Roundup
The Best Short Board Games
Every game here is twenty minutes or less by the publisher's own clock. Short is not a compromise at this end of the hobby - it is the reason these get played more than the big boxes ever do.
By Scooter M. · Published · Last updated
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Games we claim to have play-tested: 0. Every gift guide in this category implies a shelf of played games behind it. We do not have one, and we would rather say so. What we do instead is on this page: the publisher’s own player count, playing time and age band for every pick, cited to the publisher; a live price rather than a remembered one; and a plain answer on who should skip each game.
The short answer
The best short board game for most groups is Codenames - Czech Games Edition states 4-8+ players, ages 10+, and 15 minutes. It explains in about a minute and ends before anyone gets restless. For two to five people at a kitchen table, Sushi Go! (Gamewright: 2-5 players, 8+, 15 minutes) is the better answer, and Happy Salmon (Exploding Kittens: 3-8 players, 6+, 90 seconds) is the shortest real game we cover.
Playing time is the specification that decides whether a game gets played twice. A ninety-minute box has to be planned for; a fifteen-minute one just comes out. That is why the short shelf tends to outscore the impressive shelf over a year, and why a short game is very often the better present even when it costs a third as much.
Every time on this page is the publisher’s own stated figure, read from their page and attributed to them. Nothing here is our estimate of how long a game takes, and where a publisher states a range we print the range.
| Game | Time | Players | Age | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Salmon | 90 sec | 3-8 | 6+ | Exploding Kittens |
| Codenames | 15 min | 4-8+ | 10+ | Czech Games Edition |
| Sushi Go! | 15 min | 2-5 | 8+ | Gamewright |
| The Mind | 15 min | 2-4 | 8+ | Pandasaurus Games |
| Qwixx | 15 min | 2-5 | 8+ | Gamewright |
| Love Letter | 20 min | 2-6 | 10+ | Z-Man Games |
| Just One | 20 min | 3-7 | 8+ | Repos Production |
| Herd Mentality | 20 min | 4-20 | 10+ | Big Potato Games |
How these eight were chosen
One hard rule and two soft ones. The hard rule: the publisher has to state 20 minutes or less. Not "plays quickly", not a figure we timed ourselves - the number printed by the company that made it. That alone removes most of what gets called a short game.
The soft rules are about what short is for. Setup has to be short too, because a fifteen-minute game with a five-minute setup is a twenty-minute game. And it has to be worth playing twice in a row - the real test of a short game is whether somebody immediately deals again. We have not play-tested these; what we do instead is on how we pick.
Short is not the same as simple
The two get confused constantly, and the difference matters when you are buying. Qwixx is short and simple: Gamewright states 15 minutes, and the rules are printed on the scoresheet. The Mind is short and not simple at all - Pandasaurus states 15 minutes, and the game asks a table to read each other without speaking, which some groups find uncomfortable rather than fun.
If what you want is genuinely easy rather than genuinely fast, our easiest games to learn ranks by rule count instead, and the two lists only partly overlap.
The filler, and why every shelf needs one
Happy Salmon states ninety seconds on the box, which sounds like a gimmick and is not. A game that short does a specific job: it resets a room. It goes between two longer games, or at the end of an evening when nobody wants to start something new, or with children who have run out of patience for anything with turns.
At the other end of this page, Herd Mentality is the one that scales. Big Potato states 4 to 20 players and 20 minutes, and unlike almost every other party game, adding people does not add minutes - everybody writes their answer at the same time. That combination is rare enough to be worth knowing about if you host. Our large-group page has the rest of them.
Setup time is the hidden half of it
A stated playing time never includes getting the game out, and that is where a lot of short games quietly stop being short. Everything on this page sets up in under a minute: deal the cards, or hand out the scoresheets, or lay the grid of words on the table. Nothing here has a board to assemble or components to sort into trays.
That is worth checking on any game sold as quick. A 20-minute game with a five-minute setup and a three-minute pack-down is a half-hour commitment, which is a different proposition on a weeknight. It is also the reason a tin of cards gets played far more often than a box of the same quality: the barrier to starting is close to zero.
Short games and small tables
Two of these eight state a floor of two players - Sushi Go! and Love Letter - and The Mind states two as well. If the household is two people, a short game is usually the right default, because the games that justify an hour tend to be the ones built for four. Our two-player list is built on stated player counts the same way this one is built on stated times.
What to spend
Short games are cheap, and the ones on this page are among the least expensive things we cover - a couple of them cost less than a cinema ticket. That makes them the safest gift in the category and the easiest thing to add to a bigger present. We never print a remembered price anywhere on this site: each pick’s button shows a live figure when we hold one and says so plainly when we do not. Our picks under $20 start from the budget instead.
