Hit 500 unique games logged on BGG and it made me rethink my shelf

I was just casually checking my BoardGameGeek account last night and saw I logged my 500th unique game. That number caught me off guard because I never thought I played that many different titles. It hit me that about 150 of those were only played once and forgotten about. I started looking through the list and realized I own maybe 40 of them on my shelf collecting dust. The rest were all borrowed copies or games I tried at meetups that just didn't stick. Now I am wondering how many of those 500 I could actually teach to a new player from memory. Has anyone else hit a milestone like this and felt the urge to purge their collection?

2 comments

2 Comments

tara70010d ago

Oh actually that 30-40 games stat is way off, most studies say its more like 10-15 tops.

richardknight10d ago

That line about "150 of those were only played once and forgotten about" really hit me hard because I just hit 600 last month and did the same deep dive. I read something recently that said the average board gamer only really remembers the rules to maybe 30-40 games at a time, and it made so much sense when I looked at my own list. I have probably 100 games on my shelf that I couldnt teach without a rulebook refresher, and honestly that feels wasteful. The purge urge is real man, I already sold off 20 games this spring that I knew I would never pull out again. I think the real trick is figuring out which games you actually want to play repeatedly versus the ones that were just a fun one time experience at a con or meetup.