Top 20 Best Board Games for 7-8 Year Olds in 2024

There are so many great board games out there that it’s hard to know where to start. 7 – 8 year olds are just on the cusp of playing more grown-up games, so it can be tempting to try something a little more adventurous. This round-up of games includes a mix of lighter and more challenging games that should all work really well with kids this age.

Our top pick, though, is Kids Create Absurdity. It’s a fun and silly game, so it is the perfect antidote to how topsy-turvy the world has been lately.

Related post: Best Board Games for Teens [Top 18 in 2024]

Best Board Games for 7-8 Year Olds in 2024

Best Overall — Kids Create Absurdity

Kids Create Absurdity falls somewhere between apple to apples and cards against humanity. It’s silly and funny and is an ideal game to play as a family. As a parent, half the fun is laughing at your kids as they crack themselves up.

In each round, one player is the judge. They read a question card, and the rest of the players pick an answer from the cards to fill in the blank. The judge gets to pick which they think is the best answer. The first player to win 6 rounds wins the game.

There are over 350 answer cards, and they are mostly very silly. There are a few potty jokes, there’s nothing vulgar at all, but if you’re not a fan of fart jokes, then you can easily take those cards out and have plenty left to play with.

If you and your kids need a laugh playing this game is almost guaranteed to have your sides splitting by the end.

Best Game for Learning Coding and AI — Coder Mindz

Coder Mindz is a really great board game. It’s fun and interesting. The three different game modes mean that it has a lot of replayability. When you combine that with the different difficulty levels, you have a game where you can get the challenge level just right for whoever is playing.

The game is basically a race to the finish. As the difficulty increases, that challenge of getting there is added to by more preplanning and the need to pick up key items on the way to your destination. With a dice roll to add some luck and cards to disrupt your opponents, there are a lot of classic gameplay elements in this modern and up to date game.

While this is a fun game, it is also a really great game for teaching kids about the underlying ideas behind coding and AIs. This makes it both interesting and relevant. The teaching is done really well and is seamlessly integrated into the gameplay.

This is an excellent game for anyone who wants to give their kids a fun game and who may also have the ulterior motive of hoping they learn some useful skills!

Budget Option — Hasbro Gaming Guess Who

Guess Who is a classic game that has lasted because it’s simple and easy to learn. If you need a refresher, the game works by the players taking turns to ask each other yes-no questions. The aim is to whittle down the options in front of them and find the character their opponent picked.

It’s an awesome game because it teaches strategic thinking and logic skills. It’s also quick, portable, and fun.

Cooperative Games

Best Game for Children Who Like a Challenge — Peaceable Kingdom Space Escape

Space Escape is another Peaceable Kingdom cooperative board game. What makes this one stand out, though, is that there are so many ways to lose. As you might expect from a board game set in space, it’s relatively easy to die. The aim of the game is to help the mole rats escape their ship, which is being overrun by snakes.

The game board actually resembles chutes and ladders a little. Ladders help you go up ladders send you down. If you ride a chute too far down, you fall into space and die. Get bit by a snake twice, and you die. Let the snakes get to your escape pod, and you die. In fact, you have to work pretty hard to stay alive.

Once you’ve got the hang of the game. The next step is to add extra cards to the deck to make it even harder. This is an entertaining game and an excellent option for kids who like playing games that challenge them.

Best Game with Spells and Potions — Peaceable Kingdom Cauldron Quest 

Cauldron Quest is a great cooperative game that is based on saving the world from an evil wizard. In the game, players work together to try and brew the potion they need to stop the evil wizard.

The game relies on a mix of strategy and luck. All the actions are decided on a roll of the dice. It’s up to the players to determine how to use these actions to get them closer to brewing the potion they need.

This is a really easy to learn game that is interesting enough to keep kids and parents coming back to play it again and again.

Best Detective Game — Gamewright OutFoxed!

OutFoxed! is a really clever little game. It’s probably best suited to kids at the younger end of the age scale or ones who aren’t used to cooperative games. It’s also a good choice for kids with younger siblings.

In this game, all the players are working together to uncover who stole the pie. It’s a different thief every time, so this board game is really replayable. The game uses a clever decoder to identify if the culprit has certain items of clothing on them or not. This lets you narrow your suspects until you find the thief.

However, with every move you make, the thief gets closer to making a clean getaway. So you need to work together to gather clues and suspects. This is a fun and clever game that is great for helping kids to practice their teamwork. It’s also one that won’t drive you nuts to play over and over.

Skill Games

Best Flicking Board Game — Brain Games IceCool

IceCool is an awesome flicking game. That means that to play the game, you flick your piece around the board in order to try and get to where you need to be. This is a little different from other flicking games because the pieces followed curved paths, and you can make them jump over walls.

This makes a really nice family game because the chances are that the children in the family are going to get good, a lot faster than the parents. This truly is a game of skill, and the more you play, the better you get and maneuvering your penguin around the board.

Another nice feature of this game is that you build the 3D game board from the box. It’s quite a cool thing to see and do and is definitely unusual. This is a fun and quirky game that could be one of the best board games on this list for family gaming fun.

