30 Drinking Games So Fun, You Might Not Make It to the Bar
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We don't know about you, but we love a little organized fun (it's the Monica Geller in us, what can we say). And sometimes—okay, a lot of times—that fun includes a drink or two.
That's why we love drinking games, and we have tested a variety for the sake of journalism. The list below? The 30 best games to play while getting boozy, in our very expert opinion. Scroll down and you'll find funny drinking games, drinking games for couples, drinking games that require a little strategy, and so much more. Whether you're looking for something short and sweet to play while you’re waiting for your Uber downtown or are looking to break the ice with your new roommates, we’ve got you covered.
But before we get into that, remember that you don't need to drink if you don't want to, and you don't even need alcohol to play these games! Swap in your favorite mocktail or can of soda, and you'll be good to go.
Party Drinking Games
Roxanne
How many players: As many as are in the room!
How long does it take? 3 minutes and 2 seconds...aka the length of the song.
How to play: This one is great if you're looking for something simple and easy to explain. You quite literally just play the song "Roxanne" by The Police and drink every time you hear the word "Roxanne." It's as simple as that.
Other songs this game works well with include "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion, "Girl on Fire" by Alicia Keys, and "Hey Ya" by Andre 3000.
Pennies
How many players: As many as are in the room!
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: The game is super simple: you take turns trying to bounce a penny off a table and into a short glass. If you miss, you pass the coin to the next person. If you get the penny into the glass, you get to nominate someone to finish their drink. If you get a whopping three pennies in a row, you can make up a new rule.
Picolo
How many players: As many as are in the room!
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Of course, there's a drinking game app—this is the 21st century, after all! Download the standard Picolo and you'll receive Ring-of-Fire style tasks, like categories and rhyming. The paid version takes things to a new level, with waterfall and the-floor-is-lava-style games. This game basically tells you exactly what to do—perfect for indecisive groups on a night out.
Drink Murder
How many players: As many as are in the room!
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: A new twist on an old classic, wink murder. We're sure everyone knows the standard rules but let's recap: In each round, one person is secretly assigned the role of murderer. This person has the ability to "kill" other players by making eye contact and winking at them. When you're winked at, you have to feign sudden death. Except, in this version, you take a sip of your drink of "dying." The people who aren't the murderer must try and guess who the murderer is each time someone is killed—if they get it wrong, they must drink. If they get it right, the murderer must down their drink.
Truth or Drink
How many players: As many as are in the room!
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Again, this is a take on a house party game we all know and love (unless you find it super awkward, that is). The options are simple: you choose to give an honest answer to a question posed by one of your fellow drinkers...or you take a drink!
Drinking Games for Couples
Back to Back
How many players: Two.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Two people in your group stand back to back, drinks in hand. The rest of the group ask them a "Who's Most Likely To"question, and whichever member thinks they're the most likely to, drinks. If one of them drinks, you ask the next question. If they both drink, they both have to drink again. If neither of them drink, they also both have to drink again.
Paranoia
How many players: As many as are in the room, but two for the questioning.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Players take turns whispering a question to the person on their right. The person answering the question must say their answer out loud, bearing in mind the rest of the participants haven't heard the question. For example, the question might be, "How many people in this room have you kissed?" and the answer said aloud could be: "Two."
If one of the players can't take the suspense and wants to know what the question was, they have to drink to earn the knowledge. Even the most laid-back of people generally crack at least once!
Never Have I Ever
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: A staple of freshman dorms the land over, Never Have I Ever is a great way to get to know a lot—probably too much—about people in a short space of time. If you're not familiar with the rules, you basically use "never have I ever' as a prefix to a sentence for something you've never done, and everyone who has done it has to take a sip of their drink.
Drinking Games With Cups
Stack Cup
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? One round takes about 10 minutes.
How to play: Put lots of stackable cups in the middle of a table (about double the amount of people playing). All but two cups should be full with a couple of inches of alcohol. Everybody stands around the table, with two ping pong balls placed equidistant apart (so if there are ten of you, player one and player five should have a ping pong ball).
Starting with player one and player five (who also have the empty cups), take turns bouncing the ping pong ball on the table and into the cup (one bounce and then it has to go into the cup) before passing the cup and ball clockwise onto the next person to do the same thing. If one cup catches up with the other, the person who gets the ball in the cup must stack their cup on/in the other cup and pass it on—the person who was too slow to bounce their ball in must grab a drink from the middle, to put another cup in circulation. Keep going until there are no cups left in the middle—and the cup stacks going around the outside are about 10 cups high.
Where's the Water?
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? One round takes a few minutes.
How to play: If you can handle your tequila like a champ, this is the game for you. It's a roulette-style situation where you line up a selection of various shot glasses, filling some with clear spirits (vodka and sambuca also work well) and others with water. Each player then has to take turns choosing a drink and taking a shot, saying, "Mmm, water!" in their most convincing voice, no matter what's inside. If you call them out and say they're lying and you're right, they drink another—but if you're wrong, the shot's on you.
