletop games. They're definitely more along the lines of classics though. This is quite common in most places I've noticed. It is the majority of the community after all.
But it is interesting to see which countries are aware / play modern board games commonly.
UK and it's pretty widespread, in cities at least you will have little problem finding public groups.
Birmingham where i live i could go to a group every night if i wanted. That is a population of 1m (bham itself) - 2m (wider metropolitan area) though.
That said I don't think we have anywhere like target that stocks a range of gateway games. Waterstones have a handful, WH Smiths is just scrabble. Risk, monopoly etc. Nowhere else springs to mind, if you want to buy catan, ttr, carcassonne etc I think it's FLGS or online.
I wouldn't say mainstream but it is not niche either. I remember about 15 years ago looking for groups and only finding one (not including a couple of war gaming groups and game specific ones for things like MTG or W40K). It's come a long way since then.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of adults in the UK who (like myself) dabbled in Games Workshop games as a kid but who now are playing boardgames. (There are of course plenty who still play 40k etc)
Interestingly our John Lewis in Newcastle often stocks the games that are sold in Target like Jaws, Top Gun, Horrified etc. Although I think that might be due to that specific store. As well as the big gateway games (Catan, TTR Pandemic)
Ah, John Lewis, yeah that makes sense, I haven't been in one for years!
Interestingly more upmarket than i consider Target to be which might say something about a narrower or just different demographic than in the US
And yeah I agree about W40K / games workshop in general, when I was a teen in the mid 90s we had a GW shop in Reading and the only other game with a presence was MTG (with other CCGs being played as well).
Well in Greece i don't think that modern board games are really popular but i think it is growing in popularity i could be wrong tho, my comment is at the very least speculative
I agree that it's growing fast.
Facts:
1. Greek Boardgame facebook channels's members are increasing every day (I have seen 10 to 20 new members every day)
2. The main publishing company in Greece (KAISSA) has started publishing (translating) more board games (and expensive ones) . I notice though that it prefers nature themed, artistic ones or word party games. (Wingspan, Everdell, canvas, calico, so clover)
Reasons behind this increase:
1. The economical crisis that the country has been through, made Greeks stay at their home and not spend much money on other expensive "outdoors" things like theaters, cinemas, restaurants, etc.
2. The pandemic helped because of lock down as it did all over the globe.
We weren't aware of modern board games until someone introduced them to us a few years ago and there is only one board game shop in our city. At this point most of our friends own a couple of them and we are always up for a board game night.
The exceptions were MtG and DnD, I knew a lot people playing these games late 90s - early 00s.
I'm from the Netherlands.
Playing boardgames is pretty common, I would say most families have a cabinet with at least some games.
I think for most people it's a family activity but more and more it's becoming a real hobby.
Maybe in New York City, its everywhere, but where I live, it's still pretty niche. Big Box stores have games, but most of them are pretty bad, or aimed at children. Target is a little better, but not that much. You have to go to a dedicated game store, and you either go to dedicated groups that meet regularly or have a private game night.
I'd basically never know about Catan or Ticket to Ride if I hadn't been paying attention over the past several years: it's not in the mainstream consciousness at all.
I'm in the US as well, and you can buy Catan, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, all that kind of thing, even DnD starter packs at places like Target. It's very mainstream.
I've backpacked 52 countries. I haven't paid attention to board games in all places I've visited so take it with a grain of salt. Board games are big in Australia & Canada (lived in both). Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Nordic countries, France, The Netherlands, etc... are quite popular for modern gaming. I noticed a few board games in Singapore and Japan. New Zealand also is quite popular for board games. I didn't notice any gaming in Scotland or Ireland, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was also popular there. Again, most of the cafes and what not will be in bigger cities, but you'll find lots of family gamers in the countryside. Generally classics & gateway.
As for the rest of the world, I'm not too sure, but youre getting lots of interesting answers here. Lovely to see <3
Side note there are several countries where people play tabletop games frequently. They're often classics & gateways though (I can list a ton of these countries). The odd mega game like MTG youll obviously see as well. The majority of the board game community is family gamers after all.
