Top 5 Must-Play Party Games This Holiday Season (2021)

The holiday season is in full swing, and that usually means traveling to see family and friends, or hosting them yourself! There’s no better way to spend time together than with some fun party games that get everyone involved - who can turn down some friendly competition? So start up the vacuum, dust those corners, light the good candles, and download some of these must-play titles to be the best host in town.

Prepare for some real belly laughs with any entry in The Jackbox Party Pack series of games. With its latest entry released back in October, there are now 8 total packs to choose from with ~5 minigames contained in each. These minigames are perfect for stretching your imagination and tapping into your funny side. There are trivia games, word-play competitions, draw-offs, and more. Plus, the music and off-the-wall art direction for this series are just downright charming.

For those with VR headsets, Valve’s The Lab is akin to playing Wii Sports the morning you opened the Wii. It’s simple, innovative, and the perfect showcase for the unparalleled immersion delivered by VR headsets. While there are more immediately impressive titles available, The Lab is free to download and accessible enough for even the grandparents who pass through your threshold. In fact, you may have to pry the headset off them after they find the robot cyclops dog!

Think Super Smash Bros. clone that takes full advantage of modern hardware and connectivity options. Brawhlalla is a 2D fighting game with a charming, family-friendly art direction and accessible gameplay. Also, the plethora of guest characters will have guests of all ages pointing at the screen in nostalgia. It’s free to download with microtransactions, or you can pay $20 to receive all current and future legends. Playing with a group is easy thanks to the private room system that allows you and 7 others to join via PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, iOS, Android, and Steam!

Sounds pretty straightforward, right? This VR-supported game is perfect for small groups of 4-5 players who must talk the diffuser through deactivating a puzzle-like bomb with many moving parts. The catch? The other players need to use a printed manual, provided by the developers, to walk them through it. There is something about the physical printout and incredibly fast pace of this game that makes it so invigorating. Even after that second helping of turkey, you’ll find yourself jumping and screaming in anticipation.

The name Gang Beasts sounds like an 80s cartoon designed to sell toys. Not relevant, but we had to get that out there. Instead, it’s a physics-based fighting game where you and 3 others control “surly gelatinous characters” trying to knock each other out and throw their unconscious bodies off lighthouses, moving trucks and more. The forgiving physics and wacky sandbox of this game make every second of a match unbelievably funny - just don’t be too upset when everyone else in the match decides to gang up on you.

These are just a few party games that are sure to get the family involved this holiday season! But managing to squeeze in just one entry on this list is sure to create belly laughs, forgivable frustration, and healthy competition that will bring everyone together. Do you have games that are your go-to’s for when family and friends come over? Let us know in the comments below - we would love to hear from you!