Jev's favorite board games, ranked

If Jev ranked every board game it was asked about, what would its top ten be?

result2,773 questions

Out of 2,497 board games, Jev's favorite is Codenames (2015). It won 18.0 of its 23 games in a round-robin among its 24 top-rated games, ahead of Carcassonne (2000) and 7 Wonders (2010). Rated one at a time, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra had come first. Its least favorite: Eat Poop You Cat.

1. Codenames (2015)18

2. Carcassonne (2000)16.6

3. 7 Wonders (2010)15.9

4. Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (2018)15.2

5. Patchwork (2014)14.7

6. 7 Wonders Duel (2015)14.6

7. Gloomhaven (2017)14.3

8. Tapestry (2019)13.7

9. Welcome to Everdell (2022)12.9

10. Jaipur (2009)12.3

At the bottom: Eat Poop You Cat · Ultimate Warriorz (2011) · Zombiaki II: Attack on Moscow (2010) · The Initiative (2021) · Blue Lagoon (2018)

wins of 23

How to read this: The bars are the top ten games' wins out of 23 in the head-to-head final; the line underneath names the five games Jev rated lowest when asked about each one on its own.

2,497 items rated; 276 final games among the top 24. The finals keep the ratings' order only loosely (rank correlation -0.03 among the 24). 22 of 2024 triads are intransitive (1.1%). Base vs reversed-level ratings: rank correlation 0.93.

In short

Head to head, Jev reaches for famous, easy-to-teach games: Codenames, Carcassonne, 7 Wonders, Azul and Patchwork lead its final.
Its one-at-a-time ratings and its head-to-head picks don't agree on order at all among the 24 finalists (rank correlation -0.03).
The final is internally consistent (only 22 of 2,024 three-way comparisons go in a circle), even though it overturns the ratings.

What the data shows

Table Flip Guy meme: Jev's #1 board game: Codenames. BoardGameGeek users: — Jev's #1 board game: Codenames. BoardGameGeek users:

Codenames wins with 18.0 of 23, ahead of Carcassonne (16.6), 7 Wonders (15.9), Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra (15.2), Patchwork (14.7) and 7 Wonders Duel (14.6). Gloomhaven, Tapestry, Welcome to Everdell and Jaipur complete the top ten.
The ratings and the final don't agree on order at all among the 24 finalists (rank correlation -0.03, where 1 would be the same order and 0 no relation): the ratings' favorite, Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra, finishes fourth.
At the bottom: Eat Poop You Cat, Ultimate Warriorz, Zombiaki II: Attack on Moscow, The Initiative and Blue Lagoon.
The final's choices are consistent: 22 of 2,024 three-way comparisons go in a circle.

What it means, and what it doesn't

Head to head, Jev picks the gateway classics a board-game café would hand a new group: easy to teach, famous, fun with friends. That fits another experiment, where Jev's picks lean toward older, more-rated games than BoardGameGeek users choose ("What the hobbyists see that Jev doesn't").

It doesn't mean Codenames is Jev's considered favorite in any stable sense: rated one at a time, a different game won. And a game called Eat Poop You Cat was probably judged on its name.

Caveats

A game with nobody at the table. The question asks how much "you" would enjoy playing, with no group, no rules explanation and no table time. Famous, easy-to-picture games like Codenames and Carcassonne, which Jev has read the most about, likely gain from that.
The catalog. The games are those with at least 500 ratings on BoardGameGeek, the main hobby site, so the list is the hobby's catalog, heavy on designer games.
The finalists were picked by Jev's own ratings. Only the 24 games Jev rated highest reached the final, so a game it underrated one at a time never got a chance head to head.

Jev on this experiment

Would a person find it interesting to read?: Yes69%
Does it describe you?: No72%
Would you have predicted it?: No74%
How fair is the comparison?: The comparison is shaky
How much should a reader rely on it?: A little
Which caveat matters most?: The finalists were picked by Jev's own ratings86%

Why ask this

Board games are social, so a favorite says what kind of evening you want: a clever party game, a long strategy session, a two-player duel.

Models get asked for recommendations like "a game for six people who don't play much". Their own leanings color those answers. With thousands of games rated one at a time and a final among the best, it's possible to see what Jev reaches for, and whether its ratings and its head-to-head picks agree.

How this was done

The people and the data

No people here: Jev against its own opinions. The games come from BoardGameGeek, the hobby's main database and community: all 2,497 games with at least 500 ratings there, from party games and gateway classics to heavy strategy games and obscure titles. How Jev's taste compares with BoardGameGeek users is its own experiment.

What Jev was asked

Every game one at a time, with five answers describing what you'd do:

How much would you enjoy playing Medina (2001)?
You'd want to quit before the first game ended · You'd play one game and never ask for it again · You'd play it again if someone else suggested it · You'd suggest it yourself at the next game night · You'd want to own it and play it again and again

Each was also asked with the answers reversed, and the two averaged. The 24 top-rated games then played a round-robin final: 276 games of "Which board game would you rather play?", each asked with the names in both orders.

How it was measured

A game's rating is where Jev's answer lands on the five levels (0 to 4). In the final, each game gives each side Jev's probability of picking it, so a lopsided game counts as nearly a whole win and a close one as about half; the order comes from a standard head-to-head ranking model (Bradley-Terry).

Where these questions live

2,773 questions across 1 topic of the map. Each opens on the map with every question in it.

Ratings

Board Game Ratings2,773

Every question

All 2,773 questions behind this result, the telling ones first: the examples the analysis points to, then the ones where Jev misses, biggest gap first.

Jev’s own answer

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