The Ranking Engine has been developing rapidly this year. A little over a month ago we started collecting ranking stats with the goal being to present a list of top games. All month we agonized over exactly how to crunch the numbers but we are now finally ready to release the results.

Before we send you over to check out the list here are some interesting tidbits from that first month:

  • Niche Favorite: Lisboa – Highest ranked by a small group of people
  • Most Popular: Scythe – most often ranked game
  • Best Publisher: Stronghold Games (Terraforming Mars, Great Western Trail)
  • Crossover with BGG top 10: 4 games (Scythe, Terraforming Mars, Great Western Trail, Gloomhaven)
Speaking of BGG, I wanted to briefly address the biggest difference between Board Game Geek and Ranking Engine rankings: Relationship.

The BGG top games list comes from people rating games individually with a number between 1 and 10. (I won’t claim to know exactly how the final rankings come about.) This means that each game is considered independently of other games and then put into a relational list of top games.

The BGRE rankings come from people comparing their games directly against each other. This means that the top games list is derived from lists that are inherently relational.

This difference doesn’t make one better than the other. They are simply different and I see that as a good thing. I want to make clear here that I don’t think the BGRE can or should replace BGG’s top games list. Instead, I see the BGRE list as being another reference point to see how the community ranks their games.

With that out of the way, here is the current top 10 as of 5/15/2018:

Check out the Current Rankings Here!