Top 10 Fun Family Games: Great for All Ages!

Hedbanz

Hedbanz is a great game for the whole family to play together! You can play with 2-6 people, and the game is labeled ages 8+, but we’ve played it with kids younger than that too!

How To Play: Everyone puts on one of the Headbandz (it comes with 6 fun designs!) and the first person places a card in the slot on their headband without looking at it.

Each card has the phrase “I am a _____” and a corresponding photo. For example, “I am a cat” with a picture of a cat.

The rest of the group has to give clues without actually naming what’s on the card. So, in the cat example, players might say “meow” or “we watch YouTube videos of these pets.”

Non-Competitive: When the person with the card on their headband guesses correctly, you can move on to the next person in the circle until everyone has a turn!

Competitive: Play with the included timer, giving each person a time limit to figure out as many cards as they can!

Orangutwang

Orangutwang is geared towards younger kids, but the adults in our family have gotten some laughs from this game too! You can play with 2 or more people, ages 4+.

How To Play: First, set up the game and hang the Orangutan from the vine between the trees. Then, everyone takes turns rolling the dice.

Depending on how the dice lands, the player will choose a corresponding piece to hang from the Orangutan. So, if the first player rolls a “banana bunch,” they will hang one of the banana bunch pieces from the Orangutan. There are lots of fun options to hang, like geckos, pineapples, bats, and more!

If you would rather play without the dice, you can let players take turns choosing from any of game pieces to hang from the Orangutan.

Pretty soon, all these objects get too heavy, and the Orangutan springs up and goes “TWANG!” This usually results in lots of giggles! :)

Non-Competitive: When the Orangutan goes “twang,” everyone resets to play again!

Competitive: Whoever hangs the piece that makes the Orangutan go “twang” is out, and everyone else keeps playing until the next person goes out, like a tournament. The winner is the last one left!

LCR

If you know left, right, and how to count to six, you can play LCR! This quick and simple game is based on luck, the teens in our family especially love to play LCR! It works best with between 3-10 players, and is recommended for ages 5+.

How To Play: Divide the chips evenly between players and take turns rolling the three dice that are included. For every dice you roll that lands on “L,” you pass one chip to the person on your left. For every “R,” you’ll pass a chip to the right, and for “C” you place a chip in the center. The other three sides of the dice are dots, and they mean that you keep a chip.

For example, if someone rolled the three dice and landed an “L” “C” and dot, they would pass one chip to the player on their left, place one chip in the center, and keep the remaining chips.

As the game progresses, some players may end up with only 1 or 2 chips, so they will only roll as many dice as they have chips.

Non-Competitive: When someone runs out of chips, they stay in the game, but don’t roll dice. If the person next to them rolls an “L” or “R” (depending on which side they’re on) they can get back in the game! Play until all the chips end up in the middle!

Competitive: When a player runs out of chips, they’re out of the game. Play until only one player has chips left. They’re the lucky winner!

Apples to Apples Junior

Apples to Apples Junior is a classic game, and it’s perfect for all ages! Our family likes to play the Junior version, since there are less names of famous people that the younger kids don’t know. Other than that, there isn’t much difference between the Original and Junior versions. This game can be played with 4-10 people ages 9+, although younger kids can catch on, they just might need help reading the words on the cards.

How To Play: Everyone gets 7 Red Cards, and each card has a noun, such as “volleyball” “my family” “school lunch” or “surprise parties.” You can look at your cards, but not anyone else’s!

Go around the circle and take turns being the Judge. The first Judge will draw a green card and place it face up in the middle of the circle. All the green cards have an adjective such as “cool” “annoying” or “magical.”

Each player (other than the Judge) chooses one of the Red Cards in their hand that they think best matches the Green Card, and places one Red Card face down in the middle. You can play this as serious or funny as you want!

Once everyone has put a Red Card in the middle, the Judge shuffles the Red Cards and reads them aloud, without knowing who chose each Red Card. Then, it’s up to the Judge to choose which Red Card they think best matches the Green Card. Everyone draws one more Red Card, so they have seven again, and moves on the next Judge.

Non-Competitive: Keep going around the circle as many times as desired, and see how many funny Red Cards you can match with Green Cards!

Competitive: Whoever’s Red Card is chosen wins that round and they get to keep the Green Card. After a set amount of time or cards (such as 30 minutes, or when someone has five Green Cards), the winner is the person with the most Green Cards!

PicWits Silly & Sweet

If you like Apples to Apples, you’ll love PicWits Silly & Sweet! It’s a similar concept, but with pictures instead of words. This makes it easier for kids who can’t read all the Apples to Apples cards, while still keeping teens and adults engaged. You can play with 4 or more people, ages 5+, which makes it perfect for a big group to play together!

How To Play: It’s pretty much the same as Apple to Apples. Every player gets 7 cards, and each card has a photo on it. The photos usually feature things like goofy animals, kids playing, silly food, or crazy balloons.

The first Judge chooses a Caption Card and places it in the middle of the circle. The Caption Cards include phrases like: “My Favorite” “Best Day Ever” or “Let’s Be Friends.” The other players choose one of their Photo Cards that they think best matches the Caption Card to place face down in the middle of the circle.

The Judge shuffles the Photo Cards and chooses the one that they think best matches the Caption Card.

Non-Competitive: Keep going around the circle as many times as desired and see how many funny combinations of Photo Cards and Captions you can come up with!

Competitive: Whoever’s Photo Card is chosen wins that round and gets to keep the Caption Card. After a set amount of time or cards (such as 30 minutes, or when someone has four Caption Cards), the winner is the person with the most Caption Cards!

