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Amp up your next game night
By Sarah Stiefvater
•
Published Feb 8, 2024
Additional reporting by
Courtney Mason
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OK, so you got the small talk, tasty appetizers and music down, but how about making your party a little more interesting? Whether you’re hosting a small gathering or throwing a bigger bash, adding a game can loosen the crowd and make it truly memorable. Who doesn’t want people bringing up how fun and cool your party was for years to come? No, we’re not talking about Twister or a regular 'ole game of Charades, but something strictly for grown-ups (like one of the 26 adult card games below) that’s guaranteed to be a hit with friends, family and your special plus one.
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1. Cards Against Humanity
Cards Against Humanity
- Best for: groups, dinner parties
- Players Needed: 4 to 20+ players
This O.G. adult card game has more than 45,000 ultra-positive reviews on Amazon. In each round of this self-proclaimed “party game for horrible people,” one player asks a question from a black card (example: “Dude, do not go into the bathroom, there’s ___ in there.”), and everyone else answers with their funniest white card. This original pack contains 500 white cards and 100 black cards for maximum replays. It’s worth noting that, as an adult card game (recommended for ages 17 and up), the material can get a little risqué. Per one reviewer, “It’s fairly common knowledge that this game is very offensive. So, if you’re easily offended, it’s a no brainer that this is not the game for you.” Still, if you’re up for a little grown-up fun, go forth.
2. Drunk Stoned Or Stupid
DSS Games
- Best for: small groups, game nights
- Players Needed: 4+ players
Remember high school yearbook superlatives? This is like that, just for adults. Drunk Stoned or Stupid includes 250 cards to decide who in the group is most likely to... “#1 Wake up with half a burrito in bed,” “#27 Have 20-minute conversation with Siri” and “#147 Shame people for going to bed.” Because people have to advocate for their choices to win, you’ll also get to hear your friends’ craziest stories as they fight for the W. Just make sure everyone you’re playing with can take a joke.
3. What Do You Meme?
Relatable
- Best for: families, large groups
- Players Needed: 3 to 20 players
In this game—which was created by the folks behind the f*ckJerry Instagram account—players compete with their friends and family to create the funniest memes. Each What Do You Meme core game contains 435 cards: 360 of these are caption cards and 75 are photo cards. Keep in mind that all of the photos are memes from the past few years, so if you’re playing with a crowd that’s not checked into social media trends, the humor might be lost on them. If you’re playing with friends you share memes with on Instagram all day, it’s incredibly fun.
4. Exploding Kittens
Exploding Kittens LLC
- Best for: families, quick gameplay
- Players Needed: 2 to 10 players
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 deploying other game-shifting cards (like skipping your turn).
5. Bad People
Dyce Games
- Best for: close friends, small groups
- Players Needed: 3 to 10 players
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.
Cyanide & Happiness
- Best for: ages 18+, game nights
- Players Needed: 3 to 10 players
Here’s how the people behind this “extremely not-for-kids party game” describe it: “Joking Hazard is an offensive card game where you compete to finish awful comics. It’s a game that is equal parts creative storytelling and feeling bad about yourself. The damaged minds behind Cyanide & Happiness created it, so don’t let grandma play unless you want her to die of a broken heart.”
7. F**k. The Game
Inkster Games
- Best for: small groups
- Players Needed: 2 to 8 players
This Aussie card game is all about f**king with your mind. How? “Players take turns to flip over a card and shout out what they see. Depending on your card, you might say its background color, its text color or a swear word. Keep playing until someone f**ks up and is forced to pick up all the cards,” the creators explain on their website. The winner is the first player to get rid of their cards. As an added bonus, the game’s creators claim it has therapeutic benefits—specifically that it lets you let off steam by innocently shouting profanities without offending anyone. Since this one requires your brain to be at least semi-working, it might be best to play it earlier in the evening before having too many glasses of wine.
