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20 Brilliant Board Games for Tweens

boys playing a board game

If there is a game your kids will never outgrow, it’s family board games.

Family board games never get old, but they are a lot more fun – and complicated – as your kids grow into tweens! To ensure our tweens never get bored, we are always looking to renew our board game collection – mixing classics from our childhoods with new and innovative games that appeal to the 9 to 12-year-old age group.

When you’re ready for your tweens to put down their tech, there’s nothing better than a family board game night to reconnect and unwind. Board games teach your tweens skills, including cooperation, strategy, patience, and sportsmanship.

Board games come in handy and can be played on those cold rainy days, during a summer camp or in a vacation home, while having friends over, when hosting birthdays, and the best time when your tweens are bored and you’ve ruled strictly no screens are allowed!

Whether it’s a classic board game or a new sensation that perfectly appeals to the pre-teen age group, we’re never too young to join in with our tweens when it comes to board game fun.

Best Board Games For Tweens

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While the choice of board games on the market can be overwhelming, we have researched for ones that will appeal to your tweens and the whole family. Though we cannot possibly list them all, here are some of the hottest this year worth adding to your collection.

1. Not Parent Approved

A card game that is sure to leave your kids laughing for hours and starts with a belching contest. It is played by 4-10 players, allowing your tweens to play their age, and is easy to learn.

The selected leader draws a question card, and the players answer by putting down a red card. The leader reads the answer cards and selects the best answer. It is a fun interactive game for your tweens, best played with peers.


2. Ticket To Ride

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Ticket to Ride is a fun game of strategy that can be played by two to five players and takes 30-60 minutes. It is a simple, fun, and challenging gameplay that teaches geography, as it involves creating train routes across America to get to your city.

The longer your routes, the more points you earn, provided you make it to your final destination.


3. Sequence

SEQUENCE- Original SEQUENCE Game with Folding Board, Cards and Chips by Jax ( Packaging may Vary ) White, 10.3

Sequence is an exciting, thinking, and strategy game that is easy enough for kids and challenging enough for adults. It is fantastic when played in teams or just two players.

In this addictive game, players need to think ahead of their opponents to create a sequence of chips. Play a card, then place a chip on a corresponding space on the game board; it is a sequence when you make five in a row!


4. Jenga

While this game is not truly a board game as it does not involve any board, we still feel it sits well in this category. It’s a fun game with most tweens as it gets them to play together, which they love. It includes 54 Jenga hardwood blocks, stacking sleeve with instructions.

You start the game by building the Jenga tower and then take turns by pulling out the blocks while trying not to topple the tower. It helps your tween learn engineering skills, focus, risk-taking, and battle nerves while having fun. With such simple rules, it’s great for a mixed-age family group.


5. Beat the Parents

Beat The Parent is a game that allows your tween what they look forward to: go head to head with you and beat you while at it! This game is played by two or more players where the kids answer stuff that adults should know and adults answer kiddy stuff.

It has bonus or burst tokens that either push you ahead or sends you back. It includes one game board,110 cards, four movers, six tokens, and an easy-to-follow instruction card.


6. Loaded Questions

Loaded Questions is one of the best board games for families. It features 880 new and classic loaded questions where the chosen one reads questions corresponding to the color space on the game board, and everyone writes down their answer and gives it (the answer) to the reader of the question.

The one with the answers then has to guess who answered what. It is a fun “get to know you better” game.


7. Catan

Catan is an oldie but a goldie in board game collections. An addictively fun and strategic game that plays with 3-4 players and runs for an average of 60 minutes.

Catan is a building board game that challenges players to harvest and trade resources as it grows in complexity. Players use resources at their disposal to build new settlements on the island of Catan. Players get to barter and trade for resources to further their development. It is one of the ideal games to play with tweens who love strategy.


8. Kids Against Maturity

Kids Against Maturity is one of the fun tween board games. It is a simple and easy-to-start card game that is lighthearted and sure to leave your tweens in stitches. It is the kid’s version of Cards Against Humanity where each player takes turns to judge who can best complete the sentence of their blue card with their ten white cards.

The judge determines which card completes the sentence in the funniest and whoever matches the cards wins. It includes 500 questions and answer cards.


9. Spontuneous

Spontuneous is some side-splitting fun for those who love their tunes. One of the best board games for tween girls, though it might also appeal to your tween boy.

It is a fun game with simple rules where each player writes down several trigger words on their hit list. When it is your time, you announce a trigger word from your list and flip the timer. Everyone races to be the first to sing out any song containing that word (but you have to sing at least five words before the trigger word) and gets to advance on the board.