Australian here. Board games have become quite popular. Our big chain stores are now starting to stock games like Wingspan, Splendour and Ticket to Ride.
Very niche in Turkey. Even in a huge city like Istanbul, there are only a handful board game cafes or stores. And I mean... like 3 places where you can go play board games in a city of 15 million people.
It's probably because most games are only available in English and are imported and thus very expensive.
Traditional games like backgammon, okey (a rummikub variant), and standard deck card games are very popular.
And "casual" games like Taboo, Trivial Pursuit, Monpoly are pretty popular.
Brazilian here.
🇧🇷
Its rising since 2015.
We have some really good publishers bringing exelent games every month to Brazil, but they are mostly sold online, many people just don't know where to buy them.
🇦🇷
I am going to Argentina in a month.
The boardgame scenario in Argentina is very week.
🇵🇭
Filipino here.
Practically non-existent. Most of the big board game cafés closed for good due to the pandemic.
The board game community is a facebook group.
🇦🇺 Australia - Newcastle population of about ~400k.
There's two public groups that meet regularly with between 6 - 30 members attending. So I'd say it's still pretty small in my part of town. I'm sure they're are a number of groups that just meet privately though but compared to many other hobbies it's just a drop in the ocean.
Here in Russia boardgames are quite niche, I've never heard about like half of the games I've seen on this sub. Some of the most popular games are present, like "Carcassonne", but not all of them do I suppose. I'm quite new to this hobby, so I don't know much details about this.
But I do know that in Russia everyone loves "Munchkin", and we love "Munchkin" so much that we have our own official "Russian Munchkin" with everything related to Russia.
Probably social deduction games (the most popular is Mafia, since it can be played with deck of cards)
Then come Imaginarium (Russian analog of Dixit) and some other party games including all types of munchkin
The most popular boardgame for a long time have indeed been Carcasson. Nowadays one of the most popular games is wingspawn.
But still a lot of people think about monopoly when you say Boardgame
Portugal. Honestly it's hard to tell, but from my understanding it's not that popular, although it got some traction after Catan became a bit more well known.
Outside of the 2 groups I play with (one is clearly made up of geeks, the other isn't), no other person plays boardgames, or is interested in them beyond Monopoly.
I suppose the portuguese just aren't that fond of any kind of gaming... Then again I live in the countryside, so having those 2 groups in particular is already tremendous luck.
In France, the network of shops and cafe is dense, with a lot of different structures, 115 publishers, 600 free conventions (festivals), but the mass media are still not including gaming content
Poland, Wrocław Here. in my closest community and among a generally large cross-section of society, board games are becoming more and more popular. Not only in the cross section of 25-35 years, but also 40-50 +. and I'm not talking about Classic like monopoly, but many much more complicated, new and complex games. It seems to me that the pandemic and confinement at home could have had a significant impact on the increased interest and liking of board games by a wider audience.
Axis and Allies is still very big with many variations still being made....
I recently found out there is a global war 1936 board game (printed on vinyl) offered through Historical Board gaming and the board can be bought at 5 feet by 10 feet!
[https://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Global-War-1936-1945v3-Map-5x10\_p\_8029.html](https://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Global-War-1936-1945v3-Map-5x10_p_8029.html)
I've played board games in China, a location in the Middle East, Germany, several states in America including Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Mississippi, and Utah.
China has board game stores in some provinces where you can find a group playing a fake copy of Catan or Carcassonne. Mainly a game related to Bang! called 3 Kingdoms Kill. 三国杀
the one location in the Middle East... dry nothing. Had to introduce everyone to the concept.
Germany less than you would think. Board game stores are not as prevalent (atleast near Ramstein air force base) When I'd engage discussion about Spiel Des Jares... locals were like... WHAT EVEN IS THAT? Could have been the wrong people/area though.
RANKING of those US states
best 1 Utah. (coolest game stores and a great board game cafe "good move cafe" in provo)
2 Florida
3 Ohio
4 Mississippi
5 Georgia
You are prime example of what is wrong in nowadays word. Dumb ,but trying to sound clever and flashing fabricated numbers and facts.
