2019 Games Library Report

Hello! I’ve had time to crunch numbers and I have to say I am extremely pleased with the Games Library performance at U-Con 2019. Which really means HOLY COW PEOPLE! You came, you saw, and you played games. Open gaming was hopping from mid morning on, and Friday evening when I went to check in on the Library there were already 5 sheets of games signed out. I think last year there were a total of 13 sheets all together and Friday was maybe 2 of those sheets? This year I tallied 23 pages of game check outs.

The games library added 74 games this year for a total of 372 games. 153 unique games were played (41% of the library, up 7% from last year) with a total of 339 checkouts. That’s over 100 more checkouts from last year’s 233. The odd thing about the checkouts is that only 2 games had crazy high numbers: Azul with 12 checkouts and Potion Explosion with 15 checkouts. Patchwork comes in a distant third with 8 checkouts, and then the numbers follow a pretty predictable pattern (Ticket to Ride: Europe with 6 checkouts and a millionty games at 5 checkout, Or actually, 8: Cacao, Clank! In Space!, Dominion, Evolution, Fuse, Hive, Kingdomino, and Roboralley). So taking out Potion Explosion and Azul it looks like people played a wide variety of games rather than a handful of favorites over and over.

For people who like numbers:

If you are wondering what the hot games are this year, the above list is a solid start, but also Dominions as a group placed well (18 checkouts over 13 sets). The Forbiddens got some group love (Island, Desert and Sky all got 7 checkouts, Sky being the favorite Forbidden) and the Tickets to Ride were hopping (TTR, TTR:Europe, TTR:NY had a total of 14 checkouts).

We hosted part of the ConTessa Games Library again this year and they too had Potion Explosion, which is good because several times both copies were out simultaneously. Santorini was played as well as Exploding Kittens, 3 Cheers for Master and Blockade. I did not know that there was Munchkin Gloom until I saw it on the checkout list so hey! I learned something. Although really, given that it’s a Munchkin I’m not too surprised.

What did surprise me was Splendor only getting one checkout and Sentinels getting no checkouts. Maybe the big black box o’ Sentinels is too intimidating, but this means Sentinels has broken its streak of being checked out every year since 2014. Games still on that list are: Forbidden Island, Kingdom Builder, Lords of Waterdeep, Tokaido and Zombie Dice. Solid, dependable games one and all. Conversely, a good handful of games got their first checkout this year: Crows, Grave Robbers from Outer Space, Mausoleum, San Juan, Tahiti, Terra Nova and Trajan. It’s nice to see games get their first recorded play.

Lastly, I got a whopping 22 game suggestions to purchase for the Games Library. I will post a poll on the U-Con Gaming Group Facebook page December 1st-ish with the suggestions and we can vote to see which ones I will add (because I saved budget money for just this purpose). I do not believe Facebook can handle 22 choices in a single poll, so I might have to make 2 polls…and then buy the winners from each poll. Last year I purchased Clank! In Space! (5 checkouts), Captain Sonar (2 checkouts) and Wizards (1 checkout) so it looks like you people know what you want to see in the Library. I am excited to see what everyone picks this year.

Your Friendly Neighborhood Games Library Wrangler -JQ