8 Drinking Games to Liven Up Any College Party

Music, conversation, dancing lights, and drinks – the four basic requirements of any good college party. But what happens when the party starts to die down and everybody starts to seem a little bit too sober? Well, if you have some drinks, some friends, and a sense of humor; we have the solution – drinking games!

Most of the best college drinking games go above and beyond fun, and are the perfect activity to get everyone out of their shell and interacting. You’ll notice how a stash of plastic cups can quickly get rid of any polite awkwardness at the start of the night and turn it into the raging anarchy of drunk college students by the end of it.

But how do you find the right college party game? God forbid somebody suggests yet another game of ring of fire, right? If you’re in need of a bit of inspiration to switch things up and get the party started, DrinkUp brings you ideas of some of the best college drinking games for you to choose from; all ranging from the classics, to True American – the new girl drinking game that everybody seems to be raging about, to some you might just not have heard of yet

All of these games come in different forms, but by the end of the night, you’ll see that they are usually well worth the time and effort. Let’s dive in!

#1 Mr & Mrs

Mr & Mrs is a game usually played at weddings, but that doesn’t stop drunk college students from turning it into one of the best college drinking games where everybody gets crunk (yep, just made it up, it means crazy drunk and we give you permission to use it).

This college party game works best in groups that are small, and you’ll have to know each other pretty well too. It’s pretty much the perfect college party game with drinks to play with housemates.

How to play:

1. Grab your first pair of victims, and sit them back to back.

2. Begin to ask them a series of questions, you can ask things like ‘’ Who is the best cook?’’ or ‘’ Who has the worst hangovers?’’

3. If the person thinks it’s them, they have to raise their glass in the air. If they think it’s the other person, they put their glass towards the floor.

4. If your friend’s answers match, they win! So, as an example, if Sally thinks that she’s the best cook, and her friend Adam also thinks that Sally is the best cook, which is unlikely, but they’re fine and both will not have to drink. 

5. However, if they both think that the other is the best cook, then their answers don’t match and they both have to drink.

This college party game can be hysterical if you’re clever with your questions, and can also be quite controversial. If you’re drinking with friends that you should know more about, try not to ruin your relationships while you’re at it!

#2 Drinking Jenga

Drinking with friends has never been more fun. This college party game requires you to do a bit of preparation beforehand, but it’s a great way to get your drunk creative juices flowing.

As the name states, you’ll have to own a set of Jenga. If you don’t have one, then we’re sorry! But you’ll have to invest in one in order to play this game. We promise it’s so worth it though!

How to play:

1. During set up, pour a bit of each drink into a pint glass and put it in the middle. Whoever allows the Jenga tower to fall has to chug their entire glass!

2. Start by writing a different command on each Jenga block, then set up the tower as normal.

3. When a block is taken from the tower without it falling over, the person who removes the block must do the command written on it.

#3 New Girl Drinking Game – The One and Only True American !

If you’re not sure what we mean when we say ‘new girl drinking game’, we’re referring to a game played on the hilarious ‘New Girl’ tv series. True American is its name and the game basically revolves around the floor being lava, drinking from a bottle of whiskey surrounded by beers, and you shouting ‘’JFK’’ and ‘’FDR’’ sometimes. There is more to it than that, but not that much more.

How to play everyone’s favorite new girl drinking game:

1. To start playing True American, you’ll need 4 or more players, furniture to stand on, a bottle of whiskey, and a hell of a lot of cans of beer. 

2. Place a small stand or table in the center of a wide-open room, this will be your castle.

3. Grab your bottle of whiskey and put it in the center of the castle. Then arrange four lines containing at least 5 beers each way branching off of the whiskey bottle. The whiskey bottle is referred to as the king of the castle, whilst the beers are the pawns.

4. The spaces between the lines of pawns are the four zones. Imagine that the four zones extend all the way out into the room and fill each zone with 5 pieces of furniture that players can stand on. If you don’t have furniture you can use pillows, blankets, or even sheets of paper. The most important thing is that players have something to stand on, as the floor in this game is lava.

5. Make sure that you arrange the furniture in each zone in a circle and that the spaces are close enough for players to jump from one space to another. One space always has to be within reach of the castle.

6. Now comes the time to pick teams! Hold up a random number of fingers to your forehead all at the same time. Anyone with the same number of fingers held up is on your team. Keep doing this until the teams become even.

7. To start True American, every player shotguns a beer at the same time. Whoever finishes first, goes first, whoever finishes second goes second, and so on.

8. The first player then yells ‘’1 2 3 JFK!’’ then everyone else yells, ‘’FDR’’.

9. All of the players then proceed to grab a pawn from the castle and run to a random space in one of the four zones.

10. Players can only move one space on their turn, and must always move clockwise around the circle in the zone that they’re in.

11. Once a player reaches a space closest to the castle, they grab another pawn and move on to the next zone to their left.

12. Players must always have at least one pawn in their hand and no more than three pawns.

13. If a player finishes their last pawn, they are out of the game. A player is also out of the game if they happen to touch the lava. However, a player can open and finish a non-pawn beer to re-enter the game at any time.

14. On a player’s turn, they can give the other players a chance to move in one of three ways.

15. First – they can call out ‘1, 2, 3’ at which point the rest of the players put a number between 1 and 5 on their forehead. Whoever is holding up a number that no one else has moves forward one space.