Beer Pong
How many players: Teams of 2 to 5 on each side work best, but it's kind of up to you.
How long does it take? One round takes about 10 minutes.
How to play: Do we even need to explain beer pong? No? Well, we're going to anyway. Create a triangle with 6 half-full cups at opposite ends of a table, in a 3-2-1 formation, and then split into two teams, each taking an end.
Players take turns throwing a ping pong ball into one of their opponents' cups—if it lands, you have to drink the contents and remove the cup from the table. If your team runs out of cups first, you're the losers.
Sixes
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? Under five minutes to drink the six cups.
How to play: You'll need dice and six different cups of differing sizes, ranging from a shot glass up to that ridiculously oversized novelty mug you have hanging around. Each cup corresponds with a different number on the dice—players roll the dice, and then have to drink the contents of whichever cup they've been assigned, unless they have successfully guessed what the number is going to be before it's rolled.
A word to the wise: Be kind and put something with a mixer in the bigger glasses, or you won't last long!
Titanic
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? One round takes a few minutes.
How to play: Grab a glass, fill it with whatever floats your boat, and place it in the middle of the table. Then, grab an empty shot glass and place it in the larger glass so that it floats. Each player must then pour a small amount of their drink into the shot glass. Whoever sinks the shot glass has to drink the whole thing.
Flip Cup
How many players: This usually works best with 3 to 5 people on each team, but you can do it with as many people as you like.
How long does it take? Under a minute per line, so it depends how long you want to keep playing.
How to play: This is a team game, where two opposing groups stand on opposite sides of a table or counter, with a full Solo cup in front of each player. The first players in line race to down their drinks and then place their empty cups upside down on the edge of the table. They then have to successfully flip their cups so that they land opening side down—not so easy once you've had a few—at which point the next player in line has to do the same. It's a relay, so the first team to get to the end wins!
Funny Drinking Games
Drunk Twister
How many players: This usually works best with 3 to 5 people to avoid the mat getting too chaotic, but you can do it with as many people as you like.
How long does it take? Around 10 minutes.
How to play: This is Twister, adult version. The only rules are that you have to be slightly tipsy before you play, and every time you fall over, you have to take a drink. There's absolutely nothing more hilarious and chaotic than playing this after a few glasses of wine with your friends, trust.
Wizard Staff
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? The length of your evening.
How to play: Okay, so we'd never actually advise you to try this, but we had to tell you about it because the concept is hilarious. It basically requires you to consume any drink that comes in a can, and then tape the cans together to create your very own—you've guessed it—wizard staff, aka the source of all of your drunken power. The person with the biggest staff wins, but again, please be responsible.
Strategy Drinking Games
Bob
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? The length of your evening.
How to play: Another excellent premise that requires no set-up whatsoever, the only rule is that you must add the name Bob to anyone's name whenever you address them. For example, instead of saying, "Sarah, can you pour me another glass?" you have to say, "Bob Sarah, can you pour me another glass?"
It might sound basic, but we bet you good money you'll slip up at least once—and your punishment for forgetting? A sip of your drink.
The Name Game
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: To start, one player says the name of someone famous, and then the following person has to say the name of someone else famous whose first name starts with the first letter of the other person's last name. (Okay, we've said the word "name" a lot, are you still with us?)
So, if player one says Taylor Swift, you could follow up with Seth Rogen, and the next person could say Reese Witherspoon. The drinking part? If you can't think of a name immediately, you have to drink while you're thinking.
Task Master
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: This is the perfect drinking game if you're at a house party with people you don't know. To start the game, play a round of rock, paper, scissors to decide who is going to be the "task master." Once they're appointed, the task master can challenge someone in the group to do something— he more awkward and cringe, the better.
For example, the person giving the orders could challenge someone to speak with a random accent, and not break the facade all night. If the person appointed the task refuses, they have to finish their drink. If the task goes ahead but goes wrong, they drink half their drink. If the task is a success, everyone has to drink, and the challengee becomes the challenger, and so on.
International Drinking Rules
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? The length of your evening.
How to play: If you've completely exhausted every drinking game possible, but you still fancy a bit of organized fun, this is the perfect way to go. Whilst it's not necessarily a game, it still requires skill and memory—always slightly challenging when you're a bit tipsy.
All you have to do is carry on socializing as normal, but with a few added rules of your choice that can mix up the night a little. Essentially, if you break the rules, you drink, and if you don't break the rules, you stay sober all night. You can customize the rules to meet the theme of your evening, but some standard ones are as follows:
No swearing.
No pointing.
No placing your drink on the table.
No calling people by their first name.
No saying the word "drink."
