Better late than never, folks… these are actually the results for 2012. (Yes, I know, I know… most of you can read the title. I am duly impressed.)

26th place with a score of 135 & 9.14%: Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Loopin’ Louie & Lost Cities

“score” is computed by giving a game 5 points for each person playing it 5-9 times and 10 points for each person playing 10+ times

the percentage numbers for each year are the percent of respondents who reported playing the game 5+ or 10+ times

It’s year #15 – and primarily due to the Year O’Transitions I’ve had (lived in three different states, held 2 different jobs, etc.), this is coming to you way later than usually planned. That doesn’t make the data any less valid – but it does mean that we had a lot less respondents (197 this year).

Games that dropped out of the top 25 this year:

• Tichu (now at #44)
• Hive (now at #51)
• Thunderstone (now at #30)
• For Sale (now at #48)
• Forbidden Island (now at #39)
• Magic: The Gathering (now at #33)
• Battleline/Schotten-Totten (now at #51)
• Small World (now at #69)
• Dixit (now at #39)
• Memoir ’44  (now at #39)

We also had a game return to the top 25 after leaving – Pandemic is back (and that’s even before the new edition & expansion hit).

Four years ago, I called “jump the shark” on Carcassonne – and yet it has managed to stick around despite my dire prediction. People, this game will NOT die. It’s the T-1000 Terminator of most played Five & Dime games. I have stopped predicting its demise and simply wait for it & SkyNet to take over the world.

This last year, I predicted (with 85.6% certainty!) that Quarriors! would leave the top 25… and I was wrong. I was right (sadly) about Memoir ’44 exiting, however. And I nailed the demise of Dixit & Forbidden Island, which makes me 3 for 4 this year.

Though I think Risk Legacy is a work of genius and a pure joy to play, this was it’s one appearance in the top 25. Since the good folks behind Quarriors! seem to be heading in a new direction, I’ll predict (again) that it will drop off, as will D-Day Dice & The City.

I always list a set of “big questions for the year”… here’s the answers to the 2012 questions:

• Q: Can The Settlers of Catan return? I think the answer is yes – but just barely.
• A: I was wrong. Settlers landed at #51… whimper.
• Q: What about this crop of back catalog games that are coming: Merchants of Venus, Wiz War, Netrunner, Nexus Ops, Fortress America, Ogre, etc. – will any of them crack the top 25? In short, no. (They’re all niche market games.)
• A: I was right – none of them are here. The closest is Netrunner at #44.
• Q: What about Kickstarter… what will be the first Kickstarter game to get here? The closest is Eminent Domain (currently at #31).
• The answer is D-Day Dice in 24th position… though I will note that it was a very popular print-n-play game before an “official” copy was Kickstarted.
• Q: Once again, I don’t see much movement likely in the top 25 – I’ll guess 20 returnees again this year.
• A: Actually, there were only 16 returnees… a large new crop (including the return of Pandemic).

And here’s the questions for 2013:

• The Kickstarter barrier has been broken – how much impact will they have on the Most Played Games list?
• Will Dominion, 7 Wonders & Race for the Galaxy continue to dominate the top three spots? (My opinion: at least for another year – what with at least 2 of these games receiving new expansions. In the case of RftG, a LONG awaited expansion.)
• Will Netrunner be the second LCG to break into the top 25? (My prediction: yes, but just barely.)
• Will the number of respondents go up next year? (I sure hope so!)

In fact, what do you think about any of this? Use the comments area (and keep it clean & friendly!)

And if you’re interested in more stats, you can read the Most Played Games (26th-50th) post over on my personal blog!