Which classic board games have stood the test of time in their genre?

One of the most enjoyable things about being a board game fan is going to the store and perusing the shelves to find the next game to play on game night. But as fun as new games are, the ones you'll be most excited about may already be on your shelf at home.

With new board games constantly being released, you'll never run out of exciting new adventures. But if you're looking to keep things classic at your next board game night, here are a few older board games that are still dominating the genre after all this time.

go

Perhaps the oldest of the classic board games on our list, Go is over 2,500 years old and remains incredibly popular today. This two-player strategy game pits you against your friends to claim the most territory on a grid-like board.

You'll be using colored stones to keep track of all of this, placing your own colors to save space. You will be building a fence to claim your territory. But beware of your opponents attempting to completely surround your territory. Then the entire interior will be rewarded to them. The player with the most territory at the end wins.

trivial pursuit

There have been many quiz games throughout history. People love to show off how much they know. But no quiz game before or since has done better than Trivial Pursuit, which debuted in the 1980s and completely shook up the quiz game genre.

Since then, we've seen a lot of new versions of the game, and the electronic version has always been pretty well-received on PC and gaming consoles. Choose a category from six options – Geography, History, Entertainment, Sports & Leisure, Arts & Literature, Science & Nature – and prove to your friends how much you know more than them.

carcassonne

If you're a fan of laying out tiles to claim medieval lands and claim your own territory in the beautiful south of France, you can bet Carcassonne will likely be the board game you've been bringing to game nights since its debut.

Build a bustling city by strategically placing tiles around the gameplay area, and select Meeple tokens to take on specific roles within the city to help build a network of roads and religious buildings. If you want to win this classic board game, do your best to build your city to the best of your ability.

scrabble

Do you prefer thoughtful wordplay to placing tiles or moving pieces like you do in other board games? If you want to chat with your friends while playing the following game, try Scrabble, the classic word-based board game that has been popular with players for nearly 80 years.

At the start of the game, you'll draw a few letter tiles and work with your friends playing together to connect the words on the board. Less common characters have much higher score values. In English dictionaries, the letter A is more common than the letter Z. So, to win, do your best to create impressive words.

danger

If you're interested in a game of territorial assertion where you fend off invasions from competitive friends and take control of the world for yourself on board game night, consider bringing the classic Risk with your friends for your next night.

You are assigned territories across the world map, and each turn sees you deploying soldiers and moving into neighboring territories in the hopes of conquering them yourself. Owning an entire continent increases your supply of soldiers every turn, so move wisely and travel the world in the name of domination.

diplomacy

For your next board game night, if you have a decent-sized group and want to do a little social reasoning and research instead of moving pieces of plastic around a board, consider Diplomacy, a game that tells the story of the path in and out of world peace during World War I.

Spend your evenings chatting with friends without having to roll dice, forging alliances for your nation, betraying others when it's most convenient in your pursuit of power, and conquering supply centers across Europe to ensure your nation's greatest success during World War I.

Crokinol

Crokinole, a board game that became popular in Canada in the 1870s, has long been a favorite but has yet to be dethroned. Players take turns flicking colored discs around the board. It's almost like darts in that smaller, more precise areas in the center of the board are worth more than larger, easier-to-hit areas around it.

However, there is a competitive element to trying to get a higher score yourself by knocking on discs that your opponent scores low on. Aim carefully and score the highest points to win.

catan

Originally debuting in the mid-1990s as Settlers of Catan and simply abbreviated as Catan, this iconic board game aims to collect resources and strengthen your settlement on an island named Catan, establishing itself as the island's most prominent new settlement.

You'll roll the dice and try to gather the resources your settlement needs to sustain itself and grow over time. Trade with other players to build healthy, mutually beneficial relationships with neighboring settlements. Expand your settlements, build roads, secure new territories and fend off robbers if you want to win this classic board game!

monopoly

It's a game that's so infamous that some people roll their eyes at the concept of boxes hitting the table on board game night. Monopoly is an old board game that pits you against all your friends in a competition to brutally destroy each other. There is no faster way to lose a friend!

Known as a slow game where you can slowly sink your sword into it, the game will have you and your friends each trying to build up properties and public works around the board, and once you own all the properties in one color set, you can build on them. Players pay rent to whoever owns the space they land on, with rent increasing dramatically depending on which houses and hotels they own the color set of.

chess

One of the oldest board games still played today, the world of chess has an entire community with professional rankings, clubs, and many opportunities to play in person or online. The game's history is somewhat hazy, with similar games mentioned in Asia before becoming popular in Europe in the 1400s.

There is more strategy to chess than the average player wants to know. World champions continue to compete for the crown on the World Chess Championship circuit, which has been around since the 1880s.