Playing board games is a fantastic way to spend quality time with friends and family, but it's also a rewarding activity when you're alone. Many modern board games are designed with solo play in mind, offering engaging single-player modes that cater to a variety of interests, from strategy to storytelling. Whether you're looking to unwind or challenge your mind, here are some of the best board games you can enjoy solo.
TL;DR: These are the Best Solo Board Games
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War Story: Occupied France
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Invincible: The Hero-Building Game
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Legacy of Yu
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Final Girl
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Dune Imperium
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Hadrian's Wall
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Imperium: Horizons
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Frosthaven
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Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition
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Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
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Under Falling Skies
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Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
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Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write
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Arkham Horror: The Card Game
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Cascadia
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Terraforming Mars
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Spirit Island
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Editor's Note: Although every board game on this list can be played alone, most of them can be played with up to four players. The only exception to this is Final Girl, which was designed to be a single-player game only.
War Story: Occupied France
War Story: Occupied France
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-6 Play Time: 45-60 mins
War Story: Occupied France offers a unique blend of choose-your-own-adventure and tactical wargaming. Set during World War II, you lead a team of secret agents behind enemy lines. The game unfolds through well-crafted text narratives, where your choices lead to thrilling espionage scenarios. These decisions come to life on miniature maps, where your team can execute daring ambushes against superior enemy forces. With multiple difficulty levels and scenarios that can be linked into a campaign, this game provides a rich, replayable solo experience. While it supports up to six players cooperatively, the solo mode truly amplifies the intensity of command.
Invincible: The Hero-Building Game
Invincible: The Hero-Building Game
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 45-90 mins
Inspired by the popular comic book and animated TV series, Invincible: The Hero-Building Game brings a fresh take on superheroism, complete with genuine peril and intense action. In this game, you guide young heroes learning to harness their powers, searching your hand for powerful combinations to enhance your characters. Balancing these upgrades with the urgent need to combat villains and rescue civilians adds depth to the gameplay. Each scenario connects to the TV show's storylines, allowing fans to relive favorite episodes. The game can also be played as a full campaign, offering a comprehensive solo experience.
Legacy of Yu
Legacy of Yu
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 12+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 60 mins
Legacy of Yu transports you to ancient China, where you play as Yu the Great, tasked with saving the kingdom from floods while fending off barbarian invasions. This game masterfully combines resource management and worker placement with narrative elements and military strategy. As you build canals and defend against barbarian incursions, you'll face strategic challenges, historical richness, and moral dilemmas, making for a deeply engaging solo experience.
Final Girl
Final Girl
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1 Play Time: 20-60 mins
Final Girl excels in the solo horror genre, creating a tense and thrilling experience. Designed for solo play, you take on the role of the last survivor in a horror story, managing your time between actions, playing cards, and drawing new ones. The game's modular design allows you to choose from various expansion sets, each based on classic horror movies. To play, you need both the core box and a Film Box, which offers scenarios tailored to your fears and favorite films. This game delivers a gripping narrative experience that is both challenging and rewarding.
Dune: Imperium
Dune Imperium
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 60-120 mins
Dune: Imperium, renowned for its strategic depth, includes a robust solo mode that allows you to face off against the automated opponent, House Hagal. This opponent effectively mimics the actions of a real player, challenging you to manage resources, control board space, and engage in battles. In solo play, you'll confront two of these opponents at varying difficulty levels, providing a satisfying challenge without needing additional players. Dive into our Dune: Imperium review for more insights.
Hadrian’s Wall
Hadrian's Wall
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 12+ Players: 1-6 Play Time: 60 mins
Hadrian’s Wall is an engaging flip-and-write game where you play as a Roman general, constructing defenses to repel Pictish invasions. The game shines in solo play, especially with the downloadable campaign that adds a dynamic, historical narrative. You'll manage resources and strategize to maximize your defensive efforts, making it a rich, solo-friendly experience that stands out in its genre.
Imperium: Horizons
Imperium: Horizons
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 40 mins/player
Imperium: Horizons brings a fresh twist to civilization-building games by integrating deck-building mechanics. Each civilization you choose comes with a unique starting deck and additional cards to enhance your strategy. Solo play is well-supported, challenging you to grow your civilization while managing complex economic and trading systems. With fourteen civilizations to explore, each requiring a different strategic approach, the game offers immense replay value and depth. Check out our hands-on review of Imperium Horizons for more details.