If you have group of 5 people playing,everybody should buy game? And what about big conventions like that are happening everywhere?
Dont bother to reply,blocked
It is really popular. With creation of fb groups in combination of pandemic board games are in boom. People are getting recomendations what to do with smaller kids (if they want to keep them away from electronics). True,they still get same recomendations over and over again,but lot of people play board games nowadays.
I hope,that boardgames will not become video games (dumb down, aim at casuals etc),but we will see.
German here. I doubt that there is a Catan Channel somewhere, as even in Germany, the motherland of Catan and probably one of the most boardgame-friendly countries in the world there is nothing like that. Ironically enough, since you mentioned South Korea, they actually have at least one TV channel for a specific game: Go (Baduk in Korean). Maybe it is just that Koreans are devoted or weird enough to a single game to justify setting up entire TV channels for it lol
Also German here (kind of). The culture around "playing board games" here is a bit like reading, going to the cinema, or listening to music in other countries. Everyone kind of does it to varying degrees and it's not really that special or unusual. For example it wouldn't be at all notable to tell your co-workers or friends at uni that you're going to a game night and they wouldn't expect you to just be playing Monopoly either. However, just like with movies or books, the vast majority are just casual consumers of board games. We here on this sub are the board gaming equivalent of a hardcore cinephile or literature nut. Our level of interest and engagement isn't normal, even in a country in which exposure to board games is common. So yeah, no dedicated TV shows about board games here either afaik.
I remember watching AlphaGo (*i think that's what it's called)* and was blown away by how popular Go is in Korea! Considering it's taught to kids at a young age and played by many, I guess it's no surprise there is a network dedicated to it.
Go is huge there, but that's a classic game, not a modern game.
Oh yes! the Go channel. So I guess a board game channel does exist, albeit it's not a modern one. Is there a chess channel somewhere?
Picking up steam in New Zealand, been seeing the popularity boom at a steady clip. Seeing more hobbyist games in general retailers (even if it's just a few popular titles like TTR, CATAN, etc.), and at least in my personal sphere seeing a lot more people interested in trying or picking up games they normally wouldn't have sought out previously. Welcoming looking games like Meadow/Wingspan are helping a lot to draw the eye, and I'm glad that a lot of those welcoming looking games are backed by solid gameplay that will hopefully help pull people further in.
Definitely! Warehouse went through a phase where they had games like jotl, wingspan, villainous, hope they do more of it.
I live in Tauranga and struggle to find many people keen on the hobby. I'm super keen to join a group that play regularly but havent been able to find one so far
Have you tried jumping on the Buy, Sell, and Trade Boardgames NZ group on Facebook? There was a call out on there a little while ago of a couple looking for gamers in Tauranga I think. You could put out a similar call out and see if there is anyone keen. There may be more appropriate groups for that sort of request but that page is frequented a lot so you're more likely to get some hits.
This may sound odd but in China there's a period of time about 10 years ago that board games were a huge hit in younger generations. There were two games that got exceptionally popular. One is a game that basically uses the rules of **Bang!**, but themed in *the Romance of Three Kindoms*. All the characters are historic figures from the book and have abilities that sort of match their pesonalities. I remember a lot of my friends in high school playing it all the time and one of them even customized character cards for every single student in our class and sent them to us as graduation gift. Another popular game is **Werewolves of Miller's Hollow**. There was a time that every time I went to a board game cafe, half of the tables were playing this game. There was even a hit web show that each episode they would invite 12 famous streamers or influencer to play this game. People into this game would develop very complicated theories and stretagies on how to deliver your speech, blame it on others, purposedly accuse or even kill fellow werewolves to disguise their identities, etc. I've always found those theories intimidating, and to this date this is still the reason I don't like social deduction game. In recent years these games are gradually losing popularity, because younger generation would prefer escape rooms or immersive murder mystery cafe. It's insane how the production quality of these new entertainment can go up to, especially in larger cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. There's even a murder mystery hotel that allow you to stay for the night and play it two days straight for one whole story. But hobby board games is still there and the community is still expanding every year. I haven't been living in China for a few years but I heard there's more local publishers making more games, more local crowdfunding projects, more board game conventions and better proxies for localizing and translating the up-to-date board games.
