Even if you’re just two people, there are plenty of board games that you can play together to pass the time. While many board games require three or more players, these board games are perfect for just two players! Whether you’re a couple or a couple of best friends, these are the best two player board games you should play.
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COOPERATIVE TWO PLAYER BOARD GAMES
Not feeling very competitive? There are tons of cooperative board games for just two players, meaning you and the other player will be on the same “team” throughout the game and working towards the same goals. The games listed below are all coop games that play super smoothly with just two players!
1. PANDEMIC
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An iconic board game that has become all too real in recent years, Pandemic is an awesome coop game. While you can play with up to four players, the game works very well with just 2 players. In this board game, you and the other player will work together to cure four deadly diseases that are threatening the globe. You and your partner can choose between seven game roles, each with different abilities: Dispatcher, scientist, medic researcher, contingency planner, quarantine specialist, and operations expert.
This game is quite strategic and requires a lot of teamwork to be successful, but it is honestly one of my favorite board games of all time!
2. CODENAMES DUET
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A two-player version of a timeless classic, Codenames Duet is another coop board game. If you have played the standard Codenames game, then you are in luck! Codenames Duet is pretty much the same, except it is designed for just two players.
The main difference between Codenames Duet and standard Codenames is that in the Duet version, all players are on the same team and working to uncover agents and avoid killing bystanders from the same board. The “keycards” in Codenames Duet are double sides, and you should place it directly between each player as the agents you and your teammate are trying to uncover will be different from one another.
3. FORBIDDEN ISLAND
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Forbidden Island is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated coop games. This strategic board game is very unique and fun to play with just two players. The premise of Forbidden Island is that you and your teammate venture to a quickly sinking island in search of 4 lost treasures. You must work together to collect all of the treasures and escape on a helicopter before the island sinks beneath the sea.
You’ll be forced to think differently and approach each turn with a creative approach to this game. If you and a friend are looking for a new and fun coop board game to play, I highly suggest checking out Forbidden Island!
4. HORRIFIED
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Calling all horror movie buffs! Horrified takes you and your teammate into the horror realm, where you will have to fight and evade the various monsters that are attacking your village. There are different tasks you and your teammate will need to do to defeat each monster in Horrified. Each turn is divided into the Hero Phase and the Monster Phase. There are a lot of moving parts to this two-player game, but it is relatively easy to learn and is a really awesome choice if you want something strategic, engaging, and frankly a bit terrifying!
5. SHERLOCK HOLMES CONSULTING DETECTIVE
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Are you a big Sherlock Holmes fan? Or perhaps just a big fan of mystery games like Clue? In that case, you might love playing Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective. In this game, you will be walking down the streets of Victorian London with Sherlock in order to solve mysteries. This board game includes ten different cases, where you can either play solo or up to 8 people, making it a great two-player board game. This is a relatively challenging game that will really test your deductive skills as you follow clues and make connections – just like Sherlock Holmes!
6. ARKHAM HORROR
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One of the best cooperative board games for two players is none other than the famous Arkham Horror. As you might be able to guess from the game’s name, in Arkham, there’s something evil lurking, and you’ll need to stop it! To play, choose from 16 Investigators, and you’ll work together to prevent one of the Ancient Ones from breaking in. In this game, you’ll fight a variety of different monsters while closing the gates to other dimensions that keep opening up! And if too many gates open, the Ancient One will awake, leading to a final battle in this New England town.
7. HARRY POTTER HOGWARTS BATTLE
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Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is the board game to get if you are a big Potterhead. This is one of the best deck-building games out there. If you’re not familiar with deck-building games, in this type of game, the cards are the main element of the game. Unlike most other deck-building games, Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle is cooperative. So, no need to worry about being competitive.
In this super fun deck-building board game, 2 to 4 players work together as Harry, Ron, Hermione, or Neville to build a deck of spells, potions, items, and other characters to defeat villains that threaten Hogwarts!
