Weekly Hotness: Week of April 27, 2026

Last week, Dungeon Crawler Carl stormed the Hotness at #1 like a reality TV contestant kicking down a dungeon door. This week? Carl’s been shoved to #12 and the throne belongs to Lairs - the competitive dungeon-builder that’s been quietly climbing for two weeks and has finally claimed the crown. Meanwhile, Eternal Decks has made one of the most dramatic jumps we’ve tracked, rocketing from #14 to #2 in a single week.

Five genuinely new entries have arrived, led by the delightfully named Bailiff of Boscoop at #3 - a game where you can apparently rise to prominence as a judge, a village founder, or a duck dealer. Yes, a duck dealer. The Hotness has spoken, and it wants ducks.

This Week’s Top 20

Dropped off: Excursions, Brass: Pittsburgh, Yotei, Onward, Diplomacy: The Golden Blade, Galactic Cruise, Barrage: Earned Authority, 20 Strong

Lairs takes the throne - the dungeon-builder everyone saw coming

Box art via BoardGameGeek. Lairs.

Lairs has been the most consistent climber on the Hotness over the past month. It entered at #3 last week and has now taken the top spot - a slower, steadier ascent than the dramatic debuts we’ve seen from Regicide Legacy and Dungeon Crawler Carl, and arguably a healthier one.

The pitch remains irresistible: build a devious dungeon, then explore your rival’s creation. You’re simultaneously the architect and the adventurer, the dungeon master and the hapless hero. It’s competitive in the way that only “I designed this specifically to ruin your day” games can be - personal, strategic, and full of the kind of schadenfreude that makes you want to play again immediately.

What’s interesting about Lairs reaching #1 is how it got here. No massive IP behind it, no franchise halo effect, no LitRPG fanbase mobilising on day one. Just a clean concept, strong execution, and word-of-mouth momentum building week over week. In an era where the Hotness is increasingly driven by brand recognition and franchise tie-ins, Lairs is proof that a great idea can still cut through.

Eternal Decks surges to #2 - the biggest climb of 2026?

From #14 to #2 in a single week is extraordinary. Eternal Decks has been hovering in the mid-table for weeks, and something clearly changed - most likely a major review hitting, a campaign milestone, or a “how did I miss this?” moment in the community.

The game’s puzzle-deck concept - can you solve each stage before your deck runs out? - is the kind of hook that rewards patient discovery. It’s not flashy. It doesn’t have dragons or spaceships or duck dealers. It just has an elegant central question that gets harder the more you think about it.

A +12 position jump is the largest we’ve tracked since we started this column. Whether Eternal Decks can sustain this altitude or falls back to earth next week will tell us whether this is genuine sustained interest or a single viral moment.

Bailiff of Boscoop crashes the party - ducks, judges, and medieval village politics

Box art via BoardGameGeek. Bailiff of Boscoop.

Let’s talk about Bailiff of Boscoop. A debut at #3 is impressive for any game, but it’s especially remarkable for one with such an eccentric pitch: “Rise to prominence as the founder of a village, as a judge, or as a duck dealer.”

Set in the late Middle Ages and Early Western period in Rhineland, this is a strategy game about village politics, family prestige, and apparently, the lucrative duck trade. Players vie for influence through court proceedings, land development, and what the BGG description calls “designated actions in a new class of dice.” The publisher is Spielworxx, known for heavier euros with unusual themes - and this fits their catalogue perfectly.

The duck dealer angle is doing heavy lifting for buzz - it’s the kind of flavour text that gets screenshots shared on Reddit and Discord. But beneath the meme potential, this looks like a serious, meaty euro with multiple paths to victory and the kind of thematic specificity that German-school designers have always excelled at. Not every game needs to be about space empires or dungeon crawls. Sometimes you just need to corner the duck market.

Aygor: Demons’ Hollow at #4 - an epic campaign crashes the Hotness

Box art via BoardGameGeek. Aygor: Demons’ Hollow.

Aygor: Demons’ Hollow is billed as an epic campaign-based tabletop adventure, and it’s arrived at #4 with the kind of energy that suggests a campaign launch or major preview drop. The game won’t arrive until 2027, which means this is pure anticipation - people are excited about the idea of this game before they’ve ever touched it.

Campaign games have been the prestige format of the hobby for the past few years. Gloomhaven proved the model, Frosthaven refined it, and now every publisher wants their own 50-hour narrative experience in a box. The question for Aygor is whether it can differentiate in an increasingly crowded field. The “Demons’ Hollow” subtitle suggests dark fantasy, which at least puts it in a different tonal space than the average dungeon crawl.

A #4 debut for a game that’s over a year from release is a strong signal. Campaign games live and die on community investment, and early Hotness placement means the community is already investing.

