The Best Board Games for 8-Year-Olds
Our series on the best board games for kids of every age marches on, and this time we’re covering the wonderful age of 8. A wonderful combo of independence and innocence is mixed together at this age, and childhood wonder and imagination can still be burning bright. It truly is a wonderful age for family game night.
Obviously the family board games on these lists are becoming more and more complex with each article, and, in fact, you might even say we’ve safely reached what one might consider “true” family games. And by that I mean leaving games primarily designed for kids in the rear view mirror, and discovering games actually designed for the entire family.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying the adults around here don’t enjoy all of our kids games. In fact, that’s what makes a kids game good - when adults legitimately enjoy sharing it with kids. But when we were crafting this list for 8-year-olds, it was simply undeniable that these games are built differently.
The wonderful family games on this list often require a level of independence and thought not expected of younger children. They require a bit more patience and planning - and indeed that’s what makes them the best games for 8-year-olds. But they’re still undeniably family games. It’s just that they’re perfectly suited for this age range.
It’s also worth mentioning that we’ve had several of these games for many years - since way before our son was 8. And he has been playing several of them for a long time. So, as always, you certainly don’t have to be 8 to play these games. But we’re confident that about 8 is still just about the real sweet spot to enjoy them to the fullest.
As always, I hope this list proves to be helpful in discovering the perfect gift, or perhaps your next favorite game for family game night. Have fun together, and all the best to you and yours!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. Clicking on these links will lead you to view the games’ listings on Amazon.com.
10. Untold: Adventures Await
Designed by John Fiore & Rory O'Connor and Published by The Creativity Hub
Untold: Adventures Await was designed as a way to add more structure to the storytelling abilities of Rory’s Story Cubes - one of our very favorite games out there. You’ll also find this wonderful game on our list of the best games that promote storytelling, and of course we’ve been talking about and trying to promote Story Cubes for a long time.
If you’re unfamiliar, Story Cubes are sets of dice which little pictures on them, and all you have to do is try to tell a story that connects the pictures. With Untold: Adventures Await, however, there are rules and cards thrown into the mix that serve to encourage a certain structure to the story and the development of your characters. It also makes it easier to return to certain worlds and revisit characters almost like writing your own series. Our son was hooked by this one and we adore the help fanning the flames of imagination.
9. Karuba
Designed by Rüdiger Dorn and Published by HABA
We actually discovered Karuba Junior before the original Karuba in our house, and I’m still heartbroken to see the junior version disappearing, but the wonderful original is still alive and kicking and one of the best family games out there. It has a great treasure hunting theme and a very fun and engaging tile-laying mechanic that makes the game different every time and pretty competitive and fair across all ages.
I like to think that Karuba hits the sweet spot for kids around 8 years old. And the way to do that is to make the game easy to learn and engaging for kids, but also offer plenty of opportunity for strategy and choices to be made. It’s like a puzzle game where you’re trying to build the most efficient path with your tiles and then move your adventurers to gather the most treasure, and it’s designed to be both highly variable as well as always fair.
It’s a natural progression up from tile-laying games for little ones like Race to the Treasure!, and it’s definitely one of those family games where you could also bring it to an adult game night and still have plenty of fun without the kids. Any fan of puzzles and planning will love it.
8. Blokus
Designed by Bernard Tavitian and Published by Mattel
As a big fan of chess, I naturally gravitate towards abstract strategy games. I love the planning and the back-and-forth atmosphere of trying to out-think and out-strategize your opponents. Blokus is an all-time classic at this point, and it’s because it adheres to a very popular principle - easy to learn and difficult to master. There’s nothing better than learning a new strategy game that’s incredibly simple to play but devilishly tricky to choose the best move.
Blokus is also the perfect family game, because, unlike chess and many other games of the genre, it accommodates up to 4 players. Although, having said this, I have to admit I personally enjoy the 2-player version of Blokus even more - but the chaos of extra opponents is certainly very difficult to calculate!
