Game night sounds great in theory. You picture friends gathered around a table, drinks and snacks in hand, laughing over a friendly round of something fun. What you don’t picture is someone aggressively auctioning off Baltic Avenue in Monopoly while your other friend rage-quits. Let’s be honest: Some games are better left on the shelf, especially the ones that have single-handedly ended friendships since 1935.
But game night doesn’t have to be battlefield combat. In fact, with the right mix of games, it can become the highlight of any gathering. The trick is picking games that don’t require a Ph.D in rulebooks or lead to 3-hour debates over whether you can play double cards in UNO. Think games that spark laughter, creativity or just the right amount of chaos — enough to make everyone feel clever without needing to sweat.
Word-based games are surprisingly reliable crowd-pleasers. Games like Codenames take the concept of spies and combine it with knowledge of vocabulary, making you feel like a genius or an absolute clown depending on how your clues land. It’s the kind of game where you start calmly trying to link “pyramid” and “bark” with a clever clue, and 10 minutes later someone is shouting, “Why would treehouse be the answer to desert?” It’s friendly chaos, but the kind people actually want to be a part of.
Of course, not everyone is in the mood to test their knowledge of the English language. That’s where drawing games like Gartic Phone save the night. Equal balance between artistic talent and wildest creativity, it’s a beautiful descent into nonsense and laughter. It’s silly. It’s fast. It requires zero strategy or planning — just laughing at each other’s inability to draw anything resembling a dog. If you are a fan of cooperative games where the goal isn’t to defeat others or for a night when no one wants to compete, Just One and So Clover would be perfect choices for you.
But maybe you’re more into drama. Accusation games like One Night Ultimate Werewolf bring the suspense and deception of a mystery novel into your living room. Even if no one fully understands the rules, it doesn’t really matter. The fun lies in lying convincingly to your friends while pretending not to be a werewolf. Or pretending you are one. Either way, someone’s feelings are getting fake-hurt in the name of entertainment, and isn’t that what friendship is all about?
If you’re trying to mix things up, don’t overlook modern party games like Jackbox, which turns your phone into a chaos-making device. With games like Quiplash and Drawful, you get to roast your friends in real time, submit absurd and out-of-locket answers anonymously and then vote on the best ones. It’s low-effort, high-reward — and there’s nothing quite like watching your friend unknowingly vote for a drawing of themselves labeled “angry tomato.”
In the end, game night isn’t really about the games themselves. It’s about the moments — the uncontrollable laughter, the dramatic accusations and the group-wide gasp when someone actually guesses the right answer for once. So, if you’re planning your next one, think less “boardroom strategy” and more about laughs. And for everyone’s safety and sanity, hide the Monopoly.