16. Second, the player can say a quote and ask the other players to finish it. Whoever finishes the quote first, moves forward two spaces.

17. Third – the player can say two people, places, or things, and let the other players guess what the two nouns have in common. Whoever guesses first moves forward three spaces.

18. Players continue to take turns until all of the pawns have been removed from the castle. At that point, the first player to finish the pawns in their hands, land on a space next to the castle, and take a swig from the king, wins the game, and probably a lifetime of glory.

The new girl drinking game is really one of the best college drinking games! True American is fun, unique, and is the perfect way to interact with each other when drinking with friends.

#4 The Triple Threat of Quick and Easy Irish Drinking Games!

Shot Potato

Shot potato is very similar to hot potato except that there are no potatoes involved… and instead of innocent little kids, it’s a bunch of drunk college students passing shots. On that note, let’s dive in!

So, fill up your favorite drink in a shot glass, play some music, and start passing around the shot. When the music stops, the person holding the shot has to take a drink.

This game is fun, but the only problem is that it can get pretty repetitive after a while. That’s why we thought we would add two more games for you! Up next, is the Two Euro Spin.

The Two Euro Spin

A very simple college party game – Someone will sit out each round and spin a coin. As the coin spins, each drinker must drink as much as they can until the coin stops spinning.

Fisty Kisses

The last one is called fisty kisses, everyone will apply a heavy coat of lipstick and drink from a communal glass. The last person to get the glass pretends to be angry and yells ‘’Hey, there’s lipstick on my glass! Who did this?!’’ The first person to laugh at this has to take a shot.

#5 Chandelier

Chandelier is super fun, easy to learn, and one of the best college drinking games. Prepare to bounce some balls around while drinking with friends!

You’re going to need:

• 16oz Party Cups
• Center Cup Death Cup
• Ping Pong Balls

How to play:

1. Begin by setting up the game, everyone puts their own filled cup into the middle of a table with one ‘’ death cup’’ in the middle of all the others.

2. We know you know what’s coming… Everybody needs to pour a little of their drinks into the death cup. Sorry!

3. The objective of the game is to bounce the ball into the middle and try to get it into somebody else’s cup.

4. If the ball actually does make it into another’s cup, the owner has to chug their drink. After finishing it all, they have to then fill it up again and put it back into the middle.

5. If a player happens to sink the ball into the death cup, everyone must chug their drink, and then flip it upside down onto the table.

6. The last person to flip their cup must drink the death cup!

7. If a player misses a cup, the turn then passes to the player on their left.

You keep playing this until either you’re too wasted, or, something better comes along.

#6 Loose Tongues

To be able to play loose tongues requires you to think fast. Honestly, no idea why we’re suggesting it to a bunch of drunk college students, but to hell with it, it’s a good game!

How to Play

1. Grab two players, proceed to count down from three, and show them both the playing card. They then have to think of a word that starts with the same letter as the suit of that card.

2. For example, if you showed them the ‘five of clubs, they could shout out ‘’CRACKER’’, ‘’CROPS’’, ‘CRAZY COLLEGE KIDS’’ and so on. Whoever says the word last loses and has to drink.

3. You can make it even more difficult by naming words that begin with the second or third letter instead, or introducing some categories.

4. The fun part of this game is that when trying to think of a word, panic sets in! Especially when it’s combined with alcohol. When drinking with friends, they always tend to shout out the weirdest words, which is what makes this a hilarious college party game to play.
   

#7 Edward 40 Hands

Edward 40 hands is an extreme drinking game, but it’s super fun and should be near the top of your list!

How to play

1. Start by choosing a person from the group, and duct tape a bottle of alcohol to each hand.

2. This person can not be freed until they have finished drinking the two bottles of alcohol.

3. You can make it more engaging by adding a timer.

4. If they don’t finish their bottles in the set time, they must take part in a dare or pour the alcohol on themselves.

#8 Pizza Box Game

As college students, we know that you LIVE on pizza. So for this college party game, grab out those boxes that you have piled up in the corner of the room, and let’s get started.

How to play:

1. First off, begin to flatten your pizza boxes and cut it to A4/A3 sizes depending on the number of players.

2. Next, grab a coin and a bunch of your friends. Each player will then try to flip the coin onto the box. When this is done, draw a circle where it landed that is the same size as the coin and write down a rule within the circle.

3. You’ll find that the cardboard will start filling up more and more, and you’ll eventually start landing on these rules. When a person throws a coin and it lands on a certain rule, everybody has to do the action that the rule states. You can get as creative as you want with the rules, but here are some of DrinkUp’s favorites to include:

• Let the player write anything they want on you
• Chug your drink
• Tell your most embarrassing story
• Swap some clothing with the person sitting next to or opposite you
• No one is allowed to swear
• No using each other’s names
• And pretty much any rule from ring of fire, kings cup, whatever it’s called now!

When a rule is broken, the person who broke them has to drink! With Pizza Box, you’re able to decide the direction your game goes and the intensity of it.

So, there you have it! 8 of the best college drinking games. Now go and have a great time! As always, please remember to drink responsibly! None of these college party games are meant to lead to you becoming sick due to over-consumption of alcohol. Stay safe, and have fun!