You know the best thing about getting together with a group of people? Party games! Yep…that's right! Fun party games are a great way to get people feeling comfortable and having fun. The Bowl Game is about to become your new favorite group game!
Do you want an unforgettable party? You need some fun party games up your sleeve – or at least ONE killer party game. I'm about to share with you the BEST party game ever!
*Note: When you click the links in this post, we may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
If you follow me on Instagram (um…you should, it's a great time over there…) then you've probably seen several IG Stories from parties I have thrown. We're talking people are laughing so hard, tears are often shed. That, my friends, is the result of my infamous Bowl Game: THE BEST, funniest, most amazing adult party game you will ever play.
And I don't say that lightly.
Ready to see what it's all about?
WHY IS IT THE BEST OF THE PARTY GAMES?
The Bowl Game is a party game like no other. It's an ice-breaker/get-to-know-you/guessing game that will have you laugh-crying. Guaranteed or your money back! (wink) Whether you know everyone in the group incredibly well (like family), or whether you hardly know the group at all (like at work, or neighborhood), it does. not. matter.
We have played this game at every party we have thrown for years now, and we have never had a fail on it yet! It's always a hit.
You want to give yourself at least a good hour to play it because once the stories start flowing, they just don't stop! So we typically choose this as our one and only game…and it's usually all you need.
Alright, time to get to the best of the best party games that we are absolutely obsessed with.
THE BOWL GAME
The objective: You don't want anybody to guess which strips of paper are yours. Meanwhile, you want to correctly guess which strips of paper belong to everyone else. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins!
BOWL GAME SUPPLIES
- Bowl
- Paper, cut into strips (enough for every person to get 2)
- Pens
- Candy for scoring (optional)
HOW TO PLAY THE BOWL GAME
- Everyone takes two strips of paper and writes an unknown/unique, but TRUE, fact about themselves on each strip of paper (2 facts total). Don't put your name on the strip, and don't tell anyone what you wrote!
- When all strips are filled out, fold them up and put them in the bowl (hence the name 😉 ).
- Pick someone to start the game. They take a strip of paper out of the bowl and read it aloud for everyone.Whoever it belongs to, stays quiet until the end of the round! Put on your poker face and don't admit that it's yours!
- The person to the right of the reader guesses who they think the strip of paper belongs to, simply by calling out their name or pointing. Then the person next to them does the same, continuing around the circle until everyone guesses. The reader guesses last (since they have an advantage and can see the handwriting on the paper.)
- After everyone has guessed, the owner of the strip of paper stands up and admits it was them. And of course, you'll need to explain yourself. 🙂
- Figure the scoring for that round: Anyone who guessed correctly gets 1 point. Or, if the correct person wasn't guessed at all, that person gets 5 points!This is why you want to write something crazy that will throw the group off! You don't want people to guess it's you!
- Pass the bowl to the right, and the next person pulls out a new strip of paper and continues the same way.
- Once all rounds have been completed, tally up the scores. Whoever has the most points wins!
PARTY GAME TIPS
If you've never played before, here are some tips to make the game a little more fun right off the bat!
- When coming up with something to write about yourself, get creative! Dig deep! You want to come up with something that even your SPOUSE doesn't know about you! (Think back to kindergarten…college days…weird dating stories…embarrassing moments…)
- Okay, this might be a no-brainer… but if the paper is yours, obviously don't admit it, and don't guess yourself! Throw the group off by guessing that it's someone else. If you are a spouse and know for a fact that it's your spouse's strip, consider being a team player and casting your vote to someone else to throw off the scent. That's what nice spouses do. 😉
- And last, but not least… You can keep score on a board where everyone can see, on paper, or have people keep track of their own score. Want to take the game to a whole new level? Give everyone a small paper cup and keep score with candy. One piece of candy equals one point.
You can always have a grand prize for the winner, but the laughs and stories really are the grand prize.
*Note, you can really play this at any party, but we have found it to work best at adult/couple parties.
So there you have it…
THE BEST OF THE PARTY GAMES, EVER!
This is quite possibly the best adult party game in the universe. Try it and let me know what you think! And be sure to share YOUR favorite party games below.
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Looking for more party tips? We've got you covered!
