Why Board Games Are Thriving in a Digital Age

Every prediction said screens would finish off the board game, and instead the opposite happened: game cafés multiply, and cardboard has never been better designed.

The reason is social physics. A board game is a device for spending two hours with people without once staring at a shared screen or running out of things to say. It is the anti-doomscroll in a box.

If you have not played since childhood Monopoly, start with the modern classics built around cooperation and thirty-minute rounds. The hobby that many adults find themselves returning to looks nothing like the games they remember.