Best Board Game Deals to Watch This Black Friday 2026
It’s always game night in Chicago.
Black Friday is Friday, November 27, 2026 — and the honest truth about board game deals is that most of the big ones haven’t been announced yet. Amazon’s main Black Friday sale doesn’t start until November 19, Walmart’s board game event lands November 23, and the specialist shops (Miniature Market, Game Nerdz, CoolStuffInc) hadn’t posted any Black Friday plans when we checked on November 12.
So this isn’t a list of deals that exist today. It’s a watch list: ten games worth gifting this Christmas, what they cost right now, and the price that should make you stop watching and start buying. Every price below was checked on November 12, 2026, and we’ll update this page as the real sales drop.
How to read this list
- List price — the publisher’s price. Almost nobody should pay it.
- Street price now — what the game actually sells for today at major US shops.
- Jump at — the Black Friday price that makes it a genuine deal, based on the game’s recent sale history. If you see it at or under this number, buy first, think later.
One warning that applies to the whole list: compare deals within the same edition. Several of these games have a newer edition on shelves, and a “deal” on the old printing isn’t the same thing.
The watch list at a glance
| Game | List price | Street price now | Jump at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ticket to Ride (2025 Refresh) | $49.99 | $39.99 | $34.99 or less |
| Azul | $39.99 | $31.99 | $26 or less |
| Wingspan | $65.00 | $55.00 | $45 or less |
| Codenames (2nd Edition) | $24.99 | $24.99 | Under $20 |
| 7 Wonders Duel | $36.99 | ~$29–30 | $25 or less |
| Sky Team | $32.99 | $29.99 | $27 or less |
| Jaipur (New Edition) | $26.99 | $21.99–24.95 | $20 or less |
| Flip 7 | — | $7.95–7.99 | $6 or less |
| Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza | $9.99 | $9.97–9.99 | Grab it in a buy-one-get-one stack |
| Ark Nova | $79.99 | $57.99–63.99 | $55 or less |
1. Ticket to Ride (2025 Refresh)
The gateway game that never misses as a gift — build train routes across North America, easy to teach in five minutes. The current printing is the 2025 Refresh edition: list price $49.99, already down to $39.99 at Miniature Market and Target. Watch the edition when you compare prices — listings for the older edition (list $59.99) are still floating around. Jump at $34.99 or less.
2. Azul
Draft jewel-toned tiles, build a mosaic, out-score everyone. Azul is the rare game that’s beautiful on the table and cutthroat underneath. List price is $39.99; street price is $31.99 at Miniature Market and Amazon — and it dipped to $23.99 on Amazon in early October, which tells you where Black Friday can take it. Jump at $26 or less.
3. Wingspan
The bird game that pulled a whole new audience into the hobby. List price $65; street price $55 at Walmart and Miniature Market (out of stock at Miniature Market when we checked — a restock is part of what to watch for). Price trackers put its Amazon average around $47.63, so $45 or less is a strong deal, and anything under $40 is rare — its tracked low is $38.81, from back in 2023.
4. Codenames (2nd Edition)
The party word game every group ends up owning. The current 2nd Edition lists at $24.99 and is selling at full list almost everywhere right now — which makes it a stacking play instead: it’s eligible for Target’s buy-one-get-one-50%-off board game promo running through November 14. On its own, price trackers have seen it at $19.99. Jump at under $20, or pair it in a promo.
5. 7 Wonders Duel
The best two-player game on this list — a full civilization duel in about 30 minutes. Miniature Market lists it at $36.99; street price sits around $29–30 (it was out of stock at Miniature Market, $29.19 on Amazon). Jump at $25 or less.
6. Sky Team
A cooperative two-player game where you land a plane together — in silence. It won the Spiel des Jahres in 2024 and still sells close to its $32.99 list price: $29.99 at Miniature Market (out of stock when checked), near list on Amazon. This one rarely gets deep discounts, so jump at $27 or less — or at any restock at $29.99.
7. Jaipur (New Edition)
A fast, clever two-player trading game — the stocking stuffer of the strategy world. List price $26.99; street price $21.99 at Miniature Market (out of stock) and $24.95 at Level One Games, in stock. It’s also eligible for Target’s buy-one-get-one-50%-off promo through November 14. Jump at $20 or less.
8. Flip 7
The push-your-luck card game that took over game nights this year — flip cards, chase points, don’t bust. It’s cheap everywhere already: $7.95 at Miniature Market, $7.99 at Target, and a $5.99 price with an on-listing coupon was spotted on Amazon in early November. At that level it’s a gift-add-on, not a budget decision. Jump at $6 or less — or just grab it now.
9. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
Five words, total chaos, kids and adults equally feral. It sells at its $9.99 list price basically everywhere ($9.97 at Walmart), so don’t wait for a solo discount that may never come — this is the game you add to a buy-one-get-one stack or a free-shipping threshold. Jump when it’s the second game in a promo.
10. Ark Nova
The heavyweight: build a zoo, manage conservation, plan 20 moves ahead. Current retail list is $79.99 (it rose from $74.95), and street price already runs $57.99–63.99 depending on the shop — $63.99 at Miniature Market. Its tracked Amazon low is $48.49 from 2023, and it hit $55 in a Prime sale in 2024. Jump at $55 or less.
Sales that are already live (checked November 12)
- Target — buy 1, get 1 50% off select board games, through November 14. Not the Black Friday ad, but live now, and Codenames and Jaipur from this list are eligible. Stacking two watch-list games is the best Target play of the week.
- Walmart — Early Black Friday, November 12–15. The board game headline is classic Hasbro titles at $5 each (Jenga, Connect 4, Hungry Hungry Hippos, Candy Land, Sorry!, Yahtzee). None of the hobby games above are in the $5 set — Walmart’s main Black Friday deals follow on November 23, with Cyber Monday on November 30.
- Amazon — early promo live now; the real sale starts November 19. A buy-2-save-50%-on-1 offer is running on eligible board games, with the discount on the cheapest item. The headline Black Friday prices aren’t out yet.
- Miniature Market, Game Nerdz, CoolStuffInc — nothing announced yet. All three run Black Friday sales most years; as of November 12, none had posted dates or percentages. Their everyday prices above are the baseline to beat.
Deal trackers note that headline games usually hit their lowest prices in the first early-access wave rather than on Black Friday itself — another reason to know your jump price before the sales start, instead of deciding in the moment.
Shop local first
Before you feed the algorithm: Chicago has game stores all over the city and suburbs that price-match the season in their own way, run their own Black Friday tables, and will happily tell you which of these ten fits the person you’re buying for. Our directory lists them all: Where to Play Board Games in Chicago and the Suburbs. And if you’re still deciding what to buy, our Christmas gift guide sorts 15 picks by who they’re for.
Prices in this article were checked November 12, 2026 and will change — we’ll refresh the street prices as the Black Friday sales go live.
See you at the table. 🎲