Getting ready for a board game night with an odd number of nine players? It might be tricky to find just the right collection of themes, fast-paced play, or strategic options based on your crowd’s preferences.
The right theme, mood, and gameplay style can make all the difference between an amazing game night and a fail. Playing with friends enhances the enjoyment and interaction, making the experience more memorable. That’s why we’ve gathered this collection of the best board games for 9 players you could ask for, featuring bluffing, bargaining, trading, wordplay, and many more skills employed across them.
Consider your crowd’s interests before purchasing, of course, but you’re bound to find some quickplay or long-form games just right for your nine players.
This is part of our series on Board Games by Player Count. Check out the full article for more recommendations.
What are the Best Board games for 9 players?
Mascarade
Age: 10+ Players: 2-13 Time: 30 minutes
Combine your bluffing skills with your memory skills, collect 13 coins, and win the game of Mascarade, one of the best board games for 9 players available today. This wildly fun party starter gets players guessing and laughing as they try to figure out who has the King card, who’s the Queen, and which members of the court just made an appearance. Everybody gets involved in the guessing and laughing, making it a perfect game for social gatherings.
The game starts out with each player holding 6 coins. Character cards get dealt faceup, then are flipped over quickly – just giving folks long enough to memorize them, if they’re lucky. Players spend the fast-paced game trying to earn 13 coins total (and not lose them!) by guessing who’s “behind the mask” at each stage of play in Mascarade. Nobody really knows who anyone is – sometimes even you of your own character! – as the speedy game turns over cards quickly enough for deception and nonsense to ensue. You’ll take your own card and another card – without looking at them – and mix them up under the table, then place them back. The mayhem continues until one player can remember (or bluff!) well enough to figure out who is who and take the winning coins. The game ends when one player collects 13 coins.
Panic on Wall Street
Age: 14+ (Community 8+) Players: 3-11 Time: 30-45 minutes
Outmaneuver your fellow players in Panic on Wall Street as you attempt to become the industrial leader in your sector. The game features simple rules that make it accessible for both casual and expert players. The 30 to 45 minutes of gameplay is filled with action – managers and investors vie against one another to earn as much money as possible by the end of the fifth round. Negotiate your way to the top during each two-minute free-for-all round as you bid and purchase, place your investments, and collect income. Roll the dice to see what happens to the economy and make your next best move as you try to outwit circumstances and each other. The game ends after five rounds, pitted as 5 months in-game, with the manager and investor who have accumulated the most wealth winning the titles of Masters of Commerce./
Saboteur
Age: 8+ Players: 3-10 Time: 30 minutes
In the tricksy game for 9 players, Saboteur isn’t just the title – it’s also the motive for half the players. In the mining-themed game, populated with dwarves, players must take turns, playing one card from their hand, then collect new ones from the draw pile to play out their plots to tunnel and sabotage each other for the title. Path cards provide the trail, but along the way, players search for gold, hinder other players from their paths, and act out their devious plans to make it to the top (or bottom?) of the mine.
Players will either be assigned saboteur or miner roles at the outset of the game and play out their goals in three rounds. Players vote on actions to take during the game, adding a strategic layer to the gameplay. Each round concludes when treasure is discovered, or action cards run out. Along the way, no one knows who the other saboteurs or miners are – so solve the puzzle, find the treasure, and claim your winner’s rights by amassing the most gold. And by the way – the roles change from round to round./
You Gotta Be Kitten Me
Age: 10+ (Community 8+) Players: 2-10 Time: 30 minutes
Dice-rolling and bluffing come together in this adorably purrrrrfect game for nine players: You Gotta Be Kitten Me. It is a card game featuring animals wearing accessories like hats and bowties. Each card of the game features animals wearing accessories like hats and bowties. On each turn, players try to guess or bluff their way into how many cards are in play with a given color or accessory. Bids are raised and challenges are leveraged against fellow players as you maneuver your way along. As each turn rolls through, players lose cards to those who guess their way in.
