I really like 7 Wonders, for 3-7 players and one round is also not too long with about 20 minutes ^^

These are my go to games for larger groups:

• Codenames: A modern classic! Works best with 6 or 8 people.
• Decrypto: For a more gamey version of Codenames.
• Wavelength: Fun party game that spikes interesting conversations
• Concept: Don’t play to win, just play to have fun guessing

Quest, which is an evolution of Avalon. It’s a quicker game, because the voting phase has been eliminated. Instead, if the evil team win, the good team have a final chance to find the bad people. If you do play this game, I highly recomment playing with the “Director’s Cut” rules. It can take 4-10 players.

Libertalia can go up to 6 players, and it’s one of my favourites. I slightly prefer the new Winds of Galecrest version from Stonemaier Games, but any version of this game is fine.

Another game I’m on the lookout for is Feed The Kraken, which seems to be an improved version of Secret Hitler, but with a pirate ship.

If you want to end up hating your friends - The Resistance. I love it but it definitely is not for everyone.

For us:

• Bang!: spaghetti western with secret teams, up to 7 players
• Fuji flush: easy card game, up to 8 players
• Exploding Kittens: silly cards where drawing may make you lose, up to 10 players (with the expansion)
• Secret Hitler: a kind of werewolf where you have to create governments and pass laws, up to 10 players

Ethnos - area control/ set collection/ push your luck with very short turns; hard to get to the table with my group because of the art, but once we play, everyone liked it so far

Cosmic Encounter - classic game with a lot of diplomacy

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18/roborally - chaos & mayhem, aka. a lot of fun; can drag a bit if players don’t get the mechanics

Deception - Murder in Hongkong - for up to 12 people

Catan has an expansion that supports more players. It makes the game longer, but I personally enjoy the change of pace.

Otherwise, there’s plenty of good suggestions on this thread already. Those that are of similar(ish) complexity and that I also enjoy:

• Bang! (Has player elimination, so make sure your friends are okay with sitting out for part of the game)
• 7 Wonders (Turns are taken in parallel, so much less down time. Great if you have slow players.)
• Sheriff of Nottingham
• Codenames (It’s marked as 2-8 players, but realistically, you can play with as many as you want.)
• Concept

With larger parties, you’ll often be waiting for that last person to arrive. Some simpler games if you want to fill that time:

• Coup/Complot
• Sushi go (Good warm-up to 7-Wonders if your group is new to the game)

For larger groups, we’ve had success with these:

Diamant

Bang:The dice game

Citadels

Skull

CamelUp

Just One

Fake artist goes to New York

Sushi Go:Party

At 6 players we mostly switch to party games.

• Just One is by far our favorite, works great with all sort of crowds.

• Secret Hitler is another we tend to play, doesn’t work well with the more casual folks.

Always interested in expanding this list, it’s hard to find something outside word games and social deduction that don’t have a ton of downtime.

A good question and an interesting thread. At five, our group sometimes tries a substantial game like Viticulture or Power Grid. Knowing the game is critical, however, since many complex games are not at their best with five players. When our group hits six, we’ve recently been playing Mysterium, which is an excellent, simple investigation game with evocative art and a great deal of replay value. It’s surprisingly accessible for new players.

With even larger groups, we sometimes play Mascarade. This Bruno Faidutti social deduction game is similar to his later Citadels, but easier to get started with. Another hit has been Bohnanza, although its wheeling-and-dealing style may not appeal to quieter folks.

When we have players who are easily overwhelmed by lots of rules, we tend to fall back to Sushi Go. This is entertaining enough–though beware of playing it with hate-drafting Magic players.

EDIT: It’s “Mascarade”, not “Masquerade”.

It’s a Wonderful World (up to 7 players with the expansion )a kind of 7 Wonders with resources and combos. Actually, we don’t play 7 Wonders anymore.

Condordia Venus (up to 6 players) very euro-style, move your workers on the map to build warehouses to gather resources to build more stuff and buy more actions…

Root (up to 6 players) very asymetric strategy game. It’s so asymetric that each faction plays a different game.

Demeter and Cartographer (almost illimited number of players) like tons of other roll and write, they are the perfect games when there are too much players for other games and you don’t want to play a party game.

Also, lots of games are fine if you add extra players with a few tweaks: Mansions of Madness, Pandemic, Res Arcana…

For 8-12 players, I like Green Team Wins.

Sidereal Confluence is a game that really starts to get exciting at 6+ players. It’s not for everyone, but for the right group it’s a blast!

We default to Munchkin when nothing else seems obvious. Games get long with 7 or more people because someone can always sabotage the leaders victory. But the game is still hilarious and gleefully fun to us after all these years.