The best games from Matt Leacock 🇺🇸👨 2023

Looking for a really good game from game designer Matt Leacock 👨? Then we have just the thing: the list with the best Matt Leacock games 2023.

Who is Matt Leacock anyway?

Matt Leacock has been designing dice, card & board games since 1995. The game designer hails from St. Paul, Minnesota, USA🇺🇸, was born in 1971, and currently lives in Sunnyvale, California, USA🇺🇸.

Leacock began developing individual games in the 1990s. Leacock's first published game, Borderlands, came out in 1995 when he was 24 years old - so he's actually been designing games for over 28 years. However, after his first game there was a 5 year break until "Lunatic Loops" - and until his third it took until 2008, so another 8 years.

Famous Leacock games are for example Pandemic, Forbidden Island & the Pandemic Legacy Series.

His daughter, Colleen Leacock, has also taken her first steps as a game designer.

From Minnesota to Illinois to California

Leacock grew up in Long Lake, Minnesota, USA. He then studied visual communications in Illinois at Northern Illinois University, graduating in 1995. He was then drawn to the greats in Silicon Valley.

From employee at IT giants to board game designer icon

Leacock initially worked as a developer for various IT giants such as Yahoo!, AOL, Netscape and Apple as a user experience designer. During his time as an employee, he always developed board games on the side. He finally wrapped up his IT career in July 2014 and switched to designing board games full-time.

"I design the games I want to play and teach. It's hard for me to imagine doing game design for a paycheck." -- Matt Leacock

How good are "Matt Leacock" games?

There are 11 games by Matt Leacock in our Top1000 games list, making Leacock the #11 best game author out of a total of 708 authors in our database.

More information about Leacock

More information about Leacock can be found on:

List of best games by Matt Leacock 2023

In this list we have listed the best board games that Matt Leacock either designed himself - or was involved in designing.

Unfortunately, not all of Matt Leacock's games are currently available. In the following list you can find all dice, board & card games by Matt Leacock that you can buy 2023:

This list was last updated on November 27, 2023. We compared 23 board games for this list and selected the top 21. There's also a print version for this list.
  1. Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

    All details for the board game Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 and similar games

    Nominated for 21 awards and won 12.

    ⭐️ Nominated for Kennerspiel des Jahres 2016

    More details for Pandemic Legacy: Season 1
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 60 Minutes
    • 13+ years old
    • Medium difficulty

    Video reviews for Pandemic Legacy: Season 1

    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 1" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 1" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 1" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 1" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  2. Pandemic: Iberia

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Iberia and similar games

    Nominated for 2 awards.

    More details for Pandemic: Iberia
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 45 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Medium difficulty

    Video reviews for Pandemic: Iberia

    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic: Iberia" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  3. Pandemic Legacy: Season 0

    All details for the board game Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 and similar games
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 45 - 60 Minutes
    • 14+ years old
    • Medium difficulty
    👍 Good price!55€ atAmazon.de

    Video reviews for Pandemic Legacy: Season 0

    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 0" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 0" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 0" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 0" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  4. Pandemic

    All details for the board game Pandemic and similar games

    Nominated for 29 awards and won 8.

    ⭐️ Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2009

    More details for Pandemic
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 45 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn

    Video reviews for Pandemic

    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  5. Pandemic: The Cure

    All details for the board game Pandemic: The Cure and similar games
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  6. Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu and similar games
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 40 Minutes
    • 14+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  7. Pandemic: Fall of Rome

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Fall of Rome and similar games

    Nominated for 2 awards and won 1.

    More details for Pandemic: Fall of Rome
    • 1 - 5 Players
    • 45 - 60 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  8. Forbidden Desert

    All details for the board game Forbidden Desert and similar games

    Nominated for 7 awards and won 4.

    More details for Forbidden Desert
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 45 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn

    Video reviews for Forbidden Desert

    • YouTube Review for the game "Forbidden Desert" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  9. Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West

    All details for the board game Ticket to Ride Legacy: Legends of the West and similar games
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 20 - 90 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  10. Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age

    All details for the board game Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age and similar games

    Nominated for 10 awards and won 1.

    ⭐️ Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2010

    More details for Roll Through the Ages: The Bronze Age
    • 1 - 4 Players
    • 30 - 45 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  11. Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

    All details for the board game Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 and similar games

    Nominated for 10 awards and won 3.

    ⭐️ Spiel des Jahres 2018

    More details for Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 60 Minutes
    • 14+ years old
    • Medium difficulty
    👍 Good price!50€ atAmazon.de

    Video reviews for Pandemic Legacy: Season 2

    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 2" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 2" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 2" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
    • YouTube Review for the game "Pandemic Legacy: Season 2" by Shut Up & Sit Down
      Video is in English
  12. Forbidden Island

    All details for the board game Forbidden Island and similar games

    Nominated for 13 awards and won 5.

    ⭐️ Nominated for Spiel des Jahres 2011

    More details for Forbidden Island
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn

    Video reviews for Forbidden Island

    • YouTube Review for the game "Forbidden Island" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  13. Mole Rats in Space

    All details for the board game Mole Rats in Space and similar games
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 20 Minutes
    • 7+ years old
    • Immediately playable
  14. Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Hot Zone – North America and similar games
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
    🔥 Great price!14€ atAmazon.de
  15. Pandemic: Rising Tide

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Rising Tide and similar games
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 45 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Medium difficulty
  16. Era: Medieval Age

    All details for the board game Era: Medieval Age and similar games
    • 1 - 4 Players
    • 45 - 60 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  17. Thunderbirds

    All details for the board game Thunderbirds and similar games
    • 1 - 4 Players
    • 45 - 60 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Easy to learn

    Video reviews for Thunderbirds

    • YouTube Review for the game "Thunderbirds" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  18. Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe

    All details for the board game Pandemic: Hot Zone – Europe and similar games
    • 2 - 4 Players
    • 30 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  19. Knit Wit

    All details for the board game Knit Wit and similar games
    • 2 - 8 Players
    • 15 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
  20. Chariot Race

    All details for the board game Chariot Race and similar games
    • 2 - 6 Players
    • 15 - 45 Minutes
    • 8+ years old
    • Easy to learn
    🔥 Great price!25€ atAmazon.de

    Video reviews for Chariot Race

    • YouTube Review for the game "Chariot Race" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English
  21. Forbidden Sky

    All details for the board game Forbidden Sky and similar games

    Nominated for 3 awards and won 2.

    More details for Forbidden Sky
    • 2 - 5 Players
    • 60 Minutes
    • 10+ years old
    • Medium difficulty

    Video reviews for Forbidden Sky

    • YouTube Review for the game "Forbidden Sky" by BoardGameGeek
      Video is in English

Didn't find the game you were looking for?

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