Drinking Card Games
Higher or Lower
How many players: This game works best with around five people to keep everyone engaged, but you can play with as many as you like.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Sit in a circle with a deck of cards, faced downwards. Everyone will take turns being the dealer, holding the deck of cards in their hands. The dealer turns one card face up, and reads the details out to the group. (For example, "Seven of hearts.") The person to the left of the dealer must now decide whether the next number is going to be higher or lower than a seven (FYI, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace are all high).
If they get it right, the dealer drinks, and the next person to the left picks higher or lower. The game keeps going—with the dealer drinking each time someone gets an answer right— until someone gets it wrong, and the person to the left then becomes the dealer.
Ride the Bus
How many players: This game works best with around five people to keep everyone engaged, but you can play with as many as you like.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Another game which involves sitting in a circle and using a pack of cards. This is quite a similar set up to "Higher or Lower," except this time the person doing the guessing has to do the drinking.
Lay 15 cards out in a triangle shape on a table (one at the top, followed by two below it, three below that, four below that, and then finally five). The first player turns one of the bottom five cards over, and then must choose one of the four above it at random, saying whether it will be higher or lower. If it is higher, they repeat the pattern until they get to the one card at the top. If they guess correctly, they don't have to drink. If they get one wrong, they have to drink as many sips of their drink as there are rows left. For example, if they guess wrong on the fourth row, they have to drink two sips.
Mushroom
How many players: This game works best with around five people to keep everyone engaged, but you can play with as many as you like.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: If you're a fan of drunk Jenga, this is for you. Just place an empty glass in the middle of a table where every player can reach it, and fill it with a drink of your choice. Then, lay out a deck of cards face-down around the cup. When it's your turn, all you need to do is grab a card and place it on the glass, making sure at least the corners are hanging off. If you touch someone else's card in the process, you drink one sip. If your card falls off, you drink two sips. If three or less cards fall off the stack, that's three sips. If you really mess it up and knock six or more cards off, you've lost the game, and the punishment is downing the drink in the glass in the middle.
Friends and Enemies
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: This game uses a 52-card shuffled deck, and cards are dealt out evenly to everyone playing. The dealer starts the game by playing a card face up in the center of the table. They then have to choose someone to take a drink. The chosen player must take the number of sips as the number on the card. (FYI, Jack = 11 drinks; Queen = 12 drinks, King = 13 drinks, Ace = 14 drinks.)
However, if the chosen player can play a matching card, they can deflect the drink to someone else—hence the title, friend and enemies. So, if the dealer plays a 4, and the chosen player also has a 4, they can play it and choose someone else to take four drinks. If the chosen player doesn't have a matching card, they can also ask for help. If someone else has a matching card, they can play it and choose someone else to drink. If no one offers to help, the OG chosen one must drink.
The player that has to drink then plays the next card, and play continues until all of the cards are played. Obviously, 52 cards is a lot, so *please* drink and play responsibly!
Drinking Games Without Cards
Thumper
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: To start, every player chooses a hand motion for themselves—think peace sign, Madonna Vogue hands, etc. When everyone thumps the table, the game is in play, and the starting player does their hand action, then someone else's, while the others continue thumping. The person whose hand action was done repeats this pattern, and so on. Whoever gets mixed up with the gestures or takes too long to react takes a drink.
Straight Face
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Ever tried to keep yourself from laughing when you're a bit tipsy, only to find that makes things 100x funnier? This game taps into that exact feeling. Players write sentences on pieces of paper with the aim of making others laugh at the contents. Mix up those scraps of paper, chuck them in the middle, and players then take turns picking one out and reading it aloud while trying to keep a straight face. If you can't manage it, you drink.
Fuzzy Duck
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Sit everyone in a circle, and have the first person say "fuzzy duck" to the person on their left. Continue the pattern until someone chooses to say "does he," to which the player on their right has to respond "ducky fuzz," and then the game continues in the opposite direction with everyone saying "ducky fuzz" until someone says "does he" again and the direction switches and it's back to "fuzzy duck" again. Got that? Whenever someone messes up their lines, they have to drink. It will happen surprisingly quickly.
Buzz
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Each player starts counting out loud, saying every number except 7 and its multiples. If someone says any of those numbers, you say buzz. If you don't notice, you drink!
Bite the Bag
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? As long as you'd like to play.
How to play: Put a paper bag on the ground and take turns leaning down and picking it up using just your mouth. If you can't get it, you have to take a shot. Every round, an inch gets cut off the bag until the last people standing can't reach it anymore. Disclaimer: It's harder than you think!
Drunk Jenga
How many players: As many as are in the room.
How long does it take? One round takes about 6 minutes.
How to play: Invest in a Jenga set (there are loads of cheap ones on Amazon), and write a different rule on the top of each wooden block. Things like "drink two sips of your drink," "take a shot," or "kiss the person to your right" work well (making sure everything is consensual!). You can go as wild or low-key with the rules as you like.
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