8. MARVEL LEGENDARY
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Of course, no list of the best two player cooperative board games is complete without mention of Marvel Legendary. This is the best board game to play if you’re a superhero fan, as you hero players will work together to defeat the villain four times before the time is up! While Marvel Lengedary is a cooperative board game, players do gain victory points throughout play, and the player with the most points wins the title of most legendary hero! But you’ll still work together to stop the mastermind.
To play, you’ll recruit hero cards to add to your deck by building recruitment powers and fighting ability throughout the course of the game.
9. SPIRIT ISLAND
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While anywhere between 1 and 4 players can play, Spirit Island is best played with 2 players. In this cooperative board game for two players, you defend your island from colonizers. Each player plays a different spirit of the island, with each spirit boasting a power. There are a few different bad guys to choose from, such as a Swedish Mining Colony, and each plays differently. So, you can play a game that challenges you differently each time!
Spirit Island is a relatively complex game that involves playing power cards, gaining energy, spreading presence, and so much more. Try your best to destroy all the settlements and cities on the board to protect your island!
EASY TWO PLAYER GAMES
Looking for a relatively easy game to play with one other person? We’ve got you covered with these easy two player games that anyone can play.
10. THE FOX IN THE FOREST
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Are you a big fan of trick-taking games? Who isn’t? The Fox in the Forest is the ideal trick-taking game for just two players. You play this game just like a normal trick-taking card game like Bridge or Spades. That means, in each round, you must aim to win a trick by laying down a higher value card or the trump suit. However, this game does come with a bit of a twist! Even if you lose a trick, there are some special cards in the deck, such as the Fox or the Witch, that can help you change the trump suit! Score points according to how many tricks you win, and the first player to get to 21 points wins the game.
11. JAIPUR
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One of the top two-player board games is Jaipur. The two players play the two most powerful traders in the city, but to win the game, you’ve got to win two seals of excellence in order to be invited to the Maharaja’s court – a huge honor! So, try to beat the other player by buying, exchanging, and selling, and become the best trader in the entire city! But while you’re doing all that, keep an eye on your camels. The camels may not have value, but they are imperative for trading.
To play, you take turns taking or selling cards, using a combination of luck and skill to eventually win the game.
12. CASCADIA
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Cascadia is an incredibly simple board game that you can learn in just 2 minutes. If you’re a big fan of puzzles, this is the board game for you! To play this game, you take turns building your area and attracting wildlife. On each turn, you choose a habitat tile which is paired with a random wildlife token. You’re going to want to place these tiles in a way that you can match the terrain and keep the wildlife happy. For example, hawks don’t want to be placed with other hawks, while bears will want to be in pairs. This strategy board game will really make you think about how to puzzle the pieces together as you expand.
13. CARCASSONE
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Carcassone is a board game that you can play with up to 5 players but is playable by just 2. While this game may look complicated at first glance, the rules are incredibly intuitive, and you should be able to pick it up in a matter of minutes. In this tile-placement game, players draw and place tiles that make up a French landscape. Place the tiles in a way that makes sense by connecting cities to cities and roads to roads. Then, once you place a tile, you can place one of your meeples on it to eventually score points for a completed area!
14. NOVA LUNA
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An award-winning short game, Nova Luna is all about new beginnings and the future. In this tile-laying game, you place a new tile from the moon wheel in front of you, with each tile giving you a new task you must complete. As you complete your tasks, place a marker on each one. The first player to successfully place all their markers wins the game! While playing, you’ll really need to implement strategy in order to solve the tasks one by one.
15. TICKET TO RIDE
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An absolute classic board game, Ticket to Ride is a two-player board game we can’t do without in this list of the best two player board games. This game is all about strategy and power. An elegantly simple board game, in Ticket to Ride, players compete to create railway routes across North America. As you collect and play train cards in order to connect the cities across the continent, you will be able to gain more points. There are bonus points to be won as well, so don’t discard those, as they may help you win the long game!
