Over the last decade, designers have embraced games at lower player counts, especially solo play and two-players. Most games have always been able to be played at two but, in a lot of cases, the play was less than desirable.
Kosmos was the first to truly embrace the lower counts with their two-player line which includes Targi, Hera and Zeus, Jambo, Kahuna and Lost Cities. Designed specifically for only two, these games finally acknowledged that there was a large part of the gaming community that does not have groups with which to play games.
About three years ago, I took over the administering of the What Couples Have Been Playing geek list on Board Game Geek (BGG). This monthly list allows users to post whenever they play a game in a pair, whether with spouse, child, sibling or friend, and talk about the experience. The list is not only a great resource for what plays well (and, sometimes, not so well) with two people but has also become a group of friends who follow each other’s lives along with their games.
In any month, upwards of seventy or more people add items to the list which has grown as large as one thousand entries for a single 30/31 days.
Beyond talking about the games, we watch what is being played most often with monthly tallies of games played by the most number of people and the most times. As of this writing, there is currently a friendly discussion over whether people can play enough Horrified for the spooky season to get it past Wingspan as the most played game of the month. As a matter of fact, there are usually people watching to see if Wingspan will be the most played game. Just to show its dominance, here are the top games played each month over the last two years, with Wingspan being at the top in 15 out of 24:
- October 2020 – Lost Cities
- November 2020 – Lost Cities
- December 2020 – Lost Cities & Wingspan (tied)
- January 2021 – Wingspan
- February 2021 – 7 Wonder: Duel, Lost Cities & Wingspan (tied)
- March 2021 – Lost Cities & Wingspan (tied)
- April 2021 – Lost Cities
- May 2021 – Terraforming Mars
- June 2021 – Jaipur & Wingspan (tied)
- July 2021 – 7 Wonders: Duel
- August 2021 – Jaipur, Lost Cities, Wingspan (tied)
- September 2021 – Carcasonne
- October 2021 – Cascadia
- November 2021 – Wingspan
- December 2021 – Wingspan
- January 2022 – Wingspan
- February 2022 – 7 Wonders: Duel, Lost Cities, Wingspan (tied)
- March 2022 – Cascadia, Wingspan (tied)
- April 2022 – Wingspan
- May 2022 – Wingspan
- June 2022 – Wingspan
- July 2022 – Cascadia
- August 2022 – Wingspan
- September 2022 – Cascadia (first time in two years Wingspan was not in the top five)
It truly is a fun group of people that show a LOT of insight into their gaming at a two player count. Please consider joining us.
