Wow! What a great year 2024 was for cooperative games! As we put this list together, it felt like any of the games here could have been the #1 game because there were were all great!

Some of the games you might expect to see here might make it on a different list!  We will have our Top 10 Solo Games of 2024, our Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2024, and our Top 10 Party Games of 2024!  Check these lists for more great games!  Let’s head into our list!  This is the best of the best for 2024!  It’s so great that cooperative games have really flourished!  Now I can play with my friends!

Honorable Mention: Ultimatch

Plays Solo:  Yes (true solo)
Player Count: 1 to 5
Ages: 10+
Length: 20 minutes

I am so surprised this little cooperative card game didn’t do better!  It’s colorful and easy to play! I don’t see many people talking about it, but my friends and I had a great time playing this!

If you are looking for a cooperative game to take out instead of UNO, this seems like a game could fit in anywhere!  A light cooperative card game that anyone can play?  Sign me up!

This has to make an Honorable Mention because it is such an approachable and fun little cooperative game!  See our review here to see if you might like Ultimatch!!

10. Slay The Spire: The Board Game

Plays Solo:  Yes (has true solo play, but it’s better cooperative)
Player Count: 1 to 4
Ages: 12+
Length: 60-90 minutes per Act

As someone who has never played the original video game, this was a huge surprise!  If you like the video game, I think you’ll like this!  And if you didn’t like the video game … you might still like this!! This is a surprisingly good game with surprisingly good components!  It’s a cooperative adventure deck-building game as players navigate dungeons and fight bad guys … just like the video game! 

This game worked so well in so many contexts!  It was probably one of the most played games at RichieCon 2024 this year, as I saw it getting played so many times! See above. It also worked with my friends who have played the original video game Slay The Spire, and for my friends who HAVEN’T played Slay The Spire!

This had to make our top 10 list of the year because it was so good! It really is a great cooperative game, as it embraces Player Selected Turn Order and Simultaneous Play at the same time!  The only reason it’s at number 10 is just that’s it sometimes harder to get to the table if you already have a game in progress (as cards are stored/flipped and saved in the box).  See our review here of Slay The Spire: The Board Game to see if this is something you might enjoy!

9. Union City Alliance: Heroes Unite!

Plays Solo:  No (but you can play two characters)
Player Count: 2 to 4
Ages: 14+
Length: 75-150 minutes

This was #1 on our Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2022, and it finally delivered this year!  Of course I was excited when it came in, but I was wary!  Luckily, it was very good!

This is a cooperative deck-building game (a lot of these this year) where players are Super Heroes with special powers and have special cards tailored to their deck! If you like Marvel Legendary, a cooperative deck-builder with Marvel Super Heroes, this might be right up your alley! Union City Alliance is also much more thematic than Marvel Legendary as players are actually Super Heroes moving around a map and fighting bad guys!

The only reason this is a little lower is because it doesn’t have official rules for playing solo (but it seems to work with the solo player operating two heroes), and because it is a little more complicated!  This game drips with so much theme that it has to pay a little cost of complexity for that theme!  Take a look at our review of Union City Alliance to see if you night enjoy this more than Marvel Legendary! I knowI did!

8. Flock Together

Plays Solo:  Yes (true solo)
Player Count: 1 to 5
Ages: 10+
Length: 25 minutes per player

This is a gorgeous and very cute game with art by Andrew Bosley. Flock Together is a cooperative Boss-Battler, as players have to battle 3 minor bosses on the way to the final confrontation with the big Boss!

This was on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2024, and boy was it great!  This seemed to hit home for so many people!  Flock Together a light cooperative game and it is so easy to get to the table!  The art and chicken puns in this game just evoke such joy!

This was another one of the most played games at RichieCon 2024 (see above) as I saw it getting played multiple times!   Because this game is so easy to get to the table and evokes such joy and humor, this had to make my Top Cooperative Games of 2024!  See our review of Flock Together to see if this might be something you enjoy!

