A majority of Americans say they enjoy playing board games according to a recent YouGov poll, including 21% who love playing board games and 44% who like it. Only 6% say they dislike or hate board games, while 29% say they're neutral.

Young adults are more likely to say they love playing board games. 28% of adults under 30 love board games, as do 23% of 30- to 44-year-olds, 20% of 45- to 64-year-olds, and 12% of those 65 and older.

Most Americans say they at least occasionally play board games, but few play them often. 22% never play board games, while 48% say they do so rarely. 28% say they play at least once a month: 18% monthly, 9% weekly, and 2% every day.

Americans are less likely to play board games at least once a month than they are to play mobile games (56% play at least monthly) and about as likely as they are to play computer games (32%) or video games on consoles (29%) — though larger shares say they never play computer games (45%) or console games (50%) than never play board games (22%). Board games are played at least monthly by more Americans than play standard card games (25%), tabletop roleplaying games (12%), or collectible card games (11%) that often.

Among people who say they love board games, 64% play at least once a month, including 9% who play daily and another 24% who play weekly. In contrast, 30% of Americans who merely like board games play at least monthly, as do 5% of those who are neutral about board games.

13% of Americans say winning is very important to them when they play board games. This is especially common among adults under 30 (19%), college graduates (18%), and Republicans (19%). Another 31% of Americans say winning at board games is somewhat important to them, while 24% say it's not very important and 8% say it's not at all important.

We also asked Americans how much they had played 33 different board games (loosely defined), from public domain classics such as chess to venerable branded games such as Scrabble to modern board games such as Ticket to Ride.

Of those, Monopoly topped the list: 53% say they have played it many times and only 5% say they have never played it. Other games that many Americans have played include checkers (46% have played it many times), Scrabble (37%), Connect Four (30%), and Yahtzee (30%).

Other games are less widely popular, while still familiar to much of the population. 13% of Americans say they've played mahjong many times while 50% have never played it; 10% have played Risk often and 46% have never played it.

Even some of the most popular modern board games haven't been played by large majorities of Americans. 76% have never played Catan, 76% have never played Ticket to Ride, and 84% have never played Carcassonne.

Some of this reflects age differences. Americans 45 and older are more likely than younger adults to have played several older board games, including Monopoly (98% of Americans 45 and older have played it, compared to 86% of younger adults), Yahtzee (81% vs. 59%), Trivial Pursuit (76% vs. 42%), and Parcheesi (46% vs. 31%).

Younger adults are more likely to have played a few newer board games, including Cranium (17% of those 45 and older have played it, compared to 35% of younger adults), Bananagrams (9% vs. 31%), Catan (9% vs. 32%), and Wingspan (3% vs. 22%).

See the results of this survey

Methodology: The May 6 - 10, 2026 poll was conducted among 1,131 U.S. adult citizens. Respondents were selected from YouGov’s opt-in panel to be representative of U.S. adult citizens. A random sample (stratified by gender, age, race, education, geographic region, and voter registration) was selected from the 2019 American Community Survey. The sample was weighted according to gender, age, race, education, U.S. region, 2024 presidential vote, 2020 election turnout and presidential vote, baseline party identification, and current voter registration status. 2024 presidential vote, at time of weighting, was estimated to be 48% Harris and 50% Trump. Demographic weighting targets come from the 2019 American Community Survey. Baseline party identification is the respondent’s most recent answer given around November 8, 2024, and is weighted to the estimated distribution at that time (31% Democratic, 33% Republican). The margin of error for the overall sample is approximately 4%.

Image: Getty (Tim Noack)

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