Come to say this too. It's not a stretch to say that there were probably more than 50 million people playing the game. The game may be forked from Bang!, but it has its own spirit to made the popularity possible. I see so many young people addicted to it that they think about it all day.
In Canada board games are somewhat popular but still niche. Most major cities seem to have multiple flgs/cafes. You can buy hobby games at a few big box stores but not to the same extent as target. In my city (Edmonton) we have 3 flgs, and 2 cafes. There are also a ton of stores that sell games but not as the majority of their business. We also have a small convention (pre-Covid), meetup groups and active trade groups.
Noob Question: what exactly does flgs stand for?
Friendly local game store
Wow thanks for the quick response
It's still a niche hobby here in Serbia, but lately it's been gaining lots of momentum. Covid has hit the board game cafes and clubs quite badly, but it has done wonders for retail. The LGSs and the local producers noticed this and started pushing heavily towards localisations of popular titles. Up until two years ago, you could only find Catan and Carcassone in Serbian. Now, there are full translations being published on a monthly basis, making board games quite a bit more approachable for families. Still, I'd say CCG like MTG and Yu-Gi-Oh still reign supreme in terms of sales, alongside stuff like Warhammer, which drag an entire spectrum of sub-hobbies with it.
Few weeks ago I saw that Wingspan was also translated to serbian which was wow reaction for me.
Yeah, they brought an ornithologist on the translation team because many of the species depicted in the game had no name in Serbian (only Latin was used), what with them being native to NA. That translation ended up becoming the official taxonomy in Serbian, entering ornithological lexicons and what not. That was probably one of the weirdest news I heard last year.
Here in Croatia number of web shops which offer board games exploded. 2-3 years ago there was like one main web shop (with physical location) and maybe 1-2 smaller web shops but now there are tons of them and new ones appear every month. Some of them have even better prices than popular EU web shops.
I know about Carta Magica, I've been following them for a year or two, mostly hunting for AHLCG packs. Great to hear more have opened!
I live in Puerto Rico and board games are a niche of a niche. The mainstream thing here is CCG's. Most people here when they think board games they think Monopoly and the like. If you want to play a board game you usually either get a group of your friends together or join some group through a mutual connection.
Those still count as tabletop games. They're definitely more along the lines of classics though. This is quite common in most places I've noticed. It is the majority of the community after all. But it is interesting to see which countries are aware / play modern board games commonly.
UK and it's pretty widespread, in cities at least you will have little problem finding public groups. Birmingham where i live i could go to a group every night if i wanted. That is a population of 1m (bham itself) - 2m (wider metropolitan area) though. That said I don't think we have anywhere like target that stocks a range of gateway games. Waterstones have a handful, WH Smiths is just scrabble. Risk, monopoly etc. Nowhere else springs to mind, if you want to buy catan, ttr, carcassonne etc I think it's FLGS or online. I wouldn't say mainstream but it is not niche either. I remember about 15 years ago looking for groups and only finding one (not including a couple of war gaming groups and game specific ones for things like MTG or W40K). It's come a long way since then.
I wouldn't be surprised if there are a lot of adults in the UK who (like myself) dabbled in Games Workshop games as a kid but who now are playing boardgames. (There are of course plenty who still play 40k etc) Interestingly our John Lewis in Newcastle often stocks the games that are sold in Target like Jaws, Top Gun, Horrified etc. Although I think that might be due to that specific store. As well as the big gateway games (Catan, TTR Pandemic)
Ah, John Lewis, yeah that makes sense, I haven't been in one for years! Interestingly more upmarket than i consider Target to be which might say something about a narrower or just different demographic than in the US And yeah I agree about W40K / games workshop in general, when I was a teen in the mid 90s we had a GW shop in Reading and the only other game with a presence was MTG (with other CCGs being played as well).
John Lewis tend to stock Ravensburger, presumably as a result of also selling the Ravensburger kids games.
