Playing with odd numbers like 7 can sometimes present the biggest challenge in finding a balanced board game that doesn’t outstay its welcome. These board games can also enhance game nights by being easy to transport and quick to play, making social gatherings more engaging. There are plenty of great ones out there, though, and we’ve brought together a collection of the (ten) best of them for groups of 7 players. You’ll find options for quick games, party-style games, longer strategy games, and more below. We recommend reading descriptions thoroughly to find the right gameplay type for your crowd. You’ll have loads of fun with them and explore some unique themes and topics – and maybe even learn some things while you play.
What are the Best Board Games for Seven Players?
When it comes to finding the best board games for 7 players, there are plenty of options to choose from. The player count is crucial in ensuring optimal gameplay, as some games are specifically designed for certain numbers of players. Whether you’re looking for strategy games, party games, or cooperative games, there’s something for everyone in this list.
Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Age: 10+ Players: 2-7 players Time: 45-60 minutes
Competition abounds in the madcap tile-laying game Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig. This delightful board game for 7 players teams folks up for designing fun, creating a collaborative competition that keeps you on your toes. Work with the person on your right to design one castle, work with the person on your left to design the other. Take two cards from your hand each turn, reveal them, and work with your partners to place them.
With over 200 tiles to work with, bonus cards, castle tokens, and more, the wildly fun Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig combines elements of Between Two Cities and the original conceptual game The Castles of Mad King Ludwig to grow the raucous fun. Lay your tiles, draft new ones each round, work together, and compete all the while, for there’s only one winner in this game, which offers significant strategic depth in its complexity and decision-making.
Atlantis Rising
Age: 10+ Players: 1-7 Time: 60-120 minutes
For those who enjoy longer cooperative games, Atlantis Rising is a great worker-placement gameplay option. It is a cooperative deduction game where players work together to decipher clues and achieve a common goal. Players must work together to build the cosmic gate to save your people from the sinking of Atlantis, your home. The max players for the game is 7, and most folks say that’s the best number.
Each turn, players draw misfortune cards that flood given locations throughout the ever-shrinking landscape of Atlantis, and you and your fellow players must determine the right actions to take to prevent people from sinking beneath the rising tides. As the game plays out, different phases kick in with different types of strategies to employ. Gather resources, which stretch out from the island center, to up your chances of survival. Then use ore, gold, crystals, and more to recruit, forge, and develop your society in the race against the clock for refuge.
The beautifully crafted Atlantis Rising game comes highly recommended by both long-time enthusiasts and newbie gamers. The challenging but not overly complicated game is great for all types of players over 10 years old, looking for a good, cooperative time.
Zoo Vadis
Age: 10+ Players: 3-7 Time: 20-40 minutes
Zoo Vadis puts the animals in charge of their own zoo. And you, as players, become those animals, vying for the crown of Zoo Mascot. Fame-seeking animals fuel their dreams with wild action in their exhibits, seeking the most applause and most forward positions. Use your wits to politic, negotiate, and scheme your way to the top. First, via the Star Exhibit, then, finally, through earning enough laurels, you may gain the coveted Zoo Mascot role.
The beautifully crafted Zoo Vadis entices players with aesthetics like none other, with smooth gameplay, and elegant mechanics that even kids can figure out and use to their advantage in the game. Score points and move forward along the path to the Star Exhibit. Each space on the board may contain up to seven animals at a time – and players progress by majority permission, that is voting. It’s all about the votes in the democratic schemes. Wheel and deal your way, making friends – avoiding enemies – and ultimately gaining the most points to win. Zoo Vadis is a fun game that combines strategy and negotiation, making it enjoyable and engaging for gatherings with family and friends.
Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space
Age: 12+ Players: 2-8 Time: 20-45 minutes
Hovering in space, you discover all your onboard systems have failed and darkness has overtaken the ship. What do you do? Well, in Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, you’ll have the chance to figure it out – without risking literal death. An alien plague has crept aboard your ship, though, and slowly turns your crew from humans to hideous beasts – terrifying space monsters. Save their lives – and your own – by escaping the ship through the hexagon-based map of the ship, cards, and your wits.