Frosthaven / Gloomhaven
Frosthaven
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 60-120 mins
Frosthaven is a grand fantasy adventure perfect for solo players. In this legacy-style game, you guide an adventurer through a vast world filled with dungeons and monsters. The card-driven tactical combat adds weight to each decision, as losing cards permanently impacts your strategy. The persistent world ensures a unique experience each time you play. If the scale and cost are too much for solo play, consider the more compact yet excellent Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. For more on the latter, check out our Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion review.
Mage Knight
Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-5 Play Time: 60+ mins
Mage Knight has become a benchmark for solo gaming since its 2011 release. This epic fantasy game by Vlaada Chvátil allows you to explore, fight monsters, and upgrade your character in a richly detailed world. It's ideal for long solo sessions, with each turn presenting a complex puzzle to solve. Plan to set aside ample time, as games can last over three hours.
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-8 Play Time: 90 mins
Step into the shoes of Sherlock Holmes in this mystery-solving game. With scenarios, maps, and props like a London map and newspapers, you'll hunt for clues and interview suspects. The game challenges you to navigate the city and solve mysteries with minimal guidance, offering a deeply immersive experience. For more mystery game recommendations, explore our picks for the best mystery board games.
Under Falling Skies
Under Falling Skies
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 12+ Players: 1+ Play Time: 20-40 mins
Under Falling Skies is a solo-only game inspired by Space Invaders. You must defend your base from descending alien ships by managing dice to shoot them down, build defenses, and research a solution. The game's mechanics, where higher dice yield better results but accelerate the alien descent, create a thrilling challenge. With various scenarios that can be combined into a campaign, this game offers endless replayability.
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 90-180 mins
Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island puts you in the shoes of shipwreck survivors facing a hostile island. With different characters to choose from, you'll scavenge for resources, build shelters, and explore dangerous locations. The solo variant allows you to control multiple characters, adding complexity and depth. The game's rich iconography might be overwhelming at first, but it rewards players with a compelling adventure. Explore the three available expansions for even more depth.
Dinosaur Island: Rawr N’ Write
Dinosaur Island: Rawr ‘n Write
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 10+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 30-45 mins
Dinosaur Island: Rawr N’ Write is a roll-and-write game that stands out for its depth and complexity. You'll manage dice rolls to gather resources and build a Jurassic World-style theme park. The game involves drawing buildings on a grid and managing tours, with the challenge of maintaining security to keep your tourists safe. For more insights, read our Dinosaur Island: Rawr 'n Write review.
Arkham Horror: the Card Game
Arkham Horror: The Card Game
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 60-120 mins
Arkham Horror: The Card Game offers a tense and immersive solo experience as you face cosmic horrors. The base game includes scenarios where you navigate locations to gather clues and advance the story while thwarting the Mythos deck. Your investigator's damage and weaknesses carry over between games, adding a thematic depth. This game is one of the best horror board games, perfect for solo play.
Cascadia
Cascadia
0See it at Walmart Age Range: 10+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 30-45 mins
Cascadia is a family-friendly game that also offers a rewarding solo experience. You build a nature reserve by choosing pairs of terrain tiles and animal tokens to meet scoring patterns. The game's solo mode is enhanced by a list of achievements in the rulebook, which challenge you to play with different setups and meet score thresholds. These challenges provide varied and satisfying goals. For more information, read our review of Cascadia.
Terraforming Mars
Terraforming Mars
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 12+ Players: 1-5 Play Time: 120 mins
Terraforming Mars challenges you to make the red planet habitable by managing resources and building a tableau of action cards. In solo mode, you race against time to meet end-game parameters, optimizing your actions to create powerful combos. This game offers a deep, engaging experience for those who enjoy strategic puzzles. Explore the available expansion scenarios for even more solo play options, making it one of the best solo experiences and adult board games.
Spirit Island
Spirit Island
0See it at Amazon Age Range: 14+ Players: 1-4 Play Time: 90-120 mins
Spirit Island is a cooperative game that excels in solo play. You control island spirits protecting your land from colonizers using power cards to destroy settlements and restore damaged land. The game's strong theme and strategic card play make it one of the most robust cooperative experiences, perfectly suited for solo enjoyment.
Solo Board Game FAQs
Is it weird to play board games alone?
Not at all! Solo board gaming has a rich history, with evidence of people enjoying games alone dating back centuries. For example, a 1697 French engraving shows a woman playing peg solitaire, indicating its popularity even among nobility. Similarly, the solitaire card game, which many have played on computers, originated in the late 1700s. Just as it's common to play video games alone, playing board games solo is no different. The enjoyment comes from mastering the game's challenges and improving your performance. Solo board games also offer visual and tactile pleasures, much like solving a jigsaw puzzle.
For more gaming options, check out our picks for the best party board games and the best deck-building card games.
