Fun party games: group of friends playing cards

If you need a fun party game, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve tried all of these games and bust them out at every gathering we go to. Our curated list includes board games, games where you just need a few supplies (like pieces of paper and pens), and games with no supplies needed at all. We have recommendations for all ages and group sizes. Get to it, you’ve got a party to host!

7 Fun Party Game Ideas: Supplies Needed

Board games on a table

Scroll through our list of games and grab your favorite idea for your next gathering. These games require either a board game, an app, or some things you can grab around the house. Scroll to the next section for games that don’t need any supplies.

1. Head, Shoulders, Knees, Cup

Group size: 3 or more

Ages: Kids, teens, and adults

Materials: 1 plastic cup

Instructions:

All you need is one plastic cup for this fun party game. Have two players stand facing each other with a cup in between them. A referee calls out commands — head, shoulders, knees — in any order, repeating and mixing them up as players put their hands on their own head, shoulders, or knees. When the ref calls “cup,” players must try to grab the cup first. Whoever doesn’t get it is out.

You can have a lot of people playing at once in groups of two (with one cup each), culling the group down till you have two left who go head to head in the final battle.

2. Telephone Pictionary

Group size: 6 or more

Ages: Teens or adults

Materials: Pieces of paper, pens

Instructions:

There is an official board game called Telestrations, but you can play it for your game night with just paper and pens. 

Cut up paper into pieces, and give each player as many pieces as there are people. For example, if there are eight players, each person should have a stack of eight pieces of paper.

To play, everyone writes a phrase on their first piece of paper. It should be a phrase players would know, like “Clean as a whistle” or “Kill two birds with one stone.” The other pieces of paper in each person’s stack remain blank.

All at once, each player passes their whole stack of paper to the person next to them, going clockwise. Everyone looks at the phrase that was passed to them, moves it to the bottom of the pile, and draws their interpretation of the phrase on the next piece of paper.

Pass the stacks again. The next person looks at the drawing, and writes their interpretation of it (the phrase they think it is) on the next sheet. Keep passing the sheets around and alternating between drawing and writing until you get your original stack back.

Flip through the sheets and share with one another how the phrase progressed through the series of hilarious drawings. This is one of the best party games for any group, whether it’s adults, kids, or team building.

3. Listography

Group size: 3-6

Ages: Kids, teens, and adults

Materials: Listography board game

Instructions:

We’ve played this board game at parties with older folks or rooms full of game-haters, and everyone ends up having a blast and asking to play again after it ends. 

Players are given a prompt to make a list, like “things to bring camping” or “nocturnal animals.” Your goal will either be to match items with as many people as possible, match with no one, or match with just one other player (no more, no less!). Listography is simple and addictive. 

Grab the game on Amazon and get ready for a lot of fun!

4. Fishbowl

Group size: 6 or more

Ages: Teens or adults

Materials: Pieces of paper, pens, and a large bowl

Instructions:

Once you play Fishbowl, it’s all you’ll want to play at parties. It’s a hilarious game that’s a variation of charades.

Each participant writes down 3–4 words, phrases, or pop culture references on slips of paper and puts them in a bowl. You’ll use those words for three rounds of gameplay:

  • Round 1: Describe it with words — without using the word(s) on the piece of paper.
  • Round 2: Act it out with no speaking.
  • Round 3: You can say one word, and one word only, to prompt your team.

Split everyone into two teams.

For Round 1, set a timer for one minute, a player from the first team will be the clue giver. They’ll draw a piece of paper from the bowl and describe it. Their team guesses which word is on the slip of paper. Once it’s guessed correctly, they will draw another piece of paper. This keeps going until time runs out.

Then do the same thing for the second team. Keep alternating teams (with a new clue giver each time) until all the papers have been used.

For Round 2, put all the papers back in the bowl. Everyone knows what’s on the papers now, so make it a little harder by acting them out. Same as Round 1, each team will take turns and has one minute to get their team to guess as many as possible.

For Round 3, put all the pieces of paper back in the bowl again. Follow the same pattern, but this time the clue giver can only say one word to try to get the team to guess.

5. Tapple

Group size: 2-8

Ages: Kids, teens, or adults

Materials: Tapple board game

Instructions:

This fast-moving game went viral on social media and becomes addictive once you start playing.

You get a category, like types of sandwiches or girls’ names. You have 10 seconds to give an answer that starts with one of the letters that surround the circular board. Tap the letter when you say your answer. That letter is now eliminated from the round, and it’s the next player’s turn.

As the round progresses, there will be fewer and fewer letters to choose from. If you can’t think of anything, you’re out. The last person standing wins.

