Why is a group of four players the standard for the majority of games?

Question

Be it TTRPGs, board games or video games, a group of four players is the standard size.

DnD and adjacent systems balance their challenges around a party of four. Most boardgames come with four colours for players to choose from. Most video game consoles only can connect four controllers and most video games like Smash Bros and Mario Kart only have four slots? Why is that?

In: Other

Answer 1

For turn taking board games, 4 people feels like the upper limit before you start spending ages waiting for turns as others go. Some games solve this – I like 7 wonders (which plays up to 7 people) as you are all taking your turns in parallel, so there’s less downtime.