Harmonies surges to top spot for most new owners in May, Sky Team continues to soar

Abstract lightweight tile-laying game Harmonies has powered to the top of the charts for the number of BGG users adding new games to their collections in May.

More than 3,500 users said they picked up the game last month, according to data collected by BGG user and data visualiser Igor Larchenko.

While that does not represent overall sales of games across the month, it acts as a useful bellwether for the sales and popularity of releases within the hobby gaming community.

Harmonies, designed by Johan Benvenuto and published by Libellud, has already put on a strong showing in April, sitting in second place that month with 1,917 new owners on BGG.

Co-operative aeroplane landing game Sky Team from Luc Remond also showed continued sales popularity, rising from third place (+1,792 owners) in April to second spot in May (+2,086).

Sky Team — Photo Credit: Hachette Board Games USA

Sky Team has inevitably benefited from winning a pair of Golden Geek Awards in mid-May, and has also since been named one of the three finalist for this year’s Spiel des Jahres – widely considered the biggest award in board gaming – although the impact of that won’t be felt until the June rankings.

The game is published by Scorpion Masque, Hachette Board Games USA, Kosmos and 999 Games, among others.

April’s standout success Wyrmspan, designed by Connie Vogelmann, fell from top spot to third place, with new owners falling from an impressive 3,246 to a still very respectable 1,904 month-on-month.

The dragon-themed successor to Stonemaier Games’ bestselling board game Wingspan had also topped the charts for most new owners in February after a huge launch campaign.

Heat: Pedal to the Metal, a hand-management-focused motor racing game set in the 1960s, continues to underscore its possible evergreen nature by moving up the rankings.

The game, published by Asmodee studio Days of Wonder, quickly went out of stock after its November 2022 release was followed by a plethora of positive reviews.

Heat moved up from 10th spot in February (+1,465) to 8th spot in April (+1,427), and picked up 1,809 new owners on BGG in May to finish the month in 5th place.

The game was in second spot in the BGG new owner charts in May 2023, having been added by more than 2,900 BGG users that month.

Heat’s first expansion, Heavy Rain expansion, also performed well in the May new owner charts, being added by 1,463 users to finish in 9th spot.

Harmonies was also involved in a tussle for top spot on the BGG ‘most wishlisted’ chart, eventually just losing out to Devir’s desert traveler-themed pick-up-and-deliver game Sand, designed by Ariel Di Costanzo and Javier Pelizzari.

Sand was added to 1,188 BGG user wishlists in May, Harmonies was added to 1,133, and third-placed Rebirth – the new tile-laying game from Reiner Knizia published by Mighty Boards – was added to 946.

Ironwood, an asymmetric card-based tactics game from Mindclash, finished in fourth spot on the wishlist chart, and has potential to rise further next month thanks to praise from major review site Shut Up & Sit Down on their recent podcast.

The game raised just over €107,000 from over 2,000 backers via a Gamefound crowdfunding campaign last month, and has a pledge manager open until August 9.

Slay the Spire, the board game adaptation of the hugely popular roguelike video game, finished in fifth place on both charts in May thanks to Kickstarter orders beginning to arrive.

BGG New Owners Top 10, May 2024