The affordable fun of You Gotta Be Kitten Me plays into its strengths of silliness, bad puns, and casual fun for all, with critters galore keeping the delights tumbling through. Teach new players quickly and enjoy multiple games or a single quick match for your game night or family fun. The game ends when one player loses all their cards.
What Do You Meme?
Age: 18+ Players: 3-20 Time: 30-90 minutes
Whether you’ve been around since the early days of internet memes or recently discovered the nonsensical joys of this bonkers means of communication, What Do You Meme? is sure to strike a hilarious chord. Compete against other players to create the most ridiculous memes. Everybody competes to create the most ridiculous memes. Pair caption cards with photo cards and subject your memes to the rotating judge who will pick the best combos.
The judge plays a photo card each round. Then the other players rake through their card piles to find the best possible caption to complete the social media communication. Whoever’s card claims the “funniest” title claims the card. Collect cards along the way, like you do in Apples to Apples, and repeat until someone has the elected number of cards to win the game. The game ends when someone collects the elected number of cards.
Ultimate Werewolf: Inquisition
Age: 8+ Players: 3-12 Time: 30-60 minutes
A standalone game in the series, Ultimate Werewolf: Inquisition drops players into a local village where werewolves have been running rampant, killing off villagers and then hiding among them during daylight hours. In this variation, villagers have had to call in a group of specialists (the Inquisitors) to help them solve the issue. And that’s where you come in as players. You play the experts and suss out who’s a werewolf and who’s just a villager. The trick is, though, that some of the inquisitors have been turned and are now werewolves themselves.
Engage your skills of bluffing, deduction, and betrayal to eliminate the werewolves – or kill off the villagers! – and outsmart whoever you can to keep the game going. In each round, players use the power of the villager’s hut or take two votes to get rid of the werewolves and try to save the town. Players vote to eliminate suspects each round. Whoever gets the most votes against them in each round is eliminated, and the role of Grand Inquisitor is passed on to the next player each round until the winner(s) prevail. The game ends when all werewolves or villagers are eliminated.
Sounds Fishy
Age: 10+ Players: 4-10 Time: 15 minutes
In the quick, fast-paced game of Sounds Fishy, ideal for 9 players, gamers must use their wits to bluff their way through trivia to get to the answer. Players talk their way through trivia questions, adding to the social fun. In many cases, folks don’t have a clue what the trivia answer is, and that’s perfect! Just make it up and keep the game going.
Sounds Fishy is ranked as the ultimate bluffing game, perfect for creative types, weird-fact lovers, actors, and mischievous goofballs: a game for everyone. The game comes with 9 fish, 80 point tokens, 200 question cards, and a card dispenser to make it easy to run at this fast pace. It takes only a couple of minutes to learn, suitable for players as young as 10, and adds loads of fun to any gathering of up to 10 players.
In each round, one player receives the question card while another gets the answer card. If the player with the answer has drawn the red herring, they make up the answer – as convincing as possible – and the one holding the question card must sort fact from fiction. This bonkers game will have you laughing with its rapid-fire play and all the nonsense involved, so grab your copy and bring it to your next game night or party for some amazing fun! The game ends when all the point tokens are distributed, determining the winner based on who has the most points.
Hues and Cues
Age: 8+ Players: 3-10 Time: 30 minutes
If you love colorful things, silliness, and fun, you’ll want to grab a copy of Hues and Cues for your 9-player game night. One game can be played quickly or multiple times in a night. Many folks say this game is particularly delightful for folks who don’t generally enjoy board games. The unique game comes with a board with 480 shades of colors and a deck of cards with clues on them to help you navigate the wonderfully prismatic gameplay.
Make connections between the clue cards and the hues on the board, using cues from the “clue giver” of the turn, who’s hidden away a specific color they’ve chosen for that round. One- and two-word clues enable players to mark the color on the board they believe best fits the clues best. Everyone sees colors differently, so you could be spot on, off by a few shades, or way off. Using everyday options like coffee, tea, pop culture references, nature, and even moods, players guess madly and race to get their marker down before someone beats them to their shade. The game ends when all rounds are completed, determining the winner based on who has the most accurate guesses.