DSS Games
- Best for: small groups
- Players Needed: 3+ players
In the vein of “Would You Rather,” If You Had To… includes 250 cards with horrible and hilarious situations that players have to decide between. Think “All children under the age of 6 are trying to kill you,” or “You can talk to animals but they all hate you.” Each round, you and your friends argue to the designated judge that your scenario is actually the worst. The person whose card the judge picks wins the round.
9. Codenames
CGE Czech Games Edition
- Best for: groups, mystery lovers
- Players Needed: 2 to 8 players
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.
Unstable Games
- Best for: small groups, fantasy lovers
- Players Needed: 2 to 8 players
Dubbed as “a strategic card game that will destroy your friendships...but in a good way,” this party game is 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.
11. Search History
Dyce Games
- Best for: small groups, game nights
- Players Needed: 4+ players
Don’t worry, this one doesn’t entail exposing your most embarrassing Googles to your nearest and dearest (that’s what we thought at first). Here’s how it works: One player draws a card with three prompts, like “Will you die if you eat…” and “I hate it when my dog…” From there, the players compete with each other to anonymously create the most believable search query. Then they take turns guessing what the most commonly searched phrase is, and you score points if your answer is guessed by others.
Relatable
- Best for: families
- Players Needed: 3 to 20+ players
This tech-adjacent game is pretty similar to Cards Against Humanity, but with text messages. Players rotate drawing a sent (or “inbox”) card while the rest of the group competes to play the funniest reply card. Once everyone in the group has played their chosen reply card, the judge decides which combo is the funniest. The person whose card is chosen gets a point. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins. Per one satisfied customer, “In a huge group, especially with a couple drinks involved, it was perfect, relatable, and easy to join in during any party.”
13. Fear Pong: Internet Famous
Cut Games
- Best for: ages 21+, large parties
- Players Needed: 2 players or teams
Based on the hit YouTube series Fear Pong, this game was made to be “a way to test the boundaries we have with friends, family and the ones we love.” Don’t worry, it’s a lot less serious than it sounds. How does it work? The game comes with 100 waterproof dare coasters, with 2 dares on each coaster (200 dares total), and two red ping-pong balls. To play, you set up a game of beer pong, with six cups on each side. Shuffle the dares and place one underneath each cup. Once a ball lands in your opponent’s cup, they have a choice: Do one of the dares and keep the cup—or refuse the dare and drink the cup. The first player to lose all their cups loses the game.
14. These Cards Will Get You Drunk
Asm Games
- Best for: ages 21+, parties
- Players Needed: 2 to 8 players
With a name that pulls no punches, These Cards Will Get You Drunk is—you guessed it—a card game with a focus on imbibing. Meant for two to eight players, ages 21 and up, it’s super easy to play: Draw a card and follow the rules on said card (“Tell a joke. If no one chuckles or laughs, you drink.”). As one reviewer puts it, “A really fun game that doesn't require much thought, and mostly an excuse to drink with friends while your favorite Spotify playlist plays in the background.”
Ideas Never Implemented
- Best for: families, game nights
- Players Needed: 2 to 12 players
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.”
16. The Voting Game
Dyce Games
- Best for: small groups
- Players Needed: 4 to 10 players
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.
17. Quickwits
Towpath Gaming
- Best for: small groups, quick gameplay
- Players Needed: 3 to 10 players
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.
18. Hotseat
Dyce Games
- Best for: close friend groups, dinner parties
- Players Needed: 3+ players
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 “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.
19. Incohearent
Relatable
- Best for: families, game nights
- Players Needed: 4 to 8+ players
Be prepared to stumble through your words...literally. As soon as the timer starts, one person (aka the judge) shows the group a card. While they have the correct phrase, everyone else has to figure out a jumbled up version of it. Phrases like "slight tint huey ore tea hems" (aka slide into your DMs) or "shook herd addie" (yup, it means sugar daddy). The person who figures it out first before time runs out wins and whoever has the most cards by the end of the game is a phonetic champion.
