The Best Board Games for 5-Year-Olds
Our series of the best board games for kids by age continues today with the best board games for 5-year-olds. Our own kids are now 8 and 4 years old, and in many ways games that are best suited for 5-year-olds is the perfect sweet spot for us. Both our son and our daughter very happily play every single one of the games on this list together to this day.
Our daughter is just about to turn 5, and she’s capable of playing all of these games almost entirely independently already - with perhaps a bit of poking and prodding. It certainly helps that a lot of them are cooperative games, which is still by far our favorite way to play together as a family. I just love the fact that it helps you focus on the real point of playing games together - having fun.
There’s no doubt that you’ll notice the return of many of our favorite publishers - tried and true favorites like HABA and Peaceable Kingdom have served us well since our son was a toddler. And it’s always very exciting when our daughter grows old enough to share some of her brother’s old favorites with her.
And even though playing cooperatively is still our favorite way to play, you might notice that there are a few more competitive games than usual thrown into the mix in this list. I suppose that’s just part of growing up, and it’s a bit inevitable that games designed with older kids start to lean that way. But if you’re just now beginning to play board games as a family with your 5-year-old, I still highly recommend starting with cooperative games, and I’ll be clear about pointing them out.
This is a special list for me because it does include so many games that have been on our shelves for many years now. Many of these games are some of the very first games we ever bought our son, and, like I mentioned, it’s very special to be able to pull some of them out again with our little soon-to-be-5-year-old. And it makes me so happy to see her older brother still enjoy them so much - which I think really speaks to the special quality of these games.
I hope you enjoy the list, and have a great family game night!
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. Clicking on these links will lead you to view the games’ listings on Amazon.com.
10. Enchanted Forest
Designed by Michel Matschoss & Alex Randolph and Published by Ravensburger
Enchanted Forest was first published in 1981, and it’s known for it’s fairy tale theme and devilishly-challenging memory mechanic. It’s your job to deliver special treasures to the king, and they’re all hidden under the many trees scattered around the forest. The treasures you’ll find are things like Sleeping Beauty’s spindle and Little Red Riding Hood’s red hood - well known items that really endear the game to the kids.
The trick of course is remembering where the treasures are actually hidden when you need them. It’s a poorly-kept secret at this point that both my 4-year-old and 8-year-old have a better memory in these kinds of games than I do, so 5 years old is a good time to stand on your own two feet in this game. It is a competitive game, so the little ones will get some lessons in how to lose gracefully as well. But it still has always stood out to us as a beloved game with a great theme - and one of the trickiest memory games for kids we have.
9. Monza
Designed by Jürgen Grunau and Published by HABA
Monza is the game for the little car-racing fans out there. And it’s a spectacular game for practicing your colors - and contemplating strategy as well. In some ways it’s like Candy Land - because you roll colors and move your piece. But you have to factor in that there are choices to be made. Each turn you roll several colors, which you can use in any order you want. And there might be different paths you can take as well.
So perhaps you could say that it’s like Candy Land on steroids - complete with a new theme and the great little wooden pieces that HABA is known for. I think that Monza is a fantastic stepping stone of complexity - one step past games for toddlers - and perfect for 5-year-olds. Our 8-year-old likes it a lot too, so the strategy involved gives it very good staying power.
8. Animal Upon Animal
Designed by Klaus Miltenberger and Published by HABA
Animal Upon Animal is the world-famous classic dexterity game where you stack jungle animals on top of each other. Simple and elegant and legitimately fun for all ages, Animal Upon Animal is one of those games that will definitely stand the tests of time, and always be good for a normal family game night or even Thanksgiving or Christmas with the extended family.
Of course kids younger than 5 can join in and practice their fine motor skills and dexterity with their little hands, but I find that 5 is a really good age for evening the playing fields. It is a competitive game by design, after all, and it wouldn’t be fun for little ones to always be the one to knock things over. But, if that’s the case, it’s really easy to simply say that you’re working as a team to see how high you can build. Whichever way you play, it’s just a blast to stack these oddly-shaped animals.