10. Telestrations

Telestrations 80s/90s Expansion Pack | Featuring 600 Totally Awesome Words, Phrases, and References | Great New Addition to Telestrations Party Game

Telestrations is a classic Board game that your tweens will love as it is hilarious and showcases everyone’s drawing and guessing skills. It is more like the old game of “telephone” but with pictures. In this game, each player gets a dry-erase sketchbook and a word that must be drawn.

There is a timer, and when it starts, the player attempts to draw a picture of their word. When it stops, the sketchbook gets passed on to the next player tries to guess what the image is. They write their guess down in words, then pass the book to the next player who has to draw the guess in a picture and give the book to the next player.

The game continues until your original sketchbook gets passed back to you for the big reveal. It includes 1700 words, eight erasable sketchbooks(played by eight people), eight dry eraser makers, and eight clean-up cloths.


11. Pandemic

Are you looking for a strategic family game to play? This pandemic card game is the real deal. It is an easy-to-learn board game that two to four players can play.

Players have to work together with their co-gamers to stop the spread of a disease before it takes over the world. Your team must unite and plan carefully to stem the tide of infection while finding cures. It is a genuinely cooperative and strategic game where you win or lose together.


12. Forbidden Island

Forbidden Island is a strategic board game that will help your tween learn problem-solving and teamwork. It is a 30-minutes game that 2-4 players play.

It involves lots of collaborations with adventurous do-or-die missions to capture four sacred treasures from the ruins of this perilous paradise. It is a fun game for tweens who love a good thinking game.


13. Apples to Apples

This game qualifies as one of the good games for tweens played by 4-10 players. It is a family-friendly game that entertains tweens for hours. It includes 504 green and red cards, with the green cards, has two clues per card and the red ones one per card.

You match up words and phrases that best describe the topic at hand to collect as many green apple cards as possible.


14. Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens is a good game for families. And, no, there are no animals to be harmed as the name might suggest! It is a party game for families that are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats.

The whole objective of the game is not to draw an exploding kitten card as it is a game of chance. The game is over once you draw an exploding kitten card, and the last person standing wins. It is played by 2-5 players and runs for 15 minutes, great for when you want a rapid-fire family board game.


15. Unstable Unicorns

Unstable Unicorns is one of the best tween girl games as it has unbelievably adorable cards. It is a strategic card game that will destroy your friendship but in a good way. The premise of the game is to build an army of unicorns before anyone else. You get to use magic and other kinds of cards to prevent your opponents from building armies of their own.


16. Yatzee

A classic board game that involves dice-rolling battles. Yatzee card game includes five dice, a shaker, and 100 scorecards. You’ll take a type of each card to play the game and place them face down on the table. Then shuffle the cards and put six of them face down on the table. Shuffle the dice cards and give each player one card facedown. The draw pile is formed by the rest of the dice cards. You can pick a player to start the game.


17. Codenames

Codenames is a super simple game that promises hours of fun. It is one of the good games for families. It is a guessing game involving stealth, strategy, and the ability to work well in two or more groups. It includes one-time, one rule book, 40 key cards, one card stand, one assassin card, one double agent card, seven innocent bystander cards, 16 agent cards in two colors, and 200 cards with 400 code names.

The objective of the game is for two rival spymasters to have the identities of 25 secret agents. The other players only know the code names and must guess the actual identities. Using clues and reasoning, the team that guesses all the names first wins.


18. 7 Wonders

If you are looking for a good boy board game, then the seven wonders it is. It is an easy-to-learn game, with skills getting more complex as you progress. In this game, each player becomes a leader in one of the seven ancient cities of the world.

This player must build the city with architectural structures that withstand time and war. You use Cards and games to build the cities. The winner is the one who has the most points, amassed by their cards and battle conflicts.


19. Azul

This new board game is a tile-placement game in which players become artisans tasked with creating the most beautiful tiled mosaics.

Players have a choice of tiles to choose to complete their designs, whereby they can select tiles specifically to take from other designs, pushing them in the lead. The player with the most points in their tile designs at the end wins the game. This game not only challenges players to think critically and strategize, but it is also beautiful.


20. Scrabble

Classic games like scrabble never go out of style. It is a fun tween game involving word building and is perfect for building vocabulary, spelling, and language skills.

It includes one game board,100 wooden letter tiles, four tile racks, one drawstring bag, and a game guide.


Breaking out the board games is a great way to bring the family together. And whilst they’re having fun, your tweens may not even realize they are working on their problem solving, teamwork and critical thinking skills that they will undoubtedly use later in life.

Let us know below which one of the above-board games is your tween’s most beloved – or do you have a classic favorite you’ve now passed on to your kids?

Dive into our full collection of tween gift guides, including:

Boy Gifts 9-years-old
Boy Gifts 10-years-old
Boy Gifts 11-years-old
Boy Gifts 12-years-old
Tween Parent | Family Lifestyle Blog

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