Every player uses a map sheet and pencil to run clockwise through the game, turn by turn, to move and track their coordinates. When players enter the danger zone (gray sectors), players draw cards and act: tell everyone else their position or lie about it (depending on the card’s directive). Humans seek to save themselves and each other, while aliens hunt down the humans to attack. To survive Escape from the Aliens in Outer Space, you’ll need to keep your wits about you and discern the honesty of other players, as players guess and interpret clues to make deductions based on the inputs from other players.
7 Wonders
Age: 10+ Players: 3-7 Time: 30 minutes
Take on the role of great leaders of the ancient world, with each player ruling the cities along trade routes, filled with military prowess, and lined with gorgeous architecture that will one day lead to legends. 7 Wonders, a beautiful game ideal for 7 players, encourages resource gathering, city development, and more, in just 30 minutes, broken into three ages. It is a great game for gatherings of family and friends, offering fun and fostering conversation.
Each player has their own board with special powers assigned to them, which comes into play with tracking cards and gameplay. At the beginning of each age in 7 Wonders, players receive seven cards from a specific deck and then choose one card to pass to an adjacent player. Cards are then revealed simultaneously, and players pay for resources or collect them, or engage in interactions as dictated by the cards. Players then choose a card from the deck passed to them and repeat the process until every player has six cards in play for the age. This repeats again for each age and the game ends after three ages. The card development game filled with incredibly beautiful artwork ultimately culminates in a winner who’s produced the most victory points through the ages.
Deception: Murder in Hong Kong – A Cooperative Deduction Game
Age: 14+ Players: 4-12 Time: 20 minutes
When your crowd of 7 players wants a quick game of intrigue, deduction, and great fun, pull out a copy of Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Each player becomes an investigator, trying to solve a heinous murder in “Asia’s World City.” But twist! One of the investigators is actually the killer! At the beginning of the game, players are assigned roles and teams, with a forensic scientist, a witness, investigators, an accomplice, and, of course, the murderer.
The murderer and accomplice must try to throw the investigators off the scent without revealing their guilt – and the investigators must deduce the perpetrators. Truly a battle of wits, this fun, interactive game leads the forensic scientist (who knows whodunnit!) to assist the investigators in discovering the answer through special tiles played and no spoken clues. Everyone else must deduce the murderer – or throw off the investigation – in quick succession play time of roughly 20 minutes, making it a game that players have thoroughly enjoyed playing.
Diplomacy
Age: 12+ (Community 14+) Players: 2-7 (Best at 7) Time: 360 minutes
If your crew’s up for a long-form game, Diplomacy has been deemed the top choice of board games for seven players. The game typically lasts 6 hours, so it’s truly only for the committed players ready for a long session or two. The game engages with negotiation as its top form of gameplay, using its beautiful, colorful map and wooden game pieces to play out. Compared to similar games like Carcassonne and Catan, Diplomacy offers a deeper strategic depth and higher player engagement.
Throughout the lengthy game, players take on the role of the seven great powers of Europe – Great Britain, Austria-Hungary, Germany, France, Turkey, and Russia – butting up against World War I. The storyline starts in 1901, with players moving the story from Spring to Autumn of each year. Armies and fleets face off on any given turn, with limited options for moving into adjoining territory, supporting an ally, or holding their positions. Strategize, negotiate, or even betray your way to victory.
Sushi Go Party! – A Fun Party Game
Age: 8+ Players: 2-8 Time: 30 minutes
Sushi lovers rejoice! You’ve got a game geared towards your food passion, with super maki rolls of fun in Sushi Go Party! Pick winning sushi combos, customize the game with your a la carte menu, collecting delicious rolls, sashimi pieces, and enticing entrees. The card-based board game celebrates the sushi feast for 30 minutes for ideally 7 players competing to create the perfect sushi platter to serve up.
Over 180 cards, 22 menu tiles, 8 wooden pawns, and a game board provide all you need for the delectable dish of strategic fun in Sushi Go Party! Each player starts the game with a handful of cards and works to collect a variety of sets. Pick a card to collect each round, then pass along the remainder to the player on your left. Next, receive cards from your right, pick a card again, and pass it along. This repeats until players run out of cards and collections are complete. You might aim for sashimi sets of 3 or 2 tempura cards, or any other variety of combos to score the most points possible. Use a variety of ways to swap cards in and out to create the perfect platter and win.