7. Mastermind for Kids
Designed by Mordecai Meirowitz and Published by Pressman
Mastermind has always been on our list of board games that teach logic, and I think 5 years old is the perfect time to start with this game. This is the classic game of code breaking, where one person creates and simple code of colors and the other person tries to guess it - with hints for how they are doing after each round. In the kids version we have, the simple colors are replaced by little animal figurines, and the code is shortened by one piece to make it easier.
In order to succeed in this game, you have to master the art of taking the information you’ve already learned and applying it to your future guesses. It’s a remarkable leap in logic skills when kids are able to execute a successful strategy in this game, as opposed to making a new random guess each round. It’s easy for adults to underestimate the beauty of manipulating this information in the brain, and just how challenging it can be for kids. This is truly a timeless game that will delight little code breakers for many generations to come.
6. Junior Labyrinth
Designed by Max Kobbert and Published by Ravensburger
Labyrinth is such a brilliantly-designed game, and a well-deserved owner of the name “classic”. Basically you are trying to collect all of your treasures in a maze before your opponents. But the genius twist is that the maze shifts on every single turn. You slide a card into the maze each turn, pushing an entire row one square over, and changing the pathways to your treasure entirely.
The practice in spatial reasoning and planning that takes place in this game is something to be applauded. It can’t be underestimated how difficult a skill this can be to master, and how valuable it is. The junior version of Labyrinth simplifies things by making the board significantly smaller, which is definitely a helpful starting place. And there’s even a Frozen-themed version that we have, which our daughter is especially fond of.
5. Unicorn Glitterluck: Cloud Stacking
Designed by Kristin Mückel and Published by HABA
It’s no secret that our daughter is a big unicorn fan. She is just absolutely in love with Rosalie - the little unicorn star of all of the Unicorn Glitterluck games from HABA. What I really like about these games is not only that they all reinvent themselves with completely different game mechanics, but that they seem to serve ever-so-slightly different age groups as well. So we’ve included a different Unicorn Glitterluck game 3 years in a row!
In this newest outing for Rosalie, the main game mechanic on display is dexterity and stacking - very much like Animal Upon Animal. The main difference - other than the fact that in this case you’re stacking clouds and unicorns instead of jungle animals - is that Cloud Stacking is a cooperative game, which definitely suits our tastes better. And, of course, the theme is perfectly sparkly and glittery and pink and who can argue with that? Without a doubt this is another huge winner in our house.
4. Cauldron Quest
Designed by Shanon Lyon, Marisa Pena, & Colt Tipton-Johnson and Published by Peaceable Kingdom
Cauldron Quest fits into the category of high nostalgia for us, because it was one of our son’s first games, and it was published by longtime family-favorite Peaceable Kingdom. They specialize in cooperative games for families with young children, and you’ll find many more of their games on our lists for 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and 4-year-olds, but Cauldron Quest is one of their few games where the rules are a little more in depth and really suit this age range quite well.
The spooky-ish theme is very much up our alley as well. The story is that an evil wizard is trying to destroy the kingdom, and only we have the power to create a potion to break his spell. So, as a team, you are trying to get the right ingredients into the cauldron before it’s too late. It includes interesting strategy choices, and a bit of luck with dice rolling, but most importantly it’s just a lot of fun for the family.
3. My First Stone Age
Designed by Marco Teubner and Published by Z-Man Games
My First Stone Age is currently tricky to get your hands on, but hopefully it will be restocked very soon, because it’s far and away one of our favorite games of all time for this age group. The quality of the game is so incredibly high, with beautiful wooden game pieces, and it’s just so much fun to play.
