Board games are the perfect respite from digital distractions because they require living in the moment and direct human interactions.
Gathering around a board game with your family or friends reinforces relationships, stimulates cognitive skills, and increases happiness.
Aside from simply being fun, board games promote positive mental health benefits, like stress reduction and the release of endorphins that make you feel good.
Many board games have been designed for four players so that an average-sized family can participate or two couples.
We've built this list of four-player board games to enliven your next game night with a new gaming adventure.
9 of the Best 4 Player Board Games
1. WE Games Wooden Board Game with Dice
Shut the Box originated among fishermen in Normandy and remains a classic pub game.
Gameplay involves rolling dice, adding numbers, and playing tiles that represent the sum of rolls.
The simple addition is great for boosting kids' math skills and easy enough for adults to relax and chat while playing.
WE Games has been producing board games since 1977. The manufacturer selects sustainable materials and builds durable games that families can enjoy for generations.
Made from solid wood, the game box measures 13.5 by 13.5 by 2 inches.
The numbered tiles are made from wood, and the game includes four sets of dice in the colors of red, green, blue, and black.
Billiard felt adds the finishing touch to this beautifully crafted board game.
2. Catan The Board Game
Appropriate for three or four players, Catan has a strong reputation among gamers as an engaging civilization-building game.
Each player begins with two small houses on the fictional island of Catan and then strives to acquire resources and expand settlements.
Gameplay involves rolling dice and matching rolls to numbered game hexes that represent island geography. Players build their resources by drawing cards, succeeding at dice rolls, and making trades with other players.
Resources include agricultural land, roads, metal ores, building materials, food, and more. Other players might block your access to resources or steal them.
You'll need to overcome challenges like this to help your settlements grow and thrive. Each victory wins you a victory point. The first person who collects 10 points wins.
3. Dark Souls: The Board Game
When you crave some dice-rolling, monster-fighting action, Dark Souls has built a challenging world for role-playing game enthusiasts. Players must battle the Soul of Cinder and bring forth the Age of Humanity.
To play, you and the other participants draw encounter cards and make decisions about where to explore the world.
You might defeat monsters during the adventures or perish and seek resurrection at the bonfire closest to your location. Battle victories produce treasure and clues to help you achieve the final goal of saving humanity.
The game box includes 27 miniatures, 9 tiles, 4 character boards, 15 dice, 121 tokens, and 252 cards. The game requires strategic thinking and is designed so that you can experience unique adventures each time that you play.
4. Deluxe 221B Baker Street Board Game
Amateur sleuths will love this game that lets you investigate a Sherlock Holmes style mystery in Victorian London. You'll be able to play the game over and over with friends and family because it includes 200 unique adventures.
You'll appreciate the versatility of this game. It adapts to 2 to 6 players, and you can even search for clues and solve mysteries as a solo player if you want.
When you have 4 to 6 players, you can compete against each other or divide into competing teams. The directions also give you the option to play it as a cooperative game in which everyone ponders clues together.
Regardless of whether you play competitively or cooperatively, gameplay challenges you to visit up to 14 locations and search for clues. The game comes with the game board, 1 die, a variety of game cards, and tokens.
5. Scythe Board Game
Scythe takes you into a fictional world called Europa set in an alternative history version of the 1920s.
The consequences of the First World War hang over society, and players take on the roles of fallen leaders trying to redeem the honor of their countries and regain power.
Hidden objective cards motivate each player's choices. The game is designed to revolve around your game decisions instead of simple luck. Encounter cards send you to explore new locations and sometimes engage in combat.
Your goals as you navigate this game include the conquest of territory, seizure of resources, enlistment of new followers, and acquisition of battle mechs. Everyone participates until a winner emerges.
6. Sequence Game
Adults and kids can pick up on how to play this strategy game quickly. Winning requires getting the necessary number of five-card sequences.
Players build sequences by placing chips on the game board that correspond with the cards that they play out of their hands. Anyone whose tokens connect five spots makes a sequence.
Strategy becomes necessary to defend the sequences that you're trying to build while blocking opponents from making sequences.
Jacks act as wild cards in the game. Two-eyed jacks let you put a chip any place on the board. A one-eyed Jack gives you the power to take off an opponent's chip unless it's part of a completed sequence.
Game rules allow for players to form teams or compete against each other individually.
7. Plan B Games Azul Board Game
With gameplay lasting 30 to 40 minutes, Plan B makes it possible to squeeze some family game time into busy schedules.
Decorating a king's palace is the premise of the game. You play to control tiles and arrange them on the board. Points awarded depend on how and where you get to place your tiles.
Matching tile colors or building certain patterns earns you bonus points. Where an opponent places a tile could upset your entire strategy, so you'll have to adapt to each move to get the highest score.
Two to four players can enjoy Plan B, which is designed for people age 8 and up.
8. Wit's End Board Game
Wit's End expands on the concept of a trivia game by adding riddles, brainteasers, and categorization questions. Cards from the Teaser category challenge you with rhyming riddles.
In the Sequence category, questions will present you with a list of objects or things and ask you to place them in the correct order. Orders could apply to factors like years, weights, or sizes.
To succeed at questions in the Odd 1 Out category, you have to figure out which item in a four-word list does not fit.
Finally, the Wild Card category will contain trivia questions organized in formats like name 2 out of 3, true or false, quotations, and much more.
Overall, players will encounter 1,200 questions about the arts, history, science, geography, and pop culture.
9. Mysterium
Mysterium combines the love of crime mysteries with the paranormal in this cooperative game where all players try to catch a murderer.
Ghosts in the game attempt to communicate clues to the players through nightly visions. You could get to play the role of a psychic who tries to identify how the murder happened at Warwick Manor.
All participants work together to discuss and decipher clues and hopefully win by catching the murderer. If the murderer gets away with the deadly deed, then everyone loses together.
Two to seven players can enjoy this game that is appropriate for older kids and adults.
Start playing your favorite 4-person board game.
If you feel like everyone close to you has fallen into the habit of staring at their phones too much, a board game is a perfect remedy.
Taking turns, throwing the dice, and drawing cards develop the patience and attention spans of children. Playing board games strengthens everyone's social bonds with face-to-face conversation and shared laughter.
With so many different board games for four people available, hours of entertainment await you. Pick out some new board games and start a game night tradition.
