Board Game Arena

Well, hello, I am relatively new on the site, I've played a few different games, but I have found many that there is nobody online to play with. I have not found an easy way to see where people gather, which games attract larger audiences and it's easier to find people to play against, so, any guidelines, any names to try? I enjoy real-time games but also turn-based stuff is cool.

If you click Games at the top, or in the drop down menu on mobile, you can scroll to the Popular list. That will tell you the most popular games in order.

Good suggestion, I just don't know how close to reality this list is, I mean, are there really many players on these games, or is it just the site trying to promote them, you know, I would prefer to see how many players are actively playing a game, at a glance. Another way I tried was on the forum just now, checking which games have many and recent threads and posts about them.

There used to be a literal list of games with the table count for each game, though perhaps you know this. It was removed to improve performance but unfortunately there is no way to see the exact numbers now.

And no, it's a basic sorted list that updates each day. The team doesn't have time to be nefarious and rig things.

GTSchemer wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 14:39 If you click Games at the top, or in the drop down menu on mobile, you can scroll to the Popular list. That will tell you the most popular games in order.

What is the metric being used because I find this hard to believe. Particularly for some games that I play. Captain flip is lower than living forest, the vale of eternity, and a few others that it is way harder for me to get games in. Captain flip has an expected wait of 1 min while lots of games ranked higher on the popularity list have 15min waits

If you favorite games you want to play, there is a way to see, which of those games have tables currently available.

Just go to "Play now" and at the top choose what kind of game-mode you want to play (Simple or Arena, Real-Time or Turn-Based).
Then the site will give you list of available tables.
Mine currently looks like this:


If you do not favorite any games you will be shown a selection of other games that you might like.

Edit: looks like you still can't insert images in forum posts ...

Thanks for the kind feedback everyone. I keep finding new cool games, yep!

Barberserk wrote: ↑08 May 2024, 13:59 Well, hello, I am relatively new on the site, I've played a few different games, but I have found many that there is nobody online to play with. I have not found an easy way to see where people gather, which games attract larger audiences and it's easier to find people to play against, so, any guidelines, any names to try? I enjoy real-time games but also turn-based stuff is cool.

If you're OK with turn-based games like you say, then you have the luxury of starting a table and just waiting for it to fill, even if it's not popular. Popular games (Azul, Wingspan, Ark Nova, Catan, etc.) will fill faster, of course.

Yeah I understand how turn-based works, I have played on *, a Risk clone, for 2 decades now, I believe. It is good to try new games!

*Moderator edit: please do not specifically name other gaming platforms