Why are two-player games more popular

1. Among the top 20 tabletop games of BGG, the only two board games that really strictly require 2-player games are Twilight Struggle and Matrix.

2. The best two players board games are Castles of Burgundy, Mage Knight, and which are really small compared to other tabletop games.
3. As you can see, most of the first 20 games support 2 players. However, some games use variant rules in 2-player mode, while the game experience is poor. Most games have the best gaming experience with 3 or 4 players. Because compared to a two-player game, the player only interacts with one player, so there are fewer factors to consider. In the multiplayer mode, players need to consider the actions of multiple players, which greatly increases the complexity and strategy of the game. I think this is why most German games recommend 3 or 4 people to play.
Among the top 20 games, most games support 2-player games, which may be due to the following reasons:
1. For balanced design for gameplay. For example, the first-ranked Cold War and Hot Battle, a big reason for the popularity is that the game is very balanced. It took two years to adjust the balance of the game and perfect the mathematical model of the game.
2. In order to prevent players from playing the game when they can’t find a companion (Agricola, Mage Knight supports solo). And some game rules are indeed too complicated. If there is no circle, it is difficult to find three or four people to accompany you for an afternoon.

3. Take care of the requirements of certain players. I have indeed seen the Historical Wheel, Kailus, and Stone Age players who only play the two-player mode.