2025 Games Library Report
Good morning U-Con gamers and welcome to my favorite time of the year: Games Library Statistics season! The con is done, we had our fun, the games are packed back in the storage unit and we are all in that lull between frenzied gaming and frenzied holiday shenanigans. So while you have a breather, here are some stats from U-Con 2025’s Games Library.
The Library added an amazing 71 games since last year, bringing the grand total to 714 games (a large chunk of those games were donations – thank you!). That’s a lot of games. Last year I said that we were going to need another rolling shelf so we picked up an 8th shelf for this year. People! The games looked so much better spread out on 8 shelves.
Let’s talk about U-Con 2025 and how you all used your Games Library. U-con attendees played 161 unique games (about 23% of the library) with 17 of those games arriving at U-Con for the first time this year. There were 253 overall checkouts which included my favorite stat: “First Checkouts for Games that Have Been to at Least 2 U-Cons”. This year 19 games were on that list (number in parenthesis is the date it was added to the Library): 221 Baker Street (2017), Agricola (2022), Bloom (2022), Boon Lake (2022), Cat Cafe (2022), Centipede (2017), Elder Sign (2022), Flick ‘em Up (2019), Marvel Fluxx (2022), Harbour (2022), Hunters of Archfall (2019), Isle of Trains (2014), Istanbul (not Constantinople 2022), Koi (2022), Ninja Burger (2017), One Deck Dungeon (2022), passtally (2022), Silver & Gold (2022), and my favorite checkout of all: Havana, which is one of the original 50 Games Library Games when I took over wrangling it waaaaaaaay back when.
2025’s gaming vibe was pretty chill – it seemed like y’all were looking to expand your gaming palate rather than getting in all the classics. The max number of checkouts for one game was only 7 (CuBirds if you were curious) but the number of non “powerhouse” games that were checked out was pretty high. Centipede? Checked out 3 times this U-Con and the only other love it’s ever gotten was my parts counting it. Isle of Trains I’ve had forEVER (but not original 50 forever) and this year someone took a look at it and thought, “I’ll play that”. There was a lot of browsing the Games Library – it felt like people just wanted to see what was available, maybe step out of their comfort zone.
As we get into the gift buying season, here’s a list of games that were popular this year: CuBirds (7 checkouts), Azul, Finspan and Patchwork (5 checkouts each), Chemistry Fluxx, Forest Shuffle, Machi Koro, Sky Team and Wavelength (4 checkouts each). There were 14 games this year that had 3 checkouts each but I’ll just highlight the games with long standing playability. Boop. has been with the Library for 3 years and has been checked out each year (12 times total), Carcassonne has been with the Library since I started keeping stats and it has been checked out 10 times, which is almost once a U-Con. We have a lot of Dominions but the base game continues to be by far the most popular at 22 checkouts in its 11+ years in the Library. Kingdomino wasn’t checked out the first year it appeared in the library (2018) but has been every year since for a total of 17 checkouts. Lastly, Splendor is a perennial favorite having been checked out at least once in every one of its 9 years of being in the library for a grand total of 34 checkouts.
Speaking of checkouts, there is now just one game that has been checked out every year since I started tracking stats: Forbidden Island. Last year there was a question about if Lords of Waterdeep was or was not checked out but this year it got 0 checkouts and it officially falls off the list. If nobody checks out Forbidden Island next year, I will no longer have this stat.
For people who like tables and numbers:
| # Games In Library | Unique Games Played | % Library Played | Total Checkouts | |
| 2017 | 237 | 83 | 35 | 167 |
| 2018 | 298 | 102 | 34 | 233 |
| 2019 | 372 | 153 | 41 | 339 |
| 2022 | 520 | 116 | 22 | 178 |
| 2023 | 596 | 167 | 28 | 285 |
| 2024 | 645 | 133 | 21 | 226 |
| 2025 | 714 | 161 | 23 | 253 |
And as always, I conclude this report with my least favorite Games Library Task: Resetting the parts counted dates to zero and starting all over again. Until next year, keep playing, stay safe, and start thinking about U-Con 2026. It’s never too early!
-Your Friendly Neighborhood Games Library Wrangler
JQ