Best Board Games Under £20: Cheap Games Worth Owning
Some of the best games ever designed cost less than a takeaway. Small boxes, few components, and no less clever for it.
Prices move around, so treat these as the under-£20 bracket rather than fixed figures - check before you buy.
Cards for the people you play with
Funny cards, blank inside, drawn and printed by us in the UK. Order on a working day and it usually goes out the same day.
Happy Valentines Day, Bab (Valentines Day Card)
£3.87
"Woof Woof" Sausage Dog Valentines Day Card
£3.87
Happy Valentines Day Card From The Cats
£3.87
Happy Valentines Day, My Love (Valentines Day Card)
£3.87
You're Purr-fect To Me (Cat Valentines Day Card)
£3.87
Happy Birthday Papa (Happy Birthday Card) (Multiple designs)
£3.87
Best value overall
- Dobble - the most-played game per pound in most houses.
- Codenames - a whole evening's entertainment from a small box.
- Love Letter, Sushi Go, No Thanks and Coup.
- The Crew - cooperative, clever, and astonishing for the price.
For families
- Dobble, Rhino Hero, Sleeping Queens and Uno.
- A standard deck of cards is under £3 and plays twenty games. Genuinely the best value on this page.
For two players
- Jaipur, Hive Pocket, Patchwork (occasionally) and Lost Cities.
- Backgammon and cribbage sets turn up in charity shops constantly.
Buying well on a budget
- Charity shops are full of classics. Check the pieces are all there before you pay.
- Small-box card games almost always beat a cheap big-box game.
- Avoid supermarket own-brand 'family game' compendiums. They are rarely played twice.
- Prices drop in the January sales and around Black Friday.
How to write it so it lands
- A small clever box beats a big cheap one every time.
- Check charity shops for classics - just count the pieces first.
Where to shop next
- Board games hub
- Best family board games: curated picks
- Board games for adults
- Board games for kids
- Board games for two players
- Board games for toddlers
- Board games for teenagers
- Best card games for families
- Christmas board games
- Boxing Day games
- Classic vs modern board games
- Quickest board games to learn
- Board games for big groups
- Monopoly rules explained
- Uno rules explained
- Articulate rules explained
- Cluedo rules explained
- Games for older relatives
- Kids' party games by age
- Charades word lists
- Free feel good tools
- Shop all cards
- Planning the party? Birthday party ideas
- How to make a balloon arch
- Photo booth prop ideas
- Pin badges
- All guides
Frequently asked questions
What is the best cheap board game?
Dobble or Codenames. Both cost well under £20, take minutes to learn and get played far more often than expensive games on the same shelf.
Are cheap board games any good?
The best small-box card games are as well designed as anything costing four times as much. What you lose is components and table presence, not gameplay.
Do you sell board games?
No. We make greeting cards, art prints and pin badges in the UK, so these picks are simply what we'd recommend to a friend. The cards on this page are ours.