Forget Candy Crush, Fifa and Call of Duty – millennials are putting down their Xbox controllers and smartphones and picking up their dice as they embrace games their parents and grandparents used to love.
More and more people are exchanging marathon gaming sessions alone in a darkened room for the social fun of board games. With bars and cafes such as Thirsty Meeples in Oxford, and Draughts in London having a library of more than 800 games catering for the “cocktails and Cluedo” set, board games – as with colouring books – are no longer just Christmas presents for children.
Early next month tens of thousands of enthusiasts will descend on Birmingham NEC for the UK Games Expo, the third-largest hobby and games convention in the world. The event, in its 12th year, caters for all aspects of tabletop gaming, from classic board games such as Monopoly, Scrabble and Cluedo to Warhammer and trading card games.
Tony Hyams, director of UK Games Expo, says: “The event started in 2007, right in the teeth of the financial meltdown. We assumed it would struggle and were prepared for it to just a be a little local show. The first year we had 1,200 attendees over the two days. This year we are expecting closer to 40,000 over three days.
“We knew that people didn’t have much money, and we just wanted a great weekend. We kept prices as low as we could and packed as much fun in as possible. This seems to be a winning formula for everyone.”
He adds: “We have seen a real growth of interest in board games over the past 10 years.
“While the internet is a great thing, sitting down and playing with friends and family is becoming increasingly important. Having time away from our phones and computers where we can talk, play and enjoy time together is something board games let us do.”
Purchasing a tabletop game, as Hymas notes, “makes good financial sense”. Computer gaming on games consoles or even mobile phones is no longer a “pay-once” situation. In comparison with in-app or in-game purchases, self-contained board games with no extras required seem more appealing. Makers of electronic games have faced outrage from fans over their reliance on in-game purchases for titles such as Fifa 18 or Star Wars Battlefront II, which can take the already high cost of the games to an astronomical level.
This is one of the reasons why an increasing number of games are moving from the console to the table top. The post-second world war “atompunk” role-playing game Fallout 4 generated $750m in the first 24 hours after its launch but now there has been enough appetite to make it into a board game alongside classic video games such as Doom.
They are part of a trend – from books to vinyl, there is evidence of growing interest in the “real thing” rather than the digital versions. It is also an interest that can be shared across generations.
Elsa Tarring, 17, says: “In our house, we only have two remote controls for the Wii, so you can’t play with a big group of people, whereas with a board game you can. And adults are often useless with technology, so you can play a board game with them and no one is excluded.”
The tabletop gaming industry looked to be on the wane in 2015, when companies such as Games Workshop, which makes Warhammer fantasy models, were struggling financially. However, profits have since increased as more people move away from screens and towards human interaction in gaming.
Jonathan Berkowitz, of Hasbro Gaming, says: “The gaming industry is doing very well right now. We’re continuing to see popularity grow for all types of face-to-face games. With classic favourites such as Monopoly and Game of Life and new, social games such as Chow Crown and Don’t Lose Your Cool we are confident this momentum will continue.”