The best board games are usually played in groups of four, that’s just fact. That means though that there are tons of board games out there and it can be hard to sift through them all to find the ones actually worth playing. That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best 4-player board games!
From easy games you can pick up in a minute to extensive strategy ones that will take the better part of a week to fully understand, these games can be enjoyed by a wide variety of players. No matter their past experience, strategic savvy, or even current mood.
Top 10 Board Games for 4 Players
This list is not a ranking. While we do have slots for number one and number ten, one game isn’t necessarily better than the other. The type of game you’ll enjoy is going to vary from person to person, so we also want to make sure you know that there’s a little something for everyone here.
Please do note that we wanted to talk about the widest variety of board games, so we tried to pick ones we haven’t already covered before. Also, most of these games are closer to “traditional” board games, unlike the games on our other roundup lists. We’ve still got some great story-driven ones, though, so stick around till the end to see what we’ve got.
Now without further ado, let’s get into those board games!
1. Tsuro
- Publisher: Calliope Games
- Players: 2–8
- Duration: 15 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
To kick off our list of the best 4-player board games for adults (or anyone!), we’re starting with the almost infuriatingly simple Tsuro!
Each player will begin the game by picking a player token. You can place your token on any notch around the edge of the board. Once players have placed their tokens, the real gameplay can begin.
On their turn, players will place path tiles in front of their token and move their token to the end of the new path. Each path tile placed down will create new paths and connect to existing ones. Tokens must be moved to the end of paths as they become available.
From there, the game becomes one of attrition. Your goal is to place paths down that will keep you on the board while also sending your opponents careening off the edge.
When you decide to give Tsuro a try, I recommend having plenty of food around and maybe a buffer activity, since things can get heated pretty fast. Betrayal is inevitable, so you’ll probably want something that helps calm everyone down.
Warning: Gameplay is fun, fast, and highly addictive.
2. Carcassonne
- Publisher: Z-Man Games
- Players: 2–5
- Duration: 45 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
The second title on our list of the best 4-player board games is an oldie but a goodie. Carcassonne is a game of strategy and resource management.
The goal of the game is to use randomly drawn tiles to create a unique web of interconnected settlements, roads, grasslands, etc. It’s a bit like Settlers of Catan, but the gameplay doesn’t usually fall into slower lulls in the same way. (We would have put Catan on the list, but we already covered that one in our list of the best 5-player games).
Together, you’ll create a beautiful and lush French countryside. Of course, the scenery isn’t just randomly there. Each tile will have a purpose that can either help or hinder you. Not only will players have to come up with a way to maximize their own economic expansions, they’ll also have to minimize their opponents’ at the same time.
Don’t forget to factor in the special role of “meeples,” who will have their own unique impact on points and the game depending on what role you as a player put them into.
3. Dixit
- Publisher: Lubellud
- Players: 3–8
- Duration: 30 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
The next entry on our list is another quick and easy party game you can whip out when Cards Against Humanity has started to lose its appeal.
When you play Dixit, one player acts as the storyteller and picks a card from their hand. Each card depicts a beautifully illustrated work of art in all sorts of styles, colors, themes, etc. Some of the art is more realistic, while others are incredibly abstract.
Once the storyteller has chosen their card, they come up with a single sentence that somehow relates to that card. Everyone else will look at their hands and pick a card that could also relate to that sentence. All chosen cards are put into a pile, mixed up, then revealed.
Players will need to choose the card they think belongs to the storyteller without being fooled by their fellow players’. Points are given depending on how many players choose correctly. Players who manage to fool their opponents will also be awarded points as well.
Basically, it’s kind of like a visual version of Cards Against Humanity or Apples to Apples.
4. Wingspan
- Publisher: Stonemaier Games
- Players: 1–5
- Duration: 40–70 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
Interested in birds but too busy to break out the binoculars? Then Wingspan might just be the game for you!
This game was all the rage online for a while. Once you get into it, it isn’t hard to see why. On top of all the great base content, the publisher has released tons of add-ons to keep everything fresh and exciting.
To briefly summarize the point of the game, Wingspan is all about discovering the best and most exotic birds. You then get to add them to your wildlife sanctuary if you have the right resources. Through dice rolls, resource management, and card drawing, you’ll be able to build up the perfect habitats for hundreds of potential avian friends.
Gain points by hatching new birds, paying off habitat costs, and increasing your network of bird sanctuaries. At the end of four rounds, the winner is the one with the most points!
Wingspan includes hundreds of unique bird cards and now has tons of expansions, which means thousands of potential species to observe and learn about in every new game. Enjoy the beauty of the great outdoors without ever leaving your game room. There’s also a digital version available as well.
5. Root
- Publisher: Leder Games
- Players: 2–4
- Duration: 60–90 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
Players interested in our next 4-player game are going to want to settle in. Root is a war game focused on strategy rather than quick and easy gameplay. In it, players will go head to head as woodland creatures trying to gain control over the biggest pieces of the forest.
Each creature is associated with a specific faction, and each faction kind of plays by its own rules. They have special abilities that make their gameplay styles vastly different. Honestly, the game really begins before you even technically start playing, since you’ll need to choose your creatures/faction wisely.
For beginners, we suggest starting off with the cats or birds factions, since they’re typically the most straightforward. In no way does this mean the other factions are lesser, though. They’re just a little trickier to get used to.