Quick picks
Ranked on how well each one fits the job in this page’s title, using the publisher’s own player count, playing time and age band. Tap any row for the full write-up, including who should skip it.
| # | Product | Best for | Gift fit | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Codenames4-8 players · 15 min · 10+ | Best short game overall | 9.6 | $24.97 - View on Amazon |
| 2 |  Sushi Go!2-5 players · 15 min · 8+ | Best short game for a small table | 8.9 | $11.99 - View on Amazon |
| 3 |  Just One3-7 players · 20 min · 8+ | Best for a mixed group | 9.3 | $24.99 - View on Amazon |
| 4 |  The Mind2-4 players · 15 min · 8+ | Best strange one | 7.6 | $12.31 - View on Amazon |
| 5 |  Love Letter2-6 players · 20 min · 10+ | Best in a coat pocket | 8.2 | $11.86 - View on Amazon |
| 6 |  Qwixx2-5 players · 15 min · 8+ | Best with no explaining at all | 8.0 | $9.68 - View on Amazon |
| 7 |  Herd Mentality4-20 players · 20 min · 10+ | Best for a crowd in a hurry | 8.9 | $22.49 - View on Amazon |
| 8 |  Happy Salmon3-8 players · 2 min · 6+ | Shortest game we cover | 8.0 | $12.00 - View on Amazon |
#1 - Best short game overall
Codenames
Czech Games Edition · The gift you give when you know almost nothing about the person
The single safest board game gift there is. Two teams, a grid of words, and one person giving one-word clues. It explains in about a minute, it works at four people or ten, and nobody has to read a rulebook to enjoy it.
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What it actually is
A word game. The room splits into two teams; one person on each team can see which words belong to their side and gives a single-word clue to point their teammates at them.
Does it fit this page?
Czech Games Edition states 4-8+ players, ages 10+, 15 minutes. Two teams, 25 words, one-word clues - it explains in a minute, ends in fifteen, and nobody has ever played it once.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 4-8+ | Czech Games Edition, published game page |
| Age | 10+ | Czech Games Edition, published game page |
| Length | 15 min | Czech Games Edition, published game page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- Teaches faster than almost anything else on this site - the core rule is one sentence
- Scales past its printed maximum, because extra people simply join a team
- Everyone talks, including the people who are losing
What is not
- The two clue-givers do most of the thinking; quiet guessers can drift
- Wants an even-ish split into two teams, so it is awkward at exactly three
- Word games do not suit everybody, and you cannot always tell in advance
Who should skip it
Skip it for a group of two or three - it wants teams. Skip it for someone who dislikes word games, or who is playing in a second language.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.8
- Works for non-gamers9.7
- Group size range9.4
- Repeat plays9.2
- Feels like a gift8.8
Gift fit 9.6 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#2 - Best short game for a small table
Sushi Go!
Gamewright · A small, cheap gift that is actually good
A tin of cards, fifteen minutes, and one of the best value-for-money gifts in the whole category. You pass hands of cards around and try to collect the sets that score well together.
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What it actually is
A card game where you pick one card from your hand, pass the rest to your neighbor, and repeat - so every hand you see has already been picked over.
Does it fit this page?
Gamewright states 2-5 players, ages 8+, 15 minutes. Card drafting in a tin: pick one, pass the rest, and the whole game is over before a big box would have finished setup.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 2-5 | Gamewright, published product page |
| Age | 8+ | Gamewright, published product page |
| Length | 15 min | Gamewright, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- Fits in a coat pocket, so it travels and it fits a stocking
- Fifteen minutes means a household plays it three times in a sitting
- Cheap enough to give alongside something else
What is not
- Caps at five - Sushi Go Party! is the version that seats eight
- Scoring is fiddly the first time through
- Almost too small to feel like a main present on its own
Who should skip it
Skip it as a sole main gift for an adult - it reads as a stocking filler no matter how good it is. Give it alongside something larger.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.2
- Works for non-gamers9.2
- Group size range7.8
- Repeat plays8.6
- Feels like a gift7.4
Gift fit 8.9 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#3 - Best for a mixed group
Just One
Repos Production · A mixed group where you would rather nobody lost
A cooperative word game with a lovely twist: everyone writes a one-word clue in secret, and any clue two people duplicated gets thrown away. It is warm rather than competitive, and it is very hard to dislike.
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What it actually is
Everyone except the guesser writes a single-word clue for a hidden word. Matching clues cancel out, so the group is trying to be helpful and original at the same time.
Does it fit this page?