Best Active Game — Fat Brain Toys Ribbon Ninja

Ribbon Ninja might not be a game that fits everyone’s definition of a board game, but it’s fun and a great choice for kids ages 7 -8, which is why it found a place on my list.

Ribbon Ninja is a great game for helping kids to get some of their energy out and competitive spirit out. The way it works is that players put on two velcro wrist bands. They then attach one ribbon to each wrist band using velcro. The aim is to keep your ribbons while removing your opponents. The last ninja with a ribbon wins.

To even things up, kids start with their fits all in the center. This means that everyone should be in the range of the other players. They then have to keep one foot glued to the floor while they try to dodge and grab.

It’s a quick and fun game that’s great for players of all ages.

Best Game for Quick Hands — Bananagrams Cobra Paw

Cobra Paw is a really fun and neat game. It’s a good game for family game night as it’s easy to learn, and you don’t get any real advantage with age!

Play is really simple. Players take turns to roll the two dice. The symbols on the dice will correspond to one of the pieces. The first person to grab that piece wins it. The first player with 6 pieces wins the game.

This is a fast-paced boredom-busting game. Every player is playing in every round, so there’s no waiting for someone else to go. This keeps the whole group engaged and having fun. This is a great game to help kids to learn how to focus. It really is a game of skill, so practice helps you get better.

Strategy Games

Best Dice Rolling Game — Gamelyn Games Tiny Epic Galaxies

Tiny Epic Galaxies is probably the most complicated game on this list. It is totally within the ability of most 7-8 year olds to play and enjoy this game. But, if you’re just introducing board games to your kids, this probably shouldn’t be the first one.

This game works with a dice rolling mechanic. Each player controls an empire, and the stronger their empire, the more dice they roll. You earn victory points for gaining more control of the galaxy and completing secret objectives. You win the game by being the first to get 21 points.

Even though there is a lot of dice rolling, it’s really a strategy game. The decisions you make decide your fate. There are a lot of options, so it can be a good idea to have a time limit on making moves. If you overthink this game, it loses some of its charms.

This game is a great stepping stone to more complex games. It’s also really fun and a little different from other games that children this age will have come across.

Best Pirate Game — Catan Junior

Catan Junior is a much-simplified version of the much-loved Settlers of Catan. It has a lot of the same features and mechanics, but they’ve been trimmed down, so the game is a much shorter and more enjoyable length for younger kids.

In this version, you are racing to be the first to build 6 pirate hideouts. You still collect resources by rolling the dice, so there is still a large element of luck. However, the simplified marketplace with one to one trades makes this really accessible and evens out a lot of the random chance.

There is an alternate board for 2 player games, so you don’t need to get the whole family involved to play. This is a great introduction to grown-up board games and makes Catan into a game that both younger and older kids will enjoy playing.

Best Easy to Learn Strategy Game — Mattel Games Blokus

Blokus is a really simple concept. You can only place your tiles so that they touch the corners of the same color tiles, no faces. When no more tiles can be placed, the player with the least left wins the game.

This is a great strategy game because it’s so simple to pick up. It’s fun and will really help your child to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills. The challenge of this game is to not only think about your next move but your opponents as well.

Brain Games

Best Top Trumps Style Game — The World Game

The World Game is the perfect game for kids who love facts. The basic game is a top trumps style game. You compete using facts about the country, and the person with the bigger number wins. However, you can also challenge other players by getting them to identify the flags of a country or tell you which continent it’s on.

This is a great game for kids who like to learn. You will find yourself absorbing an astonishing amount of information while you play this game. It’s also fun and interesting. This is the perfect gift for any budding trivia fans.

Best for Dino Fans — Happy Little Dinosaurs

Everyone either has or knows a kid who’s crazy about dinosaurs. Well, this board game is a perfect gift for those kids!

Happy Little Dinosaurs is about trying to avoid all kinds of disasters. And it’s not just about meteors! There are all kinds of disasters, ranging from natural calamities to small accidents like getting trapped under a tree trunk or getting stomped by a bigger dinosaur, or even silly things like getting attacked by a killer squirrel or having a bad hair day. Whenever you dodge a disaster, you’ll get points.

But it’s not like everything in this game is pure luck (or lack thereof). You’ll also have point cards that can really help you weather a storm. For example, you may get a card that acts like disaster insurance.

The winner is either the first player who collects 50 points, or the last dino standing. That means, alas, that all other dinos have died. But at least one of them manages to survive – way to go, dinosaurs!

Best Geography Game — Byron’s Games Continent Race

Continent Race is a really fun game. It’s a card set collecting game based around the continents of the world. A set is made up of 4 countries from the continent. The winner is the first to collect all five continents.

There are wild cards to make things easier and challenges to make things harder once kids have a handle on things. To make it easy when you’re just starting out, all the cards are color coded, so no prior knowledge is needed at all. Plus, with the flags on the cards, it’s a really great way to expand your child’s horizons and world knowledge.

Kids in the US are notoriously bad at world geography. This is a fun way to help them engage with the wider world and know where in the world all the countries they might have heard of actually are.