With each faction out for their own goals, alliances will be formed and betrayed in pretty much every game. Will you take advantage of the chaos and swoop in at the opportune moment, or let it all shake out by itself? Whatever your style, don’t be fooled by the cutesy art — this game is one of the most ruthless on our list.
6. Raccoon Tycoon
- Publisher: Forbidden Games
- Players: 2–5
- Duration: 60–90 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to take on the role of a robber baron of old, this our next entry in the list of the best 4-player board games might just be your chance.
Racoon Tycoon allows you and your friends to become business moguls in a rapidly industrializing land. Increase your business’ influence by seizing the means of production and charging people through the nose to access them.
Step into a strange version of America’s Gilded Age where animals run the show and have for some reason just discovered capitalism. You and your fellow players will need to strike while the iron is hot to make the most profits before a truly fair market can emerge.
Use your cunning to create the most profitable Railroads and own the best Towns before anyone else can get their little raccoon paws on them.
The game may start off as “just business,” but as your empire grows and the other players begin encroaching on each others’ territories, you’ll need to do everything in your power to ensure that you come out on top. After all, there can only be one winner.
7. Sheriff of Nottingham
- Publisher: Arcane Wonders
- Players: 3–5
- Duration: 60 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
It’s not a true game night until you’re at your friends’ throats and/or lying through your teeth. Which is exactly why our next entry on the list of the best 4-player board games is Sheriff of Nottingham!
This is the ultimate game of deception where you’ll need to choose very carefully when to tell the truth and when it’s time for a little white lie.
In Sheriff of Nottingham, players take on the roles of merchants bringing goods into the city of Nottingham. Each player will take turns as the Sheriff and inspect the goods being brought into his city.
Each turn, the merchants will declare which goods they’re bringing into the city to the Sheriff, who can decide whether or not to inspect their bags. Merchants caught lying about their goods or bringing in contraband will be punished and lose money.
While the Sheriff does have the power to inspect every single merchant’s goods, that doesn’t mean inspection is necessarily the wisest choice. Bribes and lies are not only acceptable but welcome if that’s what it takes to get the Sheriff to look the other way while you sneak in imported spices and gunpowder.
Different goods will have different point values and may increase depending on the amount brought into the city. At the end of the game, the merchant with the most points wins.
8. Azul
- Publisher: Next Move Games
- Players: 2–4
- Duration: 30–45 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
The best way to describe Azul is kind of like if someone turned Bejeweled or Candy Crush into a board game. During play, you’ll draw colored tiles and need to place them in strategic spots around the board in order to gain the most points. To win, you’ll need to think several steps ahead of your opponents to ensure your master pattern comes to fruition. One careless move and all your setup could just come tumbling down.
Some patterns will be harder to complete than others, which of course makes them worth more. Even though the game mechanics are fairly simplistic ,you’ll also need to keep all your attention on the board. Losing focus at the wrong moment could spell the end of the game before you know it.
The complexity of Azul lies mostly in who is playing it. Which makes it a perfect game for both children and adults alike.
9. Dead of Winter
- Publisher: Plaid Hat Games
- Players: 2–5
- Duration: 60–120 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️⚔️⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
Our second to last entry on the list of the best 4-player board games is also the closest to the tabletop genre we’re going to get.
In Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Board Game, players will work together (or against each other) to survive a zombie apocalypse. You’ll need to survive a harsh winter climate while also fighting off any errant zombies that manage to catch up to you.
There are many problems you’ll face while playing. In some gameplays, zombies could even be the least of your worries depending on how quickly you burn through supplies.
Winning isn’t as simple as merely surviving, either. Each player will also need to complete a personal secret objective to truly win. Possible personal objectives can range from sabotaging the other survivors or even taking revenge against the group as a whole.
Fans of story-driven games will definitely love playing and replaying Dead of Winter. No matter how much you play, each game will feel like a new adventure since the dozens of characters each have their own unique twists and personal goals.
Dead of Winter also makes for a fantastic segue into more serious tabletop games if you know someone who is intimidated by expansive rulebooks or dice with more than six sides.
10. Sequence
- Publisher: Jax, Ltd.
- Players: 2–12
- Duration: 10–30 minutes
- Difficulty: ⚔️
- Where to Buy: Amazon
To cap off our 4-player board game roundup, we’ve got another older game you may or may not be familiar with. Sequence is a board game that also makes use of regular playing cards.
The board is made up of a grid. Each spot on the grid corresponds to a playing card in a regular deck of cards. There are two spaces for each card in a regular deck from 2 through aces of each suit, except Jacks.
On your turn, you can play a single card. The card you play allows you to place one of your team’s tokens on one of the two spaces corresponding to that card. Getting five tokens in a row (or diagonally) creates a sequence and locks your team’s tokens in place.
Typically, the game is played with 2–6 players. When the group gets to be bigger than three, you’ll need to start forming teams. Three or fewer players means each player is their own team.
It’s a bit like playing Bingo with playing cards. While not the most complicated game on our list, it really is one of the most fun. Especially if you’re looking to sit down and play something new right away without slogging through thirty pages of rules and a million different scenarios.
Join the High Ground
That’s it for our list of the best 4-player board games! Did you see your favorite on our list or are we missing a must-have game? Let us know in the comments below! For more board game recommendations we also have lists of the best 3-player and 5-player board games, too! Make sure to also sign up for our newsletter to get updates on new game recommendations and helpful gaming guides.
Until next time, happy gaming!