Repos Production states 3-7 players, ages 8+, 20 minutes. Everybody writes a one-word clue, the duplicates get canceled, and it is the easiest cooperative game we cover to get to a table.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 3-7 | Repos Production, published game page |
| Age | 8+ | Repos Production, published game page |
| Length | 20 min | Repos Production, published game page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- Cooperative, so one competitive relative cannot spoil it
- Works across a wide age range - the publisher's floor is 8
- Wipe-clean boards mean setup is opening the box
What is not
- Caps at seven, so it is the wrong pick for a real party
- Everyone needs to be able to write, which rules out the very young
- Rounds are short, so a long evening gets through a lot of cards
Who should skip it
Skip it for a party of ten or more - it stops working past seven. Herd Mentality or Codenames handle a crowd far better.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.6
- Works for non-gamers9.6
- Group size range7.6
- Repeat plays8.8
- Feels like a gift8.6
Gift fit 9.3 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#4 - Best strange one
The Mind
Pandasaurus Games · A gift that will be talked about afterwards
You play numbered cards in ascending order without speaking, and somehow it works. Fifteen minutes, 2 to 4 players, ages 8+. It is the strangest thing on this site and the one people remember.
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What it actually is
A cooperative card game with essentially one rule: play your cards low to high, as a group, with no communication of any kind.
Does it fit this page?
Pandasaurus states 2-4 players, ages 8+, 15 minutes. Play your numbers in ascending order without speaking - fifteen minutes that people either talk about for a week or quietly dislike.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Play time | 15 Minutes | Pandasaurus Games, published product page |
| Players | 2-4 | Pandasaurus Games, published product page |
| Age | 8+ | Pandasaurus Games, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- The shortest explanation of any game here, by a distance
- Fifteen minutes and a very small box
- Produces a genuinely odd shared experience that people describe to other people
What is not
- Some players simply do not click with it and find it pointless
- Caps at four
- Slight - it is a deck of numbered cards and nothing else
Who should skip it
Skip it for someone who wants to see what they are buying. Unwrapped, The Mind looks like a deck of numbers, because it is.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.8
- Works for non-gamers8.4
- Group size range6.8
- Repeat plays7.4
- Feels like a gift6.4
Gift fit 7.6 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#5 - Best in a coat pocket
Love Letter
Z-Man Games · Filling twenty minutes with something clever
You hold one card. You draw a second, play one of the two, and try to deduce what everyone else is holding. Z-Man's current edition takes 2 to 6 players, which is a wide range for a game this small.
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What it actually is
A tiny deduction game with a deck of about twenty cards. Each card does one thing, and the whole deck fits in a hand.
Does it fit this page?
Z-Man states 2-6 players, ages 10+, 20 minutes, for sixteen cards in a bag. A round takes about two minutes, so it fits into the gaps other games cannot.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 2-6 | Z-Man Games, published product page |
| Age | 10+ | Z-Man Games, published product page |
| Length | 20 min | Z-Man Games, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- The entire rulebook is a card reference you can read in a minute
- Two to six players, which is unusually flexible for a micro game
- Rounds last three minutes, so being knocked out costs nothing
What is not
- You will be eliminated from rounds, which younger children mind
- Almost pure deduction - there is nothing to build or collect
- The box is small enough that it needs to be part of a bigger gift
Who should skip it
Skip it for a player who hates being eliminated, and skip it as a standalone main present - it is a companion gift.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.0
- Works for non-gamers8.6
- Group size range8.8
- Repeat plays8.2
- Feels like a gift6.8
Gift fit 8.2 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#6 - Best with no explaining at all
Qwixx
Gamewright · A table where somebody always complains about waiting
Six dice, a pad of scoresheets, and fifteen minutes. Everybody uses every roll, so nobody is ever waiting for their turn - which is exactly why it works with grandparents and children at the same table.
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What it actually is
A dice game. One person rolls, but every player marks something off their own sheet from that roll, so there is no downtime.
Does it fit this page?
Gamewright states 2-5 players, ages 8+, 15 minutes. Roll dice, cross off numbers on your own sheet - the scoresheet does the teaching, which makes it the easiest thing here to start.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 2-5 | Gamewright, published product page |
| Age | 8+ | Gamewright, published product page |
| Length | 15 min | Gamewright, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- Nobody waits - every roll is used by every player
- The scoresheets make the rules self-explanatory
- Very cheap, and about as portable as a game gets
What is not
- It is a dice game; luck decides more than skill
- Score pads run out and need replacing
- Does not look like much when unwrapped
Who should skip it
Skip it for someone who wants meaningful decisions - Qwixx is mostly about making the best of what the dice gave you.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.6
- Works for non-gamers9.4
- Group size range7.8
- Repeat plays8.0
- Feels like a gift6.6
Gift fit 8.0 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#7 - Best for a crowd in a hurry
Herd Mentality
Big Potato Games · A room with far too many people in it
Big Potato prints a player range of 4 to 20, and that number is most of the reason to buy it. You are trying to write the same answer as everybody else, which rewards being ordinary and is very funny in a full room.
