45 Games to Play When Bored (No App or Money Needed)

Bored and craving something to play? You don't need money or a single download. Here are 45 games to play when bored — sorted by whether you're alone, with friends, on your phone, or armed with nothing but a pen and paper.

Games to play when bored alone

• Solitaire (physical deck or in your head with cards).
• Sudoku, crosswords, and logic puzzles.
• The daily word game — one round, then stop.
• Chess or checkers against yourself or a computer.
• Speedrun tidying: beat your own "clean this shelf" time.
• Memory challenges: memorize a poem, a deck order, or vocabulary.
• Mazes — draw one, then solve it later.
• Free-writing games: write a story in exactly 50 words.

Games to play with friends (in person)

• Charades or Pictionary.
• Two Truths and a Lie.
• Would You Rather.
• 20 Questions.
• Never Have I Ever (keep it friendly).
• The Alphabet Game — a word per letter on a chosen topic.
• Categories / Scattergories with pen and paper.
• Card games: Uno, Go Fish, President, Crazy Eights.

Games to play over text or online with friends

• 20 Questions by text.
• Would You Rather over chat.
• "Story building" — each person adds one line.
• Emoji movie quiz: describe a film in emojis.
• Trivia: take turns asking questions.
• "Guess the song" from a lyric.
• Online multiplayer word or drawing games in the browser.

Pen-and-paper games

• Dots and Boxes.
• Tic-Tac-Toe (and its bigger cousin, "Ultimate" Tic-Tac-Toe).
• Hangman.
• Battleship on grid paper.
• Sprouts (a simple pencil-and-paper strategy game).
• M.A.S.H. (the classic future-predictor game).
• Consequences — fold-and-pass story writing.

Quick games to play on your phone (no download)

• The daily word, number, and geography guessing games.
• Browser-based classics: chess, solitaire, 2048.
• Typing-speed tests — beat your own score.
• "This or That" quizzes and personality tests.
• Geo-guessing games with street-view images.

No one to play with? Here's the fun part

Half the fun of a game is sharing it. If you don't have anyone around, drop a "who's bored and wants to play 20 questions?" on I'm Bored — a live, anonymous feed where people post exactly when they're bored. You'll see dozens of others in the same boat right now, and it's a fun place to throw out a would-you-rather and read the chaos in the replies.

Bored right now? Start a game

Pick one solo game and one you can play with someone, and you'll never be stuck. And when boredom strikes and there's no one around, I'm Bored is the fastest way to find other bored people in seconds.