I played over a thousand games on Board Game Arena this year. This has to be the best site for board games online. The entire thing is browser based and while not every implementation is perfect, most of them work on PC, tablet and phone for playing in your browser of choice. This means I can play at home, while waiting in an office, during my lunch break, and even on the road.

I know you’re like “HOW SAM?!?!?” but the key is, most of these were asynchronous games, with some having turns taken about once a day. There were some live games, like when we drove to Wisconsin and I had the wi-fi hotspot checked out from the library, allowing me to play a LOT of games of ‘Lucky Numbers’ on my iPad as I was driven across the country and back again. On average, I have anywhere from 25-50 games going, depending on if I signed up for “tournament” mode or not. I play with random people who are just looking for an opponent and I also have a few different discord groups that set up games all the time.

I’m pretty proud of the variety of games I have in my top 15 (pictured above). It’s a solid mix of quick games that can be played in 20 minute or less and some more intense puzzles and worker placement. I have honed my skills on so many games because of this site and also tried out a LOT of new games. I have a few on my wishlist now, hoping to get physical copies to play with my friends in person.

Today is literally my one year anniversary of signing up and I think this service is a steal at $30/year. BUT you can also play a selection of games for free and if you have a friend with Premium *coughcough* then they can invite you to ANY game!

Do you want to try out BGA? If you click on this link, I get some extra points if you sign up and play a game PLUS we can play games together!