A house party where everyone gets together to drink at a friend’s place.
You gather with close friends, catching up on recent events, sharing happy and sad stories, venting about this and that—the conversation never seems to end, right?
But sometimes, it suddenly feels like time has stopped…
At times like that, how about playing a quick game to change up the mood?
In this article, we’ll introduce some lively games that are perfect for house parties.
They’re all games that are fun and exciting even with a small group, so give them a try!
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- Games for two people to enjoy. A roundup of party games that liven up drinking gatherings.
- Punishment games that liven up drinking parties and banquets
- Recommended for college students! Punishment game ideas that will make everyone laugh and hype things up
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- Get the party started! A roundup of perfect playing card games for drinking parties
- A party game that gets everyone excited at home. A fun recreational game.
- Simple but intense! A quick-and-easy penalty game that hypes everyone up
- A fun penalty game recommended for men
- Drinking party crowd-pleasers: party and banquet games
- For Couples: Fun and Exciting Punishment Game Ideas
- [Punishment Game] A collection of romance-themed prompts. Punishment games that get men and women excited
- A fun punishment game recommended for women
Top 10 Party Games to Liven Up Your At-Home Drinking Session
Majority Game
The Majority Game, which has even been released as a card game.
It’s a game where you see whether your answer is in the majority or the minority; if your answer is in the majority, that’s the “majority” and it’s considered correct.
There’s also a similar game called the “Ultimate Choice Game.” Since this is for a home drinking party, it might be fun for each person to come up with spontaneous questions like “What’s your favorite onigiri filling?” or “Which baseball team do you root for?” If the group is small, you could even keep going until everyone’s answers match.
Mansion Game
The Mansion Game starts with the chant, “Mansion Game, Mansion Game, Man, sion, Game!” Players sit side by side or in a circle and assign room numbers: 101 to one person, 102 to the next, and so on.
Then someone calls out something like “From 101 to 104,” naming another player’s room number.
The named person must immediately continue, for example, “From 104 to 102,” and the chain goes on.
Anyone who makes a mistake moves up to the next floor, and the room numbers change to 201, 202, etc.
As it goes on longer, the shifting room numbers cause confusion, making it a tricky rhythm game.
Pin Pon Pan Game
This “Ping-Pong-Pan Game” turns a comedy routine by the duo JaruJaru from the 2017 M-1 Grand Prix into a game as-is.
It’s based on the familiar school PA chime melody, “ping-pon-pan-pooon.” In the game, the melody sometimes has more or fewer notes than the normal chime—like “ping-pon-pan-poon-peeeen,” “ping-pon,” “ping-pon-pan,” or just “peeeen”—and you have to deliver a fitting retort to match it.
It’s a game that tests your quick wit and reflexes as you distinguish the chime pattern and fire off the correct comeback.
First Impressions Game
A first-impressions game where everyone answers at the same time to the question “Who here is the most ◯◯?” The person who gets the most votes is considered to match that impression, based on their appearance and personality.
You can come up with questions on the spot in turn.
You can write names on paper and reveal them all at once, or everyone can point to their choice.
Let’s ask fun prompts like “Who seems like a mama’s boy?”, “Who looks most likely to be popular?”, or “Who seems well-brought-up?” It’s a communication game you can enjoy even with people you’ve just met or don’t know well.
Spinach game
A game famous among younger generations: the Spinach Game.
You might wonder, “Why spinach?”—but anyway, the rules are very simple.
The starting player makes a fist to show they’re holding spinach.
At first, they have two spinaches, and while saying “spinach, spinach, spinach,” they first tap their own chest with their fist, then pass the spinach to two other people on the next two beats.
Someone who receives it says “spinach, spinach,” first tapping their own chest once, then passing the next spinach to someone else.
It’s a rhythm game where two spinaches keep circulating, and as it heats up, it becomes easy to get confused.
Yamanote Line game
Let’s liven things up with a classic party drinking game: the Yamanote Line Game! It originally involves naming stations on the Yamanote Line, and a common variation is to go around in order answering to a given theme without breaking the rhythm.
The themes are endless, right? Game titles, animal names, dessert names—you can pick topics with tons of answers that could go on forever, or more niche ones like university names or baseball players.
All of them are great fun!
Bamboo Shoot Gnocchi
A classic recreation game that gets everyone from kids to adults excited, “Takenoko Nyokki” originated from a variety TV show.
Players call out numbers—“1 nyokki,” “2 nyokki,” and so on—and anyone who says a unique number without overlapping with someone else is safe and drops out of the round.
If you overlap with someone or end up being the last one remaining, you lose.
It’s a bit of a psychological game—especially with a small group, where you look your opponents in the eye and try to read their minds—and it becomes harder to drop out successfully.
It’s a perfect example of a game that needs no equipment, can start right away, and still gets people hyped.