Black Friday Board Game Deals: What's Worth Waiting For

Black Friday board game deals follow a pattern that repeats year after year, and once you know it you can stop refreshing deal sites. A short list of mass-market games drops 40 to 54 percent at Amazon and Target. A longer list drops 20 to 35 percent. Many hobby games barely move. And a few things are cheaper in January.

The quick answer: wait for Black Friday (November 27, 2026) only if your list includes big gateway games like Catan, Ticket to Ride, Carcassonne, Azul, or Pandemic, which have hit 40 to 54 percent off in past sales. Buy small card games, new releases, and direct-from-publisher games like Wingspan whenever you like, because the discount on those is small or zero.

This guide explains the pattern, names the games that have reliably hit it, and tells you what to buy now instead of waiting. The prices and discounts below come from published deal coverage of past sales, linked inline. Nobody knows 2026 prices until the sales start. Every game name links to Amazon.

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When is Black Friday 2026?

Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, 2026, so Black Friday is November 27, Small Business Saturday is November 28, and Cyber Monday is November 30. Big retailers now start their “Black Friday” prices days or weeks earlier. In 2025, the headline Amazon price on Catan’s sixth edition was posted on November 23 (Slickdeals, Nov 2025), four days before Black Friday.

How do Black Friday board game deals actually work?

Three forces set board game prices in late November.

Loss leaders at big-box retailers. Amazon, Target, and Walmart discount a handful of recognizable titles deeply to pull shoppers in. These are the headline deals. They are real, and they tend to be the same titles from year to year.

Publisher price policies. Many hobby publishers set minimum advertised prices. ICv2 reported back in 2018 that Asmodee’s advertised-price policy limited discounts to 20 percent, and that Amazon broke through it that Black Friday with Catan at 47 percent off, Ticket to Ride at 50 percent off, and Pandemic at 50 percent off. The biggest discounts still cluster on the titles Amazon chooses to fight over.

Bundle promotions. Target has run a “buy two, get one free” on board games in past holiday seasons, stacked on top of sale prices. A December 2025 deal post on Slickdeals listed Catan’s sixth edition at $29.99 under that offer, down from Target’s $49.99 regular price. Target has not announced a 2026 version at the time of writing, but if it returns and you are buying three gifts, it can beat the individual Amazon deals.

Which board games go on sale every Black Friday?

These are the titles that showed up in Black Friday 2025 deal coverage, with the discounts reported.

The lesson in that table: the deepest cuts land on the gateway games that sell in volume. Catan, Ticket to Ride, Azul, Carcassonne, and Pandemic are the ones to wait for if they are on your list. Catan’s sixth edition lists at about $55 at most US retailers, so a price near $25 is the real floor. Our comparison of Catan vs Ticket to Ride can help you pick which one to grab.

What is worth waiting for?

Wait if the game is on the list above, or shares its profile: a big-box staple from a large publisher with an obvious gift audience. In past years, discounts of 40 to 54 percent on these titles have shown up at Amazon and Target in the week of Thanksgiving.

Also wait on:

• Starter sets with a holiday audience. Wargamer tracked the previous D&D starter set, Dragons of Stormwreck Isle, at $10, half its list price, on Black Friday 2024. The current set, Heroes of the Borderlands, launched at $49.99; our guide to the best D&D starter set gift compares the two.
• Mass-market party games. Exploding Kittens, Hues and Cues, and the like. Tom’s Guide tracked Exploding Kittens at $9 against a $24 list in 2025.
• Previous editions. When a publisher refreshes a game, as Catan did with its sixth edition in 2025, the old edition can clear out cheaply. The core play is the same.

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What is not worth waiting for?

Most of the hobby. Specifically:

Small-publisher and direct-sales games. Stonemaier Games sets its own prices for Wingspan; at the time of writing it was about $55 on sale against a $65 regular price. Publishers like this rarely join the price war.

New releases. A game released in the autumn is unlikely to be discounted at its first holiday. If it is on the list, buy it from a local store and get it over with. Our running list of the best board games of 2026 shows which new ones are worth it.

Anything already under $20. The Black Friday discount on a $16 card game is a few dollars. Love Letter at 16 percent off is still Love Letter at $14. The wait costs more than the saving. Our list of board game gifts under $30 is full of games like this.

Out-of-print and crowdfunded games. Prices go up, not down.

When is the cheapest time to buy board games, if not Black Friday?

For the mass-market list, Black Friday is usually the floor. For everything else, there are other windows.

• January. Retailers clear holiday overstock, and many local stores run inventory sales.
• Amazon’s other sale events. Deal coverage of Prime Day in June 2026 showed Catan at 45 percent off, with Splendor, Azul, Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride at 24 to 40 percent off. In October 2025’s Big Deal Days, Catan was $34.49 against a $54.99 list. The same gateway titles come back around at near-Black-Friday prices.
• Any time, at a local game store. The price is often a few dollars higher. In exchange you get a person who knows the games, often a place to try one, and a store that will still be there next year. We think the few dollars are well spent; our piece on Small Business Saturday at your local game store makes the case, and we have written about why game lounges don’t sell games and why we want those stores to thrive.

How to shop Black Friday board game deals without wasting a weekend

1. Make the list first. Decide what you want before the sales start. A deal on a game you did not want is not a deal.
2. Check prices now. Retailers sometimes inflate “regular” prices before sales. Note the current price in October so you know whether the November number is real. Our guide on how to spot a real board game deal covers the tricks.
3. Set one price alert per game. Camelcamelcamel for Amazon; most deal sites for the rest. Then close the tab.
4. Look early in Thanksgiving week. In 2025, the headline Catan price was live by the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Stock, not price, is what tends to run out.
5. Stack a bundle offer if you need three. If a “buy two, get one” deal appears, three sale-price games for the price of two beats most single-item deals.

The deal is the excuse, not the point

The best thing a Black Friday price does is get a game into a house that would not have bought one at full price. That is good. A Catan at $25 under a tree in a family that has never played a modern game can change what that family does on Sunday nights for years.

So shop the deals. But remember that the game you get at 54 percent off is worth exactly as much as the number of times it reaches the table. The game is the reason. The people are the point.

FAQ

Do board games go on sale on Black Friday?

Yes, but unevenly. Mass-market titles like Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Carcassonne have dropped 40 to 54 percent at Amazon in past years. Many hobby games move much less.

What is the best Black Friday board game deal?

Historically, Catan or Ticket to Ride at around half price. In 2025, Catan’s sixth edition was reported at $24.99 against a $55 list price.

Is Cyber Monday better than Black Friday for board games?

Usually about the same. In past years many board game prices have held from Black Friday through Cyber Monday (November 30 in 2026), so the bigger risk in waiting is stock, not price.

Should I wait for Black Friday to buy Wingspan?

Probably not. Stonemaier sets its own price for Wingspan, so deep Black Friday cuts are rare. If the price looks fair when you check, buy it then.

One good deal a week, and the reason behind it

Subscribe to The Ludarium newsletter and we will send new short pieces on games worth owning, including notes in November on which deals look real. We plan to open a lounge in Indianapolis where you can try games at the table; the Indianapolis lounge waitlist is open now.