- Check out these cheap party food ideas, cause you know every good party needs some delicious food!
- Want some more genius ideas to really up your game? We're talking the game of life, here, folks! You gotta try out my block schedule system for a more productive life!
- Try out our cheap and fun party ideas to throw with friends!
Happy Bowl-ing!
Lenaon December 5, 2018 at 5:55 pm
Sounds fun., can’t wait to try it ?
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Jenon December 6, 2018 at 7:40 am
We played this at Thanksgiving and it was SO MUCH FUN. We will definitely play again. Two updates we will make: the reader doesn’t guess (they ALWAYS knew who it was in my family) and we are going to do 3 strips and only 2 rounds. We Found that by the middle of the second round it was pretty easy to guess who was left. So if there was more paper strips then rounds it would leave more to the imagination. Great game, thanks Jordan!
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Aliceon December 31, 2018 at 7:51 am
I bet having “extra” strips in there would be fun.
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Amberon December 7, 2018 at 9:12 am
I love these kinds of games! I will ne trying it at our next family party.
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Jamieon December 9, 2018 at 8:50 am
See AlsoLow FODMAP Prosciutto Wrapped Cantaloupe - Delicious as it LooksChicken Piccata Pasta – A Quick and Easy Crowd-PleaserTraditional Lithuanian Dishes You Need To TrySweet Chilli Chicken with Rainbow Salad - Pinch Of NomDefinitely agree with Jen! Need more slips per person than rounds intended. Was so much fun. We played with a group of ladies at a cookie exchange, and was HILARIOUS!
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Niamhon December 17, 2018 at 1:43 pm
What do you do if you are reading the slip, and it is yours, so everyone else has already guessed can you guess yourself to get the candy ?? ???
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Aleishaon December 31, 2018 at 12:05 am
We just played a fun group game that you should try at your next gathering. It’s called Couches. You need one seat for everyone playing plus one, so there is always an empty spot. The only other thing you need is a strip of paper for everyone playing. Write each person’s name on a strip of paper (one name per paper). Then everyone draws one slip so they get a different name than their own. Keep these names secret. Play girls vs boys, the girl’s goal is to get 4 girls on the couch, the boys goal is to get 4 boys on the couch (only 4 people can fit on the couch). The person with the empty chair on their right says a name and the person who chose the strip with that name moves to the empty chair and whoever has the new empty chair to their right goes next. Play goes on like this until someone gets 4 of their gender on the couch. There’s no reminding anyone who has what name. It’s super fun, and hard to remember the name that everyone received.
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Sueon March 21, 2019 at 9:01 pm
Super fun game… we’ve always called it Four on a Couch!
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Martyon April 3, 2019 at 12:53 pm
This is a fantastic game. One more requirement that we’ve always used is that whoever calls the person’s name to come sit next to them in the extra seat then has to trade name slips with the person who takes the seat. This way, everyone’s names are changing so it makes it more challenging.
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Aleishaon December 31, 2018 at 12:07 am
Oh, also you can’t call the person’s name that just moved and move them back.
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Teresaon January 23, 2019 at 10:58 pm
I just played this tonight with a group of youth and after one normal round, we did lightening voting. After the paper was read, we gave them five seconds to point to someone as their vote. Then that person was revealed and could briefly explain. It was so fun!! Lots of laughs!
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FunCheapOrFreeon March 4, 2019 at 1:33 pm
Haha! Awesome!!! 🙂
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Corrieon February 11, 2019 at 12:35 pm
It would be better if you owned up to it at the end. Just keep track on paper who guessed what. Other wise you’ll might know by power of deduction who is left once they admit it. Great idea for a game though. I can’t wait to try it with our friends.
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Camille Parkinsonon March 7, 2019 at 5:57 am
Played this at a party and it definitely helped us get to know each other better! The conversation was so different and fun!
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Mary Stileson April 30, 2019 at 8:05 pm
Here is a variation I know that won’t get boring if playing with the same group over and over:
-You need: a bowl, 1 piece of paper for everyone, a timer (one that everyone will see or hear – phones are great)
-Everyone gets 1 piece of paper and writes something RANDOM on it . (example: Ice Cream Sandwich) then all the papers go in a bowl.
