With Christmas parties and the New Year celebrations coming up soon, now is the perfect time to tell your friends and family about party games. You’ll find plenty of party games in the App Store. Some challenge your intellect, while others bring about teamwork.
Not sure which party games might take your fancy? Don’t worry – here’s a list of the best iPhone party games.
- Heads Up!
- HQ Trivia
- Just Dance Now
- Psych! Outwit Your Friends
- Escape Team
- What Would You Choose? Rather
- Spaceteam
- Evil Apples vs. Humanity
- UNO!
- Truth or Dare
1. Heads Up!
Heads Up! was made famous by the popular talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. One playthrough of the game, and you will see why.
The game combines the best parts of charades and word games. You can play it with another person or an entire group of friends. The objective is to guess the words correctly, and the person with the highest correct guesses wins.
The gameplay is simple. When it’s your turn, you’ll have to put the phone up to your forehead, with the screen facing your group. Words will come up from various categories – celebrities, writers, cartoons, and even animals.
The rest of the group will have to give you clues to the word. If you guess correctly, tilt the phone forward to bring up the next word. If you can’t guess it, tilt the phone up to move on to the next word. The more words you guess correctly, the higher your score is.
It’s a simple game that helps you involve everyone in the group, leading to a fun time!
Price: $1.99
2. HQ Trivia
HQ Trivia puts a twist on the usual trivia games. This game has a list of celebrities that come in on special occasions to host the live game show.
You can have shows hosted by the likes of Robert De Niro, Alicia Silverstone, The Rock, and Gordon Ramsay. In terms of the game itself, it has thousands of trivia questions that keep you on your toes. Even if you get something wrong, you will always get to learn something new.
If you get bored of trivia questions, you can also play word puzzles ranging from super easy to a savage level of difficulty. So, there’s something for everyone.
The best part? You can cash in your in-game prizes for real cash and rewards. Considering the prizes this game gives away, you will be up to your neck in competition. Regardless, I can guarantee that this game brings in plenty of joy.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $3.99)
3. Just Dance Now
Dancing is one of the best ways to spend time at a party. When you add the gaming aspect to it, it leads to a more competitive edge increasing the activity’s intensity. However, a lot of dancing games require you to have a console. Thankfully, Just Dance Now does not!
This dance game is sure to bring life to even the most boring party. Your iPhone becomes the controller and catches all your moves. You can then connect your iPhone to a casting device such as a TV to show everything that’s happening in the game.
A dance game wouldn’t be great without the right music. And Just Dance Now has 500+ licensed songs, ranging from the catchy Shape Of You by Ed Sheeran to the anthemic Another One Bites The Dust by Queen.
You can create your playlist and challenge the best party dancers to a dance-off. Overall, this game is amazing for a party. It guarantees you to either become the life of the party or make your party a smashing hit.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $2.99)
4. Psych! Outwit Your Friends
Psych! is one of my favorite party games of all time. It’s a trivia game, but it encourages players to use their wit more than their knowledge. This is from the creators of Heads Up!, and they surely know how to make party games.
There are multiple categories to choose from. You’ve got modes like “The Truth Comes Out!”, “What’s The Last Thing David Googled?”, and “What’s Maria’s Hidden Talent?”. These modes will involve at least one person from the group, and everyone gets to be a part of the game.
There are other categories such as “Movie Bluff” and “Word Up.” These are trivia categories in which you can trick your friends into giving fake answers for real trivia questions. You can also go vice versa by trying to find the real answer amongst multiple fake ones. There are endless combinations!
This game should be on your “Must Play” list for every house party.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $0.99)
5. Escape Team
Escape Team is a different kind of party game. It will require you to use your intelligence and print because it is an interactive pen-and-paper game.
I know what you’re thinking – “This is way too much work for a house party game!” Let me tell you, it’s worth every effort. Escape Team brings in a lot of diversity in gameplay, as you can indulge in missions such as defusing bombs, saving airplanes that have lost control, and even rescuing people from malfunctioning elevators.
You will have to gather your friends and work together to solve all the missions. You can download and print the mission details from the game’s website. All missions are on a timer, so you will have to work fast.
The good part is that it may present you with unlikely scenarios, but it will also need you to use your real-world skills. This is the kind of interactive game that will put murder mystery games to shame.