The game is a combination of resource management and memory. The goal is to build 3 huts for your village, and the huts come at different prices - which you use your various resources to pay for. The wooden tokens you are collecting are things like fish and tusks and pottery, and you collect them by landing on the right spaces on the board. The major trick is that you move by flipping over cards scattered around the board - which is where the memory part comes in. It’s a wonderful combination of game mechanics mixed in with a fantastic presentation - which has always made this game a treasure for us.
2. Mysterium Kids: Captain Echo’s Treasure
Designed by Antonin Boccara and Yves Hirschfeld and Published by Libellud
Mysterium Kids is the latest example of how amazing junior versions of popular board games can be. This junior version of Mysterium is a huge hit in our house. My 6-year-old is obsessed. She loves to be the ghost, whose job it is to make sounds on the haunted tambourine, and lead everyone else to the room where the treasure is hidden. I simply can’t say enough about how much joy this game brings her.
Mysterium Kids is a cooperative game with asymmetrical roles. Each round someone is the ghost, and they must use the tambourine while everyone’s eyes are closed to make a sound. Maybe an egg cracking, maybe a hammer hitting a nail, maybe a cat scratching - there are 78 possibilities. Then everyone opens their eyes and must vote on 1 of the 5 possibilities - and hopefully uncover the hidden treasure.
Perhaps best of all, Mysterium Kids is genuinely a great game for family game night. Even our 10-year-old still loves to play this game, and the challenge of making the sounds with the tambourine is interesting and engaging even for us parents. All in all it’s a big spooky hit.
For a closer look at Mysterium Kids, make sure to check out out featured article!
1. Outfoxed!
Designed by Shanon Lyon, Marisa Pena, & Colt Tipton-Johnson and Published by Gamewright
Brought to you by the very same design team that created Cauldron Quest, Outfoxed! is an incredible board game, and our choice for the best board game for 5-year-olds. It’s the perfect introduction to the art of deduction, and truly a real joy to play for everyone involved. As a team, everyone is trying to identify and catch the pie thief before he or she escapes. And to do that, you have to put on your detective hats and collect clues.
In the past we included Outfoxed! on our list of the best cooperative games for 5-year-olds, but there’s no doubt in our mind that it’s simply our favorite game for 5-year-olds, period. The stealth learning it contains with the art of deduction develops a very valuable skill, and our kids are crazy about the secret, innovative way that the clues are revealed. You have to slip them into a contraption that is designed to tell you if the culprit is wearing that item, and it’s the type of toy our son likes so much he insists on keeping it in his hands throughout the game. Outfoxed! is a true winner and a no-brainer for family game night, and it’s worth mentioning that our 8-year-old’s love for it has certainly not worn out over the years.
For a closer look at Outfoxed!, make sure to check out our featured article.
Bonus Games to Track Down for 5-Year-Olds!
The following games previously appeared on this list, but may be unavailable or currently out of print. As previous members of our top 10 I certainly encourage you to still keep an eye out for them!
Monster Chase
Designed by Antoine Bauza and Published by IELLO and Scorpion Masqué
Monster Chase is universally adored by each member of our family. It’s a good example of the special kind of game that both our 4-year-old and 8-year-old like equally as much - which is something to be rejoice over. The monster-under-the-bed theme definitely appeals to both of them, because I guess my appreciation for spooky things has rubbed off on them a little. And they especially like stuffing the monsters into the cute, cut-out closet when they scare them away.
Monster Chase is a memory game at heart, and you’ll also find it on our list of the best memory games for kids. The pieces that you’re trying to remember are the various toys that scare the monsters away, because every monster is scared of something. The kids get really invested in this game, and work together remarkably well. And, I don’t mind admitting it, they are both a lot better at this game than I am. All of these kids memory games have seemed to really pay off.
For more of the best family board games for each age, make sure to read:
The Best Board Games for 2-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 3-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 4-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 6-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 7-Year-Olds
The Best Board Games for 8-Year-Olds
What are your favorite board games for 5-year-olds? Did any of your favorites make our list? Let us know in the comments!
