3 was fun for awhile. Bumped that up to 5; good variety and fun for having friends and family over that didn't last too long. Bumped that to 8 with a game room location change/move- always had one machine down for one reason or another at that point. As I repaired ones in my storage pile and found others I've added them to the game room- I'm up to 13 and average 2 machines down at any given time. The 8-9 games seems to be the sweet spot IF you can stop at 8 or 9- which I couldn't / can't.