I started last year’s “year in review” with a “Is it safe to come out?” joke. But another year has gone and life has still not returned to normal. In 2021 we managed one meet up, which was great but hardly a return to normality.
2022 therefore can only get better, right? Well, before we look to the future we have to look at what we’ve played over the last year.
Most Played 2021
Most Played Games
Rocket Figthin Pokemon Trainers 48
Horrified 37
Gloomhaven 23
Sub Terra 19
Honourable Mention - Batman The Animated Series Adventures 13
Last year I predicted that Marvel United would climb and climb it did! And that also put three different Marvel themed games in my top played games of the year! Champions saw fewer plays than last year by more than half but still managed to grab the second spot. My third most played game of the year is not even a published game, but instead is my retheme of Ghost Fightin Treasure Hunters that I made for my younger brother.
Horrified doubled the number of plays it saw from last year, we did dive briefly into American Monsters too. Dice Throne Adventures feels like it will not be here next year, but I enjoyed my initial plays of this one. Gloomhaven feels like a cheat, this is actually Gloomhaven Digital, but as it is a faithful recreation of the board game I’m counting it. Ticket to Ride is also almost entirely played digitally for that matter. Sub Terra made a return to the list this year, helped a little by the introduction of the expansions.
The honourable mention goes to Batman The Animated Series Adventures which squeaked on to the list despite only arriving late in December of 2021.
Most Played 2020
Marvel Champions (134)
Ghost Fightin’ Treasure Hunters (87)
Marvel Legendary (60)
Don’t Mess With Cthulhu (54)
Marvel United (28)
Horrified (19)
Fabled Fruit (18)
The Crew (18)
Just One (17)
Zombicide Invader (13)
There’s a lot of carry over from the most played games of 2020, partly due to the fact that we’re still playing a lot of games via TTS and it’s not possible to play every game I own that way. The top six from last year were all games I played with the family or solo, while the bottom half were played with the game night group. The fact that those games dropped off shows a diversifying of the games we were playing during our Saturday TTS meetups meaning more titles were played but less often.
Top Ten Most Played of All Time
2021 Plays - 611
All Time Plays - 6064
2020 Unique Plays - 87
All Time Unique Plays - 448
Marvel Legendary 755
Lord Of The Rings LCG 450
Marvel Champions 190
Don’t Mess with Cthulhu 154
Timeline 123
Marvel United 107
Toc Toc Woodman 106
Zooloretto 105
Rhino Hero 105
Pandemic 90
Not much change in the most played of all time. Champions moved up to take the number 3 spot. Marvel United came from nowhere to claim number 6 and 2 plays of Pandemic relegated Star Wars Imperial Assault to the number 11 spot. Both Timeline and Toc Toc Woodman saw no plays in 2021, the former because it’s a filler I play with my parents who I haven’t seen and the latter because it's a dexterity game that does require you to play in person.
My overall plays is down, 717 last year, just over 600 for this year. This could just be me playing less Marvel Champions to be honest. I played 87 different games, 26 of which were new to me, but only a handful that were introduced to me by other people, I probably need to start doing that more.
Kickstarter
It’s been a lighter year for me kickstarter wise… well… sorta.
Kickstarters Backed in 2021 - 3
Gamefound Campaigns backed in 2021 - 2
Total Spent - £640
But I did also late back two projects, Thunderstone Quest and Keep the Heroes Out for around an extra £250. Quest has just been delivered and I was regretting that purchase, but I have played it a couple of times over the last few nights and I had forgotten just how much fun it is.
The kickstarter games were Marvel United X-Men, more content for my 6th most played game of all time and my most played game of last year. Everdell Collectors edition, which I admit I probably don’t play enough to justify it, but it looks pretty. And the B-Movie expansion for Roll Camera, which I feel significantly improves on Roll Camera overall.
The gamefound campaigns were both from Portal Games, one was the collectors edition of Robinson Crusoe which will likely see play as a solo game while we’re still in pandemic mode. The other was Eleven which I bought for a friend who loves football manager.
Shelf of Shame
New Games in 2020 - 26 (including Kickstarters backed)
New Games Played in 2021 - 26
Total Unplayed Games at the end of 2020 - 13
Total Unplayed Games at the end of 2021 14
Unplayed New Games from 2021 - 3
Total Games Owned - 288
Percentage of Collection Played in 2021 - 24%
Percentage of Collection Played for All Time - 92%
I played almost everything that came in this year, with only 3 games unplayed, one arrived late in December, one requires a bigger group and one is a campaign game. Overall I’m doing a reasonable job of playing all my games at least once, but this year is going to have to be the year of the cull.
I’ve been buying games since 2008 and I have never, ever, gotten rid of them, with a few exceptions where I’ve given a game away if one of my friends likes it more than me. However, my shelves are heaving and I just can’t possibly play everything anymore so it’s time for some stuff to go.
Nickels and Dimes
Dollars - 9
Quarters - 39
Dimes - 76
Nickles - 78
H-Index - 33
202 games played 5 or more times, that’s slightly more than two thirds of my collection, but as I said above I need to start making some tough choices and culling those titles that just wont see repeat plays, if only to make room for new stuff!
Other Stats
Time Played 539 Hours
Days Played 275
Most Played Day - Saturday (24%)
Most Played Month - December (94)
Most Common Player Count - 4 (48%)
Total Solo Plays - 133
Most Common Way to Play - Tabletop Simulator (48%)
Win Rate - 59%
Not much else to say here, my solo gaming is up, overall, but I did only start recording solo plays in august of 2020 so I didn't have a full year of data. However, in 2020 I only played three games solo, while this year I’ve branched out, enjoying ten different titles on my own.
Tabletop Simulator is still my most common play method, although we’re getting back to a little more face to face. When you add in the Steam plays (Gloomhaven, Ticket to Ride) my digital game plays is 55%, obviously that’s a number I would like to see go down in 2022.
And my win rate is just under 60% which isn’t bad, obviously that includes solo and coop experiences as well but I think being somewhere above 50% is a nice place to be, I don’t want to win all the time, but winning more than I lose feels about right.
Looking Ahead
For 2022 I want to buy fewer games. I considered saying no games, but that doesn’t feel like a realistic target. And I want to cull some games to make some shelf space.
I’d also like to get some more campaign games played but that’s not always possible right now.
What was your most played game of 2021? Let us know down in the comments.