Looking for the right party game can feel daunting, especially if your group includes ages that span decades in between them. But bridging that gap — and having a legitimately fun time doing so — is easier than it sounds with these all-ages games.
We’ve compiled card and board game options that offer a variety of vibes, from energetic and fast-paced to thoughtful and introspective. All of them promise to be easy to learn, so you can sit back and enjoy yourself — and enjoy watching your loved ones, young and old, enjoying themselves, too.
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Go ahead and search “fun family games” on Amazon and you’ll see this wordplay game come up as the retailer’s “overall pick.” With 4.8 stars across over 11,000 ratings, the word association game asks players to fill in blanks and try to match their guesses with other players. “It takes about 30 seconds to understand the game so that is a bonus,” wrote reviewer J Page, who also noted it wasn’t “overly strategic or complicated” — ideal for newly-gathered groups without much in common.
In this flexible game, everyone writes down answers to prompts — and is rewarded with an accumulation of cows if their answer is in the majority. It can flex up to 20 players and many reviewers say that play is easy to learn — a huge plus when gathering folks of all ages for a night of fun. It’s a great option that “encourage[s] conversation,” in the words of one reviewer.
Strategist Adam Schubak is HuffPost Shopping’s resident games connoisseur and successfully put Evil Genie to the test over the holidays.
According to Schubak, “Evil Genie checks a lot of boxes: It’s fun for all ages, easy to learn and made my group laugh a lot when we first played. The hypothetical wish combinations sparked a lot of hilarious conversations.”
In this game, players get their wishes granted — with strings attached. “Good” cards are mixed together with “Evil” cards for some messed up, delightful wish scenarios. “You’ll want to play for hours,” writes a reviewer named Beth.
Designed for two to eight players and ages eight and up, Evil Genie has the capacity to be replayed again and again, a crucial feature for the game’s longevity in your household.
This card game version of Monopoly is a surprisingly fun, refreshed take on the original. Monopoly Deal retains the concepts of OG Monopoly that we all love — like “passing go,” properties and banks — but instead of a dice and board, players use action cards that keep the game moving. You can outright steal other players’ properties in this game — adding some extra fun for silly competitiveness — and you win by collecting three complete property sets.
I played this for the first time the other day and was surprised both by how fun it was and how quickly I picked up the rules; I’m often slow to learn game rules, but with prior experience with the original Monopoly, catching onto this one was like second nature. The card game version is faster-paced than the original, which I actually enjoyed: We were able to get more games in while still capturing the bankrupting fun of the classic.
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza has crushed it on Amazon, with a rarely-seen 4.8-star rating and over 51,000 reviews — so we think it’s a foolproof pick for game night.
The “simple yet energetic” card game “involves quick reactions to the silly string of titular words,” according to managing editor Emily Ruane, “and special cards in the deck can redirect play in unpredictable ways.”
Tons of reviews attest to how uniquely fun this game is, especially for a mixed-age group with grandkids and grandparents. “My face hurts from laughing,” writes a reviewer named Colby.
Plus, the game promises to take only a minute to learn.
Telestrations is a sketching game that expertly retains the randomness and hilarity of the classic “Telephone,” where a phrase famously morphs into a totally different one as it’s passed through players. In this version, instead of speaking the word, players draw what they believe is being depicted by their neighbor’s sketches.
I played Telestrations with a large group of mixed-age family and plus-ones and we had an absolute blast trying to decipher everyone’s drawings — I’m still talking about how much fun it was. If you have ample time (as the game can take 30 minutes to an hour to play) and a large enough group, this game was fire. By the end, everyone was relaxed and cracking up.
If you’re looking to connect with your kids or grandkids, Chat Chains is a great pick. The card game was designed by psychologists to encourage kids and teenagers to talk about their feelings and develop their social emotional learning.
With 150 topics, the game provides ample opportunity to expand into deeper conversation through ongoing “chat chains” (which awards you more points!).
Made for ages eight and up with neurodivergent inclusivity in mind, Chat Chains takes fifteen minutes per round, making it an easy, quick way for kids to develop meaningful connections.
Claws Out promises a fun, fast and increasingly frenzied game for ages eight and up (cat lovers will love that the card game is feline-themed, too). The goal is to get rid of all your cards — if unpredictable special cards don’t end up rerouting the game in the blink of an eye.
Reviewers are big fans; one writes, “We played obsessively for a full week … the grandkids loved it so much, we are buying a second set to replace the copy they are taking home.”
The fastest answer wins in this engaging card game, so you’re pretty much guaranteed to learn facts you didn’t know about longtime friends and family or new pals. Fun, impassioned conversations are bound to ensue.
Reviewers say Brain Freeze “[led] to many laughs” and is a “great way to get to know strangers or even people you live with every day.”
“Hues and Cues involves using verbal clues to guess a specific color square on the board,” explained writer Griffin Wynne, who first heard of the game on TikTok. “This is a fun way for players to use their imaginations to come up with or decipher one-word hints.”
With 480 unique hues, the board game promises as many unique and creative rounds. Reviewers call it “a beautiful game that stretches your creativity” and say it’s easy to learn for all ages.
Better Me is a different kind of board game for groups seeking deeper connections with one another. In this game, “There are ‘winners’, but the game isn’t about winning or losing. It’s about sharing your stories and growing as a group,” writes a reviewer named Jonathan, who noted that it’s a great option for encouraging shy or neurodivergent folks to share their feelings and experiences with a smaller group.
Designed for two to eight players, “This game is very powerful in generating excellent conversations,” says another reviewer. “You learn so much in the process while still having fun … It can be life-changing!”
In this game, players draw cards spanning six categories which invite participants to grow or reflect in a particular way. The cards may prompt folks to share significant memories or lessons, or to engage in an action activity alone or with the group.