Explore How Multiplayer Game Nights Fit Into a Small Home

We host a game night roughly once a month. Six people, sometimes eight, in a 46 square metre flat with one sofa, two chairs, a beanbag and a television on a narrow stand. The first time we tried it, three people sat on the floor, the router struggled with four controllers on wifi, someone knocked a glass of wine onto the console, and two guests left early because they could not see the screen. It was not a good night.

We have hosted about 25 since then, and they have become one of our favourite things. Most of what makes them work in a small space is planning, not furniture. Here is what we learned.

Choosing games that suit a crowd in a small room

The game decides almost everything: how many people can play at once, how much space they need, and whether people waiting their turn have fun. A good small-flat game night game has a few properties.

Short rounds. Rounds under ten minutes let people rotate in and out without anyone waiting long.
Fun to watch. In a small room, half the guests are watching at any moment. Spectator-friendly games keep them involved.
Shared screen, not split screen. Four-way split screen on a 40 inch television is nearly unreadable from a beanbag.
Phones as controllers, where possible. This removes the controller shortage completely.

Games that worked for us

The Jackbox Party Packs

Jackbox games are the backbone of our nights. Up to eight players join using their own phones, and an audience feature lets extra guests vote. Quiplash and Drawful need no gaming skill at all, which matters when half the room has never held a controller. A round takes 10 to 15 minutes.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Four players, short races, easy to pick up. We run it as a tournament with rotating players: the bottom two in each race swap out for someone waiting. It keeps everyone moving and gives the watchers something to cheer for.

Gang Beasts

Wobbly characters trying to throw each other off buildings. Nobody is good at it, which is the point. It is also the loudest game we own, so we only play it before 9 p.m. out of respect for the neighbours.

Among Us, played locally

Among Us runs on phones, and playing it in the same room is far more fun than online, because you can watch people's faces while they lie. It works best with seven or more players, which in our flat means people perched on the windowsill.

Arranging a small room for six to eight people

Furniture placement matters more than furniture quantity. After some trial and error, this is our standard layout.

Push the sofa back and pull the television forward. Even 50 centimetres more depth makes the screen comfortable from the back of the room.
Floor cushions in front, chairs behind. Tiered seating, like a small cinema. People on cushions at the front, chairs at the back, so everybody sees the screen.
Clear the coffee table completely. Drinks go on a side shelf away from the console. One spilled glass taught us that.
Wired connection for the console. A ten metre ethernet cable cost less than a pizza and ended our wifi problems.
Open the window for ten minutes every hour. Eight people in a small room get warm fast.

We also put away anything fragile beforehand. If you are thinking about how to make a small home work for guests generally, our Our Home section has more, and the way we tested our layout before buying furniture is in our piece on decorating a home in online game worlds.

Food that does not wreck controllers

Greasy food and shared controllers are a bad mix. Pizza is the classic game night food and the worst choice for it. We switched to food that can be eaten with a fork or is not greasy: a big pot of chilli with rice, a tray of roasted vegetables, bread and dips, and fruit. Odalys makes the chilli the night before, so it is better on the day and we are not cooking while guests arrive.

We also ask guests to bring one drink each rather than food. It keeps the evening cheap for everyone and avoids a table covered in crisps.

How a typical evening runs

Structure matters more than people expect. Without a loose plan, the night drifts and the quieter guests never get a turn. Ours usually looks like this:

7:00: guests arrive, food is already on the side shelf, the console is on with a menu screen.
7:30: a Jackbox game everyone can join on their phones, to break the ice.
8:15: Mario Kart tournament with rotating players, about 45 minutes.
9:00: a louder game like Gang Beasts while energy is high.
9:30 onwards: quieter word and drawing games, and plenty of people just talking.

We keep a simple rule that no single game runs more than 45 minutes. Even a game everybody loves gets stale after that, and switching keeps people who did not enjoy one game from feeling stuck.

Why smaller guest lists work better

When we started, we invited as many people as might fit. That was a mistake. With ten people, the room was cramped, the games could not include everyone, and conversations split into groups shouting over each other. Six is our ideal number. It fills a four-player game with two watching, and two people waiting is about the right amount of downtime.

The common advice is that game nights get better with more people. In a big house, maybe. In a small flat, fewer guests means everyone actually plays, and that is the point of the evening.

Keeping it neighbour-friendly

We live in a building with thin walls, so we have three rules. Loud games before 9 p.m., quieter word and drawing games after. Everyone out by 11:30 on weeknights, later only on Saturdays. And we let the neighbours on both sides know a day ahead, with an open invitation. One of them now comes most months and is the best Quiplash player we know.

If you only host occasionally, these nights are also a good way to split hosting costs fairly, something we covered in our article about budgeting like a small household.