Game Night Ideas | Fun & EASY Hosting Tips for 2024

We needed game night ideas in a bad way.

My parents are notorious for playing card games with friends and family members. My siblings have a ginormous collection of family board games.

Know what my husband and I had? This glorious game collection.

You guys. We were in serious need of game night ideas.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love playing party games with friends. But sometimes you just don’t know the best games to play.

Or the idea of cooking a meal for a group of people can feel like a lot of work…or money. Or both.

Luckily for you, I’m breaking down simple options for a stress-free, fun night with all of your favorite people.

(Looking for board games for kids? Check out 23 Best Board Games for 8-10 Year Olds: Kid-Approved!)

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Strategy

Catan

Strategically trade and utilize natural resources to settle an uncharted island faster than your opponents.

While the original game is only intended for up to four players, you can purchase an “extension” game to include up to six. There is also a wide assortment of “expansions” that add depth and complexity to the original, such as Catan: Seafarers Expansion.

Remember, though, that all extension and expansion games require that you first purchase the original Catan.

We’ve found this is the perfect game to introduce family members to the world of board games, since the original is a relatively easy game to understand and won’t require hours of your time.

Ticket to Ride

It’s 1900, and you and your friends just engaged in a bet to see who can visit the most cities in North America in just seven days. To do this, players collect and play matching train cards to create railway routes connecting cities.

Want to explore other continents? How about Europe, Asia, or Africa? Ticket to Ride and Ticket to Ride Europe are standalone games, but other locations can be added as expansions.

While this is a great game to play with adults, it’s simple enough that older kids could also come along for the ride. Get it?…Get it?!

Codenames

Spymasters, secret agents, and assassins, oh my! In this game, teams compete to see who can make contact with all of their agents first, using clues given by their spymasters.

Variations of this game include an edition that uses pictures to represent agents instead of words, a Disney family edition, and more.

While I would argue the original game is best when played with adults (Suspecting and accusing friends and family members is my idea of a good time!), the family edition offers a great way to spend quality time with your whole family.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Trivia

Smart A**

This trivia game allows everyone to take a stab at the answer, using eight increasingly easier clues. The first person to answer correctly takes the round!

Trivia questions range from popular movies to historical geography so that all of your friends can win at least a few rounds.

This game can be played by small groups, assigning each player to a donkey, but can also be adapted for large groups! We’ve spent some family time playing it with team members, pairing 2-3 people to each donkey.

Anomia

Want to add a little competition-induced pressure and panic to your trivia game? In Anomia, you have to be the first person to name an example of something belonging to a specific category, like frozen food or dog breeds, before your opponent.

Anomia Party Edition provides even more categories and variety.

This fast-paced game is sure to induce lots of face palms and laughter at your next party!

Timeline: Inventions

In this game, players compete to be the first person to get rid of all their cards by correctly placing inventions within a historical timeline.

For example, which came first, glasses or the lightbulb?

Guess right and you’re allowed to place your card within the “timeline.” Guess wrong and you have to draw a new card.

Inventions not your thing? Timeline also has Discoveries, Music and Cinema, Diversity, and American History versions, and more! This game’s variety of topics offers a great way to cater to your group’s strengths.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Lying, Ahem, Bluffing

Balderdash

In this classic game, everyone makes up their own answer to a question in one of four categories.

Fake answers are read aloud, along with the correct answer. Score points for choosing the correct answer and for tricking people into believing your fake answer.

I’ve found this game caters to a wide variety of family members, including those who enjoy openly bluffing and those more shy and sly about it, since answers are read by a neutral party.

Sheriff of Nottingham

Players take turns acting as the sheriff, who must decide if he/she believes the other players (merchants) as they attempt to deliver hidden goods to market.

Merchants can choose to be honest with the sheriff or may bluff or bribe their way in. The person with the most wealth at the end wins.

The recommended age for this game is 14+, offering an excellent way to include older kids in a fun night.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | If You Just Want to Laugh

Watch Ya’ Mouth Family Edition

You may have seen videos of people playing this game, attempting to speak using huge plastic mouthpieces. In Watch Ya’ Mouth, you speak a phrase, like “warm beef meatballs,” while other players guess what you’re saying.

This is a game the entire family should technically be able to enjoy as a family game night tradition, but you’ll want to be sure to take a look at the mouthpieces to ensure they’re sized appropriately for younger kids.

Telestrations

This drawing prompt game is the visual version of the “telephone game” you played as a kid.

Everyone is given an erasable sketchbook to draw their secret word. The person to their left then writes in words what they think is drawn, the person to their left draws what they wrote, and so on until the sketchbooks make it back to the original drawer, where the final outcome is revealed!

The original Telestrations allows for up to eight players, and the Party Pack up to twelve. Bonus! There’s also a Spanish version.

I actually brought this game to work for some team-building and we laughed so very hard. This game offers a great way for team members at work or family members at home to bond over their lack of artistic skills…or artistic interpretation!

Spoons.

One of my all-time favorite party games, Spoons only calls for a standard deck of cards and a few spoons.

This simple game involves passing cards like a madman, lunging across the table for spoons, and talking trash to your 90-year-old neighbor…or maybe that’s just how we played as kids. (We love you, Opal!) You can find the full rules here.

