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The Best Board Games Like Catan
If you love Catan's trading and building, this list is the best place to figure out what to buy next. These are eight board games that scratch the same itch: gathering resources, building an engine, racing other players to the good spots on the board, and making deals (or quietly cutting them off).
We've ranked them roughly from easy gateway games up to heavier strategy. Some lean hard into the haggling, some into the building, and a couple swap the dice luck of Catan for tighter, more controllable plans. Pick the one that matches the part of Catan you actually like, and you'll be happy.
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1. Ticket to Ride
This is the friendliest landing spot after Catan, and it's the one we hand to people who liked the map and the racing but hated getting blocked by bad dice. You collect colored cards, claim train routes, and quietly sweat over whether someone's going to grab the route you need. It's simple to teach, plays in under an hour, and almost nobody bounces off it.
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2. 7 Wonders
If the resource trading in Catan was your favorite bit, 7 Wonders keeps that and ditches the downtime. Everyone drafts cards at the same time, so a five-player game still moves fast, and you're constantly buying resources from the neighbors on your left and right. Great for groups that hate waiting around for their turn.
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3. Wingspan
Wingspan is the gentle engine builder that hooked a ton of people who don't normally play heavier games. You're collecting birds, food, and eggs to set off little chains of bonus actions, and watching that engine snowball is genuinely satisfying. It's calmer and less cutthroat than Catan, so it's a good pick for a relaxed table or a mixed-experience group.
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44. Concordia
This is the one to reach for when you loved Catan's map and economy but were tired of losing to dice. There's zero randomness here: you play cards to take actions, build out trade networks across the Mediterranean, and score based on how you specialized. It rewards planning over luck, and it stays tense to the final turn.
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55. Great Western Trail
Great Western Trail takes the route-building and resource-converting brain of Catan and cranks the depth way up. You drive cattle across a board, upgrade your deck of cows, and build stations along the way, with a dozen interlocking ways to score. It's a meaty step up, best for players ready to think a few moves ahead and not afraid of a longer teach.
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66. Scythe
Scythe gives you the territory grab and engine building of Catan wrapped in a gorgeous alt-history world. You expand across the map, pump out resources, and build up your faction, with combat that's more about positioning and bluffing than dice rolls. The components are stunning and the table presence is huge, which makes it a great centerpiece game for a group that wants spectacle with their strategy.
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77. Terraforming Mars
People literally call this Catan in space, and they're not wrong: hex tiles, resource management, and a bunch of ways to win. You're a corporation buying project cards and slowly building an engine to warm up the planet, and the payoff is that snowballing turn where everything finally clicks. It runs long and the cards have luck, so save it for players who want a real sit-down session.
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88. Terra Mystica
Terra Mystica is the heavyweight of the list and the one for players who want the building of Catan with total control and no dice at all. You pick a faction, terraform the land to your color, and expand your structures while juggling a tight economy where every resource matters. It's punishing if you misplan, but for a strategy group it's about as rewarding as this genre gets.
Start with Ticket to Ride or 7 Wonders for the gateway feel, then graduate to Concordia, Scythe, or Terraforming Mars when you want more control and depth.