The American Tabletop Awards, an awards scheme launched seven years ago with the aim of being the US equivalent of Germany’s Spiel des Jahres, has unveiled its 2026 winners.
Racing games published by CMYK triumphed in both the Early Gamers and Casual Games awards this year, with Richard Garfield’s new implementation of Takashi Ishida’s 2003 design Magical Athlete scooping the former, and Jon Perry’s chaotic mascot racer Hot Streak the latter.
ATTA’s Early Gamers award is focused on titles suitable for younger gamers and players new to modern board gaming, while the Casual Games awards looks at games suitable for all experience levels that can be played in 30 to 60 minutes.
This year’s Strategy Games prize went to Matt Leacock’s pandemic spinoff The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, while the Complex Games title went to Jo Kelly’s and Cole Wehrle’s design Molly House, which explores the joy and fear experienced by gender-defying Londoners in 18th century society.
CMYK was the standout publisher with two wins out of the four categories. Asmodee studios won one award and picked up three other nominations, while Flatout Games picked up recommendations for both Cascadia Junior and Knitting Circle.
Alex Cutler was the only designer to appear twice among the finalists, scoring a nomination for his co-design Critter Kitchen and a recommendation for co-design A Place For All My Books.
The ATTAs are voted on by members of the US board game media, who each submit up to five games from the previous calendar year, which are then ordered according to ranked-choice vote.
ATTA’s committee includes GAMA president and SAHMReviews.com founder and owner Nicole Brady, Jessica Fisher, the co-founder of Gameosity and the Tabletop Game Jobs Facebook group, and Good Time Society pair Ruel Gaviola and Becca Scott.
Awards co-founder Eric Yurko, who runs board game review site What’s Eric Playing?, said, “The past few years have been great for games, and 2025 was no exception.
“There were great moments and releases throughout, so we’re very excited to present these awards to the best games we played in 2025.”
Last year’s ATTA winners were Captain Flip, The Gang, Let’s Go! To Japan and Fromage.
The 2026 American Tabletop Awards finalists
Early Gamers
Winner: Magical Athlete – designed by Richard Garfield and Takashi Ishida (published by CMYK Games)
Nominated: The Sandcastles of Burgundy – Stefan Feld and Susanne Feld (Ravensburger)
Nominated: Splendor Kids – Marc André and Catherine André (Space Cowboys / Asmodee)
Recommended: Cascadia Junior – Fertessa Allyse and Randy Flynn (Flatout Games)
Recommended: Duck and Cover – Oussama Khelifati (Captain Games)
Casual Games
Winner: Hot Streak – Jon Perry (CMYK Games)
Nominated: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game – Bryan Bornmueller (Office Dog / Asmodee)
Nominated: 7 Wonders Dice – Antoine Bauza (Repos Production / Asmodee)
Recommended: FlipToons – Jordy Adan and Renato Simões (Thunderworks Games)
Recommended: A Place For All My Books – Alex Cutler and Michael Mihealsick (Smirk and Dagger Games)
Strategy Games
Winner: The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship – Matt Leacock (Z-Man Games / Asmodee)
Nominated: Critter Kitchen – Alex Cutler and Peter C. Hayward (Cardboard Alchemy)
Nominated: Kinfire Council – Kevin Wilson (Incredible Dream)
Recommended: Knitting Circle – Emily Vincent (Flatout Games)
Recommended: Moon Colony Bloodbath – Donald X Vaccarino (Rio Grande Games)
Complex Games
Winner: Molly House – Jo Kelly and Cole Wehrle (Wehrlegig Games)
Nominated: Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders – Tim Eisner and Ben Eisner (Druid City Games)
Nominated: Covenant – Germán P Millán (Devir)
Recommended: Above and Below: Haunted – Ryan Laukat (Red Raven Games)
Recommended: Galactic Cruise – TK King, Dennis Northcott and Koltin Thompson (Kinson Key Games)
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Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.
Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.
Anmelden
