Halloween is the time to dig out all your best tricks and games for some seasonal mischief.
No matter how old you are, it’s a great excuse to let your hair down and spend time with friends and family.
Plenty of Halloween party games are suitable for the whole family to enjoy, but some are best left to the grown-ups.
In this guide, we’ve got lots of Halloween party games for kids, adults and teens. There are traditional games, as well as a few you might not have heard of.
Find the best game for your Halloween party and get ready for a frightfully good time!
25 best Halloween party games for all ages
Halloween party games for kids and teens
1. Wink murder
There’s been a murder! Wink murder is an age-old party game that’s easy to learn – and the best part is that you don’t need to buy anything to play it.
Choose one child to be the detective, then get them to leave the room. The remaining children stand in a circle. You ask them to close their eyes, and then you walk around the circle and tap one child on the shoulder.
That child plays the murderer. The detective comes back into the room and stands in the middle of the circle.
The murderer winks at other children in the circle, who pretend to die and fall to the ground. The detective has to guess who the murderer is, while the murderer tries to hide their identity.
You can limit the number of guesses the detective has or let them have unlimited goes. There are lots of variations to this game, so you can choose the one you like best.
This is an ideal Halloween party game for teens and older children, as they need to be able to wink – something that little children sometimes struggle with.
You need at least four players for wink murder, so this isn’t a game for small parties.
2. Apple bobbing
Apple bobbing is a classic Halloween party game, so it’s a great choice for anyone who wants a more traditional celebration.
You’ll need something that you can fill with water, such as a large bucket, and plenty of apples! The players need to try to lift the apples out of the water by biting them, which is easier said than done. They’re not allowed to use their hands – that’s cheating!
This game can get messy, which is all part of the fun! Keep some towels nearby in case of any spills and so players can dry themselves off after their turn.
3. Pin the nose on the witch
Most kids have played pin the tail on the donkey, so why not update it for Halloween? Draw or paint the outline of a witch on a large sheet of paper, then make paper facial features.
Blindfold the children and get them to pin the witch’s nose, eyes and mouth onto the paper, with hilarious results! The winner is the one who gets them closest to the correct position on the witch’s face.
4. Halloween pinata
Pinatas are tremendous fun for all ages! Everyone can have a go at hitting the pinata with a stick until it breaks apart.
You can even make your own pinata ahead of time using our simple how to make a pinata guide.
5. Halloween mystery boxes
Halloween mystery boxes are a cheap and easy party game for kids to enjoy. You need to collect some boxes (shoe or tissue boxes work well for this).
Cut a hole into the box that’s small enough to fit a child’s hand. You can fill the box with something disgusting like witch’s eyeballs (peeled grapes) or witch's hair (cold spaghetti or noodles). You can tell the child what they should believe is inside the box or ask them to guess, it’s up to you!
You can be very inventive and come up with your own terrifying body parts to put inside your boxes, but if you’re stuck for ideas we’d recommend checking out this mystery box guide from kidsplayandcreate.com.
Wrap your boxes in tissue paper and decorate them with Halloween-themed drawings to complete the look.
6. Witches’ hat ring toss
Isn’t this clever? You can make your own witches’ hats from black paper or old cereal boxes that have been painted.
You’ll need hoops to throw over the top to play the game, but you could make your own using cardboard or even rope tied in a loop.
Find out how to make a witches’ hat ring toss with the Sometimes Creative blog.
7. Musical chairs
Musical chairs is a fun Halloween party game for the whole family. All you need is some chairs and some music.
Put out one chair less than the number of players. The players have to dance around the chairs in a circle until the music stops, then scramble to find a seat. The player left without a chair is out of the game.
Keep removing a chair each time until there’s one player left – they win the game!
8. Pass the parcel
Choose a fun gift and cover it in lots of layers of wrapping paper. Get the children to sit on the floor and pass the parcel to the child next to them until you stop the music.
The child holding the parcel gets to unwrap a layer, then the music starts again and the game resumes. The child who unwraps the last layer gets to keep the gift.
Cover the present in lots of layers so that each child gets the chance to unwrap at least one layer.
If you like, you can tuck extra gifts or candy between the layers so that more than one child gets a treat. Alternatively, you can hide other things inside – like plastic spiders!
9. Lucky dip
Fill a cardboard box with scraps of screwed up paper or newspaper, then add some wrapped gifts. Get each child to rummage in the box until they find something to unwrap.
You can include just nice things, or conceal some joke gifts (like wrapped up household objects) within the box so each turn is a surprise.
10. Toilet paper mummies
We love this brilliant toilet paper mummies game idea from sugarbeecrafts.com.
Split the kids into two teams and choose one child from each team to be the toilet paper mummy. When the time starts, the children have to wrap their mummy in toilet paper as quickly as they can.
The winning team is the one who runs out of toilet paper first.
11. Dangling doughnuts
Tie string around ring doughnuts and hang them in the air, then make your guests race to see who can eat their doughnut first. They’re not allowed to use their hands!
Find out how to play the doughnuts on a string game with tips from marthastewart.com.
