Top 5 Player Board Games [Updated 2021]

Are you looking for a board game for 5 players? Look no further. In this post we give you our favorite board games to play with exactly 5 players.

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1. Scythe

Scythe is the best 5 player board game in our opinion. In Scythe, each player represents one of five factions in Eastern Europe in a dystopian post capitalistic world. All 5 players try to build their civilization and conquer lands from the mysterious fallen city known as ‘The Factory’, and from each other.

Scythe is an amazing game for any player count, but especially for with 5 players, because then all factions are in play at the same time. (The second best player count for Scythe is as a solo board game, in which case the game uses completely different rules.)

2. Citadels

Citadels is a game of deceit. You must conceal your intentions and pick the right characters at the right time, so you can build your marvelous city and win the game.

What we love about Citadels is that it feels almost like a social deduction game. The only difference is that rather than being assigned one hidden identity for the whole game, you choose your hidden identity every round. And you try to choose wisely but not predictably, so your opponents never know your next move.

Citadels is great with any player count, but it’s actually the best with 5 players. Because with 5 players, most characters are in play every turn, and you need to do some serious thinking to figure out who picked which character. But at the same time it’s not like every character’s in play, so the Thief and Murderer don’t get a free guaranteed hit.

3. One Night: Ultimate Werewolf

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is the version of Werewolf that takes only one night to play (so that’s one in-game night, so like 10 to 20 minutes in real time 🙂 ).

It’s simply fantastic, and you can kind of start playing it with 5 players. To be honest, 6 or 7 is the sweet spot for us, because that way we can use even more of the characters and it’s harder to figure out who’s who. But 5 players already works great as well and we hear from many people that they think 5 players is the best for this game.

Another upside of having exactly 5 players is that the game then is very balanced between the werewolves winning and the villagers winning. If you play for example with 2 werewolves, a seer, a thief, 2 free masons, a witch and one more villager type (such as the drunk or apprentice seer), we have pretty balanced games.

So given that One Night is our favorite social deduction game and you can start playing it well with 5 players, we wanted to put it on this list.

4. 7 Wonders

7 Wonders lets each player play as the leader of one of seven ancient cities. They must build up their civilization and defeat their enemies, through a combined use of their military, science, commercial interests, and their wonders.

This game is best suited for 5 players. With less than 5, the players usually won’t have strong conflicts of interest, because each player can focus on a different line of civilization (military, science, etc.). With more than 5 players the game is good but it starts to take very long. So in our experience, 5 players is just right.

5. Concordia - Cyprus

Concordia is a trading game in which each player is a competing merchant. It’s been a very popular game ever since its publication in 2013.

For this ranking we want to draw your attention to the Concordia maps which we think are best for 5 players. And we actually think that the Imperium and Cyprus maps that you get in the renewed base game are both great for 5 players. Both of them are large enough to have the game be competitive but not too crowded.

What's The Best Board Game For 5 Players?

We hope our ranking helps you to pick which 5 player board game is the best for you.

Did we miss any of your favorite 5 player board games? Let us know trough our contact form! We’re happy to incorporate it in future updates of this article.