I created this site to help spotlight and share the stories behind board game art. How games look form a huge part of how we connect with them but when it comes to awards recognition we often primarily focus on the game design. To celebrate the hard work of those responsible for making our games look so beautiful I created this vote. In December I asked you to nominate the best board game art of 2018 and you didn’t disappoint.

There were over 200 different games nominated.

From those 200+ games I shortlisted the 10 most popular nominations to create a vote. I wanted to find out which of these games had your favorite OVERALL ARTWORK so in January I opened the site to your opinion once again. I asked that you not judge a game by it’s cover but look beneath the surface and to help you make your choices I included details such as the artists names, publishers, links to the game pages on Board Game Geek and photos of the games too.

I posted the top 10 in January and you voted in your thousands.

I’ve split your vote results into runners up (in alphabetical order) and the top 5, counting down to the number 1 spot. I’ve included links to the game pages on board game geek under (more info) so if you want to know more you can just hit that link. I’ve also included the publishers game descriptions and quotes from those involved in creating the games where I’ve been able to get them.

This list is a reflection of the talent in our industry.

Thank you to the publishers for supplying me with images and the community for helping out where I needed more. I’d like to say a huge thank you to everyone who voted as without your input this vote wouldn’t exist. I’d also like to thank all of those who shared this vote, I run this site on my own and my voice only carries so far, with your help this became much bigger than I could have possibly imagined.

So which board game had the best art of 2018?

This might be a vote for the best but it’s safe to say all the games on this list have incredible artwork and should be considered examples of what can be done in this industry with the right people involved. One last thank you to all of the artists out there, it’s their talent that brightens up our games and is taking this hobby to new and greater heights, and now .. on to the results!