Free online party games to play with friends on a call

What makes a game work on a call

Lots of games that are great in a room fall flat over video. The ones that work tend to share a few things:

• Everyone plays on their own screen. Screen sharing lags, and half the group ends up squinting at a blurry stream. Games where each person has the game on their own phone or laptop avoid this completely.
• Joining takes seconds. A link or a four letter code, no accounts, no downloads. The friend who is on their phone in bed should be able to join as easily as the one on a gaming PC.
• Rounds are short. On a call, attention drifts. Games with quick rounds and lots of moments to react out loud keep everyone talking.
• Something to laugh about. The best call games create moments: a terrible drawing, a ridiculous answer, a last second win. The game is partly an excuse for the chat around it.

Drawing and guessing games

Skribbl.io

The classic. One player gets a word and draws it, everyone else types guesses, and the faster you guess the more you score. Make a private room, send the link, and you are playing in under a minute. You can add your own word list, which is where it gets fun: in-jokes, teachers, people you all know. Best with 4 to 10 players.

Gartic Phone

The telephone game with drawings. Everyone writes a sentence, the next person draws it, the next person describes the drawing, and so on. At the end you watch each chain unravel from “a cat doing taxes” to something unrecognisable. Very little skill needed, which makes it great for mixed groups.

Word and quiz games

Nichenaut

This is ours, so take this one with a pinch of salt, but it was built for exactly this situation. Everyone gets the same prompt, like name a Pixar film or name a fruit, and types one answer. Every right answer scores, but the rarer it is, the further your astronaut flies. Toy Story will get you off the ground. A film nobody else in the group remembered will take you into deep space.

• Name a Pixar film
• Name a famous meme (a format, image, video, character or catchphrase)
• Name an excuse for not doing your homework
• Name a Mario Kart track (any game; cups and battle courses count)
• Name a type of cheese
• Name a YouTuber

Why it works on a call: everyone plays on their own screen, so nobody has to share theirs. The host clicks Host a Mission, picks Friends and sends the room code or invite link; friends join at nichenaut.app with no account and no download. Rooms take up to 25 people. Then the reveal is the bit everyone talks over, because you find out who else said the obvious answer and who went somewhere strange.

For a group that likes making things up, there is also a custom mission: everyone writes the prompts and the group rates the answers. And if nobody is around, Open Orbit is a public round you can drop into on your own.

BombParty

A fast word game on the JKLM.fun site. You get a few letters, like “ING” or “STR”, and must type a word containing them before the bomb goes off. Then it passes to the next person. Simple, tense, and surprisingly hard when your mind goes blank.

Codenames

The board game has an official free online version at codenames.game. Two teams, a grid of 25 words, and a spymaster on each side giving one word clues to lead their team to the right cards. It needs at least four people and a bit of thinking time, so it suits a calmer call.

A few more good picks

GeoGuessr

You are dropped somewhere on Street View and have to work out where. Playing together on a call, with one person sharing their screen and everyone shouting clues, can be just as fun as playing separately. The full game needs a subscription, though there is some free play.

Jackbox Party Packs (paid)

Jackbox is the best known party game series for a reason: Quiplash, Drawful and Trivia Murder Party are brilliant. It is not free, though. One person buys a pack and shares their screen, and everyone else joins on their phone at jackbox.tv. If someone in your group already owns one, it is a great choice. If not, the free games above cover a lot of the same ground.

Games that need nothing at all

Sometimes the best option is no app. Twenty questions, “would you rather”, or a round of “name as many as you can” (countries beginning with M, Disney villains, footballers who played for Wales) all work on a voice call with nothing but a timer.

Which game for which group

How to run a game night on a call

1. Pick the first game before the call. Arriving with a link ready saves the awkward five minutes of “what does everyone want to play”.
2. Send one link in the group chat. Not three. Pin it if you can.
3. Keep the call for talking. Use Discord or FaceTime for voice and the game in a browser tab, rather than trying to play inside the call app.
4. Explain in one sentence. “Everyone answers, rarest right answer wins.” People learn by playing the first round, not by listening to rules.
5. Switch games before people get bored. Three short games beat one long one. Ending on a high makes people want to do it again next week.
6. Mute the game, not the people. Game sound through everyone's mic gets chaotic fast. Turn game audio down and let the group be the noise.

Start a room and send the code