Give this one a try! I’m sure that you’ll enjoy all the thrills.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $0.99)
6. What Would You Choose? Rather
This is one of the most popular conversation starter games in the world. We’ve all been in situations where somebody or the other has given us unlikely scenarios and asked us to choose. It’s a great way to get to know how people think and to see if you’ve got anything in common with them.
This game puts the same premise into a digital form. It’ll pose you with different questions, which can be quite random, but fun nonetheless. You can choose one of the two options. In a group setting and a party context, this game can bring about lots of conversations and laughter.
You can also check online to see how your answers compare with people worldwide. Maybe your answers were more common than you thought previously? You can combine this game with another fun activity, with variations of tasks or drinking games.
This is one of the better party games for kids, so you wouldn’t have to worry about controversial questions.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $1.99)
7. Spaceteam
Spaceteam was released back in 2012, but it’s still going strong today with continuous updates. The game requires you to team up with your friends and perform tasks to keep the spaceship on course.
While this sounds a bit like the huge hit Among Us (if you’re a fan, you will love our Among Us wallpapers for iPhone), you don’t have to do the extra task of finding an imposter here. You will, however, have to delegate various tasks to your team members. Once you load up the game, you and your friends will see different panels of the ship based on the task you’re performing.
All the tasks are bound by a time limit, so you’ll have to work together and work fast. The twist is that most of the tasks sound like absolute gibberish, and it may take you and your team members time to figure out what you really have to do.
When you’re playing this game at a party, shouting “fix the Clip-Jawed Fluxtrunions” or other nonsense like “burn the socks,” it can get funny and silly. This is the beauty of the game.
Plan to do weird tasks to keep the spaceship running? Spaceteam is your game!
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $2.99)
8. Evil Apples vs. Humanity
Are you familiar with the popular game Cards Against Humanity? Evil Apples vs. Humanity is a digital take on the same game. And let me warn you – it’s dirty. If you’ve got kids, they shouldn’t be around when you’re playing it.
Regardless of its rather adult premise, it’s an enjoyable game. You’ll need at least one person to judge. All the players will be given a common prompt, and you can choose from a selection of answers. The judge will choose the funniest or their favorite answers.
The player with the most favored answers in seven rounds will be declared the winner. The answers are usually hilarious and can distract everyone with the sheer amount of nonsense that the prompt and the answer combination creates.
You can also play this game with strangers online, and there’s a large number of prompts and answers to choose from. Considering the number of combinations, this game takes a while to get boring.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $1.99)
9. UNO!
UNO! is a classic and fun game to play with friends at parties. While the physical game is charming, the digital version has its fans. All you and your friends need to do is download the game. Once done, you can play it anywhere!
If you haven’t played UNO before, the game’s objective is to ensure that you’re the first person to get rid of all your cards. Of course, this comes with various challenges and conditions that make the game interesting.
It is a game in which each player plays for themselves, but you can silently team up to take down a player who’s about to win. This game is highly addictive and is one of the best party games that you can have on your evening itinerary.
Caution: Drawing too many +4 cards against the next player/friend can and will probably end your friendship.
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $1.99)
10. Truth or Dare: Party Game
I’m sure all of us have played the vintage Truth or Dare game at least once in our lives. Whether in school or office retreat, this game has a knack for spicing up dull parties. This is the digitized version of the game, and it’s as much fun as the real game, if not more.
It has a large number of prompts for you to work with. We know that coming up with prompts can be difficult, especially if the game continues for a long time. With this app, you’ll have an almost unlimited supply of prompts to ask your friends. You can also add your prompts to the game.
There are four modes for prompts based on the scenario and the age group. These categories are kids, teens, adults, and couples. So there’s something for everyone!
Price: Free (In-app purchases start at $1.99)
Ready to party?
This is my list of the best party games for iPhone and iPad that you should try at your next party. They can and will lead to a lot of laughs, awkward moments, and even slight drama. Are there any other party games that you love but didn’t see on the list? Share them in the comments below.
Read more:
- Best Multiplayer Games for iPhone and iPad
- Word Games for iPhone and iPad
- Best Racing Games for iPhone and iPad
Anirban is a literature post-grad who delves in philosophy and postmodern novels when not writing on tech and gaming. His love for research is only trumped by his love for chai and heavy metal.
This post is really great!
You can tell it’s written by practical people in the industry!
I just wanted to congratulate you and say keep up the good work!