Top 10 Games of 2021

It's been quite a year for games which ones made the top of your list??
If you want to see full plays of many of the games on our list click below!
Cascadia • Cascadia Full Playthro...
TEN • TEN Playthrough | The ...
Origins: First Builders • Origins: First Builder...
Furnace • Furnace Playthrough | ...
TM Ares Expedition • Terraforming Mars: Are...
Maglev Metro • Maglev Metro Full Play...
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0:00 Intro
2:05 #10
4:42 #9
8:27 #8
12:18 #7
16:11 #6
20:25 #5
24:45 #4
28:38 #3
34:12 #2
36:50 #1
#top10 #bestoftheyear #boardgames

[@stephanie7679]

Another great list of games from our favorite brothers! You have brought a lot of joy into our home during a very challenging year. Even our 6yo little gamer watches you! We have veered light in the last few months - things have been so mentally draining, playing our small box games and learning new ones off the shelf has been awesome. Biblios, Ohanami, Baseball Highlights 2045, Claim, Songbirds, Sunset Over Water new ones we have enjoyed. Funfair is a favorite from 2021 too.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Ayyyyy we love to hear it! Happy to be a welcomed presence in your household!

[@TikkaTCM]

Yay!!! My most anticipated video of the year!! Thanks guys! You are seriously the best!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Woohoo enjoy and here’s to another year!

[@FriedChiggins]

I always love these lists! I spent most of 2021 playing my older games, and only played DI: Rawr & Write and Cubitos. I really want Cascadia, but it’s so hard to find locally.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

All great games!

[@familymeeple]

Thanks for your time brothers ❤️ loved your guys GH in a week vid (watched last night). Good to see a number of crossovers with my own top games, as well as quite a number of games in still yet to discover - one of the things I love about watching these videos ☺️ Keep that content coming! Here's to a phenomenal 2022!🎊❤️🥳

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Thank you for the lovely comment FamilyMeeple!

[@adammc2247]

Outstanding work guys - all year. Thanks for the content. Haven't had time to watch all of Gloomhaven yet, but Cascadia is probably top of my list for the UK Games Expo this year. Hopefully you'll be able to join us! All the best for the New Year! Cheers Mack

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Thank you so so much Adam! We appreciate it!

[@arekkrolak6320]

good job guys, pleasure to watch!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Thank you!

[@giulianogaldi139]

Men, you guys are awesome! Thanks for the content!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

YOU’RE awesome!!

[@jamescartwright1150]

Another Murph-tastic episode guys, keep up the great work 🙂

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Thank you so much James!

[@blackboardgaming5348]

This was a great list! I have Maglev Metro but haven't got it to the table yet. Looking forward to trying it out.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Gotta get it to the table! It's fantastic!

[@ostidenerd9108]

Great list! Big love from Quebec, Canada :) Bonne année! (happy new year in french)

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Happy new year to you!

[@rainingtacos5879]

Great year in gaming! nice list! I was wondering when you guys were gonna put the names on the shelves? Maybe a video of some sort of fishbowl draw of names for deciding shelf assignments?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

That should be happening here soon! And I like the idea of the fishbowl assignments! What a fun idea!

[@duaneleavesley3778]

Great job guys!

[@leishashram931]

Just bought The Crew: mission deep sea because of this video! I enjoy many of the games you guys have talked about so I feel like I can trust your recommendations!! Also: the fact that your number 1 from the past year is under $20??? Amazing!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

That is one of the best parts it’s so cheap! So much fun to be had with that one. Thanks so much for watching and keep on gaming!