6. Jackbox.tv

Group size: 3 or more

Ages: Adults

Materials: Jackbox Party Pack and smartphones

Instructions:

Pile around the TV and play Jackbox games, a digital group game platform that has tons of game packs available. The players just need a phone to join in.

Quiplash, for example, is a battle-of-the-wits game where players get a comedic prompt and have to give the funniest answer, as voted on by other players.

Fibbage is a Balderdash variant where players fill in the blank for a piece of obscure trivia with their best “truth,” and the most convincing lie wins.

Drawful is a play on Pictionary where a player gets an offbeat prompt and has to draw it on their phone screen whiteboard, then others get to convincingly name that drawing in hopes that other players will think theirs is the real prompt.

With over 60 games, Jackbox is always fresh and guarantees lots of laughs for a large group.

7. Minute to Win It Games

Group size: 3 or more

Ages: Kids or adults

Materials: Varies

Instructions:

In Minute to Win It, players have 60 seconds to do a simple and funny physical challenge, like:

  • Put on oven mitts and try to unwrap a present faster than your opponent (a perfect Christmas party game)
  • Put ping pong balls in an empty tissue box strapped to your waist and try to shake them all out
  • Transfer Cheerios from one plate to another using just a toothpick

Forget icebreakers, these games will forge quick friendships and alliances as you laugh your way through the silly challenges.

4 Fun Party Games: No Supplies Needed

Group of friends sitting at a beach front park

These four games don’t require even a single sheet of paper. If you like them, you can play most of them around the table at dinner parties, on the go, in a line, or in the car, too!

1. Wavelength (Without the Physical Board Game)

Group size: 3 or more

Ages: Adults

Materials: None

Instructions:

There’s a board game called Wavelength, and you should absolutely pick it up. But for a game you can play without supplies, try this:

The guesser closes their eyes, and the group agrees on a number 1-10. One is considered the worst, and 10 is considered the best.

The guesser then opens their eyes and gives a player a category, like athletes, TV shows, ice cream flavors, candy, or subjects in school. The player answers in a way that represents the number.

For example:

  • If the number is one, and the category is candy, you might say black licorice.
  • If the number is 10, and the category is ice cream, you might say cookie dough if it’s your favorite.

The guesser gives each player a different category. Once everyone has answered, the guesser tries to guess the secret number.

The most fun way to play this game is to give hyper-specific categories to players based on their interests. For example: Beyonce songs, dorms from our university, decor in our home, neighborhoods in New York, or La Croix flavors.

2. Look Up

Group size: 3 or more

Ages: Kids, teens, and adults

Materials: None

Instructions:

Players stand in a circle and one person says, “3, 2, 1, look up” and everyone must look at one person in the circle. If you’re making eye contact with someone, you’re both out. The last person standing is the winner. This is a quick game that can be used to pick someone who gets to decide on the movie for the night … or doesn’t have to stay to help clean up.

3. Mind Meld

Group size: 2 (or any even number)

Ages: Kids, teens, and adults

Materials: None

Instructions:

Two people say a random word out loud at the same time, then think of a new word that ties the two together and go again, trying to eventually say the same word at the same time.

For example, on the count of three, one person says “cow” and one says “overalls,” so you both think of a new word that encapsulates both words. For the next round, you count to three and one person says “farmer” while the other says “dirt.” Not a match yet! You then try to think of what ties “farmer” and “dirt” — you count to three again and one says “crop” while the other says “garden.” Next round, you both say “carrot” to represent “crop” and “garden” — you’ve mind melded!

Even though only two people are needed for this game, you can play in a large group by pairing people off. The pair that takes the most guesses to mind meld gets eliminated, and you keep going until one team is left standing.

4. Murder in the Dark

Group size: 6 or more

Ages: Teens, adults

Materials: None

Instructions:

In this physical variant of the card game Mafia or Werewolf, one person is secretly picked to be the murderer. You turn all the lights off in the house and wander around. The murderer “kills” someone by tapping them on the head, and they have to drop to the ground and play dead.

If you discover a “dead” player, call out, “Dead body!” and turn the lights on. The group must discuss who the murderer among them might be and eliminate someone with a vote. Then go for another round: lights off, roaming around, hiding in different rooms, the murderer making another secret kill.

Continue the rounds, eliminating people as you go, until the murderer has either been eliminated or is the last one standing.

This game is a hit at late-night parties for teenagers, but trust us, adults love it too!

Game On!

We hope these fun party games bring your group plenty of LOLs, inside jokes, and entertainment. You don’t have to be stressed about having people over when you always have these games in your back pocket.