16. PATCHWORK
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Patchwork is a board game specifically made with two players in mind. Are you up for a quilting puzzle challenge? In this incredibly visual board game, you and one other player will compete to create the most stunning quilt on your game boards. Players take turns purchasing one of the three patches of the spool or passes. Buy patches throughout the game and add them to your game board. While you can place the patches wherever you want on your gameboard, don’t overlap them! This super easy-to-learn board game is perfect for both kids and adults to play.
17. KINGDOMINO
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In Kingdomino, your objective is to expand your kingdom. To do so, you’ll need to explore the lands and secure the best areas before the other lords get them first! As you might be able to deduce from the name of the game, the game uses tiles that look similar to dominoes.
To play, players take turns choosing a domino to add to their kingdom, but just like dominoes, you’ve got to make sure one of the sides connects to a matching terrain, whether it be wheat fields, mountains, or lakes. The game comes to an end when a player completes or fails a 5×5 grid, after which you tally points according to how many connecting tiles you have as well as the crown symbols collected throughout the duration of the game.
COMPLEX TWO PLAYER BOARD GAMES
If you are a board game connoisseur, you might want to challenge yourself and play a more challenging and complex game. If you and your partner are up for it, here are some of the more complex two player board games you’ve got to try out!
18. TERRAFORMING MARS
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Probably one of the most iconic two player board games (but playable for 1 to 4 players) you can play is Terraforming Mars. But if you’re not a big fan of board games, beware. This board game is incredibly complicated, but the effort is well worth it in the end! In Terraforming Mars, you’re in the 2400s and playing as a corporation working together to terraform Mars, the planet. While the corporations do work together, you still compete to gain victory points for your contributions, for advancing human infrastructure, and for other praiseworthy things.
While it’s hard to boil down this massive board game into just a couple of paragraphs, once you get playing Terraforming Mars, you’ll be playing this board game for hours on end.
19. 7 WONDERS DUEL
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Did you know that you can play the iconic game 7 Wonders with just two players? To make this game playable for two players, you’ll need to play 7 Wonders Duel. Just like the standard game, you’ll play this game over the course of three ages, each of which develops different wonders of the world. Since this game is a duel, you will be competing against the other player, so get your game face on! Use bonuses and strategies to develop a civilization and complete wonders.
20. SCYTHE
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An engine-building game set in an alternate-history 1920s Europe, Scythe is a game in which players represent a character from one of the five factions trying to conquer territory, get resources, gain villagers, activate mechs, and so much more. What makes this game so complicated is that the board game is created to allow players to have complete control over what they want to do. So, there’s a near-unlimited number of possibilities and situations you may encounter over the course of the game. In other words, Scythe is one of the best games out there for replayability.
In this board game, there are no rounds or phases, so gameplay is fast, making for a much more entertaining game with very little downtime between turns – especially as a two player game.
21. DISNEY VILLAINOUS
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If you’re a big Disney fan, you’re going to love this next board game on our list! Disney Villainous, as you might be able to guess from the name, is a board game that involves our childhood villains! In this game, you play a Disney villain, with each character with a corresponding reference card, villain guide, fate deck, villain deck, villain mover, and an assigned player board.
On each turn, players move their character on their player board and take one or more actions on that space. Make sure you always have four cards in your hand. Throughout the game, the fate deck works against you, but with some strategy on hand, who knows what you’ll be able to do!
22. NEMESIS
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A board game with a super fun and scary premise is Nemesis. In Nemesis, you’ll be in the center of a sci-fi survival horror! In this semi-cooperative game, you and your crew must survive on a ship that’s filled with hostile aliens. But try to win the game quickly by completing one of the two objectives you will have from the beginning of the game. And try to get back to Earth before the alien invaders become too strong to beat! Plus, you’ll need to battle a bunch of other obstacles, including the agendas of the other players!
23. TARGI
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In Targi, you are a leader of a Tuareg tribe, so you’ll need to trade goods, grow your family, and obtain benefits. The board is a 5×5 grid filled with 16 squares with action simples and 9 blank squares in the middle. Place the meeples one by one on the edge of the board, but meeples cannot occupy the same space as an opponent or on a square facing an opponent. Then, once placed, players can execute the actions on the squares the meeples are on.