[@danielkeim8558]

I just got Cascadia for Christmas and LOVE it. I can definitely foresee lots of plays in the near future

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Oh Daniel, you are going to be playing it nonstop. Trust us

[@heithrobinson996]

Asked and got cascadia for Xmas after watching you guys play it and it has quickly become 1 of my favorite games! Thx guys, ur awesome!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

It's soooooooo good

[@alisonjohnson8623]

I’ve been waiting for this video! We have the same taste in games and have a lot of these games. I told my husband about Llamaland and that it was by Phil Walker-Harding and he said “is that the praise be guy?” That’s how much we’ve watched your channel 🤣

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Yaaaaassss!!! We love how “praise be” has spread around

[@nicolehage918]

Love your list! I will definitely check some games out, because my taste in games is very similar with yours. Did you manage to play Witchstone? I think you will love it! It feels like a Feld game because of all the bonuses and combos. But the rules are very easy, and it has pretty colors.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

No we haven't yet :((((( We keep hearing great things about it

[@kennethpaschall4801]

Awesome list guys. You keep rocking it. My favorite of the year were 1. Roll Player Adventures, 2. Sleeping Gods, 3. Khora: Rise of an Empire, 4. Furnace, 5. Hadrian's Wall. It was a great year for games.

[@jessicaw2137]

Thank you for all the great videos you put out during the last year :) My Top 10 games released this year are: 1. Ark Nova 2. Uprising: Curse of the last Emperor 3. Ankh 4. Bitoku 5. Roll Player Adventures 6. Cascadia 7. Great Western Trail 2nd Edition 8. Golem 9. Welcome to the Moon 10. Cartographers Heroes

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Nice! You’ve got some that are definitely on our want to try list with ark nova being way up there

[@laurenwoode1046]

Thank you for the list guys! I added Furnace and Cascadia to my list of games to check out. Happy New Year to your family 😊

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Happy New Year Lauren!

[@laurenwoode1046]

@@TheBrothersMurph Thank you!

[@elizabethdoney6025]

Loved the Gloomhaven playthrough in a week! I really adored the playing all your games in a week. Please do something like that again. I have watched it multiple times and loved the rapid reviews that spawned from it. I loved seeing what you guys have in your collection. Whirling witchcraft was a surprise for me. I know Dice Tower wasn't super impressed but I am happy that I gave it a shot regardless. It's been hitting the table a lot. I am wondering if maybe Dice Miner is going to be the same for me. Initially I thought it was awesome, but Dice Tower kind of took the wind from my sails.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We have many plans for more challenges! Next year we want to try and play the BGG Top 100 games in one week! And I'm glad you gave WW another chance, and Dice Miner is fantastic!

[@elizabethdoney6025]

@@TheBrothersMurph Oh my goodness! Yes, please do that! You would be legends!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

@@elizabethdoney6025 Glad you approve! That one will be tough because a lot of those games are longer, we don’t know them, and it would require more than just us too. So it will take a lot of planning because we will need guests to come play with us, and we will have to learn a lot of big complicated games

[@Mark-jagger]

Great lists! Similar to mine actually, very similar tastes. Cascadia is right up there for me. Love that game. Looking forward to Verdant KS from the same designers.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Same! Verdant looks awesome

[@eVanDiesel]

I considered putting together a best of 2021 list, but I feel like we are always at least a year behind on new releases. Thats not entirely true, we did play some cool new games this year. Anyway, nice lists. I'd like to try a bunch of these!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We feel that way too sometimes. Especially when we know something would be on our list if we had a chance to play it, but alas we didn't

[@mormorgranat]

Learned about a bunch of games I never heard about. Fun lists!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Hey thanks so much!

[@Renegade_KT]

When I first tried Calico, I wad blew away by the puzzle it presented. Played it some more and I concede to the conclusion that some odd the tiles you need might never show up. So you often need to do the best with what is presented to you and it's not always fulfilling. So after playing Calico a bit, I was eager to try Cascadia which I received from my secret Santa this year. We tried it once and it's already a big hit for us. The game does not feels as "oppressive" as Calico and always seems to have plenty of options during your turn, which I like a lot. Verdant is definitely a game I'm keeping an eye on. Thanks for the video. You guys are genuinely great.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Exactly both are great! But Calico constantly limits your choices, where as Cascadia expands them. Both are good, but I am generally more into the idea of expanding than limiting. We are REALLY excited to try Verdant!

[@eileenbond6107]

This was such great information!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Thanks Eileen!

