The 21 Best Party Games for Adults to Upgrade Your Next Social Gathering
Still ending your dinner parties with a round of charades? Yawn. Kick things up a notch with our pick of the best party games for adults, from the laugh-out-loud to the seriously strategic. There’s something for everyone in our roundup (but, you know, maybe don’t play some of the filthier ones with your mom). So, bring out the wine, gather around (in-person or virtually) and get ready to have some fun.
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1. Cards Against Humanity
This raunchy card game will have you rolling on the floor with laughter as participants try to outdo each other with inappropriateness. Each round, one player asks a fill-in-the-blank question from a black card (think: “What’s making things awkward in the sauna?” or “What is Batman’s guilty pleasure?”) and then the other players answer with their funniest white card. The player then acts as a judge and picks their favorite answer. Dubbed “the party game for horrible people,” this cult game is guaranteed to garner a lot of laughs. (Note: This one is definitely for mature audiences only—and by “mature,” we don’t mean your Great Aunt Mildred.)
2. Never Have I Ever
You probably remember playing this game in your teenage bedroom. Now you can continue the hilarity (and embarrassment) well into adulthood. Which one of your friends has spent a night in jail? Or angrily thrown a drink in someone’s face? Find out things you never knew about your friends in this game where you use cards to discover your crew’s deepest, darkest secrets. Hanging out with your mom friends? Shake things up with the “parenting pack.”
3. What Do You Meme?
Are you that person who always floods the group chat with memes? Is your dream to one day go viral? (Hey, no judgment.) This is the game for you. In this pop-culture card game, the idea is to compete with your friends and family over who can create the funniest memes. Here’s how it works: One person places a photo card up on the easel and the other players use their (typically lewd) caption cards to complete the meme. The person with the funniest meme wins the round.
4. The Voting Game
How well do you really know your friends? In this risqué pick, players are asked to vote on the “most likely” candidates for a number of hilarious scenarios. For example: Who would you ask for help if you needed to leave the country? Who could win a drag show? Who snoops through their significant other’s phone on a regular basis? Consider this the ultimate party game test of your friendship.
5. Watch Ya’ Mouth
Maybe you’ve watched celebrities play this game on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Or you saw those bizarre pics on social media with people wearing giant mouthpieces and trying not to laugh? Introducing the hilarious Watch Ya’ Mouth party game that’s even more entertaining with the NSFW adult expansion pack. To play, one person wears a clear cheek retractor and then attempts to say a series of naughty words that their teammates have to guess. It’s simple yet sidesplittingly funny. (And don’t worry, the mouthguards are completely dishwasher-friendly.)
6. Telestrations After Dark
Imagine a game of Telephone but instead of whispering (and misconstruing) different phrases, players draw them instead. Confused? We’ll explain. Each player has their own wipe-off sketchbook and a secret word that they have to draw. Once they’ve done their best doodle, they pass their sketchbook along to get the next person’s pictorial guess. This continues until the image has made it full circle and you can see just how wrong and weird things have gone along the way. This game is especially great when you’ve got dinner waiting in the oven since each round only takes 15 minutes. For this “after-dark” version, expect adult humor, so don’t accidentally play it with your younger cousins.
7. Quickwits
We love card games, but sometimes they can be hard to play with a group because there are just too many rules to keep track of. Enter this easy-to-understand and fast-paced game where all players have to do is shout out the first thing that comes to mind in each given category. Here’s how it works: Three or more players take turns drawing cards and flipping them over. When two cards match, players have to shout out an example of someone or something in that particular category (like “rhymes with booze”). No repeats allowed.
8. Exploding Kittens
The family-friendly edition of this game was the most-backed project in Kickstarter history, but this version is definitely not suitable for playing with your grandma. It’s basically a strategic take on Russian roulette where the goal is to avoid drawing the Exploding Kitten card, thereby ending the game. So, how do you do that, you ask? By using Defuse Cards (like laser pointers and kitten yoga) to distract the kittens or other game-shifting cards (like skipping your turn).
9. Midnight Taboo
You’re probably familiar with the traditional game of Taboo where players draw cards and have to describe what’s written on them without using common descriptors. In this late-night version, players use tongue-in-cheek guess words with even raunchier results. For example, try to describe “body shot” without using the words “booze,” “belly,” “lick,” “skin” or “suck.” Not so easy, right?