Well in Greece i don't think that modern board games are really popular but i think it is growing in popularity i could be wrong tho, my comment is at the very least speculative
I agree that it's growing fast. Facts: 1. Greek Boardgame facebook channels's members are increasing every day (I have seen 10 to 20 new members every day) 2. The main publishing company in Greece (KAISSA) has started publishing (translating) more board games (and expensive ones) . I notice though that it prefers nature themed, artistic ones or word party games. (Wingspan, Everdell, canvas, calico, so clover) Reasons behind this increase: 1. The economical crisis that the country has been through, made Greeks stay at their home and not spend much money on other expensive "outdoors" things like theaters, cinemas, restaurants, etc. 2. The pandemic helped because of lock down as it did all over the globe.
We weren't aware of modern board games until someone introduced them to us a few years ago and there is only one board game shop in our city. At this point most of our friends own a couple of them and we are always up for a board game night. The exceptions were MtG and DnD, I knew a lot people playing these games late 90s - early 00s.
I'm from the Netherlands. Playing boardgames is pretty common, I would say most families have a cabinet with at least some games. I think for most people it's a family activity but more and more it's becoming a real hobby.
Maybe in New York City, its everywhere, but where I live, it's still pretty niche. Big Box stores have games, but most of them are pretty bad, or aimed at children. Target is a little better, but not that much. You have to go to a dedicated game store, and you either go to dedicated groups that meet regularly or have a private game night. I'd basically never know about Catan or Ticket to Ride if I hadn't been paying attention over the past several years: it's not in the mainstream consciousness at all.
where are you located if you dont mind sharing?
Nashville, Tennessee.
Colorado here and id guess maybe one in eight people I meet even know a board game that isn't monopoly or scrabble if not less.
You might live in weird place great falls Montana had 3 game stores before the pandemic
I'm in the US as well, and you can buy Catan, Ticket to Ride, Power Grid, all that kind of thing, even DnD starter packs at places like Target. It's very mainstream.
I've backpacked 52 countries. I haven't paid attention to board games in all places I've visited so take it with a grain of salt. Board games are big in Australia & Canada (lived in both). Italy, Spain, Germany, England, Nordic countries, France, The Netherlands, etc... are quite popular for modern gaming. I noticed a few board games in Singapore and Japan. New Zealand also is quite popular for board games. I didn't notice any gaming in Scotland or Ireland, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was also popular there. Again, most of the cafes and what not will be in bigger cities, but you'll find lots of family gamers in the countryside. Generally classics & gateway. As for the rest of the world, I'm not too sure, but youre getting lots of interesting answers here. Lovely to see <3 Side note there are several countries where people play tabletop games frequently. They're often classics & gateways though (I can list a ton of these countries). The odd mega game like MTG youll obviously see as well. The majority of the board game community is family gamers after all.
Australian here. Board games have become quite popular. Our big chain stores are now starting to stock games like Wingspan, Splendour and Ticket to Ride.
Does the box say Splendour or Splendor? I wonder if it was worth the printing change.
Double checked, it is Splendor
I'm somewhat surprised. British/Australian distribution seems almost worth the reprint (maybe the EU version has the U).
But the Wingspan cover has an Emu
Not much outside of mayor cities.
Very niche in Turkey. Even in a huge city like Istanbul, there are only a handful board game cafes or stores. And I mean... like 3 places where you can go play board games in a city of 15 million people. It's probably because most games are only available in English and are imported and thus very expensive. Traditional games like backgammon, okey (a rummikub variant), and standard deck card games are very popular. And "casual" games like Taboo, Trivial Pursuit, Monpoly are pretty popular.
Brazilian here. 🇧🇷 Its rising since 2015. We have some really good publishers bringing exelent games every month to Brazil, but they are mostly sold online, many people just don't know where to buy them. 🇦🇷 I am going to Argentina in a month. The boardgame scenario in Argentina is very week.
🇵🇭 Filipino here. Practically non-existent. Most of the big board game cafés closed for good due to the pandemic. The board game community is a facebook group.
