Guide
How Long Do Board Games Take?
From 90 seconds to 90 minutes, and the honest answer is that the first play of anything runs longer than the box says.
By Scooter M. · Published · Last updated
How this page is funded: the buy links below are affiliate links. If you buy through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. It does not change the order of the picks or what we say about them. Full disclosure.
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
Most modern board games take 15 to 45 minutes. Card and party games run 15 to 20 minutes, mid-size board games 30 to 45, and the longest game we cover is CATAN at a publisher-stated 60 to 90 minutes. Add roughly ten minutes to any of these for the first play, while somebody learns the rules.
Playing time is the second most useful number on a board game box after the player count, and it is the one most people ignore. A 90-minute game in a household with small children does not get played once. A 15-minute game in the same household gets played weekly.
Below is every game we cover, with the publisher’s own stated time. Nothing here is estimated. Where a publisher does not publish a figure, the table says so.
| Game | Players | Playing time | Age | Publisher |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Happy Salmon | 3-8 | 90 sec | 6+ | Exploding Kittens |
| A Little Wordy | 2 | 15 min | 10+ | Exploding Kittens |
| Codenames | 4-8 | 15 min | 10+ | Czech Games Edition |
| Codenames: Duet | 2-4 | 15 min | 11+ | Czech Games Edition |
| Exploding Kittens | 2-5 | 15 min | 7+ | Exploding Kittens |
| Poetry for Neanderthals | 2-12 | 15 min | 7+ | Exploding Kittens |
| Point Salad | 2-6 | 15-30 minutes | 14+ | Alderac Entertainment Group |
| Qwixx | 2-5 | 15 min | 8+ | Gamewright |
| Sushi Go! | 2-5 | 15 min | 8+ | Gamewright |
| The Chameleon | 3-8 | 15 min | 14+ | Big Potato Games |
| The Mind | 2-4 | 15 Minutes | 8+ | Pandasaurus Games |
| Anomia | 3-6 | 20-30 min | 10 & up | Anomia Press |
| Blokus | 2-4 | not published | 7 years and up | Mattel |
| Dragonwood | 2-4 | 20 min | 8+ | Gamewright |
| Herd Mentality | 4-20 | 20 min | 10+ | Big Potato Games |
| Hive | 2 | 20 mins | 9+ | Gen42 Games |
| Just One | 3-7 | 20 min | 8+ | Repos Production |
| Love Letter | 2-6 | 20 min | 10+ | Z-Man Games |
| Outfoxed! | 2-4 | 20 min | 5+ | Gamewright |
| 7 Wonders | 3-7 | 30 min | 10+ | Repos Production |
| 7 Wonders Duel | 2 | 30 min | 10+ | Repos Production |
| Carcassonne | 2-5 | 30-45 min | 7+ | Z-Man Games |
| CATAN Junior | 2-4 | 30-40 min | 6+ | Catan Studio |
| Forbidden Island | 2-4 | 30 min | 10+ | Gamewright |
| Jaipur | 2 | 30 min | 10+ | Space Cowboys |
| Monikers | 2-12 | 30 minutes | 17 and up | CMYK |
| My First Carcassonne | 2-4 | 30 min | 4+ | Z-Man Games |
| Pandemic: Hot Zone - North America | 2-4 | 30 min | 8+ | Z-Man Games |
| Patchwork | 2 | approx. 30 min. | 8+ | Lookout Games |
| Skull | 3-6 | 30 min | 10+ | Space Cowboys |
| Splendor | 2-4 | 30 min | 10+ | Space Cowboys |
| Splendor Duel | 2 | 30 min | 10 | Space Cowboys |
| Sushi Go Party! | 2-8 | 30 min | 8+ | Gamewright |
| Ticket to Ride | 2-5 | 30-60 min | 8+ | Days of Wonder |
| Ticket to Ride: Europe | 2-5 | 30-60 min | 8+ | Days of Wonder |
| Concept | 4-12 | 40 min | 10+ | Repos Production |
| Wingspan | 1-5 | 40-70 mins | not published | Stonemaier Games |
| Cascadia | 1-4 | 45 minutes | 10+ years | Alderac Entertainment Group |
| Pandemic | 2-4 | 45 min | 8+ | Z-Man Games |
| CATAN | 3-4 | 60-90 min | 10+ | Catan Studio |
Every figure is the publisher’s own, read from the publisher’s page on 1 September 2026. “Not published” means exactly that - we do not estimate. Game names link to the retailer; those are affiliate links.
Why the first game always takes longer
A stated playing time assumes everybody already knows the rules. The first time you play anything, add the teaching to the front and slower turns throughout - roughly ten minutes on a short game and twenty on a longer one.
That is not a criticism of the publishers. It is why we would rather recommend a 30-minute game than a 60-minute one for a first-ever board game: the difference on the night is not 30 minutes, it is closer to 50.