The rest of the new entries

Rumble Nation at #7 - Here’s a surprise: Rumble Nation was originally published in 2017. Its appearance on the Hotness in 2026 suggests a reprint announcement, a new edition, or a viral rediscovery. The game has warlords leading clans to dominate Japan through “dice and domino logic” - an unusual mechanical combination that deserves a closer look. When a nine-year-old game suddenly trends, there’s always a story.

Toy Battle at #9 - Send forth an army of toys to conquer territories. The “toys come to life and fight” genre is well-established in video games (Toy Soldiers, Army Men) but surprisingly rare in board gaming. Toy Battle fills that gap with a light-war aesthetic that could appeal to families and hobbyists alike.

World Order at #16 - Simulate the modern global political system in an area-control format. Timely, ambitious, and the kind of game that will either be brilliantly provocative or a diplomatic incident in a box. Given the current state of actual world politics, a game about navigating it might be either cathartic or too close to home.

Harmonies at #19 - Create landscapes and habitats to welcome animals. A serene, nature-themed game entering the Hotness during spring - fitting. Harmonies has been a slow burner on the scene and this top-20 appearance suggests it’s finally finding its audience.

The fall of Dungeon Crawler Carl - #1 to #12 in one week

The most dramatic story this week isn’t a new entry - it’s a departure from the summit. Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable debuted at #1 last week with the kind of LitRPG-fuelled momentum that felt like it could last. One week later, it’s at #12. Its companion game Unstoppable has fallen even further, from #4 to #18.

This follows the exact pattern we saw with Regicide Legacy two weeks ago: explosive debut at #1, vanishing from the top 20 the following week. At least DCC is still on the list, which puts it ahead of Regicide Legacy’s trajectory. But the message is clear: the Hotness #1 position is a firework, not a spotlight. It burns bright and fades fast.

What’s telling is that the franchise halo effect has faded too. Last week both DCC and Unstoppable were in the top 5; Excursions and Galactic Cruise were both in the top 20. This week, the Excursions/Galactic Cruise duo has dropped out entirely (Excursions to #29, Galactic Cruise to #43). The double-entry franchise boost is real, but it’s a sugar rush, not a sustainable diet.

What fell off - and what it tells us

The casualties this week are heavy and revealing:

Excursions falls from #2 to off the list - the Galactic Cruise spin-off’s debut spike has fully deflated. Brass: Pittsburgh exits the top 20 after four consecutive weeks in the top 5, suggesting the announcement buzz has finally normalised. Yotei continues its long slide from its peak at #3 several weeks ago. Onward (last week’s #9 MOBA debut) is gone after a single week - the classic one-and-done pattern.

Diplomacy: The Golden Blade drops out after just one week, as does Barrage: Earned Authority. These were both niche announcements that spiked the interest of specific communities but couldn’t sustain broader attention.

The most interesting exit might be 20 Strong, which has bounced in and out of the top 20 multiple times over the past month. It’s the Hotness equivalent of a cat that can’t decide whether it wants to be inside or outside.

The bedrock holds

While the top of the Hotness churns violently, the middle remains remarkably stable:

• Arcs holds at #8 for the second straight week
• SETI stays at #10 - unchanged, immovable, searching for aliens with the patience they deserve
• Ark Nova at #11 continues its apparent permanent residency on the Hotness
• Brass: Birmingham at #14 is the Brass franchise’s anchor now that Pittsburgh has drifted
• Root at #17 holds exactly where it was last week

These five games are the load-bearing walls of the Hotness. Everything else moves around them, but they don’t budge. Ark Nova has been on this list for so long that it should start paying rent.

The big picture

This week marks a return to form after last week’s franchise-dominated chart. Where the April 20 Hotness was defined by IP tie-ins and franchise halo effects (DCC + Unstoppable, Excursions + Galactic Cruise), this week belongs to originals. Lairs, Bailiff of Boscoop, Eternal Decks - these are games succeeding on their own merits, not riding a brand name to visibility.

The Hotness continues to demonstrate one consistent truth: #1 is the most volatile position in the hobby. Three weeks, three different games at the top, each one displaced by something completely different. Regicide Legacy lasted one week. Dungeon Crawler Carl lasted one week. Will Lairs break the pattern? Its steadier climb (from off-list to #3 to #1) suggests it might have more staying power than the explosive debutantes, but history is not on its side.

The spring campaign season shows no signs of slowing. With five new entries this week, four new entries last week, and seven the week before, publishers are stacking their announcements like they’re playing a competitive game of “who can generate the most BGG clicks.” The Hotness is the scoreboard, and right now it’s a high-scoring match.

Next week: Will Lairs defend? Can Eternal Decks sustain its extraordinary +12 surge? And will anyone finally figure out how to corner the Boscoop duck market?

Data sourced from BoardGameGeek Hotness on April 27, 2026. Trends compared against last week’s article. Box art images via BGG, credited to respective publishers.