Score points to win by playing tribal cards, which can give you advantages and victory points to help you win the game!
Targi can be a relatively complicated game, so really take your time to read the rules beforehand.
CLASSIC TWO PLAYER BOARD GAMES
Now that we have gone through some of the more niche and complicated board games for two players let’s take a look at some of the classics. These board games have been around for ages and have been played and cherished by generations of board game lovers.
24. CHESS
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The “original” two player board game, chess, has been played for over a thousand years! While relatively simple to learn, chess requires decades of dedication to master. Those who excel at this board game are often associated with having a high IQ, and it is played in extremely high-stakes tournaments virtually everywhere in the world.
Chess is the foundation of many other board games, and learning some basic chess strategies is a great way to improve your memory, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills, all of which are important skills in other board games.
25. CHECKERS
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Checkers is a straightforward game that also happens to be one of the oldest continuously played board games. In this dueling board game, your goal is to eliminate all of your opponent’s pieces by jumping over them in the gameboard. This is likely one of the first games you learned to play as a child, as it is super simple to grasp without many intricacies or complex rules.
26. SCRABBLE
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You can play Scrabble with up to 4 players, but it works seamlessly with just two players. If you are a fan of word games, like crossword puzzles or Wordle you will love Scrabble. In this classic board game, you and your teammate will compete to create the highest-scoring words by adding letters to the board. Each letter has a different point value. Additionally, you can score more points by placing your words on the various point multipliers on the game board.
Scrabble is an excellent game for all audiences and is a great learning game to play with kids.
27. RISK
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Risk is one of the original strategy board games and is one of my personal favorites. The Risk gameboard is a world map, and you and your teammate will compete to dominate the world with your armies. There are countless strategies to risk, and despite its relatively simple gameplay, I feel like I have learned something new about the game with each play. All this said, if you are a sore loser, Risk may not be the best game to play… The game can take hours to finish, and losing can be brutal. So, prepare to be extremely upset and exhausted after a playthrough of Risk.
Check out our thorough guide to playing Risk for more info.
28. BATTLESHIP
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Probably one of the most classic board games for two players is Battleship. Battleship is an incredibly simple two player board game that doesn’t require much setup or explanation. In fact, you’ve likely played this game when growing up, as it’s a must-have in pretty much any classroom setting.
To play this game, two players sit across from one another with a board each. The two players set up their battleships on the board either horizontally or vertically. Then, each player takes turns calling out a coordinate where you believe one of the opponent’s ships to be. Continue taking turns calling out coordinates as you miss and hit the ships. The first player to sink all of the other player’s ships wins!
29. JENGA
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Jenga is a great game to play with one other person if you don’t want to play a game that requires too much brainpower. However, even though this is a very simple board game, you’re likely to have a lot of fun trying your best not to let the tower fall! If you’re over-age, you can even turn Jenga into a fun drinking game in order to play this classic game with a twist.
To play, simply build the tower by placing three blocks side by side and placing another three blocks on top of the other, turning it 90 degrees. Keep alternating as you build the tower. Once built, players take turns removing a block from the tower and adding it to the top. The player who causes the tower to tumble loses!
30. BACKGAMMON
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Backgammon is one of the oldest two-player board games in the world. Involving checkers and dice, this board game is a classic for a reason. This is one of those board games that involve the perfect combination of both strategy and luck. While the dice can help determine who wins the game, ultimately, it will still be the stronger player who will win over a series of games. The goal of the game? Remove all 15 of your pieces from play on the board.
31. GO
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Another classic two-player board game worth mentioning is Go. Go is known by many other names, including baduk (in Korea) and weiqi (in China). While this board game may look complicated at first glance, it’s relatively simple to understand the rules. But, of course, mastering Go is a whole other ball game!
Go involves one Go board and two sets of stones in black and white. The two plyers take turns placing their colored stones on intersections with the goal of building more territory than the opposing player. What’s interesting about Go is that you can play as peacefully or as aggressively as you want!
Check out our comprehensive guide to Go to learn everything there is to know about this game!
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