-Every other person is on a team so if you sit Boy-girl-boy-girl in a circle, the teams are boys vs girls.
-Pass the bowl to the first person.
-You play 3 times around with varying rules each time.Round one:
Give yourself 3 minutes (or something you think appropriate for the amount of people). You DON’T want everyone to go within that time. Maybe only 1/2 the group.
The player with the bowl chooses a paper and describes it WITHOUT saying the words on the paper. Say as much as you want but not those key words (example: dessert with 2 cookies and freezing cold vanilla between them). The other members of your team need to guess “Ice cream sandwich.” When your team guesses it, you pass the bowl to the next person and put your paper in a central pile to use again in round 2 and 3.
Take turns giving clues/guessing until the timer runs out. If you are holding the bowl when the timer goes off, The OTHER TEAM gets a point. (like hot potato). Play as many times as you need in order to have every paper guessed. You will want to remember as many of those words as possible for round 2!Round two:
You put all the words back into the bowl and do the same thing except this time you can only say ONE WORD! (example: Dessert) and you can only just repeat that word.
The fun thing is trying to remember your “word bank” from round one. Scoring is the same.
Feel free to use inside jokes with friends or impersonations and voices.Round three:
You have to act out the word! NO TALKING! but again use the word bank and just guess!The team with the most points after going around 3 times wins!
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FunCheapOrFreeon May 1, 2019 at 7:19 pm
Oh wow, that sounds like SO much fun! We’ll have to try that the next time that we play it! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Ananyaon July 26, 2019 at 11:34 am
I was skeptical about organizing it at a formal party but thanks to you, it turned out to be the best. Thanks for sharing! ?
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FunCheapOrFreeon July 27, 2019 at 7:25 pm
That’s so great to hear! We love playing that game! 🙂
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Lauraon August 4, 2019 at 7:53 am
This would be a great game except I know the hand writing of of my family members as they know mine. So we couldn’t play as a family. I know most of my friends hand writing as well.
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FunCheapOrFreeon August 6, 2019 at 8:10 pm
Maybe have everybody use their opposite hand to write? So not only would it be funny to see how bad their handwriting is, but also it would keep you from knowing who’s is whose!
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Annon November 12, 2019 at 6:22 am
Hello, I will try this game this Thanksgiving with my family. I was wondering if you would please make this page and others like it printer friendly. Some recipe websites I go to look like this but I press the printer friendly button then all the ads go away and I can choses if If want pictures to print, etc. Thanks for all you do
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Fun Cheap or Freeon November 12, 2019 at 1:55 pm
You will have SO much fun with it! We can’t currently do that with the site that we’re on right now, but I’ll definitely make a note in case we ever change and see if that’s an option. Thanks for your input! XOXO
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Melodyon December 26, 2019 at 12:12 pm
If you wanted to print it out and it isn’t printable as is, just highlight, copy and past to a word document. I do that all the time. Great ideas here. Will have to try some out.
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Kateon January 13, 2020 at 10:57 am
We played this at our small group Christmas party and it was SO MUCH FUN. Thanks Jordan!! How many adults would you say is the max for this? We’re having friends over for my birthday but it may be upwards of 18-20.
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Fun Cheap or Freeon January 13, 2020 at 11:02 am
So glad to hear that! You could play it with that many people and it would still be fun. It would be harder to keep track of who has already had their 3 truths guessed, but that just makes it even more fun! It’ll just take longer to play. Have fun and happy early birthday! 🙂
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Qurinaon March 19, 2023 at 4:00 pm
cool
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Jodieon November 24, 2022 at 8:23 pm
I just hosted a large family gathering for Thanksgiving and we played this game after dinner. Since a lot of us know each other’s handwriting, I just read them all aloud and everyone else guessed whose it was. We had so much fun and such a great way to learn new things about each other! Thank you for sharing this game!
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JaNaeon December 27, 2022 at 6:32 pm
For those concerned about handwriting, before the party make a google form with two questions asking about the unknown/unique but true fact. Send out the link before the party! Then send to excel (this is an option on the form) and print the strips before the party. Then everything is prepared and no handwriting issues giving away who is who. Plus you’d probably get some super unique and hilarious stories if people had more time to think up their fact!
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