Galentine’s Day gatherings may have evolved over the last few years. Rather than brunching with your buddies, you may choose to toast mimosas and eat waffles over video calls — especially if you miss your long-distance BFFs. But that doesn’t mean Feb. 13 needs to be any less fun. If you’re looking for Galentine’s Day Zoom games that’ll help you celebrate with your best friends, welcome. Here, you’ll find the fun and festivities you seek to celebrate Leslie Knope’s favorite holiday.
You’re probably a Zoom party pro by now, but if you need some ideas on how to host a Zoom Galentine’s Day party, it’s a lot easier than you might think. Do you dread decorating but still want to feel festive? Let Zoom virtual backgrounds be your guide. Looking for a way to make a socially-distanced party a little more special? Send out Galentine’s Day cards in advance and treat them like an old-school invitation. Don’t want to miss out on the food and drinks — arguably the best part of any party? Have everyone send out their favorite co*cktail recipe or ideas for Galentine’s Day brunch fare at home.
Of course, the only requirement for Galentine’s Day is that you spend it with your best friends. A Zoom link and an hour or two are really all you need. However, if thematic competition is your thing, this list of 25 Galentine's Day games you can play on Zoom, including trivia, Pictionary, and Catchphrase, is for you.
1. Scrabble
Backyard.co was a Zoom party savior in 2020 and now lives on Discord. The site combines video chat with your favorite games — from Scrabble to crosswords to Mafia — so you don't have to worry about sorting out who's sharing the screen. Just send out your game room link to up to 12 friends and enjoy!
2. Catchphrase
The Game Girl has an online version of Catchphrase that's perfect for Galentine’s Day Zoom parties. You can also select how difficult you want your words to be. If you're looking for something a little more on-theme, The Game Girl also has a list of Valentine's Day words, songs, and phrases.
3. Scattergories
If your friends are fans of word games, Scattergories is for you. You can even make it holiday-themed with these downloadable Valentine's Day Scattergories cards from the Etsy shop Gathered Again.
4. Host A Watch Party
OK, so this one isn't a game, but it's still a fun and easy way to spend some low-key time together. Queue up your favorite romantic movies and use services like Netflix’s Teleparty or Hulu Watch Party to enjoy them together. It's pretty easy to turn any movie into a drinking game, especially a rom-com drinking game (e.g., drink if one of the protagonists works at a magazine).
5. Wikipedia Races
This was my go-to game throughout the lockdown. The goal is to be the first person to get from one random Wikipedia page to another. However, you can only click on hyperlinks to get from page to page — no back button or ctrl-F to search for a specific word. Pick a page for everyone to start on (e.g., Valentine's Day) and an unrelated page to end on (e.g., waffles) and start clicking.
6. Galentine’s Day PowerPoint Night
Overachiever gang, rise up! It's time for you and your friends to create strange and/or ultra-specific PowerPoints you'll then present over Zoom. Have thoughts on the definitive ranking of the hottest Disney characters? Need to spread your truth about why waffles usurp pancakes? Now is your time to shine.
7. Heads Up!
You know the Head's Up! app has been on your phone for a while now. Your Galentine's Day Zoom party is the time to put it to good use.
8. Galentine’s Day Trivia
Make your own Galentine's Day trivia — featuring Leslie Knope’s best quotes or facts about iconic celeb besties — using a site like Trivia Maker or try out an app like Bar None Trivia, which has trivia decks with different themes.
9. “Most Likely To” Prompts
Find a list of "Most Likely To" prompts, create some Galentine's Day-themed prompts ahead of time, or just make them up as you go. After you read a prompt, everyone has to say who the prompt best fits. It's like your senior superlatives minus the high school drama.
10. Would You Rather
Brightful has a bunch of games you can easily play online with friends regardless of where you are. Their version of Would You Rather is a great place to start.
11. Dirty Minds
Dirty Minds is a word guessing game where you give salacious clues for an extremely non-salacious thing (e.g., What goes in hard and pink and comes out soft and sticky? Bubble gum). There's a condensed version of Dirty Minds you can play online or download a set of questions from Etsy.
12. Wine Tasting
You can get the same wine delivered to your friends' houses with services like Drizly or co*cktail Courier, or have everyone pick up a few of their favorite mini wine bottles on their own. Write down tasting notes or just swirl your glass every once in a while to feel like a sommelier.
13. Taboo
Get nostalgic and play Taboo over Zoom. Bonus points if you use Valentine's Day-themed Taboo words.
14. Codenames
If you've got a smaller group, you'll want to try out Codenames. It's a guessing game where you try to get your partner to pick out which cards are yours. Each card has a word on it and you give single-word clues that could apply to multiple cards. For example, if your team had cards with the words tree, ghost, and tent, you might say something like "campfire" to get your teammate to pick the correct cards. The first team to guess all their cards wins.
15. Bingo
Go all out with your online bingo game and dress like your 80-year-old self. Bingo markers are optional but highly encouraged.
16. Jackbox Games
You can never go wrong with a good game of Fibbage or Quiplash, which you can purchase as a one-off game if you don't want to get the whole Jackbox package.
17. Hearts
Is there a more appropriate time to learn how to play Hearts? You can give the classic card game a try using a site like Playingcards.io, which has a virtual deck of cards.
18. Boggle
Word Scatter is an online version of Boggle that lets you create a game room and provides you with a link to share with your friends. Any Galentine's- or Valentine's Day-related words get an extra point.
19. Name That Tune
There are a few ways you can play this over Zoom. You could go the classic route and have your friends guess old-school love songs or you could make play songs that celebrate female friendship. Play the first three to five seconds of the song, and you can start in the middle of a lesser-known verse to make it more difficult. You could get really wild and use an audio reverser to play a clip of a well-known song backward and see who really knows their stuff.
20. Never Have I Ever
Make up your "never have I ever" statement as you go around the call or use a downloadable list of Galentine's Day-themed Never Have I Ever questions from Etsy.
21. Two Truths And A Lie
To make this classic sleepover game a little ~spicier~, set the rules so all the truths and lies have to be related to funny dating stories.
22. All Bad Cards
If your friends like Cards Against Humanity, they'll be into All Bad Cards. Every round, each player gets 10 response cards. Whoever is Card Queen plays a prompt card and everyone plays a response card they think she'll like best.
23. Pictionary
Create your own Pictionary game room with a site like Skribbl.io. Make it thematic by using a list of Valentine's Day words and phrases.
24. Fishbowl
There is an online version of the party game Fishbowl, which combines Catchphrase, Charades, and Password.
25. The 36 Questions To Fall In Love
If you and your friends haven't gone through this set of questions to "fall in love with anyone" from the New York Times, Galentine's Day is the time. The questions range from inane to intimate and will likely spark conversations you and your friends haven't delved into yet. If Galentine's Day is about anything, it's about reaffirming those connections with your closest friends.
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