20. Sotally Tober
Party Profi
- Best for: ages 21+, game nights
- Players Needed: 6 players
Are you adventurous, skillful or mysterious? This card game is ready to unleash your daring side in five different ways. Pick between the orange (activity), green (skill), blue (curse), yellow (secret) or red (everyone is effected) card to perform whatever it tells you to do, like, "silently act out a scene in a movie and whoever guesses the movie first can give one drink to another player". The catch? Whether the person succeeds or not, someone has to drink. The person with the least amount of drinks in the end, wins. (Of course, the drinking component can be swapped for points instead.)
21. For the Girls
Relatable
- Best for: girls night, bachelorette parties
- Players Needed: 3 to 20+ players
A girl’s night in can mean truth or dare with a twist. One player chooses between five different categories: Most Likely, Rapid Fire, Truth or Dare, If You've Ever and Best of the Best. The card can range from one person completing the challenge to getting everyone involved in the task. It can be as easy as naming the hottest celebs to posting your most embarrassing pic on social media.
Play Monster
- Best for: families, game nights
- Players Needed: 4 to 12 players
Created by comedian Jeff Foxworthy, this game lets you develop your own family scenarios. Once the setup card is chosen, each player puts down their funniest card to finish the sentence. The one with the best ending wins. With over 4,000+ 5-star reviews, we can see why it’s a hit at social gatherings. One reviewer couldn't rave enough, "Everyone had fun and enjoyed the surprise combinations found in the game. No one was embarrassed beyond good fun and the game has been used many times as a reason to have a party at our house. Take a chance and order it!"
23. Charty Party
Very Special Games
- Best for: groups
- Players Needed: 3 + players
This is for the visual peeps. If charts are your thing and you already went through Cards Against Humanity, check out this game. The minute a chart card is shown (like relationship status, time of day, drunkness) to the whole squad, find the funniest card to match it. Brush up on your clever side and try be the number one joker in the group.
Quokka
- Best for: groups
- Players Needed: 4+ players
You know when you're describing something you obviously know the name but can't remember the word or phrase? Make a game out of it. Try to get your team to guess the word without actually saying the phrase in question. Throw out clues for the group to figure it out before the timer goes off. Seriously, how would you describe "Netflix and chill?"
That's What She Said
- Best for: parties, quick gameplay
- Players Needed: 4+ players
Whip this fast-paced card game out at any shindig to help get the party started. That’s What She Said is similar to Cards Against Humanity, only much raunchier (so it’s probably not the best game to play at family game night). You’ll need four or more players and about an hour to play this game consisting of a deck of 400 white phrase cards and 58 red setup cards. Each round players will use phrase cards from their hand to answer the setup card put down by the judge (like “things you regret texting your ex after midnight” or “the slogan for my new plumbing company is…”). The judge will determine which card is the funniest and award the red card as a marker. The first player to collect five setup cards wins.
26. Tell Me Without Telling Me
Spin Master Games
- Best for: groups, parties
- Players Needed: 4+ players
Any card game where you have to act something out is a surefire way to liven up a party crowd, and Tell Me Without Telling takes Charades to a whole new level. During a player’s turn, they have to draw a card and try to “tell” the other players what their card is without explicitly saying it. During their turn, players are only allowed to show don’t tell (act it out), use one syllable, or freestyle. Some cards may seem pretty easy (“underwear model”) while others are downright impossible (think: “Brazilian wax” or “indecisive”).
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Sarah Stiefvater
Wellness Director
Sarah Stiefvater is PureWow'sWellness Director. She's been at PureWow for ten years, and in that time has written and edited stories across all categories, but currently focuses...
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Courtney Mason
Editorial Assistant, Candle Connoisseur, Honorary Beyhive Member Since ‘99
Courtney Mason (she/her) is an Editorial Assistant at PureWow. She has three years of experience writing for digital publications and covering fashion, beauty, pop culture, and...
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