7 Great Board Games For Seniors
7 unique board game ideas for seniors.
A thick layer of dust, missing pieces and pictures of people retro outfits (that are now back in fashion!) - these are all signs that your grandparents or senior friends need some new board games.
It’s time to refresh game night and move on from Chess, Sorry and Monopoly. Board games are a great way to stay mentally fit, bring people together and have a lot of fun. Here are 7 of our favourite board games for seniors.
Big Letter Bananagrams - For seniors who love wordplay
Big Letter Bananagrams is a fast-paced word race all about building word grids faster than your opponents. You start with a pile of letter tiles and you have to make them into connecting words like you’d see in a crossword. The tricky part is, as soon as someone finishes their word grid everyone has to fit a new letter into their grid!
Big Letter Bananagrams is perfect for seniors who have difficulty seeing or don’t like the fiddly little tiles in our regular Bananagrams. The best part is - even if the seniors you know don’t struggle with their sight, some of their friends might do so this is a great accessible game for everyone.
Ticket To Ride - For seniors who love the great outdoors
Ticket to Ride is a fantastic board game for seniors. It’s all about the great American railways and connecting cities faster than your opponents. Each player starts with train car cards and destination cards, and players must secretly connect their cities. Longer routes get extra bonus points.
Ticket To Ride is an excellent game for staying mentally agile and it can get quite competitive. It’s a great way to pass the afternoon with some friends.
Scattergories - For seniors who like quick games
If the seniors you know don’t like to sit down and play long games, then Scattergories might be a good option. It works by a letter being draw at random and there being several different categories - for example, animals, countries and cities. Each player must name one thing that starts with that letter and fits into the category before their opponents.
It sounds simple, but in the moment it’s usually quite tricky to fill up the categories (especially if you get a letter like ‘q’!) It doesn’t need a board and you can play quick rounds wherever you are, so it’s a great board game for seniors who are always off travelling the world.
Hive - For seniors who love chess
Hive is a bug-themed board game that’s easy to learn and very difficult to master. The gameplay is very simple - you place connecting tiles while trying to completely surround your opponent’s queen. However there are layers upon layers of strategy if you want to play it that way - meaning it never gets boring.
It’s the perfect board game for seniors who love deep, strategic board games like Chess or Go.
Cranium - For seniors who like some silliness
If you know seniors that are natural-born performers then Cranium is a great game to get. Each round players must act out, hum, draw, spell or answer trivia in order to move around the board. The acting parts are hilarious, especially if you’re playing with jokers.
One of the best parts of this game is, if they’re playing with people who aren’t so comfortable performing, the more sensible rounds (like spelling and trivia) means that everyone feels comfortable playing. Great for having a bit of fun together.
Catan - For seniors who love wholesome fun
Catan is a classic German board game. It’s lightly strategic, it’s got a wholesome theme (building settlements) and it’s superbly well balanced. Players have to collect resources like wood and grain to build connecting towns. They can trade with other players to further their expansion, and the winner is the first person to 10 points.
An excellent, slow-paced board game for seniors who like a calmer game.
Dixit - For seniors who love the arts
Dixit is an enigma - it’s a board game all about storytelling. It works by having a story teller and a set of dreamlike, illustrated cards. The story teller must describe a card from the ones laid out on the table, and other players have to guess which one they’re referring to. The tricky part is that the story teller gets no points if everyone or no one guess correctly, so they have to be sneaky in their suggestions.
Dixit is the perfect game for seniors who love literature, poetry and the arts.