12. Pumpkin hunt
Hide little pumpkins around your home or garden and let the children track them down! For younger children, put them in more obvious places on their eye level so they can play the game too.
The winner is the child who collects the most pumpkins. You could substitute the pumpkins for something else to fit the Halloween theme, such as mini chocolate bars or decorations. Just make sure the children have plenty of them to find.
If any children are struggling to find the hidden treasure, you can give them a hint so they don’t miss out.
13. How many sweets are in the jar?
Take a glass jar and fill it up with candy, then ask your guests to guess the number of sweets in a jar.
Write down everyone’s answer and the winner is the person who is closest to the right number. The lucky winner gets to take the jar and its contents home.
14. Pop goes the pumpkin
Make your Halloween party go off with a bang with this pop goes the pumpkin game from marthastewart.com.
This game is more effort to set up than some of the others on our list, but we think it’s well worth the time it takes to make.
15. Costume contest
Celebrate the kids’ outfits by holding a costume contest or fashion show. If you like, you can come up with a range of prizes so nobody is left out (scariest costume, cutest outfit, best face paint, etc).
If you don’t want it to be competitive, get the kids to do a turn on the catwalk to show off their outfits.
Halloween party ideas for kids
Invite little ghouls and goblins over for a chilling Halloween party. Make sure your event goes off without a hitch with Gathered’s Halloween party ideas for kids.
Halloween party games for adults
1. Pumpkin carving contest
Build the anticipation for your party with a pumpkin carving contest! Get all of your guests to bring their own pre-carved pumpkin to the party, then ask everyone to vote for the one they like best.
Not sure where to begin? Explore Gathered’s pumpkin carving ideas for lots of creepy inspiration.
2. Murder mysteries
If you want a more sophisticated Halloween party game for adults, you can’t go wrong with a murder mystery theme.
Everyone is assigned a role to play and can turn up dressed as their character! There’s a huge range of themes to choose from, including 1930s plots with Agatha Christie vibes and Mafia-themed crimes.
There are plenty of free murder mystery games available online or you can opt for a murder mystery kit that comes with everything you need to host your party.
3. Guess who?
Guess who is a classic party game! Write the names of celebrities on slips of paper or post-it notes, then ask your guests to stick the names on their foreheads without looking at them.
To find out who they are, they have to ask the other players for clues using only yes/no questions. For example: am I a man? Am I a singer? Am I in movies?
You could make the game Halloween-themed or just come up with some general suggestions.
4. Spooky trivia
Put your friends' trivia knowledge to the test with a quiz! You can be the quiz master and come up with rounds of fiendish questions. You can keep the questions general, pick a Halloween theme or make it personal by asking questions about your guests to see how well they know one another.
There are lots of free pub quiz questions available online, so planning your evening couldn’t be easier.
5. Werewolves
If you’re a fan of The Traitors TV show, you’ll love playing Werewolves. There are a few different versions of this game that you may have come across before, such as Mafia.
You need a large group to be able to play this game with one person who doesn’t take part to act as a moderator.
The moderator chooses some of the players to be werewolves, who must hide among the group and choose other players to “kill”. The other players must try to work out who the werewolves are and vote them out.
Learn how to play werewolves with this guide from Wikihow.
6. Two truths and a lie
Ask each of your guests to share two truths and a lie, then the rest of the players have to vote on which statement is a lie.
This is lots of fun to play and you’ll learn things about your friends that you never knew before.
7. Halloween jinx
Choose some words to be jinxed for the evening and score your guests on how many times they slip up. At the end of the night, one of the guests will be the loser and you can give a prize to the player who managed to avoid saying the jinx word.
You can pick Halloween-themed jinx words, but it’s more fun to choose common words or phrases that your guests will find it difficult to avoid saying – especially after a few drinks!
8. Can toss
Save your old tin cans to make a Halloween can toss. Give the cans a seasonal look with these free can toss printables from jordanseasyentertaining.com.
Stack the cans up and let your guests have a go at knocking them down with a ball or a bean bag. Increase the difficulty by making them stand far away from the cans and limiting the number of goes each player can take.
9. Charades
Set up a game of Halloween-themed charades to entertain your party guests. You can include horror films, scary books, songs or famous characters alongside less seasonal prompts.
If you include a mix of spooky and non-spooky suggestions it’ll keep all the players on their toes.
10. Pumpkin sweep
Set up two goals and split your guests into two teams. Give each team a broom and a pumpkin. When the time starts, you need to sweep your pumpkin to the goal, then bring it back for the next player. The game’s over when each player has had their turn and brought the pumpkins back.
Halloween party games for terrific gatherings
Halloween party games are a brilliant way to unite people of all ages and get them into the spirit of the season.
There are Halloween party game ideas to suit all ages, from tots to adults. Traditional games such as apple bobbing continue to be popular, but you can always liven up the party by adding new games into the mix!
It’s guaranteed to make it a memorable night for everyone – they’ll be dying to come to your next party.
Prepare beastly bites with our Halloween food ideas
After all those games, you’ll have worked up an appetite! Is it really a Halloween party if you don’t have some delicious food to get stuck into?
Make some tasty and terrifying treats with Gathered’s Halloween food ideas.