What each length band is actually for
| Stated length | What it is for | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Under 5 minutes | Breaking the ice, or filling a gap. Played several times in a row. | Happy Salmon (90 sec) |
| 15 to 20 minutes | A weeknight game, or the opener at a game night. The band that gets played most. | Codenames, Sushi Go!, Qwixx, Just One |
| 30 minutes | A proper game that still fits after dinner. The sweet spot for a couple. | Jaipur, Splendor, 7 Wonders, Skull |
| 40 to 50 minutes | The main event of an evening. Needs everyone seated and committed. | Pandemic, Cascadia, Concept, Wingspan |
| 60 minutes and up | A planned evening. Only buy this if you know one is available. | CATAN (60-90 min) |
The number that is not on the box
What a box never tells you is the teaching time, and that is often the number that decides whether a game gets played. A 30-minute game with a 20-minute explanation is a 50-minute commitment, and the explanation is the least fun part.
We have not measured teaching times, because we have not played these games and we are not going to invent a number. What we can honestly say is that the games with one central idea - Codenames, Just One, Skull, Jaipur, Happy Salmon - are the ones whose rules fit in a sentence or two, and our easiest-to-learn page ranks them on that basis.
What we would buy for this
Chosen from the same registry as our roundups, on the publisher's own figures and a live price.
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.
#ad We do not hold a current price for this product, so we do not show one. How we make money.
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.
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.
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.
#ad We do not hold a current price for this product, so we do not show one. How we make money.
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.
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.
Ticket to Ride
Days of Wonder · A household that owns no board games at all
The default answer to 'we want a proper board game and nobody here plays board games'. You collect colored cards and use them to claim railway routes across a map of the United States. That is the whole idea, and it is enough.
#ad We do not hold a current price for this product, so we do not show one. How we make money.
What it actually is
A route-building game. You gather sets of matching cards and spend them to place little plastic trains along the lines between cities.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 2-5 | Days of Wonder, published game page |
| Age | 8+ | Days of Wonder, published game page |
| Playing time | 30-60 min | Days of Wonder, 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
- One of the shortest explanations of any full-size board game: collect cards, claim routes
- Two to five players from one box, and it is decent at every count in that range
- The map and the trains do a lot of the work of making it feel like an occasion
What is not
- Someone can take the route you needed, and new players take that badly
- At the 60-minute end it outstays its welcome with restless players
- The plastic trains are small enough to lose under a sofa
Who should skip it
Skip it for a group of six or more - the box stops at five - and skip it for someone who wants a fifteen-minute game.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain9.0
- Works for non-gamers9.6
- Group size range8.6
- Repeat plays9.0
- Feels like a gift9.8
Gift fit 9.5 / 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.
CATAN
Catan Studio · Someone who has heard of it and wants to finally play it
The famous one. Catan Studio states 3 to 4 players and 60 to 90 minutes, and both of those numbers matter more than its reputation does: it does not play at two, and it is the longest evening on this list.
#ad We do not hold a current price for this product, so we do not show one. How we make money.
What it actually is
You settle an island, collect wood, brick, wheat, sheep and ore as dice are rolled, and trade with the other players to build roads and towns.
What the publisher states
| Figure | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Players | 3-4 | Catan Studio, published game page |
| Age | 10+ | Catan Studio, published game page |
| Playing time | 60-90 min | Catan Studio, 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
- Name recognition, which genuinely matters for a gift - people want to try it
- Trading means the table talks constantly rather than staring at their own board
- Catan Studio sells a 5-6 player extension separately, so the ceiling can be raised later
What is not
- Three players minimum from the base box - a couple cannot play it
- Sixty to ninety minutes is a real commitment for a first game
- Bad dice luck can leave one player doing nothing for long stretches
Who should skip it
Skip it for a couple, and skip it for a group that wants to finish in half an hour. Both of those are the publisher's own numbers, not our opinion.
How it scored as a gift
- Easy to explain7.4
- Works for non-gamers8.0
- Group size range6.4
- Repeat plays9.0
- Feels like a gift9.6
Gift fit 8.3 / 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.
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
+−How long does a board game take to play?
Most take 15 to 45 minutes. Card and party games are usually 15 to 20 minutes, mid-size board games 30 to 45, and the longest game we cover is CATAN at a publisher-stated 60 to 90 minutes. The first play of anything runs about ten minutes longer than stated.
+−What is the shortest board game?
Of the games we cover, Happy Salmon - Exploding Kittens states a play time of 90 seconds for 3 to 8 players. It is designed to be played several times in a row rather than once.
+−Why does a board game always take longer than the box says?
Because the stated time assumes everyone already knows the rules. Add the teaching at the start and slower turns throughout, and a first play runs roughly ten minutes over on a short game and twenty on a long one.
+−What is a good board game length for a family?
Fifteen to thirty minutes. Sushi Go! and Qwixx are both 15 minutes by Gamewright’s figure and Carcassonne is 30 to 45 by Z-Man’s. Anything over 45 minutes needs a household where everybody can commit to an evening.