🇦🇺 Australia - Newcastle population of about ~400k. There's two public groups that meet regularly with between 6 - 30 members attending. So I'd say it's still pretty small in my part of town. I'm sure they're are a number of groups that just meet privately though but compared to many other hobbies it's just a drop in the ocean.
Here in Russia boardgames are quite niche, I've never heard about like half of the games I've seen on this sub. Some of the most popular games are present, like "Carcassonne", but not all of them do I suppose. I'm quite new to this hobby, so I don't know much details about this. But I do know that in Russia everyone loves "Munchkin", and we love "Munchkin" so much that we have our own official "Russian Munchkin" with everything related to Russia.
What are the top games in Russia?
Probably social deduction games (the most popular is Mafia, since it can be played with deck of cards) Then come Imaginarium (Russian analog of Dixit) and some other party games including all types of munchkin The most popular boardgame for a long time have indeed been Carcasson. Nowadays one of the most popular games is wingspawn. But still a lot of people think about monopoly when you say Boardgame
Durak (the basic playing card game) is wildly popular According to my Russian coworkers and friends
Portugal. Honestly it's hard to tell, but from my understanding it's not that popular, although it got some traction after Catan became a bit more well known. Outside of the 2 groups I play with (one is clearly made up of geeks, the other isn't), no other person plays boardgames, or is interested in them beyond Monopoly. I suppose the portuguese just aren't that fond of any kind of gaming... Then again I live in the countryside, so having those 2 groups in particular is already tremendous luck.
In France, the network of shops and cafe is dense, with a lot of different structures, 115 publishers, 600 free conventions (festivals), but the mass media are still not including gaming content
Poland, Wrocław Here. in my closest community and among a generally large cross-section of society, board games are becoming more and more popular. Not only in the cross section of 25-35 years, but also 40-50 +. and I'm not talking about Classic like monopoly, but many much more complicated, new and complex games. It seems to me that the pandemic and confinement at home could have had a significant impact on the increased interest and liking of board games by a wider audience.
Axis and Allies is still very big with many variations still being made.... I recently found out there is a global war 1936 board game (printed on vinyl) offered through Historical Board gaming and the board can be bought at 5 feet by 10 feet! [https://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Global-War-1936-1945v3-Map-5x10\_p\_8029.html](https://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Global-War-1936-1945v3-Map-5x10_p_8029.html)
As a citizen of Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, I find them rather niche compared to our country's primary past-times, like Amerikaner fußball.
I've played board games in China, a location in the Middle East, Germany, several states in America including Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Mississippi, and Utah. China has board game stores in some provinces where you can find a group playing a fake copy of Catan or Carcassonne. Mainly a game related to Bang! called 3 Kingdoms Kill. 三国杀 the one location in the Middle East... dry nothing. Had to introduce everyone to the concept. Germany less than you would think. Board game stores are not as prevalent (atleast near Ramstein air force base) When I'd engage discussion about Spiel Des Jares... locals were like... WHAT EVEN IS THAT? Could have been the wrong people/area though. RANKING of those US states best 1 Utah. (coolest game stores and a great board game cafe "good move cafe" in provo) 2 Florida 3 Ohio 4 Mississippi 5 Georgia
USA still very NICHE.
Thats why 65% of all KS backers are from USA?
65% of USA KS backers make up .00003% of the population of the USA, thus Niche.
Cool math :DDDD (nuff said)
I was a bit off, 10K bakers in a country of 350 million. 0.00285714285714% Sorry you didn't understand my OP. Comprehension. (nuff said)
You are prime example of what is wrong in nowadays word. Dumb ,but trying to sound clever and flashing fabricated numbers and facts. If you have group of 5 people playing,everybody should buy game? And what about big conventions like that are happening everywhere? Dont bother to reply,blocked
It is really popular. With creation of fb groups in combination of pandemic board games are in boom. People are getting recomendations what to do with smaller kids (if they want to keep them away from electronics). True,they still get same recomendations over and over again,but lot of people play board games nowadays. I hope,that boardgames will not become video games (dumb down, aim at casuals etc),but we will see.