Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth most popular board game in October

Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth racked up 7,400 new registered owners on BoardGameGeek in October, making it the most widely purchased board game of the month. The 7 Wonders Duel reskin, based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth masterpiece, finished some way ahead of Unconscious Mind, the next best performer. Even this year’s Spiel de Jahres winner, Sky Team, couldn’t run Asmodee’s two-player strategy game close.

October’s most popular games

Typically, a popular board game can expect to reach around 3,500 new registered owners on BoardGameGeek to be considered the most popular board game for the month. However, Asmodee’s massive marketing push at this year’s record-breaking Spiel Essen clearly paid off. 7,413 people registered as having bought the Lord of the Rings game in October.

Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle Earth

Duel for Middle Earth is essentially a reskin of 7 Wonders Duel with a few new mechanics and twists. It takes place in Middle Earth, from J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings, and is designed for two players. One player controls Sauron and his armies, while the other leads the free people. The game plays out almost the same as 7 Wonders, with players taking turns picking cards and playing them in their tableau.  

There are three different ways players can win and the game is enjoyable for its brevity as well as its core mechanics. It also benefits from the ever-endearing Middle Earth setting.

Unconscious Mind

The second most popular board game of the month was Unconscious Mind. In the Sigmund Freud-themed game, players delve into patients’ minds using dream analysis. Players gain renown for their actions and can learn new techniques while sharing coffee with colleagues. It is a beautiful-looking game that does a surprisingly good job of immersing you in the theme, especially considering the depth of that theme.

Unconscious Mind is a Euro-style game with worker placement, engine building, and cascading game mechanics for up to four players. It registered 3,810 new players in October, usually enough to take the top spot.

Sky Team

In third place was Sky Team, which had an impressive 3,492 new buyers, which rounded out a very successful year for the cooperative plane landing game. Having launched in 2023, Sky Team won this year’s Spiel de Jahre in July and continues to be popular with buyers.

It is described as family weight, which means it is easy to get to grips with, and a game takes around a quarter of an hour to finish. It makes a good filler in between bigger games or at the end of a board gaming session. The two-player game combines dice rolling and worker placement mechanics and can make a very good introduction to co-op board games.

Most-wishlisted game – Compile: Main 1

Compile: Main 1 was the most-wishlisted game in October, with around 1,800 people declaring their desire for the AI-themed game. The area control game was released in August 2024 but is sold out at a lot of retailers, which has likely led to the increase in wishlist additions.