The Rise of Solo Board Gaming.
Meeples Run on Solo!
If you have purchased a modern premium board game chances are the game provides an optional solo mode. Solo board gaming popularity has been on the rise and for good reason. Let’s dive into why this trend exists and what it means for the board gaming industry.
Ditching the Controller
Thousands of current board game fans grew up with video games. NES, Sega, Neo Geo, the list goes on. Whenever we had thirty minutes or an hour to spare we would pick up a controller and pop in our favorite game cartridge. Fast forward to today, and many of us are in our late 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s. The point is, all of these people grew up on solo gaming in the form of video games. We have played against “AI” players our entire lives.
Ad-hoc One-Shot Gaming Sessions
When you have a premium board game, you are going to want to play it. Actually, you will want to unbox it, mess around with those shiny components, learn the rules system and ultimately start playing one-shot sessions. Solo board games facilitate doing all of this much easier.
Additionally modern board games often provide campaign modes. The ability to play individual game sessions whenever and wherever you like to progress in campaigns is also extremely helpful. I can break out my favorite dungeon crawler and advance in a few dedicated hours of solo play on a weekday night before I hit the sack.
Many Games, Few Game Nights
Today there are many excellent and premium tabletop titles for game night. The challenge becomes getting everyone together enough to play all of the titles you wish to experience. When game designers bundle in solo modes you can experience far more tabletop titles.
Expensive Games Need Solo
Gone are the days of spending $50 USD for a top-tier board game title. A solid modern game today is easily going to cost you $100 USD. When consumers are shelling out this kind of money, they expect to get more play sessions out of their investment. And this can happen best with a solo game mode. Modern tabletop games already incorporate a large number of mechanics and variability to facilitate high replay value. Combining the replay elements with solo modes enables joyful hours of solo fun.
Solo Mode. No Longer Optional.
Given all of the reasons discussed above board game designers should no longer consider solo game modes optional. By doing so, they are literally cutting themselves off at the knees. Always offer a solo mode for premium board games.
With the rise in solo board gaming the tabletop market will continue to increase in annual sales volume and revenue numbers. There are literally new generations of people getting into the tabletop hobby each-and-every year. These meeples will expect and demand solo board games and solo game modes.