Card Games

Best Unpredictable Card Game — Hot Taco: Taco vs Burrito

Taco vs Burrito is a really fun and surprisingly strategic board game. Your aim is to collect 5 ingredients for your burrito that will net you the most points. However, there are all sorts of action cards that will disrupt play and make things highly unpredictable.

There are five different ways to play this game, so it stays fresh and fun. The card art is cute and funny, and the whole premise is light hearted and fun.

This is a game that the whole family can enjoy because it’s really easy to learn, but there are hidden strategic depths as well. When you add unpredictable kids to the unpredictable gameplay, it’s a real rollercoaster of a game.

Best Supercharged Classic Game — Mattel Games Uno Showdown

Uno Showdown takes the classic Uno game and throws in a little bit of extra excitement. All the classic rules of Uno still apply, but there is now a new type of card in the deck as well.

The new cards are showdown cards. They ask you to put a specific number of cards into the card shooter. Two players then face off in a battle of reactions. The shooter will countdown and, at a random interval, will tell the players to go. The first player to hit their paddle shoots the cards into the air for their opponent to take.

This is a great addition to an already fun game. It’s silly, fun, and genuinely adds a new element to the game. It gives players another way to foil someone who is about to win, even if they aren’t sitting directly next to them. This is a great way to minimize the effects of turn order on the game.

Best Social Card Game — Dolphin Hat Games Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is a really simple card game to learn. All the players start with a hand of cards, face down. They then take turns to put them in the middle. As they do, they say the words taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza. If the word they say matches the card, all players have to get their hand on the deck. The aim is not to be last.

There are also cards that require you to do an action before you slap the deck. These are the gorilla, narwhal, and groundhog cards.

This is a really fun and silly game that is quick to learn. As it’s a card game, it’s also really portable, making it an ideal game to take out and about.

2 Player Games

Best Competitive Puzzle Game — University Games Rubik’s Race

Rubik’s Race is an enjoyable puzzle game. Players shake up a puzzle box to get a unique pattern. They then race against each other to slide their pieces around their game board. The aim is to be the first player to copy the design. Once you have made the pattern in the center of your board, you slam down the center piece to frame your victory.

This is a fun and highly competitive game. The bright colors make it look attractive, and there is nothing quite as satisfying as slamming down the divider when you’ve finished.

The only downside to this game is that the pieces you slide around aren’t fitted into the board. This means they can come loose and get lost. You might want to invest in a bag to keep them in, so none are lost.

Best Strategy Game for Two Players — Tyto Games Elementos

Elementos is an interesting board game that is definitely in the style of older board games. If you think of games like chess and backgammon, you think of wooden boards and pieces that fold out for play. That’s what you get with this game. It looks and feels sleek and grownup.

Like chess, you’re playing white vs. black, and you can take your opponent’s pieces of the board. Like ‘Rock, Paper, Scissors,’ you need to have the right ‘element’ to beat your opponent’s piece.

This game is a nice introduction to one on one strategy games. It would make a good stepping stone to more traditional games like Go and Chess.

What to Consider When Buying a Board Game for 7-8 Year Olds

Difficulty

Getting the difficulty level right on a game for kids of this age is really important. They are often capable of more than you might think but can be short on patience. If the child you’re buying for is new to board games, it’s a good idea to start with something more simple while they learn how to play.

With experience, you can challenge your kids with more complex games. Remember that the age on the box is for guidance, and no one knows your kids as well as you do.

Length

Kids in this age range can have a wide range of attention spans. It’s a good idea to choose a game that’s not going to exceed their ability to stay focused. For most kids this age, 30-40 mins is a reasonable upper limit to aim for if you’re unsure.

Appearance

The look of the box and the game will affect if your child will even want to try a new board game. 7 year olds make up their minds quickly, so try to pick a game that has a look your child will like.

Theme

Some themes will appeal to some kids more than others. There are plenty of options on this list to choose from. If you can, try to match the game to your kids’ interests. That will make them much more likely to engage with the game and get excited about playing it.

Type of Game

There are lots of different types of games to choose from. It can be worth considering what kind of games your child already likes. They may already have a favorite kind, or you might want to introduce a new style of game. We’ve split the games in our list into game types to help you find the best board game for your kids.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do board games make good gifts for 7 year olds?

7 year olds love to play, and board games are a great opportunity for them to play with both their family and friends. They are also a great opportunity for kids to practice the skills they need to succeed at school while having fun.

Board games for kids offer a screen free activity, so it can be a good option as a lot of parents worry about this. They are fun, educational, and are certainly a great gift option.

What are the best board games for 7 year olds?

The best board games for kids are the ones that they are excited to get out of the box. A good thing to look for are games that you’ll be willing to play with them over and over. At this age, kids still like repetition, so if they enjoy a game, you should expect to play it over and over.

What is the best family board game?

There are lots of games that are good to play for a family game night. Good family games should work with the number of people in your family. They should also be accessible to everyone in your family.

From our list of games, ICECOOL is an especially good choice because it’s easy to learn and is a very flexible game. Kids Create Absurdity and Ribbon Ninja are also good options as they work well with larger groups. It’s about finding something that suits your family’s dynamic.

Last update on 2024-09-14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API