New Year's Eve games for adults: 10 ideas to count down to midnight

New Year's Eve is a strange kind of party: everyone knows exactly when the big moment is, which is what makes the hours before it so hard to fill. Dinner is over by nine, the countdown is at midnight, and in between the energy can easily sag.

That is where New Year's Eve games come in. Most of these 10 ideas need nothing more than a phone and a few slips of paper, and all of them are made for the night itself: looking back on the year, making predictions for the next one, and small hourly countdown challenges that carry the party to midnight.

What makes good New Year's Eve party games

Good New Year's Eve games run in short rounds, because people keep moving between the kitchen, the balcony and the living room. Anyone can jump in halfway through. And they have something to do with the year: a memory, a lesson or a prediction, because this is the one night everyone is happy to talk about it.

New Year's Eve games for adults: 10 ideas

1. Year in review This or That

The best warm up. Someone reads two options, everyone points left or right at the same time, and anyone alone with their pick explains why.

1. Fireworks or a quiet midnight on the couch?
2. House party or a night out?
3. Champagne or a cocktail?
4. Resolutions or no resolutions?
5. Party until sunrise or in bed by half past twelve?
6. This year: flew by or felt endless?
7. New Year with friends or with family?
8. Midnight kiss or midnight snack?
9. Next year: more travel or more rest?
10. Countdown on TV or countdown on someone’s phone?

2. Most Likely To: next year predictions

On three, everyone points at the person each statement fits best. The twist: they are all about next year. Write down the results and check who was right next New Year’s Eve.

1. Who is most likely to move next year?
2. Who is most likely to keep their resolution until the end of February?
3. Who is most likely to start a new hobby and quit it by March?
4. Who is most likely to travel the farthest next year?
5. Who is most likely to fall in love next year?
6. Who is most likely to change jobs?
7. Who is most likely to fall asleep before midnight tonight?
8. Who is most likely to complain the most about January?

3. Whose resolution is it?

Everyone writes their New Year resolution on a slip of paper, no names. Shuffle them, read them out one by one, and everyone guesses who wrote each one. Every right guess is a point. It gets funnier when somebody writes a completely unlikely resolution on purpose.

4. Never Have I Ever: this year edition

Anyone who did what the sentence says this year puts a finger down. A great way to find out what kind of year everyone really had.

1. Never have I ever started a series this year and not finished it.
2. Never have I ever downloaded a fitness app this year and never opened it.
3. Never have I ever kept a New Year resolution for a whole year.
4. Never have I ever slept through an entire weekend this year.
5. Never have I ever booked a trip at the very last minute.
6. Never have I ever cried at a movie this year.
7. Never have I ever forgotten a birthday this year.
8. Never have I ever done something for the very first time this year.

5. Hourly countdown challenges

Prepare four envelopes, one for each hour from 8pm to midnight. On the hour you open the next one, and inside is that hour’s challenge. The night moves toward midnight on its own, and there is always something to look forward to.

• 8pm: everyone shares one moment from this year they want to remember.
• 9pm: a quick quiz round on the group’s shared memories, written in advance by the host.
• 10pm: dance break, everyone picks one song that sums up their year.
• 11pm: write resolutions and predictions for the time capsule.

6. Two truths and a lie: this year edition

Everyone shares three things that happened to them this year, two true and one made up. The others guess the lie. It works especially well on New Year’s Eve, because stories come out that the group has never heard.

7. Would You Rather: New Year edition

1. Would you rather relive the best day of this year or get a preview of the best day of next year?
2. Would you rather keep one resolution for sure or ten resolutions halfway?
3. Would you rather spend every New Year’s Eve with the same group or somewhere new with new people every year?
4. Would you rather see fireworks over a city at midnight or a starry sky on a mountain?
5. Would you rather take one big trip next year or a long weekend away every month?
6. Would you rather redo this year from the start or keep it exactly as it was?

8. Time capsule

Everyone writes a short letter to their future self: what they hope for, what they worry about, what they want to achieve. Seal the letters in an envelope and the host keeps it until next New Year’s Eve. Opening it will be the best moment of next year’s party.

9. Wax fortune telling

A safe version of an old European tradition: melt candle wax in a spoon and pour it into cold water. Everyone decides what the shape says about their next year. A ship means travel, a heart means love, and a potato means nobody can take the prediction seriously.

10. Countdown Truth or Dare

For the last half hour. Fast truths and dares, and ten minutes before midnight everyone closes the year with one last truth.

1. Truth: what was the best decision you made this year?
2. Truth: who do you want to see more of next year?
3. Truth: what did you finally let go of this year?
4. Dare: give a toast to next year, in rhyme.
5. Dare: show us your year as a dance.
6. Dare: call someone and wish them a happy New Year early.

New Year's Eve games for family and kids

Celebrating with kids? Our New Year's Eve games for kids and families plan a whole family night, including an early midnight for little ones.

• Year in review This or That: quick, and kids can answer for themselves.
• Hourly envelopes: younger kids can open the 8pm and 9pm ones before bed.
• Wax fortune telling: with adult supervision, and usually the kids’ favorite.
• Time capsule: kids can put a drawing in the envelope.

How to plan the night

1. As people arrive: Year in review This or That.
2. Around 8pm: first envelope, moment of the year.
3. After dinner: Most Likely To predictions and Whose resolution is it?
4. Around 10pm: Two truths and a lie and Never Have I Ever.
5. Around 11pm: time capsule and wax fortune telling.
6. 11:30pm: Countdown Truth or Dare, then drinks and the countdown.

The takeaway

A great New Year's Eve party is not remembered for the fireworks, it is remembered for the laughs in the hours before them. If you do not want to write questions yourself, download Party Games by Guessy for free: Most Likely To, Never Have I Ever and Truth or Dare start in seconds, and everything works offline, even when the mobile network gives up at midnight. Hosting Christmas first? Here are our Christmas party games.