20 Fun Games to Play with Friends (Because Adults Deserve Joy, Too!)

Party games aren’t just for kids anymore. That’s right: When adults gather, there’s still plenty of amusement to be had when you and your crew opt for a round or two of fun games. Plus, they’re a great way to bring people together and break the ice. 

So whether you’re trying to plan a fun Thanksgiving dinner or your next game night with pals or coworkers, you’ll want to snag one (or a few!) of our favorite adult party games  below. From card games to game apps, we predict they’ll be a huge hit.

This grown-up game of charades will have you and your crew howling in laughter — guaranteed. There are three ways to score points: Show Don’t Tell, One Syllable, or Freestyle. Imagine the hilarity that’ll ensue when your best friend has to act out the “Brazilian wax” card.

Buy: Tell Me Without Telling Me, $19.89

Keep your next gathering super simple with the classic dice game Bunco. This is one of the most popular games among adults for a reason: It’s simple, fast-moving, and tons of fun. Suitable for two to 12 players in teams, Bunco is sure to be a hit among your friends or coworkers who might be looking for some good, clean fun.

Buy: Bunco, $18.99

Proceed with caution. This game proudly bills itself as “the worst game ever made.” Here, you’ll have to decide what your friends would do in a variety of insanely screwed-up situations in order to score points. Suitable for as many as 10 players, this game comes with 250 disturbing questions and 100 offensive cartoon #WINNING cards.

Buy: Disturbed Friends, $22.50

This hilarious game gives you a prompt and requires you to use magnetic word tiles to string together a sentence that answers the prompt. With endless possibilities and completely random answers, this is one game you’ll never get tired of.  

Buy: Ransom Notes – The Ridiculous Word Magnet Party game, $39.99

Can charts be funny and entertaining? Oh yes, they can! That’s the case when they’re the type of charts you’ll find in Charty Party. Especially if you and yours are a bunch of left-brainers who actually understand the relationship between the X and the Y axis, this is one adult party game you won’t want to skip. 

Buy: Charty Party = The Game of Absurdly Funny Chart, $24.99

You and your crew aren’t horrible. Not at all. You’re just curious about the hottest adult party game ever to drop. It’s Cards Against Humanity, a card game for “horrible people.” With more than 130,000 (yes, you read that right) 5-star reviews, there could hardly be an adult party without playing at least a few rounds of this game.

Buy: Cards Against Humanity, $29

This conversation starter card game is empathy-focused to bring you closer to your fellow players. This special edition includes questions that “explore dreams, ambitions, and cherished memories with friends, family, and loved ones.”

Buy: Urban Outfitters Actually Curious Card Game: Happy Hour Edition, $25

If you’ve ever watched The Cut’s YouTube channel, you know that this drinking game is hilarious. You simply either answer the juicy question on the card or take a drink (and while not in the official rules, non-alcoholic drinks totally count here, too). This game comes with five different decks, based on the kind of company you have over.

Buy: Truth or Drink: The Game, $35

If you have enough people and the time to play, Werewolf will quickly become a favorite amongst your friends — especially if you have a charismatic and animated moderator to keep things original and move things along. It consists of a cast of (shifting) characters and involved rules, making this a game that could be the focus of your entire get-together if you want it to be. 

Buy: Werewolf, $13.95

Perfect for people who can’t stay off their phones, this game involves both physical cards and an app. The premise is simple: Everyone grabs their smartphones, while one player picks a card and gets to judge that round. The rest of the players have 60 seconds to respond to the card’s prompt with the funniest/weirdest thing they can come up with on their phones. 

Buy: Uncommon Goods Game of Phones, $20

This electronic game involves splitting up into two teams and trying to get your teammates to guess the word on the screen by describing it in any way possible. Keep guessing new words until the buzzer goes off — if your team is still guessing, then the other team scores a point. This upgraded version has over 5,000 words and phrases so you won’t get bored anytime soon!

Buy: Catch Phrase, $23.99

You’ll want to keep the kids away from this one — it’s strictly adults-only, and gets hilariously inappropriate fast. Each player is dealt a set of caption cards, and then a photo card is placed down. Each player chooses a caption to correspond to the photo, with a judge choosing the funniest “meme” created. There’s also an expansion pack if you want to switch things up. 

Buy: What Do You Meme?, $29.99

After setting your camera’s self-timer, each player holds the camera at arm’s length and points it at themselves very briefly, as if they were taking a selfie, before passing it to the next person. Keep going until the camera goes off. This is a fun and quick around-the-table game that provides you with some hilarious pictures your friends will be begging you not to tag.

How to play: Camera Hot Potato, via the Family Dinner Project

Pick one name for each person playing and stick that name on each person’s back or forehead. Each person gets 20 “yes or no” questions to find out who they are. This game is really funny as each person starts recounting what they know about themselves before asking their next question. 

How to play: Who Am I?, via Our Pastimes

For something a bit more old-fashioned, this popular dice game is a reliable classic. Each game includes three specially-marked dice and 24 chips, with players rolling the dice to determine where to pass their chips. The last player with chips is the winner. It’s fast-paced, easy to pick up, and a definite crowd-pleaser.

Buy: LCR Dice Game, $8.18

Sit in a circle and give everyone a notepad and a pen. Instruct players to write down a funny phrase, notable person, or anything else at all on the second sheet of their notepad, close it, and pass over to the person on their right. Now everyone picks up the new pad, reads the phrase on page two, and draws it as best they can on page three. Pass the notepads again, only this time, you can only look at the illustration and try to guess the phrase on the next page. Keep passing and drawing or guessing until you have your original pad in front of you. Flip through the pages in front of the group for mega laughs as your phrase gets distorted, telephone-style, through the drawings and guesses. 

How to play: Telephone Pictionary, via Great Group Games

Arrange chairs in a circle, using one fewer chair than the number of players (like musical chairs). Have someone start the game by standing in the center of the circle and saying, “Mail Call for everyone who is wearing red” (or “has a cat,” or “has been to Europe,” or “has kids,” get creative!). Then everyone in a chair who is wearing something red must get up and switch chairs with someone else wearing red, with a few caveats: Players can’t sit back down in their own chair, or the chairs directly next to it. The object of the game is for the person in the middle to get a chair before someone else can. Whoever is left standing delivers the next mail call.

How to play: Mail Call, via Let’s Party

Take this classic game of Spoons, where you try to grab a spoon after getting four cards of the same kind in your hand, and add not just one, but two twists. The first? The spoons are giant, so no more trying to sneak one. The second twist makes this game more intense: Put each spoon in a different room of the house, and players have to run to grab them.

Buy: Giant Spoons, $13.49

If you’re a journalist, this game is perfect for you. Each player runs their own woodland-themed newspaper, and you have to lay out the front pages for each of the weekend papers. The game gets a little complicated, though, when you add in ads, photos, different article lengths, and the mood of your paper. You don’t want your readers to think you’re biased!

Buy: Fit to Print, $33

The Adventure Challenge books are the absolute blast you weren’t expecting. The activities are all scratch-off — so you don’t know what you’re about to do until you commit to scratching the box off and completing the activity. This is less a game and more a fun way to figure out new things to do with friends, but that can be a game in itself!

Buy: The Adventure Challenge, $24.97

Nicole Lund and Carolin Lehmann also contributed to reporting.