Party Games
Group-play staples of family nights and parties — Pictionary, Charades, Taboo, Cluedo, Jenga, Twister, Battleship and modern hits like Codenames and Fall Guys.
31 sports in party games.
Card Magic
The most-practised branch of magic — a deck of cards, false shuffles, palms, cuts and impossible-seeming reveals.
Charades
Classic party game in which players silently act out words, phrases, or titles for their team to guess — with strict rules against speaking, sound-making, or drawing.
Cluedo
Deduction murder-mystery board game (3-6 players) — players move through a mansion's rooms, make suggestions about who committed the murder (which suspect, weapon, room), gathering clues by elimination until confident enough to make a final accusation.
Codenames
Modern Czech party word-association game (2015) — two teams of spymasters give one-word clues to lead teammates to identify their agents on a 5×5 grid of code names, while avoiding opponents' agents and the assassin; 2016 Spiel des Jahres winner.
Crokinole
Canadian flicking-disc board game — flick wooden discs across a round board towards the central 20-point hole while knocking opponents off.
Cup and Ball
The oldest magic trick in the world — small balls vanish and reappear under three inverted cups as the magician's hands blur.
Dixit
Storytelling party game — give a cryptic clue for one of your dreamlike art cards; some (but not all) players must guess it.
Guess Who?
Two-player deduction game — 'Does your person have glasses?' — flip down faces to isolate the mystery character.
Heads Up!
Ellen DeGeneres's smartphone-era Charades — hold a phone to your forehead, guess the word as your friends shout clues.
Hot Potato
Toss-and-freeze — pass an object round the circle to music; whoever holds it when the music stops is out.
Jenga
Wooden-block tower — remove a block, place it on top, don't let the tower fall.
KerPlunk
Marble-in-a-tube dexterity — thin plastic sticks hold marbles suspended; pull sticks out one by one without dropping too many.
Klask
Magnetic wooden table game — a mix of table football and air hockey; goal by knocking the ball into your opponent's hole.
Mafia
Classic social deduction party game — players secretly assigned as Mafia (few) or Innocents (many); night/day cycles; Mafia secretly 'kills' one player each night, group discusses + votes to eliminate suspects during day. Innocents win by eliminating Mafia; Mafia wins by equaling/outnumbering innocents.
Magic Tricks
Performance art of illusion — sleight of hand, misdirection and stagecraft to make the impossible appear possible.
Mentalism
The 'mind-reading' branch of magic — mental predictions, telepathy simulations, cold reading and psychological forcing.
Mouse Trap
Race game with a Rube Goldberg trap you build during play — spring it on an opponent's mouse.
Never Have I Ever
Party game where players take turns saying 'NEVER HAVE I EVER [experience]' — anyone who HAS done that thing drinks/loses a finger/loses a point. Reveals surprising experiences among group. Popular COLLEGE + adult party game. Multiple format variations: '10 fingers' (last player with fingers wins), drinking game version, app-based. Growing popularity via TikTok + Netflix show 'Never Have I Ever' (2020-2024).
Operation
Battery-powered surgery game — extract ailments from Sam without touching the metal edges and setting off the buzzer.
Pick-up Sticks
Steady-hands classic — a pile of thin coloured sticks; pick each up without disturbing the others.
Pictionary
Classic party game in which teams take turns drawing pictures to help teammates guess a secret word within 60 seconds, racing across a board to win.
Shell Game
Ancient street-corner con — 'find the pea under one of three shells' — nearly always rigged so the mark cannot win.
Spyfall
Award-winning social deduction party game — Alexandr Ushan, Russia 2014. 3-8 players; secretly assigned same LOCATION card except 1 player (SPY). Players ask each other questions trying to determine spy; spy tries to guess location. 8-minute rounds. Highly praised for creative party game mechanic. Sold 500,000+ copies globally.
Taboo
Party word game — get your team to say the target word without using any of the 5 forbidden 'taboo' words.
Telephone
Word-of-mouth relay — whisper a sentence around a circle; laugh at the mangled version the last player announces.
Three-card Monte
'Find the queen' — the card version of the shell game, and the same swindle: the queen is almost never where the mark thinks.
Truth or Dare
Classic PARTY GAME with ancient roots. Players take turns choosing 'TRUTH' (answer personal question honestly) or 'DARE' (perform requested action). No formal rules; based on social + revelation dynamics. Popular teenager + adult game night activity. Ancient — variants documented in 17th century BRITISH 'QUESTIONS AND COMMANDS'; modern form ~19th-20th century.
Twister
Physical-contortion party game — a giant mat of coloured dots, and a spinner shouting 'left hand red!'
Two Truths and a Lie
Universal icebreaker party game — each player states 3 statements about themselves (2 true, 1 false); others guess which is the lie. Simple, no equipment, ages 8-adult. Standard in workplace icebreakers, classroom introductions, dating events, kids' parties.
Two Truths and a Lie
Icebreaker classic — say three statements about yourself, two true and one false, and let the group guess which is the lie.
Werewolf
Mafia in a village — hidden werewolves eat one villager per night while villagers argue and lynch a suspect by day.