The 2025 UK games Expo Lowdown

The UK Games Expo (UKGE) 2025 has come and gone, and this year it happened to be the biggest turnout yet! The Chaos Cards team met a lot of happy gamers, saw some exciting new releases, and had plenty of memorable moments. The atmosphere was great and we all had a great time meeting everyone and recommending games! Now the team are back and rested after the UK Games Expo 2025, we thought it would be a great idea to have a look at what were our most popular games.

The Games that Stole the Show

The NEC was positively buzzing with anticipation for this year's hottest releases. The Chaos Cards team noticed that games featuring unique mechanics seemed to be really popular this year, as well as smaller games that were perfect for taking on travels. The team found there were a few standout titles at this year's expo, so here is a round-up of the ones we think were most popular amongst our customers!

• If we had a pound for every time we were asked for the following game, I am fairly sure we would be millionaires! Flip 7 seemed to fly off the shelves from the moment the UKGE 2025 opened! The addictive new card game comes complete in a shiny box that would attract many a magpie. The card game is a quick one, for ages 8 and over and is perfect for 3 players and up, so the more players, the merrier! Luck meets strategy in Flip 7, where you must flip over cards one by one without getting the same number twice. Players can either play it safe and bank points before going bust or can risk it all for bonus points by flipping 7 cards in a row. A great size for taking on your travels, Flip 7 seemed to be a runaway hit of the weekend!

• Forest Shuffle is truly an enchanting little game. It is essentially a tableau-building card game for between 2 and 5 players. Players must compete to collect valuable trees and attract fauna, therefore creating an ecologically balanced habitat. Points are awarded based on the trees and dwellers that they have collected within their forest. Whoever has collected the most points wins. The artwork is adorable and the game is fairly quick and easy to learn. It also happens to be one of the smaller games around, so nice and easy to take on trips out etc. There also happens to be two expansions available to enhance the core game of Forest Shuffle. These are the Alpine expansion and Woodland Edge expansion. The Exploration expansion is due to be released this Summer.

• Lord of the Rings: The Fate of the Fellowship, is perfect for fans of both Tolkiens Middle Earth and Matt Leacocks Pandemic board game series. The release is a highly anticipated one, and we can safely say that pretty much every other person was asking about this game. In Fate of the Fellowship, players work together to gather the infamous heroes and defend the realms of Middle Earth from the impending Shadows of Mordor. We even got a chance to play it over at the Fate of the Fellowship stand, and it did not disappoint at all! It has a perfect combination of cooperative and narrative gameplay that seems to fit in perfectly with the beloved saga.

• We knew there would be a lot of interest in Seti, in fact, we did feature it in our Games to watch out for at the UK Games Expo 2025! The beautifully designed strategy game focuses on the search for extraterrestrial life and is great for between 1 and 4 players. Seti is a good purchase for fans of science and space exploration, and the rules are pretty logical for such an expansive game. Players can explore new planets and test out new technology whilst searching outer space for any signs of extraterrestrial life.

• Heading back into space for our next game; Galactic Cruise is a medium-heavy worker placement game which is ideal for solo play as well as up to 4 players. Galactic Cruise was another game we featured in our 'Games to Look out for' post. The huge boxed game proved to be very popular at the Chaos Cards stand this year. In Galactic Cruise, players are tasked with building and launching shuttles which can send paying guests on a luxurious space vacation. Just like a cruise, but heading into space instead of the open sea! The game is great for players aged 14 and up and happens to be perfect for players that enjoy seeing progress happen throughout gameplay.

• Talking of the open sea, we were excited to catch up with the team over at Paper Fort Games. About their upcoming release Fathom. Fathom is a tile-laying, pattern-building game about deep-sea exploration. Savvy decision-making is key to having a successful mission in Fathom, and players must choose wisely what deep sea creatures are best to investigate. We are doing a really fun series of interviews with the Paper Fort team about Fathom and its development, so check them out if you are interested in the journey of a new board game; from initial idea to final publication.

Beyond the Expo

We haven’t got space to write about all the amazing games we encountered at the UK Games Expo, Heat as ever proved to be an in-demand game, as did its expansions. We think Sky Team, Endeavour Deep Sea, and Harmonies all deserve a special mention as being super popular this year. (Harmonies even won the People's Choice award in the family category, and we can definitely see why!)

It really was a diverse choice of games that proved to be the most attractive to customers this year, from quick-thinking games to narrative-driven adventures. Overall, we think the games that were the most popular this year just go to show that the board games industry is going from strength to strength. The enthusiastic people who attend this year's UKGE and visited our stand show that board games continue to excite and innovate, and the Chaos Cards team feel very lucky to be a part of that!

Did you get any of the above games from this year's Expo? Or will you have a go at any of the ones listed above? Don’t forget to let us know over on our socials. It was great meeting some of you face to face this year and we would love to hear your thoughts on this year's most popular games!