[@antonieschwartz]

DI Rawr & Write came out of nowhere for me! Surprise hit of 2021!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

SUPER good!

[@jimgrant9081]

Great list - thanks, gentlemen! How does Cubitos compare in terms of fun vs. Quacks? Any runaway leader problems?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We probably still like quacks slightly better, but they are pretty darn close in terms of fun. He just comes down to whether or not you want a race game, or just a straight push your luck game. The runaway leader problem is no worse than in quacks

[@ingl0rius]

For some reason I feel compelled to say that the music between each number sounds like the intro to ‘the key the secret’ by urban cookie collective from something like 1992. There, I got it off my chest. Phew!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Glad it’s off your chest! Gotta look up that song now haha

[@CandiceLikes]

You guys should do a top list for PWH games! I have LlamaLand and I like it a lot too. Wish I could’ve met you guys at PAXU this year.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

That list definitely needs to happen at some point. And let’s make sure we get to meet up at the next one!

[@pjlacey3990]

Nick and I have very similar lists! Great job guys!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Cheers!

[@BillyIndiana]

Cascadia is terrific! It will also be featured on my top 10 video next week!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Heck yeah!

[@Stolovky]

High five on Cascadia, totally agree there! :) Our No 1 for 2021 as well

[@stevenbonham7136]

Great list. Surprised no rajas roll and write. Really want to try cascadia.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

That’s one that’s listed as a 2020 game for some reason or else it’s absolutely on the list

[@rolling.reggie]

I know I’m watching this months late lol but Praise be to PWH! TEN, TM: Ares, Whirling Witchcraft and So Clover! are all on my wishlist. Do you have a Fave Roll & Write video? I’ve only played Yahtzee lol

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Go check out board game geeks KZbin channel I believe we did a roll and write list over there! There’s a ton of good ones out there. And praise be indeed!

[@dhammacariyasoenarta5948]

Nice list brothers. Is Cascadia better than Overboss with similar mechanism? I just want to buy one of those games. Thanks. 😁

[@antonieschwartz]

Cascadia hits the table way more often in our house... Overboss is a bit of a pain to put away.

[@dhammacariyasoenarta5948]

@@antonieschwartz thanks bro

[@TheBrothersMurph]

I mentioned this in another comment but I never really thought of them as being similar. But the mechanics definitely are. I will say that, to us, they don't feel similar at all. But we like Cascadia better as of now. We like Overboss a lot. But it's very light, and the setup is a bit much for a light game such as that. But both are great

[@dhammacariyasoenarta5948]

@@TheBrothersMurph alright. I got it. 😁👍

[@bestatstartrek6695]

I feel like I’m missing out on dice miner after this. Please try Witchstone it’s combotastic

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We really love it, but we know it’s gotten mixed reviews. And yes we really want to try Witchstone!

[@marymamabear5415]

Dice Miner is so good. I also played Cascadia, which is lovely. Just bought Overboss and though one mechanic looks similar to Cascadia, the rest of the game actually looks much more fast, fun and strategic than Cascadia.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

It's funny we have both, and never thought about them being similar, but the mechanics definitely are. Though I will say for us they don't feel similar at all despite their mechanics. We definitely like Cascadia better. The setup time VS weight of the game is a little too big in Overboss. Though we really like that game too. It's just very light

[@longtimeninerfan1309]

Cascadia is excellent and I’m so glad to have it in my collection. I have taught it and played it with many different persons.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Noice!

[@TheGatorDude]

You've intrigued me with Dice Miner, not a whole lot of positive reviews on it so I'll have to just read the rulebook at this point. Cheers

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Yeah we’ve seen it not get some great reviews which is kind of baffling to us. We absolutely love it

[@teejleague3838]

2021 was an especially interesting year, because a lot of games, people couldn't find until either really late in the year or the next year. I think I wound up trying Ark Nova in March '22. I feel like The Initiative sort of went under the radar, but it was fantastic for us.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Yeah there were definitely a handful that we didn’t get to play in 2021 itself. We’re gonna do a “best of 2021 revisited” list at the end of this year now that we’ve been able to play more of last years games

[@Sl1vers]

Mike and Nick, have you played the coop version of Ares Expedition? If so, thoughts?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Not yet! Forgot it existed! We will have to try it!