Rummikub

Another classic game, Rummikub can be played with 2-6 people ages 8+. It’s simple to learn, yet fun for the whole family! It was my mom’s favorite game as a kid because she could win against her older sisters! ;)

How To Play: Everyone begins by drawing 14 tiles. All the tiles have a number from 1-13 on them in different colors. If the first person can create a run (such as 6, 7, 8, 9, all in blue) or a group (such as blue 11, red 11, black 11) that adds up to at least 30, they will place those tiles face up in the center. If not, they draw a tile and move around the circle, giving everyone a chance to play if their tiles add up to 30+, or draw a tile if they don’t.

Once you have completed your first play, there is no longer a minimum amount of tiles you must play. You can add tiles to other runs or groups, and even rearrange the board, as long as every tile ends up in a group or sequence of at least three tiles. If someone can’t play, they draw a tile. There are also several jokers that can be substituted for any number, regardless of color. The goal is to end up without any tiles left!

Non-Competitive: The game continues until everyone works together to use their tiles!

Competitive: Each player has a two-minute limit for their turn, and if they exceed their time, they have to draw a tile. The game continues until someone runs out of tiles. They’re the winner!

Spoons

This Spoons game set is so much fun! You can also play the game with just a deck of cards and any items you have laying around! I’ve played it with regular spoons from the kitchen, and objects like pens or pencils work too! It’s also great because you can play with just a few people or with a big group. The game set says ages 7+ and 3-6 players, but the more people you have, the more fun it is, in my opinion! Just make sure you have enough spoons. :)

How To Play: Everyone sits in a circle and the spoons are placed in the middle. There should be one less spoon than there are people playing (so, if you have 6 players, you put out 5 spoons). The dealer gives 4 cards to each person. The goal is to be the first player to end up with four matching cards.

Then, the dealer picks up a card from the (face-down) card pile. If it matches one that they already have, they keep it and pass a different card from their hand to the next person. If the dealer doesn’t want the card they drew, they pass that to the next person.

The game continues with the dealer picking up new cards from the deck and passing them around. Everyone will look at whatever card was passed to them, and decide whether or not they want it, keeping four cards in their hand at all times. This part goes fast! The first player to get four matching cards grabs a spoon from the middle, and everyone else has to race for the others!

Non-Competitive: Play with the same number of spoons as people, so everyone gets to grab one!

Competitive: Whoever doesn’t grab a spoon is out, and the game continues, eliminating people each round until a winner is determined!

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

I’ve played Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza with the preschool/early elementary age kids I babysit, and I’ve also played it with my whole family – adults and teens included! It’s easy to learn, and doesn’t require reading, which is a huge bonus if you’re playing with younger kids. You can have between 3-8 players.

How To Play: Divide the cards evenly between players, giving everyone a stack of cards face-down in front of them. The first person flips over the card on the top of their pile and places it in the center, while saying “taco.”

If the card they placed in the middle is the taco card, everyone races to slap it, and the last person to place their hand on it has to take the taco card. If the card is not “taco,” the next player places the top card from their stack face-up in the middle and says “cat.” The game continues with people going around the circle placing the top card from their pile and saying “taco” “cat” “goat” “cheese” “pizza” “taco” “cat”…etc!

If the word they say matches the card they place, race to slap the pile in the middle! There are also some special cards with different actions, like Gorilla and Narwhal. The last person to do the action has to take the card pile.

Non-Competitive: Everyone plays until you run out of cards!

Competitive: When someone runs out of cards, they continue saying the words (taco, cat, goat, etc). If they’re the last one to slap, they still have to take the cards. If they’re first to slap the pile in the middle, they win!

Spot It!

Spot It! is a super fun game that’s pretty new to our family! It’s for 2-8 players, ages 6+. This game is super easy to learn, but finding the matching symbols is more challenging than you might think!

How To Play: Each player takes one card, and the rest of the cards are placed face-up in the center. All the cards have eight symbols on them, and one of the symbols matches with every other card in the game, so it’s always possible to find a match!

Everyone looks at the card in their hand and tries to be the first one to spot the symbol that is the same on their card and the one in the middle. So, if one of the symbols on your card is a dinosaur, and one of the symbols on the card in the middle is the same dinosaur, you say, “dinosaur!” and take the card from the center pile, revealing the next middle card.

The person who just took the top card will use that as the card in their hand. Now everyone tries to find the match between their card and the new one in the middle!

Non-Competitive: Play until you’ve found a match for every card in the center pile!

Competitive: When all the cards in the middle are gone, everyone counts how many cards they have (they should have a card for every match they found) and whoever has the most cards is the winner!

Telestrations

This has to be one of the most hilarious games ever! Our entire family loves Telestrations. It’s so much fun, especially if you have 6-8 people playing! You can also get the Party Version, which can have up to 12 players. It’s similar to the game Telephone, except with drawings!

How To Play: Everyone takes one of the dry-erase notebooks and draws a picture on the first page. If you need inspiration, use the cards included! Then, without saying what you drew, pass your notebook to the person on your left.

They’ll look at your picture, flip to the next page, and write down what they think you drew. Then, they pass the notebook to the person on their left, who reads the guess, but doesn’t look at the picture. They now have to flip the page and draw their own picture based on what the person on their right wrote.

They’ll pass their drawing to the person on their left, who writes down what they think it is on the next page, without looking at any of the previous drawings or guesses. The game continues until everyone gets their own notebook back.

Non-Competitive: Everyone gets a chance to share their notebook!

Competitive: Everyone shares their notebook, then votes on the winner (this could be closest to original drawing, funniest progression, etc)!