Players of area enclosure games place or move their playing pieces to surround as much area as they can. Go is the oldest and most famous area enclosure game, but several games have continued this game mechanic. Reversi, or Othello, is an obvious throwback to the classic Go, but newer games like the stellar Agricola, which has players enclose farmland with fences, also use this mechanic in different ways.

The area enclosure mechanic differs from the area control/influence mechanic because players build areas on a game board, while area control/influence games have players battle to see who can control the most pre-existing areas on the game board.