I had occasion to look through BGG and look at every year (1) in games separately and how many good and great games there were, how many games I played from each year, how many I owned over the years and how many more I would still be interested in trying.
And while looking I stumbled across two years that for me had an exceptional number of interesting games:
- 2014: Arler Erde, Five Tribes, Orleans, Patchwork, Roll for the Galaxy, Alchemists, Star Realms, Istanbul, Dead of Winter, Xia, Legendary Encounters, Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Splendor, La Granja, Deception, Imperial Settlers, Onitama, Colt Express, Sheriff of Nottingham, Abyss, Paperback… and probably more further down the lists
- 2017: Spirit Island, Gloomhaven, 7th Continent, Gaia Project, Too Many Bones, Azul, Anachrony, Sagrada, Clans of Caledonia and many more. I am a bit more hesitant because 2017 is not that long ago and the games may not all have staying power
Worth mentioning seems 2009 with a lot of games that seem to be well regarded today or have seen remakes or sequels: Hansa Teutonica, The Resistance, Cyclades, Smallworld, Dungeon Lords, Jaipur, Tobago (just got an expansion), At the Gates of Loyang, Summoner Wars…
I have not played all the games I named above, they are just games I know or know of… and those three seem to be particularly strong years for my interests
Which years are strongest in your view?
(1) yearly between 2000 and 2019 and per decade for 70s and 80s, I filtered out games with less than 1000 or pre 2000 less than 500 ratings and an average rating below 6.5
1 Like
I usually point to 2014 and 2015 as being exceptional years.
2 Likes
Yeah, 2015 as well, I guess when I looked through that I was still flashed from the amount of awesome from 2014. Pandemic Legacy alone should be enough to carry that… I spent half of Spiel picking up preorders and Waffling about Pandemic. I also remember vividly walking by the crazy people playing that ugly game at the Splotter booth something about golden arches … how weird would you have to be…?
2 Likes
2009: Jaipur, Rallyman, The Resistance, Revolution!, Tobago
2015: Baseball Highlights 2045, FUSE, Hostage Negotiator, Leaving Earth, Mysterium, Xenon Profiteer
(Only one of those games in each list is one I actually bought in its year of release: Revolution! and Leaving Earth.)
2 Likes
Couldn’t easily find more than two outstanding games each year, so I’m just going to have to go with 2010, when Innovation was published. One great game is worth 10,000 others.
4 Likes
Many of my favourite games (so far) are 2009, 2014 (although from @yashima list I only have played a few) and 2017… 
But I have a fair few from 2018 that I love too.
For 2017 I would also include Battle for Rokugan, London 2Ed. and Century: Spice Road
2018: Everdell, Welcome To…, Architects of the West Kingdom, Root, Detective Club, Decrypto… They look like they have staying power.
2 Likes
For the question actually being asked, I think I’m on the 2017 bandwagon for many of the games already named. To try to add to 2017’s accolades, I’m a deck building fanatic and I don’t think I’ve seen Quest for El Dorado on the list of 2017 winners yet and since Pandemic Legacy 1 was mentioned for 2015, it’s worth throwing in Season 2 for 2017.
To answer the question in the thread header from a slightly different angle, spring 2015 is when I first started attending my local board game group meetup and actually got heavily into games and gaming rather than trying to convince my normal friends to put up with me and play games occasionally. Most of my gaming since then has been with people I met there and many people I met there I now consider friends beyond just gaming buddies. One fella in particular that I met at the game group in fall 2015, we both decided we liked each other’s company so much that we got married in March 2020. Hard to top that!
9 Likes
2017 and 2012 tied. I started board gaming 5 years ago.
2017
- Agra (I think this one just manage to made the cut for me)
- Amun-Re the Card Game
- Battle Line: Medieval (new variant, which, for me, made it a new entry)
- Battle for Rokugan
- Calimala
- Little Town
- Mafiozoo (reimplementation of Louis XIV)
- Noria
- Senators
- Spirit Island
- Start-ups
2012
- Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small
- Ginkgopolis
- Keyflower
- Panic Lab
- Pax Porfiriana
- Seasons
- Spectaculum
- Terra Mystica
- The Resistance: Avalon
- Tzolkin
- War of the Ring 2
3 Likes
I want to note that while I sometimes take inspiration from BGG or reddit threads this one I didn’t steal… (https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/comments/n5vbsn/your_favorite_year_of_boardgames/) instead I was inspired by our debate about publishing year stats
1 Like
That is objectively the best year then 
Belated or repeated congrats!
3 Likes