7. Hissy Fit! 

Plays Solo:  Yes (true solo)
Player Count: 1 to 4
Ages: 8+
Length: 20 minutes 

Wait, a game about taking cats to the Vet made the #7 position?  That’s right!  This super cute little cooperative game was a surprising hit!  It’s a cooperative game you can take just about anywhere, it’s easy to teach and play, and everyone just responds so well to it!

I haven’t had a bad play of this yet!  I have played with my gamer friends, my non-gamer friends, my niece, my best friend, and so many groups and it has been a hit every time!  This is a great little cooperative game with a follow-like mechanism that keeps everyone involved the whole time!

In the end, the super cute art will bring in people (see above), but the simple cooperative gameplay (with the involving follow mechanism) and short games of 20 minutes will enchant just about everyone!  Take a look at our review of Hissy Fit here and see if you want to take the cat to the Vet!

6. Endeavor Deep Sea

Plays Solo:  Yes (true solo)
Player Count: 1 to 5
Ages: 14+
Length: upto 30 minutes per player 

So, I have never played the original Endeavor, but this follow-on (called Endeavor Deep Sea) worker placement game had both a solo and cooperative mode, so I took a chance on it, and it was very very good!  A cooperative worker placement game is such a neat thing when it actually works!

Although I liked the game solo and cooperatively, the reason this is higher on the list is that this was a hit for everyone who played it cooperatively!   Each player feels like they have so much choice on their turn, so agency is present and relevant, but the discussions for how to achieve the cooperative goals really do elevate the game!  It’s a cooperative game where the turns are multiplayer solitaire (which gives each player agency), but still instills a sense of cooperation in the goals!

This was a very thinky and engaging solo and cooperative worker placement game that looks really great on the table!  Take a look at our review of Endeavor Deep Sea to see if this is for you and your group!

5. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders

Plays Solo:  Yes (but you have to play two characters)
Player Count: 1 to 4
Ages: 14+
Length: 60-90 minutes

This is a fantastic year for board and card games! In many other years, this would have easily been my #1 game of the year, but there are so many good games this year!  This is a cooperative boss-battler dungeon crawl campaign game where players play unique and interesting characters in this world of Tidal Blades!

This game is just gorgeous and took up my table for weeks as I played through the campaign both solo and cooperatively!   The components are so good and, this sounds silly, but so easy to read and understand the icons and colors!  They did such a fantastic job!

The best recommendation you can give a campaign game is that your friends want to keep playing it!  I have gone through most of the campaign solo, and I am enjoying playing cooperatively with my friends when I can!  See above!

The way players choose a card and then activate all the abilities in the row or column of choice is such a great mechanism!   I hope we see this mechanism again in future games! Tidal Blades 2: The Rise of the Unfolders has so many great things (and fixes to Gloomhaven) that I wish I could give this the #1 position, but I liked the next few games just a little better!  See our review of Tidal Blades 2: The Rise of the Unfolders here to see if you might like this and argue that it should be #1!

4. Invincible: The Hero-Building Game

Plays Solo:  Yes (but you have to play two characters)
Player Count: 1 to 4
Ages: 13+
Length: 45-90 minutes

Invincible: The Hero Building Game is a cooperative bag-building game set in the Invincible universe.  You may have read the original comic book or seen the TV show, but even if you haven’t, you might still really enjoy this bag-building/push-your-luck game!  I really enjoyed that no cube is bad on its own, but if you ever draw 5 black cubes, a hero can crash (which is still recoverable).  The black cubes are actually good (they are wild) up until you get 5 of them!  

There is also a campaign, where each scenario can be just played as a one-shot as well!  

Cooperatively, my friends (despite never having seen/read Invincible) still had a good time playing!  Sam even mentioned Invincible in his top 10 list at RichieCon 2024 !  I freely admit that the SuperHero nature of this game contributed to me really liking it, but the game is very very good!  See our review of Invincible: The Hero-Building Game to see if you might enjoy it!

