Welcome to the first post in a series, which will look retrospectively at 2023 from my board-gaming experiences, as well as what I am expecting – and anticipating – in 2024. First of all, big thanks to my fellow bloggers for inspiration and motivation to do this series of posts (yes, I am talking to you guys 🙂 CliosBoardgames, RockyMountainNavy and Dude! Take Your Turn!) Secondly, what I decided to start with is a look back at the 2023 and what my most played titles were (plus some other, useful stats).

Again, I am equipped with great app, Board Games Stats, which I am using for fifth consecutive year – it provides so much insightful data about my hobby, is handy and has sync with BoardGameGeek. If you have not tried it yet, make sure you do!

Let us have a look into details below!

General insights

2023 general stats (you can click to enlarge)
2022 general stats (you can click to enlarge)

Definitely, 2023 was a very good year for my boardgame group – 105 different titles (slightly larger number than in 2022) played 360 times – a huge increase from 298 sessions in 2022. Some of the games were longer, some of them much shorter, some played solo, some multiplayer, but still, having all things concerned, it was good to see that on average we had a session every day of the year! True, this is of course trick of the statistics – there were days with many games (especially during conventions), there were with one larger title or with none at all. But well, this is still something to rejoice!

Opponents & players count

Main opponents
Players Count

Analyzing that statistic will be very interesting. During the pandemic years, my main opponents were Vassal folks (play online). Is started to slowly change in 2022. Now, in 2023, it shifted dramatically – you can see Kuba G., my main wargaming opponent, my wife Magda and of course solo games (Bot) as predominant, closely followed by my sons and Kuba J (all those Frosthaven games!)

Of course, being mainly a wargamer, you notice 2-player games with record – 38% – percentage. Second place – not surprisingly is taken by 4-players sessions – another 24%. I also like discovering titles on my own, playing them solo (be it with dedicated solitaire module or two hand) – which accounts for 19%.

Most played titles

First 10 of 2023 most played boardgames and wargames (you can click to enlarge)

And now to the most important and interesting statistic! The BGStats divides all your played games into couple of categories:

  • centuries – played 100 times or more – well, not in 2023 nor in 2022 was I so biased to one of my favorite games so much as to have over 100 sessions logged; but there were times – like in 2016 – when I played Commands Colors Ancient 165 times…
  • quarters – played 25 times or more; this time there was only one game here – and this time not a Commands & Colors title! That was Frosthaven, where our epic campaign was progressing nicely.
  • dimes – played 10 times or more – here we have pretty strong, versatile representation of six titles – mainly wargames like C&C Ancients, Time of Crisis or Undaunted, as well as Euros – in this case Nova Luna.
Second half of 2023 most played games (places from 11 to 20) (you can click to enlarge)
  • fives – played 5 times or more – in that section I have like 14 games, among them: new Karak II, one of the newest David Thompson designs – General Orders, first COIN multipack – The British Way or very interesting take on Maccabean insurgency – Judean Hammer.

It really gives me a lot of joy to see that I am still keeping-up with my hobby, playing such a versatile array of games. Ironically, writing a blog and running a YouTube channel takes a lot of time – some of which could possibly be devoted to playing the games 🙂 I can only hope – and wish to myself and all of you – that 2024 will be again great as far as our hobby is concerned.

PS. Next week I will present how The Boardgames Chronicle blog itself fared in 2023 and will suggest Dear Readers a look back at some of the best articles created.