The Best Marble Runs of 2025

Based on my research, I’ve found that a good marble run should do the following:

Encourage engaging, repeatable play: The best marble runs allow kids to start simple and build upward, with designs that make marbles pick up speed, change directions, swirl through funnels, rebound off walls, and cascade through switches and splits. They’re fun for kids to tweak and rebuild again and again. All of the marble runs I tested come with instructions to get kids going, but the best sets also allow room for creative play. I gave extra points to sets with multiple pathways and the ability to run more than one marble at once.

Promote problem-solving rather than frustration: Every marble run has quirks and flaws, but issues (such as marbles flying off the track) should be easy to diagnose and fix. I prioritized sets that deliver satisfying motion and hold up under real-world use. I penalized sets with ill-fitting tracks, wobbly joints, weak magnets, or unstable foundations.

Support hours of unsupervised play: The marble runs I tested come with instructions to follow when you’re building, but our testers’ favorite sets also emphasize open-ended building and invite kids to design their own race courses for marbles, not just solve preset puzzles. They don’t require a ton of adult supervision or interference.

Have few easy-to-lose parts: Especially for households with younger siblings, I gave bonus points to sets that don’t rely heavily on tiny, irreplaceable components.

Pack away easily: Ideally, a set can be stored without fuss.

Look cool: I also gave points to sets that were visually appealing. Looks matter — especially for towering builds that you might choose to leave out for days.

After reading a wide array of owner reviews and online articles, I chose 10 marble runs to test and spent dozens of hours testing them in 2024 and 2025 at my home and during dedicated, in-person testing days at The Roux Institute in Portland, Maine, and at both the New York Times office in Manhattan and the Wirecutter office in Long Island City, New York, during the company’s “take your kids to work” days.

I developed a short survey that kids and parents filled out after testing. I asked kids which sets they liked best, which ones they would recommend to friends, and which ones they wanted to keep playing with. Parents gave feedback on build quality, storage, ease of cleanup, and how each set held up at home. Their answers helped me balance the wow-factor of a first play session with longer-term usability.

To get an expert’s perspective, I spoke with Jake Combe, creator of the TikTok channel Cactus Canyon Marble Race. Unlike most of the runs I tested, Combe’s custom maple-wood track runs multiple marbles simultaneously in a 30-second-long race. Traditional marble runs weren’t his route into the hobby; he first honed his designs in a digital simulator before building them from scratch.

“Everybody loves a marble race,” he said. “It’s so simple. I like to think there were marble races the day the marble was invented. It’s foundational: There’s gravity, and then there’s the track.”