Millennium Games is a popular game store located in Rochester at 1225 Jefferson Road. Sitting at 28,000 square feet, it is the largest store of its kind in the United States, according to a local Rochester news website, RochesterFirst.
The store sells a variety of game products, including role-playing games, such as “Dungeons & Dragons” and “Warhammer 40,000,” card games such as “Magic: The Gathering” and “Yu-Gi-Oh!,” a large collection of board games, both popular and obscure, as well as disc golf.
The building also has a large event space, dedicated to allowing the community to come together and play games with each other. The store hosts a plethora of events on a daily basis, which can all be found on the store’s official website. People united by their love of games crowd the store at all times of day.
Miranda Keefe is a 23-year-old RIT alumna, a regular of Millennium Games and player of the “One Piece Card Game.” She had this to say about the community: “And you know, it [Millennium Games] just feels nice, feels comfortable … They’re [the community] not very pushy. They’re pretty kind. If you do interact with them in the tournaments, they’ve been kind as well.”
Millennium Games has fostered a healthy community since its opening in 1983. In July 2023, Millennium Games moved from its original spot at 3047 W Henrietta Road to its current, larger location.
In 2023, Taneal Stewart, then the “social media empress” of Millennium Games, talked with 13WHAM, a local Rochester news website, and spoke of the greater space that came with the move: “We can host so many more events and so many more people in those events.”
Anthony Mackie, a first year robotics and manufacturing engineering technology major and a lifetime resident of Rochester, spoke highly of the staff at Millennium Games: “They’re friendly … the staff there will help you if you are new to the game, and if you just want to check out new games, they’ll show you like, ‘Hey, here’s this.’”
The store not only helps people discover games but also uses its platform to spotlight smaller games and their creators.
According to Mackie, Millennium Games hosts events he describes as “Come Test My Board Game,” where the creators of games will come in and let people try them out.
They did one such event Feb. 21, 2025, where the public was invited to learn and play the recently released board game “Scream Park,” made by the Syracuse-based indie publisher DVC Games.
Millennium Games showcases work from other indie publishers as well, such as Pandasaurus Games, Cocktail Games and Last Night Games.
These events where they showcase lesser-known games are run on a weekly basis: “Every Friday here at Millennium, we teach you how to play one of our featured games,” according to a post on the Millennium Games Instagram. “We’ll have open copies available, experts to teach you how to play, and at the end of every event, we raffle a copy of the game off to one of you!”
Millennium Games has garnered an esteemed reputation among the residents of Rochester. With constant events and opportunities for people to learn and play games both new and old, the store has become well-loved within the community.