While spoons are fun to snatch up (since they tend to fly across the living room), you could also use game pieces from old board games, candies, water bottles, or whatever else you have handy at the time.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Cooperation Games, Where You All Win or Lose Together

Castle Panic

Advertised as a fantastic “gateway” game for those who haven’t played board games in a while, players work together to defend their castle from monsters. You can add new monsters, weapons, and other resources through expansions like The Wizard’s Tower and Dark Titan, or enjoy a zombie twist with Dead Panic.

This game will not only make for a fun family game night, but also help to encourage a bond between family members as everyone works together to defeat a common enemy.

Pandemic

A team of specialists, each of you with your own strengths, must work together to limit the spread of four disease breakouts and cure them all to win. This is a game that offers a lot of unique editions (like Pandemic: Iberia or Pandemic: Reign Of Cthulhu) and expansions (like On the Brink and In the Lab) that add depth and complexity to the game.

While a fun challenge for most, some people’s experience with the actual pandemic in recent years might make this game more of a trigger than a good time. For that reason, it’s a great idea to know your audience before introducing this one.

Forbidden Desert

In this game, players work together to uncover artifacts buried deep in the ruins of an ancient desert city before they die of thirst or are buried alive in sand.

Reviewers describe it as similar to Pandemic (see above) but shorter and simpler, making it the perfect game for those working within a time limit. This game gets bonus points for offering less trigger potential than Pandemic…unless your family member is Rick O’Connell.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Big Groups

The Resistance

Considered another “gateway” game, The Resistance allows up to ten players and has it all – secret identities, deduction, and deception. Players are assigned a secret role of either resistance fighter or spy and spend the game launching missions and trying to determine who is on what side.

Arthur and Merlin more your style? Try The Resistance: Avalon!

Since this game can accommodate up to 10 people, it’s a perfect game to bring along to a family reunion or to play with large groups at your next party.

Secret Hitler

In this game set in 1930s Germany, up to ten players are assigned the role of either liberal or fascist. The fascists, known only to each other, coordinate to install their leader, while the liberals attempt to find and stop the Secret Hitler before it’s too late.

While younger players will likely count this as one of their all-time favorite games, older adults and even younger adults with more traditional mindsets may find the premise of the game disrespectful. This is another game where you’ll want to know your audience to be sure a good time is had by all.

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Adults and/or Horrible People Only

Cards Against Humanity

You just can’t ignore over 93,000 5-star reviews! One player asks a question from a black card, the other players submit the funniest answer from their hand of white cards, and the question asker rewards a point to whichever answer they like most.

Cards can be highly inappropriate, so play at your own risk! With ten million expansions to the game, like the Green, Red, and Blue boxes, you’ll never run out of new questions or answers.

This is the perfect game to play with friends over a few drinks…as long as your friends are terrible people.

What Do You Meme?

Similar to Cards Against Humanity, in this game, you’re matching photos to captions to create the funniest “meme.” This great game also includes plenty of expansions to keep things fresh, like Fresh Memes, Basic B****, and Stoner Pack.

Again, proceed with caution, as many captions are inappropriate.

I personally didn’t pre-check the captions before deciding to break this game in during a Sunday afternoon family reunion that included my great-grandmother. I’ll let you imagine how that one went!

Game Night Ideas | Game Options | Kid-Friendly

Apples to Apples

This is another match-your-best-card-to-the-question-asked game, but very family-friendly, in case you have younger children who insist on playing with you. While appropriate for younger kids, older kids will also have lots of fun playing this easy game.

Exploding Kittens

This card game is like Russian roulette, but with exploding kittens. Draw and play cards with laser pointers, catnip sandwiches, magical enchiladas, and more, to avoid death by kitten.

This game is definitely at the top of our list of fun family games. It offers a great way to include younger children since it’s mostly the luck of the draw, rather than skill, that determines the winner.

Game Night Ideas | Food Options

(Almost) no food.

If you don’t want the pressures of cooking for large groups, then don’t cook!

Schedule your party after typical meal times, like 2:00 pm or 8:00 pm, so that guests have a chance to eat before they arrive. Throw out some chips and salsa and you’re good to go!

Coordinate a snack or dessert potluck.

Ask your guests to bring their favorite snack or appetizer, or if you can eat truckloads of sugar like I can, their favorite dessert. Then share the wealth!

To celebrate my last day at a job (where I was known for eating more brownies than any human could possibly need), my coworkers hosted a “brownie potluck.” Everyone brought their favorite brownies and we pretty much ate brownies for lunch. Best. Day. Ever.

Dinner potluck.

Name a theme (southern, Mexican, Italian, etc.) and ask everyone to bring a dish.

This will take a little bit of coordination to ensure that three different family members don’t bring lasagna. Send a group text or create a private Facebook event to work out the details.

Create the main dish and ask others to bring sides and dessert.

My go-to to feed large groups is spaghetti casserole. It’s cheap, stupid easy, and feeds a crowd. (Pro tip: Double the cheese and you’ll be in heeeeeaven.)

Then I ask others to bring a salad, bread, dessert, or drinks. (Click here to download 40 stupid easy recipes to feed a crowd or just feed your family!)

So there you have it, folks! Pick a game, plan your food, and you’re ready to enjoy a fantastic game night with friends…or neighbors…or that nice couple you’ve been chatting with at your kid’s soccer practice. 

What are your go-to game night games? Let us know in the comments!

P.S. Want one central place to find all of the games suggested in this post? Then check out our Amazon game night ideas list here!

*Updated March 12, 2024.

Disclosure: While all opinions are our own, we are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and other affiliate advertising programs, designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, at no additional cost to you.