To give you a sense of the gameplay, every player has an identical pile of tetronimoes and they try to find a place for them on the gameboard. The only rule is basically that they must connect to a corner, and only a corner, of one of your other pieces. Then commence trying to fit as many pieces as possible on the board while simultaneously spoiling things for your opponents.
7. Kingdomino
Designed by Bruno Cathala and Published by Blue Orange Games
This former Game of the Year winner is one of those games that’s tailor-made to be the perfect addition to family game night. It’s one of those games you can teach to your kids as well as your grandparents, and everyone will truly enjoy it at the end of the day. When puzzling over which games to bring, we’ve definitely chosen Kingdomino for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties before.
This is another tile-laying game where you’re trying to build your own personal most-efficient kingdom in front of you. You’re basically just trying to connect tiles with similar land types to score the most points - and the “domino” part comes in because the tiles are shaped similar to dominoes with 2 land types on each tile. Incredibly easy to learn with great variability in each playthrough, but of course the challenge is executing the right strategy and optimizing each move you make.
We’re also big fans of the junior version Dragomino, which we also placed on our list of the best board games for 6-year-olds.
6. King of Tokyo
Designed by Richard Garfield and Published by IELLO
Simply one of the best board games out there, but of course this list is full of all-time favorites and greats. King of Tokyo is one of the oldest board games in our family’s collection at this point - if you discount all the inherited games from my childhood of course. We actually had our son play with us as young as 4 or 5. Of course we had to read him all of the cards, talk him through the strategy, and help him keep track of his score and life - but I think that still helps give a sense of how easy the game is to learn and play as a family.
Nobody can argue with the appeal of the theme in this game - giant monsters attacking Tokyo is endlessly entertaining and very engaging for the young and young at heart. But the design is just as good, and it was designed by the creator of the legendary Magic the Gathering to boot. Roll dice, attack your enemies, heal yourself, buy cards and be the first one to 20 points or the last to survive. With various paths to victory and plenty of randomness with the dice and the cards in the shop - this game absolutely never gets old.
Make sure to check out our featured article if you want to know more about this classic!
5. Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger
Designed by Prospero Hall and Published by Z-Man Games
It was actually several Christmases ago that my son and I played through this entire game in one afternoon, over many hours. But when I think about the history of the Choose Your Own Adventure novels, 8 years old strikes me as the ideal time to get obsessed. House of Danger of course is a gamified version of one of those classic books, and I can’t stress enough how special and engrossing it can be - and it will always be a memorable father/son activity for us.
As you can imagine, there is lots of reading to be done in this game. And, just like the books, there are many choices to be made, and many endings to be reached. But, unlike the books, there are also items to be collected and used, life to keep track of, and points to be scored. In fact, the endings you reach depend on these things as well. And with several endings there is great replayability in this one too.
Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger hits all the right buttons for us. It promotes storytelling and imagination, and it’s spooky too. But a campy, silly kind of spooky I suppose. It’s designed in chapters to allow for pausing which is great, but the first time we played we were obsessed and spent about 4 or 5 hours plowing right through.
Make sure to check out our featured article for a closer look!
4. Quests of Yore: Barley’s Edition
Designed by Mathew Reuther, Jameson McDaniel, & Rob Renzetti and Published by The OP
This is a very special game as far as I’m concerned. It’s the real life creation of the tabletop RPG that Barley is obsessed with in Pixar’s Onward. And it’s also our first foray into something like Dungeons & Dragons in our family. And I think it was the perfect starting point for our 8-year-old. He absolutely loved it and was quickly obsessed - asking to play all the time.
Be aware that it’s very possible that Quests of Yore is unlike any other board games you’ve played with your kids before. You will most likely be the Quest Master, in charge of keeping the story going while simultaneously managing the rules and dice rolls. And, most importantly, you’re in charge of keeping everyone involved and having fun.
And if you’re willing to take on those responsibilities, you’re in for a very special game night focused on storytelling and imagination. Something about the creativity and imagination really clicked with our son. It was a new experience for him at first, but very quickly he found a new love and an exciting outlet for his imagination.
Make sure to check out our Game of the Month article to learn more about Quests of Yore!
3. Stuffed Fables
Designed by Jerry Hawthorne and Published by Plaid Hat Games
Stuffed Fables is another family RPG that’s perfect for 8-year-olds. But it has even more built-in structure to it than Quests of Yore. Each level actually has a game board and more defined missions and choices to be made - which makes it more accessible in some ways - kind of like the classic old RPG Hero Quest.
The story is very good in this game - focusing on a little girl whose stuffed animals are protecting her from monsters after she goes to sleep. You fight monsters with things like pencils and scissors and bows made from rubber bands. And when you take damage you lose stuffing. The whole thing is very charming - from the cute character models down to the little tokens. And the entire game is played on top of the actual storybook itself. It’s a great design.
Games like this do take more experience and more focus, but that’s why we waited until our 8-year-old list to include this gem - even though our son started younger than that. It’s a bigger and more expensive game than many, but I assure you that it’s quite special and one of the most treasured boxes in our entire collection.
2. Zombie Teenz Evolution
Designed by Annick Lobet and Published by Scorpion Masque and IELLO
We were over the moon when we heard that Scorpion Masque was making a sequel to Zombie Kidz Evolution - the cooperative game that topped our list of board games for 7-year-olds. And to be perfectly honest, Zombie Teenz can just as easily be the number one game on that list as well. But we made a conscience decision to spread the zombie love to different ages, because both games have tremendous staying power.
Zombie Teenz sticks with the tried and true method of providing stickers and new unlocks for the game the more you play - and that’s definitely what made our son fall in love with these games. You’ll also find the addition of large stickers that add to a little comic strip that tells a story, which is a nice touch.
While Zombie Kidz was about locking up the school, Zombie Teenz has spread out into town - and it’s your job to gather up the necessary resources scattered around town before it’s too late. Both games are truly spectacular. Zombie Teenz was even nominated for the prestigious Game of the Year, and it’s well-deserved. And I think I lean ever-so-slightly towards favoring Zombie Teenz, because the unlocks change the game up so much - and there’s a dog to help you!
Check out our Game of the Month article for even more pictures and to find out why this is such a gem.
1. Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle
Designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative, Kami Mandell, & Andrew Wolf and Published by The OP
When I reflect on the board games that will top our lists, I simply have to choose the games that provided our family with the most lasting memories. And Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle has been the source of some very special family game nights around here. My son has played through every chapter of this spectacular deck-building game with my wife and I, and nothing else quite compares to the true camaraderie we’ve shared with this game - not even close.
Hogwarts Battle fittingly follows the story line of Harry Potter - breaking the game into 7 years or chapters and introducing new enemies and new allies when appropriate. For that reason, it fit in spectacularly well with our fun mission of reading the book, watching the movie, and playing the next chapter of this game 1 at a time. And, perhaps partly because of that setup, I think it’s safe to say we’ll never forget this game.
It’s a cooperative game where you spend your turn buying cards from the shop to add to your deck, and then using the cards in your hand to do things like heal yourself or your allies and then attack the enemies that are on the board. Each chapter is progressively more complicated and more challenging - ending with a challenging hunt of Voldemort himself as well as his horcruxes.
And after the fun is all over, there are 2 expansions out there to discover - including one that adds Luna as a playable character. And I have a hunch that’s who our 5-year-old will play as when she’s old enough to official join our wizarding team. And I honestly look forward to that do very much. This game is by no means done providing special family memories.
Make sure to go read our featured article on this game to understand why it topped our list for 8-year-olds!
Make sure to check out our other lists in the best board games by age series:
The Best Board Games for 2-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 3-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 4-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 5-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 6-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 7-Year-Olds
What are your family’s favorite board games for this age range? Did any of your favorites make our list? Let us know in the comments!