[@evannadeau3938]

Mayyyyyyybe an Ares Expedition YCST!? I saw a good deal on the game’s Collection edition with double layered boards and storage and I’m pretty interested

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We can definitely try to line that up for the early new year

[@nicholasblackburn1559]

I need Cascadia to be back in stock. I’ve been trying to get it for awhile now.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

I hope you find a copy soon and hope you enjoy it!

[@dandurkin9735]

Thank YOU for the levity the buoyed my 2021. I appreciate it. 2021 was mostly older games for me, which was fine with me (The Crew, Arnak, Monikers, Gingerbread House, Azul). Llamaland is indeed great fun (praise be, indeed!). Also, we enjoyed PWH's Snakessss - check it out. Here to a happy and healthy 2022 to you both!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Praise be!! Happy 2022 Dan!

[@dandurkin9735]

@Dr. D Thank you for your insight. It is considered a 2020 game. Best wishes.

[@dandurkin9735]

@Dr. D Yet which is old enough to not make a 2021 list. Happy New Year!

[@dandurkin9735]

@Dr. D Wonderful that we've come to a better understanding. What games would be on your list? Hope you had some great gaming new or old or older!

[@dandurkin9735]

@Dr. D Those are some awesome older games - enjoy!

[@JamesOrr1987]

always entertaining

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Well thank ya!

[@mrbastos]

I think skewing light is natural, because just getting people together is tough and getting people together who are into the heavier stuff specifically is tougher. Lighter stuff is easy to table even with non-gamers who happen to be gathered. Great list. Many of these I want to try.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Light games get to the table, just how it is

[@mrbastos]

@@TheBrothersMurph yup, a reason why most of my games are lighter with a handful of heavy stuff.

[@teejleague3838]

Riverside is super good. I first heard about it from Zee Garcia. Seems like a different game every time you play, too.

[@teejleague3838]

So Clover is so great. I've played it with friends with cognitive disabilities, pairing up if they are clue-giving, and they have absolutely LOVED it.

[@makaveli8233]

You guys have got to try Ark Nova when you get a chance! It’s sooooooo good.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We've been dying to play it!

[@Naledgeizpwr]

Regicide by Paul Abrahams, Luke Badger & Andy Richdale, was the best design of the year for me. Followed shortly by Whale Riders, by Reiner Knizia. There were a lot of designs I played that were fine, but those two were the standouts. I have not had a chance to play Nicaea, by Amabel Holland. I could see that one getting in there. I enjoyed Cryo, by Tom Jolly & Luke Laurie, as well as Mind MGMT, by Jay Cormier & Sen-Foong Lim, but have only played a few times. Dominant Species: Marine was solid, and I may end up picking up, even though I prefer the original. Primarily because it was Chad Jensen’s last design before he passed.

[@ashleighmiller2607]

Shadow Kingdoms of Valeria isn't on your list and seems to have become niche on Valeria fans, but it's really terrific IMO as an accessible but potentially crunchy game.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Ok cool! We’ll have to add it to our list of interest.

[@modlitwaSERCA]

CUBITOS is GREAT Board Game !@!

[@chaostheory3011]

Furnace kind of reminds me of raccoon tycoon a bit, which is also a super fun game if you like that one.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Ha! I weirdly understand that and agree!

[@kovray]

Love your list! Lots of commonalities with us!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Well we love Y'ALL!!! Yo let's do something together soon. Let's collab, we have some ideas for stuff

[@kovray]

@@TheBrothersMurph We’d be so happy to! Let’s chat!

[@grifter194]

Cascadia and The Crew all the way! Need to try Dice Miner!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

You do! It’s great!

[@AManoftheMeeple]

Got Llama Land for Christmas. Looking forward to playing it. Gotta give Dice Miner a go. Looks pretty cool!