3. Leviathan Wilds

Plays Solo:  Yes (there’s an official true solo mode, but just play two characters: it’s easier)
Player Count: 1 to 4
Ages: 10+
Length: 60 minutes

Leviathan Wilds took my gaming groups by storm!  This is a game I championed, as it was #3 on my Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2024, and boy did it deliver!  It seems most reviewers picked up on how good it was!  

This is basically Shadow of The Colossus, the cooperative board game! But, instead of “fighting” a creature by climbing all over him, players work together to heal a creature (by getting rid of crystal growths)!

This game works so well because it’s easy to get to the table and has some really unique features!  Each player gets to choose a Climber and Class (each with its own deck) and meld them to create a unique deck and personality!  The cards are multi-use, and your deck represents your grip! It’s such an interesting and gorgeous game!  See below!

My friend Becca (who doesn’t like cooperative games normally) said she really liked this!  And most of my friends also liked it!  It was hit just about everywhere I went!  Take a look at our review of Leviathan Wilds to see if this is something you may like!

2. Sammu-Ramat

Plays Solo:  Yes (there’s a couple of ways, either the solo player operates 2 advisors or 3)
Player Count: 1 to 5
Ages: 14+
Length: 60-90 minutes

You haven’t probably heard of this game; it had a very small Gamefound presence, but in the end, it probably should have been game of the year.  This game is fantastic: it’s a cooperative war-game with euro-type resource gathering mechanisms!  And it’s cooperative and solo!  The theme is that players are advisors to Sammu-Ramat, a leader from 811-820 BC known for her wisdom! 

In the end, though, this is a puzzle game about how to keep the kingdom prosperous, while still enduring the warlike invaders! How do you handle crisis? What resources do you collect?  how do you move about the kingdom to do the most good?  It’s such a great and thinky puzzle with almost no randomness to the game (from a few events)!  

My friends and I had such a good time playing through this puzzle, but I think I enjoyed the campaign mode best, where you play 5 games back to back using the previous game state as set-up for the next!  So interesting and thinky!

I loved this game and strongly suggest you check it out, especially if you like thinky puzzle games!  See our review of Sammu-Ramat to see if this might be something you like!  If this were any of other year, this would have been my #1, but one other game took almost all my time this year …

1. Marvel United Multiverse/Season 3

Plays Solo:  Yes (there’s many ways, but I prefer playing two heroes)
Player Count: 1 to 4 (sometimes 5, depending on the mode)
Ages: 14+
Length: 60-90 minutes

This is kind of a cheat, as Marvel United: Multiverse standalone game comes with Season 3 of Marvel United Multiverse! See above!

Marvel United: Multiverse is the base game that includes heroes from the Multiverse (Loki) and What If? (Captain Carter) and other lesser know heroes and villains.

One of the best new things in the Marvel United: Multiverse game is the Equipment cards!  Some of the heroes in the game get some really interesting and  choices if equipped!  I was pleasantly surprised how much I liked the new equipment and its effects on gameplay.  See our review here to see if Marvel United: Multiverse might be for you!

Even though Marvel United: Multiverse is out favorite of the Marvel United base games, it’s all the content from Season 3 that made this rise to the top!  We spent weeks lovingly going through so much of Season 3 Multiverse!  

• The Stretch Goals! See the Expansion Absorption Explosion for more details!
• The Campaign Decks! Play a campaign with your favorite Marvel comic!
• The Inhumans! Play War of Kings with your favorite Inhumans!
• Galactus!  Play against Galactus or his heralds!

We liked Marvel United: Multiverse so much, we used the Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S location from that box to make our own campaign!

The Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S campaign, using “mostly” Season 3 and Multiverse components took over our lives for weeks as well! See our custom print-and-play campaign of the Project PEGASUS story!

Marvel United has become my favorite game of all time, and Season 3 pretty much cemented it i place! That’s why Marvel United: Multiverse (and Season 3) has to make the #1 spot on our cooperative games of 2024!