The board games industry hit £10.2 billion in 2025. A small chunk of that revenue came from people deliberately inviting ghosts, demons and cosmic horrors into their living rooms. Paranormal board games aren’t niche anymore…
Strategy and war-themed games, which include horror titles, captured 24-28.4% of the board game market in 2024! Clearly people want to be scared. They want to solve murders. They want to betray their friends in haunted houses.
So here’s our Bizarre But True! lowdown on the best paranormal themed board games you need to try next…
1. The Ouija Board: The Patent That Required Proof Of Ghosts
The Ouija board allegedly named itself in 1890. Medium Helen Peters asked what it should be called, and the planchette spelled “Ouija.” When questioned what it meant, it responded “Good Luck.”
The patent officer only granted approval after the board correctly spelled out his name. That’s possibly the strangest patent demonstration in recorded history.
During five months in 1944, one New York department store sold 50,000 units. Wartime America wanted contact with lost loved ones and the Ouija board provided that illusion. In 1967, Vietnam, race riots, Summer of Love – over 2 million boards sold outselling even Monopoly!
Sales of the board spike during times of uncertainty. World War One. The Great Depression. The 1918 flu pandemic. And the pattern holds even today…
The Exorcist changed everything though. The book sold 13 million copies and cemented the Ouija board as dangerous occult equipment. Parker Brothers removed their friendly blue ghost mascot the year after publication in 1971, ending three decades of cheerful branding.
You can still buy it on Amazon. But are you brave enough…?
- The Ouija board was first marketed as a toy in the 1890s with no explanation of how it worked, just that it could answer questions about the past, present of future with uncanny accuracy, and that it would provide a link "between the known and unknown, the material and immaterial."
- A savvy businessman named Charles Kennard noticed this occult craze and set out to invent a kind of "talking table," which would make it quicker and easier to reach the spirit world. Once he had developed a prototype Kennard asked the spirits what his invention should be called and the planchette spelled out "Spirit board." When he inquired what the bizarre word meant, they replied "good luck."
- Talking board Includes spirit gameboard, planchette and detailed step by step instructions which gonna make your seance easy and safe.
- Board Dimensions: A4 Sized - 12 x 9 Inches (~30cm x 21cm)
- Great entertainment to use with friends, party game, or as a unique present.
2. Mysterium: The Ghost Who Can’t Speak
One player is a ghost. The others are mediums trying to solve the ghost’s murder.
The ghost can’t speak. It communicates through illustrated vision cards – dreamlike, abstract, open to interpretation. Mysterium won BoardGameGeek’s 2015 Golden Geek Award for Best Artwork and Presentation. The illustrations genuinely immerse you in eerie supernatural visions.
The game was nominated for 14 awards and won 6, including recognition at France’s As d’Or and Germany’s Deutscher Spielepreis.
A children’s version – Mysterium Kids: Captain Echo’s Treasure, won the 2023 Kinderspiel des Jahres. That’s Germany’s highest honour for children’s games.
The mechanics force collaboration. The ghost player watches mediums misinterpret their visions, unable to correct them directly. Frustrating. Hilarious. Strangely compelling…
- CAPTIVATING PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION GAME: Mysterium is an atmospheric investigation board game that transports you to a haunted mansion.
- A UNIQUE AND IMMERSIVE COOPERATIVE GAME: Mysterium is an asymmetrical party game where players must cooperate with each other but have different levels of knowledge.
- MYSTERIOUS & ENCHANTING ILLUSTRATIONS: The beautifully illustrated vision cards immerse players in a dreamlike and disturbing atmosphere. Each image is a puzzle to be interpreted, stimulating your intuition and imagination to reconstruct the crime scene.
- ENDLESS RE-PLAYABILITY: This board game offers numerous possible combinations for the murderer, the crime scene and the weapon, guaranteeing a wide variety of games. Each investigation is unique and allows you to test your psychic abilities every time.
- A THRILLING GAMING EXPERIENCE: Winner of the 2016 As d'Or award for Game of the Year, Mysterium offers an immersive adventure where the tension rises with every turn. Accessible and captivating, this cooperative deduction game is perfect for evenings with friends or family, where collaboration and intuition will be your best allies!
3. Betrayal At House On The Hill: 289+ Ways To Die
This game starts cooperatively. You explore a haunted house together, building the map tile by tile. Then someone becomes a traitor.
Betrayal at House on the Hill offers a minimum of 289 different scenarios across all versions and expansions. The base game contains 50 haunts. Widow’s Walk adds another 50. Each scenario has unique stories, mechanics and strategies. You never know which nightmare you’re walking into.
The third edition, released in 2022, introduced a scenario system where players choose why their characters entered the house. Real estate deals. Searching for lost friends. Morbid curiosity.
One infamous scenario “Here There Be Dragons”, has the traitor control a fire-breathing dragon whilst believing they’re merely dreaming. Completely unaware they’re actually murdering their friends.
Replayability is massive. The house layout changes every game. The haunt triggers randomly. The traitor could be anyone…
- Exciting third edition: This edition of the game "Betrayal at House on the Hill” is filled with eerie horror content, gameplay elements, and characters that did not appear in previous versions
- Game of betrayal in the haunted house: To escape the nightmare, players must pull a strand and sit on the hat
- A great entry for players: This 3rd Edition of the game presents graphics, notebooks, markers, and maps that allow new players to find themselves in the game and get started
- Modular game board parts: The game "Betrayal at House on the Hill” awaits 50 exciting ghost scenarios and every walk to the house promises a horror experience
4. Arkham Horror: The Game That Takes Over Your Evening
Arkham Horror is a cooperative nightmare where investigators battle to prevent Ancient Ones from destroying reality.
The game takes hours. Plural. Multiple. Accept this before you open the box. Players explore 1920s Arkham, closing interdimensional gates whilst fighting cultists, demons and things that shouldn’t exist. Sanity and stamina both matter. Lose either completely and you’re out.
The component count is absurd. Over 300 cards. Dozens of tokens. Multiple boards. The setup alone requires commitment. First-time players will get rules wrong. Repeatedly. But replay value is extreme. Different investigators. Different Ancient Ones. Different gate locations. No two games follow the same pattern. The randomness guarantees fresh horror every session…
- Value for money
- Easy to use
- Durable & Design
5. Dead Of Winter: Trust No One, Not Even Yourself
Dead of Winter forces players to work together towards a common goal whilst simultaneously pursuing secret personal objectives that might require betraying the entire colony. It’s a zombie survival game set in perpetual winter. Resources are scarce. Morale is fragile and one player might be actively sabotaging everything.
The game creates genuine paranoia. Every action is visible. Every decision suspect. Did they take that weapon because they need it, or because they’re the traitor?
Characters die frequently. Starvation. Frostbite. Zombie bites. Bad dice rolls. The 12-sided exposure die is merciless. You can win as a group but lose individually if you don’t complete your secret objective. Or everyone can complete their objectives whilst the colony fails. Multiple endings. Multiple win conditions. Trust becomes the rarest resource…
- A semi-cooperative game where players try to fend off the zombie hordes
- Each player has a hiddne objective they need to complete to win
- Is one of your fellow players a traitor… are you?
- 60 to 90 minute playing time
- Ages 12+
