15 Best Board Games Singapore To Play [2024]

Best Board Games Singapore

Since times of antiquity, board games have brought joy to people everywhere as they spent their leisure hours competing against each other.

Snakes and ladders, Chinese checkers, Blokus, battleship and KerPlunk are some of the best board games in Singapore for 2024.

When picking a board game to play in Singapore, you need to think about many things. For example, the number of people playing. Second, the age group. Finally, the difficulty level of the board game.

Board and card games draw players with a unique combination of strategic thinking, social engagement and competitive thrill. 

In this guide, you’ll find the best board games in Singapore has to offer, perfect for all types of groups, ensuring a fun gaming night and also relive your BMT experience. 

Best Board Games in Singapore

1. Snakes and Ladders

Everyone adores this classic game!

Said to have its origins in ancient India, it can be played by two or more. 

By rolling the dice, you determine the number of steps to take.

 Climb ladders, dodge snakes! Whoever lands on the top wins. And however old you are, Snakes and Ladders is a classic that’s still around. 

 Pssst – get the kids to make their own board for an easy activity for them, and an easy time-out for you!

2. Chinese checkers

Chinese checkers players select a colour and try to get all their pieces to the far side of the board.

Each move can be one step or a leap over another piece.

 It’s all about strategy; but brute force can also get you there. Make sure there’s fair play in your games to avoid cheating.

3. Blokus

Blokus is a surefire hit for families.

 This two- or four-player abstract strategy board game was a recipient of the Mensa Select Award, and has also received the 2004 Teachers’ Choice Award. It’s nothing even close to boring.

The strategic struggle is about putting pieces on to the board before being blocked off or running out of space.

It’s a challenging and engaging game that really gets your brain working.

4. Battleship

Battleship is a turn-based strategy game for two players in which one player tries to destroy the ships of their opponent.

One player is designated as the attacker while the other is the defender. To start the game, the defender places a battleship somewhere on a grid of 10 columns and 10 rows.

The attacher then begins trying to detect the ships.

There are different types of ships available, including a small destroyer, a larger cruiser, and a massive carrier. The person who figures out how to defeat all the other person’s ships first is the winner.

Before he begins, each player secretly places his vessels on his half of a grid – both horizontally and vertically.

 Now, they take turns trying to guess where the enemy ships are, by shooting at them.

Warning: ships can be moved if things get frustrating.

5. KerPlunk

Classic KerPlunk. Still in production with the same plastic design since the 1960s, and still a fun family game. 

It consists of a tube, numerous plastic sticks, and many marbles.

Players remove the sticks one at a time, trying to stop the marbles from dropping through the straws into the tray below.

The player with the fewest marbles at the end emerges as the winner.

In essence, keeping your marbles intact leads to victory in this game.

6. Risk

Engage in war with Risk!

For people 10 years and up, it’s about world domination and outwitting adversaries (even if they’re members of your own family) by taking their land and accomplishing your secret assignment.

Have younger children? Risk Junior is the way to get into the main game. 

7. Guess Who?

A two-player game, it is now a four-player showdown, and is set in a 21st-century world – but with old-school character art. 

The original edition featured just five female characters out of 24, all lacking diversity.

This new edition features 11 female characters and 14 characters of colour.

Players take turns flipping the characters and then thinking up a question to ask their teammate in an effort to guess what character they’ve got turned over.

This game remains a timeless favorite for good reasons.

8. Settlers of Catan

It’s a game that can destroy friendships and ruin relationships, but we just can’t help but go back for more. 

While it may seem like a game about resources, Catan is anything but civil.

This game can’t be won with luck or strategy alone. You’ll need excellent negotiating skills, plenty of practice, and, according to those in the know, some cold callousness too

9. Pictionary

Pictionary is a hit with everyone, including the whole family (yes, even the grandparents!).

Your minute is up: now show off your inner Picasso for your team to guess the card games. The best part? The hilarious guesses! 

10. Connect 4

Connect 4 requires critical thinking skills and quick reflexes.

Players take turns dropping coloured discs into a vertical grid, hoping to be the first person to connect four same colour in a row.

It’s simple yet enjoyable, with each game bringing new challenges.

11. Monopoly

A family board game classic with roots going back to 1903, when the American anti-monopolist Lizzie Magie devised a game to demonstrate the single tax theory. 

 Originally titled The Landlord’s Game, it became Monopoly by 1932. Not only can the game take hours – days! – to play, but it can also cause tempers to flare.

 So expect some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, not the children’s, but yours, if your monopoly on the Board Game Monopoly fails to stand. Kids are always great negotiators. They even manage to win at Monopoly. 

12. Jenga

The giant outdoor Jenga is fantastic if you have the space.

Otherwise, there’s always the good old game of Jenga, which is always good for kids of any age – and you’ll get the occasional jump scare when that tower tumbles, even when you know exactly when it’s coming. 

The idea is to remove bricks from the tower, stack them atop, and wait for your opponents to make it all topple over by removing one brick too many.

13. Scrabble

A true test of one’s lexicon, Scrabble, remains a beloved board game worldwide.

 Played by contestants aged eight and up, it tasks players to build words across a display board, each letter scoring points based on its rarity and placement on special squares that add to the score.

Using these letters in the right places can score you a lot of points, especially if you stack a ‘triple word score’ square on top.

 Besides the friendly rivalry, Scrabble is great for learning new words and how to spell them.

It’s this combination of infotainment that cements Scrabble’s place as a permanent fixture in the game shelf. 

14. Pandemic

Following on from the tribulations of the recent past, give this cooperative board game for six players a go. 

Collaborate to eliminate four diseases by discovering a cure.

Sounds straightforward, right? However, these diseases, similar to reality, can trigger city-wide outbreaks.

Admittedly, this game might not be the best choice given the current situation.

Players can even use actual virus names in the game, which adds a sinister note.

 Still, it’s a fun distraction if you have a sense of humour. 

15. Chess

Frequently referred to as the king of strategy games, chess has been played for millennia.

Two opponents sit down at opposite sides of a chequered board, each with 16 pieces to play with, six different types of which vary in shape and movement possibilities.

The objective? To capture the opponent’s king while simultaneously protecting one’s own.

You require multiple layers of attention: you need to be thinking strategically, anticipating your opponent’s next move, all the while coming up with an elegant calculation for what your own pieces should be doing to counterattack – and all of these considerations hinge on your perception of the probabilities involved: what are the ultimate possibilities for this piece on this side of the board versus that piece on that side of the board?

 Despite its complexity, chess is a worthwhile game for people of all ages.

It is also well-known to be beneficial to many aspects of both physical and mental well-being, such as memory and critical thinking.

Best Board Games Singapore

From the ardent globe-conqueror in Risk, to the wordsmith in Scrabble, to the majestic chess strategist, here is the era-spanning and multi-varied collection of board games that will keep you spellbound.

And yet, with each game that invites discussion of skill, strategy and a little random luck, the table becomes a source of communion, a place to relate, to learn, and to make memories that will last a lifetime. 

While board games encompass the wide landscape of it all to propel laughter-fuelled family nights, competitively intense one-on-one battles, and cooperative puzzle-solving adventures, there’s always a game that is just right. 

In other words, bring your friends and family together, select a game from our list, and prepare to have a lot of fun and bonding!

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• Board Games Singapore: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide (2024)

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you have any questions about the best board games in Singapore, you can refer to the frequently asked questions (FAQ) about the best Board Games in Singapore below: