Filler board games are generally easy to learn, highly replayable, and quick to play. They’re great games to have around for the beginning or end of your game night, or any other time you want to play a game that will take 30 minutes or less to play.
Filler games are also the board games that seem to get played the most, so it’s worth having at least a couple in your collection.
Let’s get to the list! Below you’ll find some of the best cooperative filler board games available today!
10. Forbidden Island
Players: 1-6 | Minutes: 30
Forbidden Island is easily one of the best gateway games around. It still hits the table every couple of months for my group even after over 100 plays. It uses the classic Pandemic system of “take a turn then bad things happen,” and it works perfectly for this type of survival game.
Forbidden Island isn’t a game that most people think of as a filler, but that’s exactly what it’s become for my group since we can now set it up very quickly and be done within about 25 minutes.
Read our Forbidden Island review
Get your copy of Forbidden Island
9. FUSE
Players: 1-5 | Minutes: 10
FUSE is 10 minutes of pure chaos. It’s a real-time game with a lot of dice rolling and a little bit of dice-stacking, which is a unique blend. You’re trying to defuse bombs using your dice, but you’re on a timer so the tension level is super high throughout. FUSE also takes up very little table space, so you can play it just about anywhere.
If you’re looking for quick board games and also like real-time games, chances are you’ll be very happy with FUSE.
Read our FUSE review
8. The Grizzled
Players: 2-5 | Minutes: 30
The Grizzled works great as a filler board game, especially as a 3-5 player game (it’s great as a two-player filler game if you also get the excellent The Grizzled: At Your Orders! expansion). In this card game, you’re working together to survive until the end of World War I. It has a unique theme and a good amount of replay value.
Read our The Grizzled review
7. Hanabi
Players: 2-5 | Minutes: 25
As far as best bang for your buck goes, in my group’s collective opinion, there’s only one cooperative filler game that is better than Hanabi (the #1 game on this list).
We still play Hanabi regularly after all these years because it’s quick, that face-your-cards-away-from-you mechanic creates a neat team puzzle to solve, and it’s a good challenge. I think Hanabi is one of those games that everyone should have in their collection.
Read our Hanabi review
6. Magic Maze
Players: 1-8 | Minutes: 15+
What’s great about Magic Maze is that it works just as well as a filler game as it does as a “main course” game. You can play one of the middle levels as a one-off game or you can see how many levels you can play through before you lose.
Magic Maze is one of my group’s top real-time board games and it’s one of the best filler games out there for larger gaming groups.
Read our Magic Maze review
Check out the Best Budget Board Games!
5. 5-Minute Dungeon
Players: 2-5 | Minutes: 5+
Both the original 5-Minute Dungeon and 5-Minute Marvel are excellent filler games. Both are real-time co-ops in which you’re trying to quickly use your heroes’ abilities to get through the different levels of enemies.
5-Minute Dungeon is a whole lot of chaos and it’s so much fun to play. Even if you want to play through all of the levels, the game shouldn’t take more than 40 minutes, including setup.
Read our 5-Minute Dungeon review
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4. Cahoots
Players: 1-4 | Minutes: 20
Cahoots isn’t one of my group’s highest-rated board games, but it does hit the table more than most of the games on that list because it works so well as a filler game. It’s a limited communication game in which you’re attempting to put cards in a certain order based on current Goal cards on the table.
Cahoots is quick, it gives you a different puzzle to solve every time it hits the table, and it’s easy to adjust the difficulty to suit your group’s skill level. This is probably the most underrated game on this list.
Read our Cahoots review
3. Just One
Players: 3-7 | Minutes: 20
Just One is a word game that can work as a multi-play party game or as a quick filler game. It has a very simple set of rules: Give one-word clues to help the guessers figure out the mystery words.
Just One is consistently fun, can be played with gamers of pretty much all ages, and has high replay value. It’s a great game to have around for just about any type of game night.
Read our Just One review
2. Codenames Duet
Players: 2-4 | Minutes: 15
Codenames Duet is the best two-player filler game on this list, though you can play it with more than two. It’s a light word game in which you’re attempting to give clues so your teammate(s) flip over the correct “agent” cards while avoiding the “assassin” cards.
Codenames Duet is one of the best filler games out there because it is so light and quick yet it forces you to think creatively.
Read our Codenames Duet review
Get your copy of Codenames Duet
1. The Mind
Players: 2-4 | Minutes: 15
Yeah, The Mind was an easy pick for this number one spot. It’s a simple but very challenging game in which you’re trying to get rid of all of your cards without being able to say what’s in your hands. I always have The Mind in my bag because it’s very small and it’s something that we can get out and ready to play in less than a minute. Sometimes we play one quick game of The Mind before or after our main game, but it often turns into three or four.
The Mind is actually my group’s favorite filler board game overall right now, just ahead of No Thanks! and Skull (those two are competitive games).
Read our The Mind review
What are your favorite quick board games? Any that didn’t show up on this list?
