> The fact that "pandemic" is at the top means that either we have a coincidence where the best game happens to be closely related to events of the past two years, or ratings merely reflect current fashion rather than game quality.

It's a coincidence. Pandemic Legacy (not to be confused with regular Pandemic) went straight to the top of the ratings when it was released (knocking off Twilight Struggle which had been there for years).

I was playing Pandemic (the original) 5 years ago and it was a very popular game even then. When Legacy came out (long before COVID) it rocketed to the top of the ratings in short order.

Nothing whatsoever to do with real life. Legacy is popular because it’s a very good cooperative game that evolves over time, encouraging people to keep coming back to it every game night.

I seem to recall Pandemic being very highly rated and popular before the pandemic, but I bet it hasn't hurt it's popularity!

One of my kids dug a copy of Pandemic out of the games closet recently and we played a couple of games. I remember wondering why we didn't play it more often when we were done. It's just a really well built game. It's a shame the publisher has started delisting the app version (https://www.pcgamer.com/digital-board-game-pandemic-has-been...).

I am pretty sure Pandemic Legacy, an RPGish version of Pandemic, was at the top of the list a few years ago.

It was very highly ranked, you are correct.

I'm sure it did receive a sales boost, but it was almost as highly ranked before the real pandemic. It really is mostly a coincidence.

It’s a coincidence. It was already near the top pre-pandemic. I actually expected it to drop when a real pandemic started. We haven’t played it since the pandemic started ;-)