Digital Board Games – Desktop & Mobile

Digital Board Games were never more important than in 2020/21.

Here is everything you need to know, plus where to play them.

But what do we mean when we talk about digital board games? It should be straight forward but there are several ways it can go:

• Board games you can play free online aka browser-based games
• Board game apps aka video game representations of real board games
• Video games that use board game mechanisms (But don’t exist in real life as a board game)
• Mobile Apps, those that are on iOS and Android devices for example.

Not everything fits into one of the 4 categories here but I’ll do my best to get everything covered.

Top 10 Digital Board Games (That Aren’t REAL Board Games)

These are my top 10 video games that use board game components as their main mechanism but are not real board games.

Are there board games on Steam?

Yes! There are loads. You can search the Steam search page to see a range of board games. However, if you’re looking for digital ports of physical board games there is a lot to get through.

This category also includes video games that use board game mechanisms, variations of Chess and Draughts (Checkers), games like Jackbox etc and classics like Uno and Game of Life. Not that they’re bad! But I assume most people reading this are not looking for games you can buy in the supermarket.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on Humble. They often do deals on board games and you can get quite a few for around £10… Good ones too. They’re given to you via codes you redeem on Steam.

Where can I play Board Games Online Free?

There are plenty of places to play board games for free online. Usually, they let you play from a large choice of games in your browser.

Now, while they are free, some do charge for a premium service. This is usually just access to additional stats and options but sometimes it restricts the games you can play. Mostly, however, if this is the case only one player in the group will need to buy the premium service.

Also, I’m just looking at sites that allow you to play various games, not sites that focus on one individual game.

Note: I’m not sure what the law is around using board game assets and imagery for these sites, but they do. I hope they have the right to do so, but I have no idea if they do.

Online Board Game Sites

Board Game Arena – They’re adding new games all the time and even have some games that have been released VERY recently. You make your choices and the game will move pieces, calculate resource costs, points etc so you don’t need to fiddle around too much. It works well for both real-time and turn-based games.

Boîte à Jeux – So firstly it looks old, the site isn’t secure, and the games are dated by more up-to-date gaming site standards. But it works. Also, it’s not translated to English but it’s a French site so I wouldn’t expect it to be. Works best when used for turn-based gaming.

Tabletopia – Firstly, it’s important to note not ALL games are free but they do look really nice on the table. This is a true representation of a board game in digital form as you have to pick up and move the pieces around as if they were on the table. You do all the work just like in real life. They are adding games regularly including brand new releases.

Yucata – The games here are a little older but there is still access to some top-level board games. You make the move and the game works it all out for you. The interface looks a little old compared to other sites but it works well. Although, it doesn’t prompt you for your turn in a real-time game if you don’t have the window selected. You can also play turn-based games.

Here is a list of others I haven’t tried… yet. If you know of any more please leave a comment!

• BoardGamePlay – Looks new? Not many games or players yet.
• Brettspielwelt – Mostly in German apparently, the name is a clue
• Happy Meeple – Looks nice with a good selection of games, especially for 2 players
• Mattle – Blatant rip-offs of 7 Wonders, Azul, Century: Spice Road and Splendor here
• PlayingCards.io – Classic 52 card deck games plus clones of Joking Hazard and Trial by Trolley
• Roll20 – RPG orientated which isn’t my thing but it might be yours so it would be rude to leave it out
• Triggy – Outdated looking site with a mix of old classic and older modern games
• YourTurnMyTurn – Outdated looking site with a mix of old classic and older modern games

A special mention to Table Top Simulator (TTS) which is really popular, but sadly not free.

What board games can you play on your phone?

Does it feel like you can play all of them? Quite often recently, a game on its release or just as it comes out will announce a digital version for iOS and Android. There are literally 1000’s of board games from the most classic to the most modern available. Some free, some a few pennies and others the cost of a full-price game app.

I’m just going by market share, there are 2 main players in the UK so I’ll just look at them.

Android – Google Play Board Games – I’m unfamiliar with Google Play so navigating it was a bit weird for me. I found a board game listing page. There are a lot of sub-categories but they all seemed to contain repeated listings of a painting by numbers “game”. As relaxing as that sounds, it’s not what we’re looking for.

I suggest searching Google for a compiled list of the best and most recent games, there is a tonne of them available.

iOS – App Store Board Game Page – I mean… There are more than 10 pages, 132 games per page, just for those beginning with “T”… Now, that does include games like Tic Tac Toe and for some reason Table Tennis so there is a lot of digging to do. You can search for lists of the best games, there are plenty out there.

Be warned you quite often have to have the latest iOS update and possibly a newer model phone to play some games. Also, like all digital implementations, they can stop being supported, go out of date and stop working.

Jesta ThaRogue