- Easy to learn and play
- Accommodates 3-10 players
- Visually appealing with vibrant colors
- Limited variation in base gameplay
- May be too abstract for some players
- Potential issues with larger player counts
Hellapagos
Age: 8+ (Community 12+) Players: 3-12 Time: 20 minutes
You and yours have been shipwrecked like Gilligan on a desert island, with no hope of escape. Players must manage resources and take ‘rest’ strategically. You might be able to build a raft to get away, but there’s a hurricane on the horizon, ready to devastate your straw huts and food supply. What do you do? Well, in Hellapagos, you’ve got roughly 20 minutes to cooperate with each other and get yourselves free of the impending storm. Well, cooperate to a point before it becomes a free-for-all, every person for themselves.
To play, set out the board and place supplies around the board; set up raft-building tokens and get out the cards. Start shuffling the weather deck to see how long you’ve got before the hurricane hits and you’re all set. Now, negotiate, bluff, and backstab your way to survival on the no-longer idyllic island as the food and water run out and building supplies disappear. Construct your raft and sneak in supplies as you race the clock – and see who can build and escape the fastest to win. The game ends when the hurricane hits or the raft is built.
Kaleidos
Age: 10+ (Community 8+) Players: 2-12 Time: 60 minutes
Perfect for team play, Kaleidos includes four identical sets of 10 paintings that each depicts a scene full of objects of various types. Each team or player uses their own set of these paintings to observe and play – finding the most objects in a single viewing possible. The rules are simple, making it easy for both casual and expert players to enjoy.
Each team draws from a deck of cards to determine the category for the round, and then players write down the object names – but they all have to begin with the same letter. So, it might be all Bs – baseball, book, basketball – or everything starting with F – fox, frog, fountain. A timer keeps track and limits how long the teams have to list out the objects to just one minute. So, elect the fastest writer to help you through the 12 rounds to win.
Kaleidos is likened to both “find the difference” scenes and hidden object games mixed with Boggle. So, folks who enjoy a fast-paced word game combining images and comradery will love this game – and want to play it often when they gather. It’s a great, fast-paced, easy game with cooperation for those who prefer a challenge over competition, while still having the thrill of earning the winning title. The game ends after 12 rounds, with the team finding the most objects declared the winner.
Conclusion: with 9, They’re all Party Games
Whether you’re a huge fan of word games, bluffing skills, or fast-paced action, you’re bound to find a great choice or two in this collection of 10 best board games for 9 players. Everybody can find a game they enjoy. Your game night is sure to be a hit, whichever you pick, but be sure to cater to your crowd with the right gameplay lengths, moods, and modes.
For quick games, grab a copy of You Gotta Be Kitten Me, Mascarade, Hellapagos, Sounds Fishy, or Hues and Cues. Medium to long-play game times call for Kaleidos, Ultimate Werewolf: Inquisition, What Do You Meme, or Panic on Wall Street. A great combination of games for a longer game night will combine one or two short games and one longer game for the perfect blend of fast and furious fun mixed with strategy and intrigue. Each game ends differently, with some concluding after a set number of rounds and others based on achieving specific win conditions.
FAQ
What age groups are these games suitable for?
Most of the games in this collection are suitable for players aged 8 and older. Some games, like Kaleidos, are designed for ages 10 and above, while others can accommodate younger players with adult supervision.
How many players can participate in each game?
This collection features games accommodating a range of players, from 2 to 12 participants, depending on the game. For example, Kaleidos can be played by up to 12 players, while Sounds Fishy is designed for up to 10.
How long does each game typically last?
Game durations vary, with some like Hellapagos being playable in approximately 20 minutes, while others like Kaleidos may last up to 60 minutes. Be sure to check the specifics for each game to help plan your game night.
Are these games suitable for non-gamers?
Yes! Many of the games, such as Hues and Cues, are particularly enjoyable for those who may not usually engage in board games. The simple mechanics and engaging themes can attract a diverse group of players.
Can I find these games in stores or online?
Many of the games listed in this collection are available both in physical stores and online retailers. Be sure to check popular gaming websites as well as local game shops to find the best options for purchasing.