Card games are a big part of life. Whether you're young, old, or middle-aged, you've probably played some card games in your life. The thing with card games is that you might love them, or you might absolutely hate them. But you have to respect them due to the amount of skill it takes to become proficient in any type of card game. A lot of card games exist, but let's talk about the most popular card games.
Game of the Year 2017: Our top 10. The 50 best games of 2017; GOTY 2017: #1 The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild; View all 11 stories News Deathloop, the time loop shooter, now has a release date. Rewrite history as you build up your civilization in this epic card drafting game! 8.200 8.44 21887 7 Gaia Project (2017) Expand, research, upgrade, and settle the galaxy with one of 14 factions. Create the most prosperous winery in Italy from the Tuscan vineyard you've inherited. Serve guests and prepare rooms to be the best. The first round had 76 games that I included, plus another 30 games that were added by other users, a total of 106 card games. I have combined the results of all the rounds by weighting the rounds on the basis of number of and then worked out an overall score for each game.
Spades
We obviously had to include Spades in this list. Spades has been around for almost 100 years, but hit it's peak in the 90's. The game involves 4 players, with a deck of 52 cards. To begin, you deal 13 cards to each player and can place tricks (bets) throughout the game if you want to make it more interesting. Spades is one of those games where you can play at home, or you can play online. The object of the game is to take the smallest amount of tricks that were bid before the play of the current hand began. Spades is one of the most popular games in existence, and we also believe it's one of the most fun you can play
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Poker
Poker has been known as one of the biggest gambling games of all time. When you hear the word 'Poker', you immediately think of casinos, money, and beer. Many variations of Poker exist, allowing you to constantly mix up what style of play you want. Poker is also one of those games that can be easily played online, allowing you to show off your skill in front of as many people as you want. Poker has become so popular in the United States that it's almost viewed as a sport rather than a game. People really take this game seriously, and you can gain a lot of respect if you can show people that you're good at it.
War
War is one of the easiest games that you can play which involves zero skill whatsoever. All you need to play is 2 people with a 52 card deck. You then shuffle the deck, and disperse 26 cards to each player. Each player then lays down their card, starting a war with the opponent. The higher number wins, and at the end of the game, the player with the most cards has the game won! War isn't a big gambling game, and it probably wouldn't be too fun to play online, but if you'd like to play a few games you can still play War online here!
Rummy
Rummy is a very popular game throughout the entire world right now. It's very popular right now in India, and has been a huge gambling game here in the United States for quite some time. One of the best parts about playing Rummy is that you can play with as little as two players, and you only need one standard deck of cards to start playing. It's labeled a matching game, and requires some skill to get good at it. If you have good matching and memorization skills, you could make some good money online by playing with other people! Rummy is also considered one of the most addictive card games you can play, so consider yourself warned before you begin your addiction.
Gin (Rummy)
Gin, also known as Gin Rummy, is one of the most popular games you can play right now. All you need to play is just two players, with a single deck of 52 cards. It's related to Rummy, and all you need to be able to do is understand risk, matching, and have a good memory. Gin is also one of the most fun games you can gamble with. Gin is an older game, starting up in the 1800's here in the United States. It's come a long way, and has to be one of the most fun games you can play. If a card game has stuck around this long and still ranks as one of the most popular games you can play, you can be sure that it's a worthy game to start playing. If you'd like, you can learn even more about Gin Rummy by learning about the history of the game. The game reached it's peak in the 1930's and 40's, just after the Great Depression, and was commonly featured in Hollywood movies due to the popularity of the game itself. Gin Rummy's popularity slowly faded after Canasta became the prefered card game for the masses in the 50s.
Blackjack
Another large gambling game, Blackjack is one of those games that you just can't seem to get sick of. A lot of chance and luck is involved in the game, and you can play with up to 8 decks of cards and have to play with 2-6 players. Another common name for Blackjack is Twenty-One. You can learn more about the strategy of Blackjack here. One of the best parts about Blackjack is the competitive nature between the players and the dealer. This is one of the few games where you're not playing against the players, but rather the dealer himself! It's a large money-maker for casinos, but you could also end up winning big if you have yourself a big game. To get some practice in, you can even start playing online. Blackjack, like Gin, is also one of the oldest popular card games to date, being historically tabbed as long as 300 years ago in casinos in France.
Crazy Eights
Crazy Eights is a game that originated from Venezuela, it takes 52 cards and is a moderate challenge for newbies to learn if you've never played it before, due to the uniqueness of the game itself. Luckily, with the world we live in today you can easily learn the rules of the game and play with other people online to get some practice in. As we all know, practice makes perfect, so if you want to get good at this game then you've got to play against others online! Like all other games Crazy Eights has some pretty cool variations that you can try out as well. Variations seem to be the heart of most games, and can let you play with your own unique style!
Overview
From the games above, you shouldn't have a problem with any of them. If you're in it to learn a new game, then choose whatever one you think you'd enjoy the best. If you're in it to gamble, then you should probably learn Poker, Blackjack, or Gin. If you're in it to get lucky, you should choose a simple game like War. If you're in it to use some strategy and play with friends, then you should play Rummy, Crazy Eights, and Spades (however, Spades fits all categories).
By Andrew Hendricks
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2017 was a great year for tabletop games, and we spent a lot of time playing them. As usual, the board game release schedule is slanted heavily toward the latter months of the year, so we couldn't get absolutely everything we wanted to play to the table. This is doubly true for Eurogames, as the Spiel show in Essen, Germany, came even later in October than usual this year.
Most Popular Card Games 2019
That said, we love the list we came up with. Here, in no particular order, are our favorite games of the year. Be sure to let us know your favorites in the comments, and here's to another great year of cardboard, cubes, cards, and miniatures in 2018.
Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.
Gloomhaven
Isaac Childress, Cephalofair Games, 1-4 players, 90-150 minutes, age 12+
Currently unavailable
Arguably the biggest board game of the year, Gloomhaven rode a massive wave of hype to surf to the top of both the strategic and thematic 'top games' list on Board Game Geek. Gloomhaven finally made its way to Kickstarter backers earlier this year, and the response was so overwhelmingly positive that a second round of crowdfunding secured almost $4 million for its second printing.
But is it good? God, yes. Gloomhaven blows fresh air into the frankly stale campaign co-op dungeon-crawler genre by eschewing dice and instead letting players plan out their movement and attacks through ingenious cardplay. Eurogame-y strategic mechanics combine with sword and sorcery to make that holiest of holy games—a deep strategy title with an absorbing, immersive atmosphere. Legacy elements change the game as you play, and there is so much content crammed into its (gigantic) core box that it feels like a game that has seen years of expansions. A crowning achievement. Read our review here.—Aaron Zimmerman
Azul
Michael Kiesling, Plan B Games, 2-4 players, 30-45 minutes, 8+
$35 on Cardhaus
Azul will have to be in contention for next year's Spiel des Jahres gaming awards in Germany. The game defines 'elegance' with its minimal ruleset, gorgeous presentation, and speedy turns. It also turns out to be amazing fun—Azul is my most-played new game of 2017.
AdvertisementBased on Islamic-inspired Portuguese tiles called azulejos, this pure abstract involves collecting sets of similar tiles and slotting them into rows on your personal game board. When a row is completely filled, one of its tiles is moved over into the square pattern to the right, garnering bonuses depending on placement and for completing rows and columns. Turns are quick, and each set of tiles you grab creates both problems and opportunities for other players. Get tired of the base game and an advanced variant exists on the back side of the player boards. Michael Kiesling, creator of the criminally overlooked Sanssouci (among many other well-regarded designs), looks to have another hit on his hands.
—Nate Anderson
Spirit Island
Top 10 Games For 2017
R. Eric Reuss, Greater Than Games, 1-4 players, 90-120 minutes, age 13+
$59 on Amazon
Most Popular Video Game 2017
We first saw Spirit Island at this year's Gen Con, but, due to the game's limited availability, we were only recently able to get ahold of a copy. After a handful of sessions, I can report that I am head over heels for this game.
Spirit Island is like a co-op reverse-Catan that plays like a weird and wonderful mashup of Pandemic and Magic. Instead of playing as settlers building out villages and roads on a new island—a theme well-trod in board games—you take on the role of the elemental spirits charged with protecting the island's various landscapes from those pesky invaders, who are controlled by the game itself. The island's natives are there to help you fight back when they can, but it's mostly up to you and your teammates to destroy the settlers' nascent cities, remove the blight they introduce as they ravage your pristine lands, and gain more and better powers to help you on your way.
Gameplay is driven by cards, and as the game progresses, you'll get more and better powers and instill more and more fear into the invaders' hearts. Drive them off to win. In addition to its great theme, the game brings a ton of strategic depth. Whereas most co-op games tend to sit in the light-to-medium strategy level, Spirit Island is a meaty, heavy Euro. The game's eight spirits play wildly differently from each other, so replayability is very high. Look for our review soon.
AdvertisementVegas 2 web. —Aaron Zimmerman
Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
Rob Daviau & Matt Leacock, Z-Man Games, 2-4 players, 60 minutes, age 14+
$64 on Amazon
The sequel to the semi-official best board game of all time might not quite live up to the utter platonic perfection of its illustrious ancestor, but it's still a heck of a game. In short, you and three chums will work together to try to rekindle the embers of humanity 71 years after a torrent of deadly diseases swept the globe, in a familiar-but-different reimagination of the classic Pandemic ruleset. The legacy format should by now be familiar to most people, but it's what makes Season 2 so compelling: each round your group plays counts toward the story, so every loss or stroke of bad luck brings the planet closer to its plague-riddled end, while every victory snatched from the jaws of defeat unlocks another unexpected little bonus.
In all, you play 12 to 24 games representing the course of a year, with the board and your characters changing each time as you unlock stickers to represent growing or falling populations, new skills, or scars picked up in the line of duty. This time around, you start with a tiny playing area: the known world is the East Coast of the Americas and the west of Europe and Africa, plus the three mid-Atlantic safe havens from which players distribute dwindling stocks of supplies to keep the sickness at bay. As you go along and explore more of the world, you expand the play area and your horizons by literally sticking bits of the world to the board. Without giving the plot away, there is true pleasure in all the ways the designers let you unlock more goodies. Read our review here.—Tom Mendelsohn
Sagrada
Peter Wocken, Floodgate Games, 1-4 players, 20-40 minutes, age 14+
Currently unavailable
Best Games Of 2017
Constructing real stained-glass windows may or may not sound like a good time, but it's pure pleasure in the world of Sagrada. In this dice-drafting game, players take turns picking dice from a pool available each round, then slotting those dice into the 'window' they're constructing on a personal player board. The boards themselves dictate where certain dice can go—only red dice here, only 2s there—while the game has its own global placement rules.
The trick is combining these placement restrictions with the dice on offer in any given round to maximize points based on the four different scoring cards that shape each game (three of these cards are public, while the fourth is private to each player). Because this can be difficult, the game also offers 'tools' that can alter some of the rules—for a fee. Sagrada plays quickly, looks gorgeous on the table, and is a satisfyingly thinky experience with low rules overhead. Highly recommended for gamers who like solving gorgeous puzzles.
—Nate Anderson