Check out our full review of Sushi Go! Party here.
- Quick, easy-to-learn gameplay.
- Fun drafting mechanics with cute artwork.
- Fast-paced, great for short game sessions.
- Strategy is light, mostly luck-based.
- Limited interaction between players.
- Best with 3+ players, not as fun with fewer.
Dark Moon
Age: 12+ Players: 3-7 Time: 60-75 minutes
The dice-rolling, hidden-team-based roleplaying party game of Dark Moon makes for the perfect board game for 7 players on a chilling game night. Engage with your best bluffing, deduction, dice, and spy skills in this science-fiction secret-agent-style game. The game of deception and betrayal takes place at the edge of space where deep space mining expeditions on Titan, the dark moon of Saturn, fuels intrigue as an unknown virus infects the crew. The paranoid, violent, secretive infected aim to destroy the healthy, while the uninfected seek to survive.
At the beginning of the game, two teams are formed: infected and uninfected crew members. The infected team must attempt to infect the rest of the players with this secret, heinous virus, while the uninfected just need to survive and escape the terror. But the twist is, that no one knows who else is infected. Suss out enemies versus allies and try to survive the night on this Dark Moon.
Wits & Wagers
Age: 10+ (Community 8+) Players: 3-7 (Best at 7) Time: 25 minutes
Another quick-witted, fast-paced, amazingly fun trivia game for 7 players, is the classic Wits & Wagers. In this game that feels like a trivia buff’s dream game, it’s actually not based on facts. Instead, this bonkers, high-energy game is all about bluffing your way to the winning place. Guess the answers to trivia questions on pop culture, history, sports, and more. Bet on other players’ answers, bluff your way through as logical answers as you can guess, and see who can get the closest to the factual answers.
Teach players how to test their Wits & Wagers skills in just 2 minutes, play for about 25 minutes, and repeat as often as needed to keep the party going. The Deluxe Edition offers wagering chips, a crease-free felt mat, dry-erase markers and erases, and cardboard currency chips to add to the casino-like flavor of the game. To play, write down your guess, place it face-up on the betting mat, and start the betting! You can bet on your own answer, give in to the bluffing skills of the others, and see who takes the win.
Conclusion
All right! You’ve seen the collection here – the ten best board games for seven players. Explore space and avoid deadly viruses, score the title of Zoo Mascot, build the 7 Wonders of the World, or create the perfect sushi platter to win. Snag your quick-paced, short play-time games of Zoo Vadis, Sushi Go Party!, Escape from Aliens in Outer Space, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, 7 Wonders, or Wits & Wagers. For medium to long play, go for Atlantis Rising, Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig, Dark Moon, or Diplomacy. Any of these fantastic games will lead to a gloriously fun time with your six closest pals. If you’re looking for more options, consider exploring other games that offer unique themes, strategies, and experiences.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What is the recommended age for these board games?
Most of the games listed are suitable for ages 8 and up, although specific age recommendations can vary. Always check the game packaging for detailed age guidelines.
How long do these games typically take to play?
Playing times vary depending on the game. Some, like Sushi Go Party and Wits & Wagers, take around 30 minutes, while others, such as Diplomacy, can last up to 6 hours.
How many players can participate in these games?
All games mentioned are designed for seven players, with the exception of a few that allow for a wider range, usually from 2 to 8 players.
Are any of these games suitable for beginners?
Yes, games like Sushi Go Party! and Wits & Wagers are beginner-friendly and can be learned quickly, making them great choices for newcomers to board gaming.
Can these games be played in smaller groups?
While the games are optimized for seven players, many can be enjoyed with fewer players; just check the game rules as some may have specific guidelines for player counts.
What should I consider when choosing a game for a group of seven?
Consider the group’s preferences for gameplay style (strategy, trivia, party games) and the amount of time available for play. Some groups might prefer shorter, faster-paced games, while others may enjoy more complex, strategic options.