2000s Games: Best Board, Card And Video Games

Euro games reach the UK, the poker boom hits television, and the Wii gets everyone off the sofa.

Below: the board games of the 2000s, the card games people played, the video and arcade games of the era, and how games actually got played at home.

Handy for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone played growing up.

Shop the cards that go with these

Shop greetings cards Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

Cards, prints and badges, made by us

Funny and warm greeting cards, art prints and pin badges, printed in the UK. We do not sell games - this guide is free to read, print and copy.

Congratulations greeting card for a boss promoted to police inspector, with text Congrats Boss Promotion to Inspector. Congrats, Boss! Promotion to Inspector Card £3.87 Minimalist white greeting card featuring bold 'World's Best Boss' typography in a clean black font. World's Best Boss Greetings Card £3.87 See You Later, Alligator (Funny Good Luck Card) See You Later, Alligator (Funny Good Luck Card) £3.75 'Rock On' hand gesture good luck card, ideal for a new job or congratulations. "Rock On" Good Luck Card £3.87

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Board games of the 2000s

  • Carcassonne (2000) and Ticket to Ride (2004) - the two gateway games of the decade.
  • Pandemic (2008), which made co-operative games mainstream.
  • Bananagrams (2006) and Scene It? (2002).
  • Scrabble, Monopoly and Cluedo, still outselling all of them.
  • Board game cafes begin appearing in British cities late in the decade.

Card games of the 2000s

  • Texas hold'em - the televised poker boom from 2003 onwards.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! (UK from 2002) alongside Pokemon and Magic.
  • Bang! (2002), the card game that plays like a Western.
  • Uno and Top Trumps, still on every service-station shelf.
  • Cards Against Humanity was not out yet - that is 2011.

Video and arcade games

  • PlayStation 2 (2000), the best-selling console ever made.
  • Halo: Combat Evolved (2001) and Grand Theft Auto III (2001).
  • World of Warcraft (2004) and the rise of playing with strangers online.
  • Xbox 360 (2005) and Nintendo Wii (2006) - motion controls in the living room.
  • Guitar Hero (2005) and SingStar (2004), the party games of the decade.

How people played

  • Broadband turned the console into a way of playing with people who were not there.
  • The Wii got grandparents bowling in the front room, which no console had managed before.
  • Modern board games arrived in Britain properly, mostly from Germany.

Years covered in the 2000s

  • 2000 - The Millennium Dome, the fuel protests and Big Brother arriving from nowhere. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2000
  • 2001 - Foot-and-mouth, 11 September and the first iPod. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2001
  • 2002 - The Golden Jubilee, the death of the Queen Mother and Pop Idol fever. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2002
  • 2003 - Iraq, a record-breaking heatwave and England winning the Rugby World Cup. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2003
  • 2004 - Strictly and The X Factor both started, and the year ended with the tsunami. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2004
  • 2005 - The Olympic bid, the 7 July bombings and the Ashes coming home. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2005
  • 2006 - Arctic Monkeys, the Wii and another World Cup penalty shoot-out. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2006
  • 2007 - The iPhone, the smoking ban, the floods and the run on Northern Rock. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2007
  • 2008 - The banking crash, a brilliant Olympics and Lewis Hamilton on the last corner. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2008
  • 2009 - Recession, MPs' expenses and a Christmas number one campaign that worked. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2009
  • That is every 2000s year we have written up so far: 2000 to 2009.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one board game and one card game from the list and have both out on the table.
  • Quiz round: read a game and ask for the decade, or read the year and ask for the game.
  • Reminiscence: ask what was under the tree one Christmas. Games get remembered better than clothes.
  • Anyone born in 2000 turns 50 in 2050, 60 in 2060 and 70 in 2070.

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Found your words? Now find the card

Shop greetings cards Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

How to write it so it lands

  • Release years matter: a game can be invented in one decade and only reach British shops in the next.
  • For a party, pick a game people can join halfway through. Nobody wants to start Monopoly at ten o'clock.
  • Boot sales and charity shops still turn up the original boxes, usually with one piece missing.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

What board games were popular in the 2000s?

Carcassonne (2000) and Ticket to Ride (2004) - the two gateway games of the decade. The full list above covers the rest of the decade's boards.

What card games did people play in the 2000s?

Texas hold'em - the televised poker boom from 2003 onwards. The card games section above has the others.

What video games came out in the 2000s?

PlayStation 2 (2000), the best-selling console ever made. The section above lists the arcade, console and computer games of the era.

Do you sell games?

No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK. This guide is free to read and free to copy - charity shops and second-hand sites are the best place to find the older games.

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