But we are particularly excited about the new genre of cooperative board games, where players work together to win the game, instead of competing with each other. Today we are taking a look at some of the best cooperative board games, that you can play alone or with a crowd in 2023.

Yet, co-op board games are a relatively recent innovation with most of them coming out recently. If you’re looking to buy your first cooperative board board game, or if you’re a co-op veteran, we ranked the best coop board games for you here.

I lean heavily into cooperative games that can't be alpha gamed and that reward replay. I generally prefer cooperative games that challenge just how well the team works together - the challenge is in the teamwork* and mind meld, so a lot of these are limited communication and/or real-time.

While traditional board games can get very competitive, cooperative board games get everyone working together instead of against one another. Some of the best cooperative board games even allow you to control the difficulty depending on who’s playing.