This year’s Scattergories? American Mensa picks it in Portland

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — What board game will be the next Scattergories or Trivial Pursuit? The answer will emerge from a weekend of round-the-clock board game play in Portland.

American Mensa’s Mind Games held their annual new board game competition at the DoubleTree by Hilton in Portland, as 400 members took part in the 4-day event that wrapped at noon Sunday.

The top 7 games that earned the Mensa Select seal for 2025 are: Águeda: City of Umbrellas, Diatoms, Farms Race Deluxe Edition, Hutan, In the Footsteps of Marie Curie, Plundering Times and Treasure of the Dragons.

Their website said, “The Mensa Select seal indicates that a game is original in concept, challenging, and well-designed,” along with being affordable, easy to understand and fun.

This competition began in 1990 and over the past 35 years has chosen board games like Scattergories, Trivial Pursuit and Taboo as the best new game on the market in their respective years.

But one of this year’s Mensa Select seal games will be announced on Monday as the best new game on the market.

American Mensa is open to anyone who scores in the top 2% on an accepted standardized intelligence test.