10. Bad People
Similar to The Voting Game, this party activity will reveal what your friends actually think about you. Players take turns reading a question card aloud and then vote on who fits the descriptor. With question cards like, “Who gets paid too much for what they do?" and “Most likely to become a drug mule at some point in their life?” this is a game for close friends, only.
11. Jenga Giant - Family Edition Skill Game
Having friends over for an outdoor BBQ? Keep the party going while the burgers are cooking with this giant Jenga-style game. Each block is about the size of your forearm, which means that the entire stack can reach more than five feet high. Just like the mini version, the idea is to stack the blocks in rows of three, alternating layers horizontally and vertically. Each player has to remove a block from the stack and place it on top, without causing the whole thing to topple over.
12. The Hot Seat
Ever wanted to be on a TV game show? Well, here’s the next best thing. Find out which one of your friends knows you the best in this fun game. To play, one person sits in the “the hot seat” each round and has to answer questions about themselves (like What will my gravestone say? or What has the power to make me instantly horny?). The other players also have to answer the same question as if they were the person in the hot seat, and then try to guess the correct response. Note: This game is not recommended for those who have something to hide.
13. Unstable Unicorns
Dubbed as “a strategic card game that will destroy your friendships...but in a good way,” this one’s recommended for ages 14 and up and can accommodate up to eight players. The first person to build an army of seven unicorns wins but you might have to betray your friends and family to get there. Want to take things up a notch? Check out the NSFW expansion pack.
14. Codenames
Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents, but their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. Using one-word clues, spymasters must try to get their teammates to guess all the words in a table that correspond to their color on a tiny grid that only they can see. Get it right, and your team could unlock a handful of related words all at once. Otherwise, your team might guess something for the other team—or worse, guess the assassin, thereby ending the round.
15. Draw What?!
Pictionary meets Cards Against Humanity in this game that isn’t just dirty—it’s downright debaucherous. Participants choose from 375 different naughty phrases and words to draw on a whiteboard or act out if you so choose. If your teammates are able to guess what the word is, then you move forward on the corresponding colored squares. But maybe don’t play this one at the dinner party with your boss.
16. It’s in the Bag
You’ll have to think fast if you want to win this game that’s broken into three rounds. First, players choose a card and describe its contents—without saying the words on the card. In the second round, the player must use just one word to describe what's on the card. And for the last round, the player physically acts out what's on the card. Challenging? Yes. Super fun? You bet.
17. Drawing Without Dignity
This is what happens when you turn Pictionary into an adults-only game. Pick a card and have your friends guess some very NSFW words and phrases based on your artwork. The team that can figure out your wonderful masterpiece before time runs out earns the point.
18. Don't Get Got!
Calling all pranksters. This party game tests your sneaky skills by giving you six tasks to complete without the other players knowing they're part of the game. In order to win the game, finish three of the six listed on the card without getting caught. The best part? You can attempt these small challenges (like getting another player to high five you twice in one day or get a player to read out a sentence from a book) even after the party is over. It's one of those games that can continue on forever.
19. Hedbanz
We're taking Charades to the next level. One person places a card on their head (with a snazzy headband of course) as their team tries to describe the clue in under 90 seconds. From pop culture to professions, choose between seven categories to test your knowledge. Can you describe an influencer, food coma or esports before time runs out?
20. Beat That!
This box set has 160 (yes, 160) different challenges to try out as a solo player, duo or team. From balancing items on your head to throwing paper planes, there's a game out there for everyone to enjoy. It comes with all the pieces you'll need (aka tokens, cups, balls, dice, chopsticks, memo pad, tape measure and timer) and task cards to test every skill in the book.
21. Scrawl
If Pictionary and Telephone had a baby, it would be this drawing game. Choose between the 240 phrases (like "lost in Ikea" or "Awkward family photo") and start sketching out your doodle. Once you're done, pass it on to the next person to figure it out and write the answer on the board. The third person has to sketch the answer and the cycle continues until it reaches the first person again. The goal is to have the first and last image be similar (but let's be honest the fun part is seeing the last pic be completely off from the original).
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