Drinking Games

Kings Cup (also called Ring of Fire) is the most widely played drinking card game. Beer Pong is the most popular overall if you include non-card games. Both survive on name recognition more than game quality, but they earned that recognition by being easy to teach and hard to mess up. If you already know Kings Cup and want something better, the card games list has eight alternatives that hold up longer.

The best drinking card games for most groups are Kings Cup (the classic everyone knows), Ride the Bus (the most structured option), Pyramid (if your group likes bluffing), and Horserace (if you want everyone watching the same thing at once). All four use a standard 52-card deck.

Most card-based drinking games need at least three players to work well. For two people, Across the Bridge works as a back-and-forth with just two, and Blind Man’s Bluff technically functions with two, though the bluffing gets thin. Higher or Lower (guess whether the next card is higher or lower than the current one, drink if you’re wrong) is the simplest two-player option and needs no setup beyond a shuffled deck.

Across the Bridge has the simplest rules of any card-based drinking game: flip a card, number cards are safe, face cards make you drink. It takes about fifteen seconds to explain. Kings Cup is also beginner-friendly because only one card gets drawn at a time and each rule is self-contained. Screw the Dealer is simple to learn but has a bit more going on strategically, which makes it a good step up after someone’s played a round or two of something easier.

Screw the Dealer (also called by its more explicit name) is a card-guessing game where players try to guess the value of the top card in two attempts. Guess right and the dealer drinks. Guess wrong and you drink the difference between your guess and the actual card. Revealed cards stay face-up so the odds shift as the deck thins. Full rules here.

Never Have I Ever (someone says something they’ve never done, anyone who has done it drinks), Most Likely To (someone asks “who’s most likely to…” and everyone points, whoever gets the most points drinks), and 21 (count to 21 around the circle, the person who says 21 drinks and makes a new rule) all need nothing but people and drinks. Detailed rules pages for no-equipment drinking games are coming soon.

Most drinking card games work with 3 or more players. A few, like Across the Bridge, work with just 2. Games with bluffing or social dynamics (Pyramid, President) get better with 4-6 players. For large groups of 8 or more, Horserace and Kings Cup scale the best because they don’t require individual turns for every player.

This refers to a simple counting game sometimes called 7-14-21 or just “the counting game.” Players sit in a circle and count upward from 1, one number per person. On certain numbers (typically multiples of 7, or numbers containing the digit 7), the player must say “drink” instead of the number, or perform an action like changing direction. Get it wrong and you drink. The specific numbers and rules vary by group. It’s a no-equipment drinking game that gets harder the more you’ve had.

Any game that involves alcohol carries risk. The standard advice applies: know your limits, don’t pressure anyone to drink more than they want to, have water available, and make sure everyone has a safe way home. Every game on this site can be played with non-alcoholic drinks and still be fun. If someone wants to sub in water or juice, the game mechanics work the same. The drinking is the social lubricant, not the point.