Just out of the running (with 5.23%): Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer, Dixit* & The Castles of Burgundy [*indicates that it fell off the top 25 from last year]

Dropped off the table this year:

• Puerto Rico (now 4.90%)
• The Settlers of Catan (now 4.90%)
• Forbidden Island (now 4.58%)
• Thurn & Taxis (now 4.25%)
• Blokus (now 3.92%)
• Bohnanza (now 3.59%)
• Diamant/Incan Gold (now 3.27%)
• Pandemic (now 3.27%)
• Ra (now 3.27%)
• Le Havre (now 2.61%)
• Macao (now 2.61%)

The deck-builders are taking over… while Ascension just missed the top 25 of the Nickels list, Dominion continued to, well, dominate – and Eminent Domain, Thunderstone, and Quarriors! all showed up strong. I think Quarriors may not stay in the top 25, but I don’t see any of the other deck-builders going anywhere.

While I was right about Pandemic hanging on for a fourth year (where’s the promised 2nd expansion already?!), I was wrong about it staying on the list. Small World held on (as predicted) and will continue to stay in there, due to the Realms expansion on the way.

Agricola is the Energizer Bunny of “heavy” games – there’s something very special about a game with that much complexity hanging around on the Five & Dime lists for this long.

Here’s how I did predicting last year: I was right about Macao & Forbidden Island leaving – and due to expansions being pushed back, right about Pandemic dropping off IF it didn’t appear and wrong about Race for the Galaxy picking up a head of steam (since Alien Artifacts hasn’t come out yet.)

My predictions for this year:

• Alien Frontiers will not be back… nor will Hansa Teutonica.
• Pandemic will reappear if (and ONLY if) rumored second expansion appears.
• Friday should show up here next year… as will Wurfelspiel Bohnanza.
• Race for the Galaxy may climb back a bit with the new expansion (I’ll get it right this time).