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What it actually is
A question gets read out, everyone writes an answer, and you score by matching the majority. The one person who answered differently collects the pink cow.
Does it fit this page?
Big Potato states 4-20 players, ages 10+, 20 minutes. Everyone answers the same question and scores only for matching the majority - it scales to a room without getting any longer.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 4-20 | Big Potato Games, published product page |
| Age | 10+ | Big Potato Games, published product page |
| Length | 20 min | Big Potato Games, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- Twenty players is a genuinely rare ceiling, and it is the publisher's own figure
- One rule, no strategy to learn, nothing to read between turns
- Works while people are eating, which most games do not
What is not
- Rewards conformity by design, which some people find irritating rather than funny
- Question cards start repeating in a household that plays it weekly
- Very little to it at four players
Who should skip it
Skip it for two or three people. It needs a crowd to produce the majority it is built around, and it falls flat at a small table.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.7
- Works for non-gamers9.5
- Group size range9.8
- Repeat plays7.4
- Feels like a gift8.2
Gift fit 8.9 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
#8 - Shortest game we cover
Happy Salmon
Exploding Kittens · Ninety seconds of chaos, over and over
The publisher lists the play time as 90 seconds and that is not a typo. Everyone shouts an action at once until somebody empties their hand. As a stocking filler for a house with children it is close to unbeatable.
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What it actually is
A card game with no turns. You call out the action on your top card until you find the person calling the same thing, do the high-five or the fist-bump, and move on.
Does it fit this page?
Exploding Kittens states 3-8 players, ages 6+, 90 seconds. Not a typo: it is ninety seconds of shouting and high-fiving, and it is the best filler we know of between two longer games.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 3-8 | Exploding Kittens, published product page |
| Age | 6+ | Exploding Kittens, published product page |
| Play time | 90 sec | Exploding Kittens, published product page |
Read from the publisher’s own page. Where a publisher does not state a figure, there is no row for it here.
What is good about it
- An age floor of 6, so young children genuinely play on equal terms
- Ninety seconds means it fits anywhere - before dinner, at a table, in a queue
- Ships in a cloth pouch rather than a box, so it travels
What is not
- Extremely loud and physical
- No strategy at all, which is not what every recipient wants
- Needs three people minimum, so it is not a two-person gift
Who should skip it
Skip it for anyone with limited hand or arm mobility - the game is built entirely on physical gestures - and skip it for a quiet household.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.8
- Works for non-gamers9.6
- Group size range8.0
- Repeat plays7.0
- Feels like a gift7.0
Gift fit 8.0 / 10. That is our editorial judgment of how safe and well-aimed this is as a present, read off the published specifications - not a verdict on how good the game is, and not a test result. It is deliberately not marked up as a rating in this page’s structured data. How we pick.
How these were picked
We have not played these games and we do not pretend to have. What we did was read each publisher’s own page, take their stated player count, playing time and age band, check that every pick genuinely fits the constraint in this page’s title, confirm it is still being sold, and pull a live price rather than a remembered one. Every figure here names the publisher it came from, so you can check it yourself in about a minute.
How we pick sets out the full method, including what would change a ranking.
Questions people ask
+−What is the best short board game?
Codenames, for most groups - Czech Games Edition states 4-8+ players, ages 10+, 15 minutes, and it explains in about a minute. For a small table, Sushi Go! (Gamewright: 2-5 players, 8+, 15 minutes). For the shortest thing that is still a game, Happy Salmon at Exploding Kittens’ stated 90 seconds.
+−What board games take 15 minutes or less?
On publisher-stated times: Happy Salmon (90 seconds), Codenames, Sushi Go!, The Mind and Qwixx are all stated at 15 minutes or under. Love Letter, Just One and Herd Mentality are stated at 20.
+−Are short board games worth buying?
They are usually the ones that get played. A fifteen-minute game does not need planning, survives a weeknight and can be played twice, while a ninety-minute box needs an evening set aside. If you are buying one game for a household that does not play much, short is the safer choice.
+−What is a good short game for two players?
Sushi Go! and Love Letter both state a floor of two - Gamewright states 2-5 players and 15 minutes, Z-Man states 2-6 players and 20 minutes. Both play differently at two than at four, and both fit in a pocket.
+−What is the shortest board game?
Of the games we cover, Happy Salmon: Exploding Kittens states 3-8 players, ages 6+, and a playing time of 90 seconds. It is a real game rather than a novelty, and it is the standard answer when a group needs one more thing before everyone goes home.