Six websites (and some extra) to play board games online, free and with friends

The world is experiencing strange days, with many isolated people, studying or working from home and avoiding going out as much as possible to prevent the current situation with the coronavirus from worsening. And now that the weekend is coming and we are presented with leisure time ahead that we have to solve from home , perhaps some recommendations will come in handy.

Tabletopia

In Tabletopia you find a large library of board games , more than 600 in total. From the web it is possible to access multiple demos of various games without having to register, you just have to search for those with a label that says "Try Now" .

Now, if you also register on the site you can play the entire library of games , either alone, online if there are more players, or you can create your own game and share the link with several friends (depending on the game) to play together in real time.

Tabletop is free as long as you don't play more than two games at the same time. The games look pretty cool, there are multiple languages, and overall everything is easy to use.

Board Game Arena

Board Game Arena is a fairly large platform of online games. They have 174 games and a very active community. Most games are free (some require a premium subscription), everything is from the browser, and works on the desktop or mobile without problems.

In addition to this, Board Game Arena is available in Spanish. Before you start you will be asked to select some games that you are familiar with, and they will also teach you how to play new games so that you encounter new challenges. You can join rankings and compete online with other players.

Catan Universe

Catan is one of the most famous board games out there, and yet some may not know it has a free online version . In Catan Universe you have access to an online version of the game made for the browser, in Spanish and that looks pretty cool.

To access most of the game's content, they will ask you for some things, such as registering, and completing the tutorial to unlock aspects. Overall, it's very worth it, especially if you've never played it and want to learn.

Minigames

A lifelong classic, Minigames.com still exists, it still has tons of simple games to play alone or with friends and it's still free. The only bad thing is that it is not as crowded as it was at its best, and it also requires that you install Flash, so you may want to opt for other options or just enable the plugin while playing.

However, it is still a good option to hang out as there are plenty of things to entertain yourself there, including a wide selection of board games .

Aso Brain Games

Aso Brain Games is a fairly serious online board game community . Here while you can play a lot of things with an extremely dedicated gamer community, you have to keep in mind that you also have to be a dedicated gamer, and be willing to follow their rules.

At Aso Brain Games, you can only play if you register and registrations are limited by region and timeout. They also don't accept account records with popular emails like Gmail or Microsoft Live. So they make it very difficult for someone who has no intention of being a very committed player to give up easily.

Completely opposite to the previous one is this simple website called Pinturillo2 , it is not only extremely simple, you can play casually immediately, but it is a single game: a Pictionary clone .

It is online, it is free, it is in Spanish, it works and there are always players connected to play for a while and waste time, or you can create a private table with your friends. I have to include it because few things are so simple and straight to the point. No paralysis by analysis.

Additional features

I have left these last two recommendations for last. The first is Vassal , which is not a website but an application. It's actually a game engine made especially for playing online adaptations of famous board games .

Vassal is free and open source, so you can download it for Windows, Linux or macOS and install it on your computer completely free. From this link you can see the list of games that are currently playing on their servers.

The last recommendation is also something that must be installed, and it also costs money, but if you really like that about online board games, with Tabletop Simulator you have a video game available on Steam that includes other classic board games or that you Lets create yours. It is all an experience, and it even has VR support.