[@corbinrasmussen]

Great list. You guys have similar likes and dislikes as myself, I appreciate the video. I’ll have to pick up some of the ones I don’t yet have.

[@marlonsantana21]

The number 1 ruined the whole list ;) nice video guys, thank you for the great content and the research.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We got you

[@Tristavillus]

Praise be to P.W.H.! Can we get your actual top ten, cross overs and all?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

PRAISE BE!!!!! And there actually wasn't too much true crossover, which is why we did two lists. I think I(Nick) took Khora, and Furnace off my list since Mikey had them

[@theshogunstein6475]

Whenever I am bored, I just solo dice miner, great game

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We've been really wanting try it solo!

[@Peejay1966]

Cascadia is a fine choice. I'll happily play this game any time.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

It's really outstanding

[@Peejay1966]

@@TheBrothersMurph it surely is.

[@paulhamrick3943]

Furnace rules! Your opinion is correct on this one!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Truth!

[@7DadJ0kes7]

@5:05 Just curious on why you don’t like 7 wonders.

[@paulhamrick3943]

There’s no accounting for bad taste hahahaha

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Honestly it's just not our game. It wants to be a gateway game, but the drafting and scoring make it too complicated. No shade towards the game, just not for me

[@7DadJ0kes7]

@@TheBrothersMurph totally get that! You guys are so fun to watch! Love the content, Always got me laughing with your personalities! @37:00 “It’s the same game 🎶 “ 😂 Thanks guys!

[@AndICanTalk2]

Praise be!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

PRAISE BE!

[@stevenamamoto585]

How many 2021 games did each of you play?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We had 30 on our list that we had to pare down. But that wasn't everything we had played from this year. Probably like 40-45 if I had to guess

[@Stolovky]

TM Aries expedition has almost nothing to do with the original game. It distilled it down to an abstract basically. Things you mention - awards, titles, area control - these were interaction elements, together with cards that referred to other people's cards/tags - Aries has close to none. I understand it needs to be like that because of simultaneous play, but it just does not work anymore... We played a 3 player game and I felt completely deserted and not caring what anyone is doing - and same for them.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Yeah I can understand if those interactive elements were key for you when playing TM that this version would be disappointing. For us we were never as interested in those parts of the game because we don’t mind multiplayer solitaire so the new one works great. I love that about games that what works for one person might absolutely not work for another

[@jcdc9437]

Thanks boyz, in 2022 here, it’s gonna be more like light games to have more fun, Ten and Dice Miner gonna take place in my kallax. 👌🤗👍. « Cascadia and the crew are already there 😉 »

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Yaaaaas good choices

[@snypergotya]

Wow no Lost Ruins of Arnak?

[@TheBrothersMurph]

That came out in 2020! We LOVE Lost Ruins, it was our #1 last year

[@snypergotya]

@@TheBrothersMurph OOOOF you are right! I guess the expansion threw me off. This is why you guys are the professionals! lol

[@glenfairen2996]

Can I be your best friend? Great reviews. :)

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Deal!

[@andrethannhauser6302]

Knowing that you play all kind out games, to me it's weird that you have so many light games, fillers and games with no theme at all in your top10 lists. I would have expected and liked at least 2 or 3 epic/heavier games each on your lists.

[@TheBrothersMurph]

We honestly didn't get to play that many of the new heavy games this year. We just never got a chance to. If we had a chance to play them we're relatively certain both Ark Nova and Boon Lake would have been on our list

[@modlitwaSERCA]

A tutaj moja Topka gier wydanych po polsku w 2021' kzbin.info/www/bejne/nnqlm2ybnL2Dask

[@Rhino1186]

PWH Praise be!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

🙌

[@paulhamrick3943]

Not gonna like, I get angry when I hear people diss 7 Wonders. Mofos, that is the best and most tense drafting game, period! Any dissenters have an irrational bias!!!!

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Ah you know different strokes for different folks

[@paulhamrick3943]

@@TheBrothersMurph Incorrect!

[@seansmith2650]

This list is mid

[@TheBrothersMurph]

Facts