Best games to play with friends and family members at gatherings or celebrations

Whether it’s a birthday party, anniversary, or a fun weekend bash with your friends or family, every good celebration is best served with games to play. There is a high volume of options to test out between card games, board games, interactive games, outdoor games, online games, video games, and more.

Here are some of the top games to bring to the next function with your loved ones:

Card Games

There’s all sorts of fun activities you can jump into with a deck of cards. Kemps is best played with teams – although can be played without – by matching four cards of the same value by using code words or signals, with four cards from the deck placed down every turn. Canasta is another great game, with the goal to earn points based on what your seven card lineup looks like. If the party is going to be a full house, then you might as well play some Poker while you’re at it.

If you like to play solo games, Solitaire is a calming, organizational and strategic game to try your hand at. The power of fortune and being able to read your opponents are a perfect combination for anyone who wants to play Go Fish. Crazy Eights keeps the theme of matching, but by following the pattern of value or suit in an attempt to discard all your cards before anyone else does.

There are plenty of additional card games to play with very niche rules. You can try to be the first to go out in Rummy, be the first to 500 points in Spades, or pair up to call trump suits in a friendly game of Euchre.

If you aren’t a fan of games that include a standard deck of cards, there are more options to try out. Uno is a party classic that takes Crazy Eights to the next level with skip cards, Uno reverse cards, wild cards, and more. Cards Against Humanity will have you laughing all night long as you come up with the craziest responses to each prompt to win cards. 

Board Games 

Traveling around a game board might be more of a retro experience, but it’s still one that we can all have a good time with. Cause havoc by playing Trouble in the ultimate chase and race against your friends. Bumping opponents and making moves that can bring out the competitive side in your peers is the ultimate response that comes from playing Sorry. A similar variation of this game that’s centered around cheese, traps, and circles the entire board is called Mouse Trap.

Games like Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders will have you going through more than 100 spaces to go from start to finish, with the chance to elevate or drop your position based on the board or consequences throughout the game. Games such as Monopoly and The Game of Life focus on investments and prioritizing your assets.

Chess and Checkers might not seem like true board games, but they will test your ability to read and react against your opponent. Mancala, while also not a true board game, is played around craters on a board that requires each player to scheme in a way that helps them collect the most stones or seeds. You can fill out the board in a game of Scrabble by thinking outside of the box with the most impressive word choices you can think of. 

Interactive Games

Having a classic game setup in front of you is a blast, but you can take the creativity another step further. Plenty of games such as Guess Who, Who Am I, 20 Questions, and Headbanz prioritize using clues to find the hidden answer. Try out the classics such as Musical Chairs, Charades, Obstacle Course, Pin the Tail on the Donkey, Simon Says, or Duck Duck Goose if you want to play a game that’ll get you off your feet and ready to compete based on speed and reaction time.

A game of Truth or Dare can always unlock new information about your closest friends. Games like the Match Game or the 10 Game Challenge will test your memorization, while Scattergories will focus on vocabulary. Play Telephone if you want the whole party involved in trying to relay the secret message. Other games requiring pieces to play include Connect 4, Jenga, Bingo, and additional trivia games.

There are plenty of other interactive games to try out without anything needed except your friends and family. The game of Mafia is a fun, action-packed activity that utilizes civilians, a mafia member, a doctor, and a detective to ensure the civilians survive. The Imposter Game is similar to Mafia, except with every other player knowing the word that is not provided to the imposter. Make your friends complete random activities without any verbal communication through the Task Game. Play the Wavelength Game by using questions to uncover a value based on ranking. Solve the final word with a partner while going against another player in the Contact Game. Try to pawn off random objects as something they aren’t in the Lying Game.

Other fun endeavors to try with your close ones include the Blind Taste Test and a Try Not to Laugh Challenge.

Outdoor Games

When thinking of outdoor games, the first thing that probably comes to mind is sports. Activities such as basketball, baseball, soccer, football, field hockey, volleyball, or dodgeball are some of the top choices. Play a game of H.O.R.S.E. with the basketball before turning the yard into a dodgeball arena.

Many people enjoy playing a game of Cornhole, throwing bean bags at a board from a distance. Kids will love to play games such as Capture the Flag, Hide-and-Seek, Tag, and Scavenger Hunts. If you have a long string, create an epic game of Tug of War with the whole party. Test your patience to reach success in Red Light, Green Light.

One game that is pretty niche is often called Jackpot, which focuses on earning points by catching a ball based on if the person throwing wants it to be caught in the air or retrieved from the ground. Another game with a similar construct is Ultimate Frisbee. Red Rover is a game that can be a little more risky, but takes many elements from Tug of War when it comes to team building and working together. 

Spikeball has surged as an outdoor game in recent years. If you’re in the pool, there is no better game to play than Marco Polo. A classic game that is perfect to play with at least three players is Kick the Can, which blends Hide-and-Seek with Tag to create the ultimate thrill.

Online Games

Maybe being outdoors isn’t quite your thing. If applying your knowledge to history and geographical structures, check out TimeGuessr and GeoGuessr and work with your friends to get as close to the perfect score as possible.

The New York Times has a series of daily games that are free to play, including Wordle and Connections. Cards Against Humanity and Uno, while card games, are accessible to play online as well. If you like to play charades of drawings, look no further than Skribbl.io. Turn that into a story by playing Gartic Phone with the party. Bring the Imposter Game and Mafia all into one with some Among Us.

Music lovers can enjoy some online party games as well. Work with your friends to guess random daily artists by playing Spotle. If you want to guess a song while listening to a limited sample, check out Songless.

Video Games

Most parties and home gatherings these days incorporate some video games for entertainment. Create hilarious, random prompts with Jackbox Games such as Quiplash, Fibbage, Drawful, and the Trivia Murder Party. Liar’s Bar is a variation of the Lying Game that takes playing cards to severe consequences if you get caught. Among Us is also available as a video game.

If you are a Nintendo fan, then it won’t take long to find some gems to play. Wii Sports is one of the best selling games in the world, bringing five games into one – tennis, baseball, bowling, golf, boxing. You can try out up to 12 different sports on the sequel version called Wii Sports Resort. Any edition of the Super Smash Bros series is sure to ante up the stakes, especially in stock mode.

Mario games are an instant hit when you have a party in the house. Race with friends in versions such as Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Kart Wii, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, or even the newest Mario Kart World depending on your era of preference to see who is the most equipped for the Grand Prix across each game. Each game offers unique gameplay abilities – two racers, airborne tricks, gliding, underwater driving, anti-gravity, and driving along walls.

Another classic from the Mario series are the Mario Party games. No matter which version you have, there will be chaos across the board and a selection of epic minigames. The Super Mario Bros series, especially the New Super Mario Bros games (since 2006), offer the best co-op gameplay opportunity for you to travel through different worlds to save Princess Peach and take down Bowser. 

Fall Guys and Fortnite are both popular survival games that require qualities of reading and reacting to the situation and making clutch plays at the end, in the format of different rounds or one giant match respectively. Gang Beasts is a survival game with less players included, but with a claymation spin on things. Every game in the Halo series is great for team challenges and for a chance to play a showdown against your best friend. Musically-inclined individuals can jam out while playing their best guitar riff on Rock Band.

Create Your Own Games

With plenty of different options to choose from for the next big games to play at the party, there is always an opportunity to create your own game. With activities such as Cards Against Humanity, Scrabble, and a customized obstacle course being versatile enough to classify under multiple categories, there is always an opportunity to create something new. Whether the game is based on knowledge, talent, memorization, or pure luck, the game will be a success if each player is ready to play again as soon as it’s over.