Valentine's Day
20 Zoom Games For Virtual Valentine’s Day Parties
Including a romantic twist on charades.
by Emma Carey and Bustle Editors
Updated:
Originally Published:
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Is there anything less romantic than the words “Zoom call”? If this Feb. 14 doesn’t have you feeling the love, you are far from alone. Fortunately, the day doesn’t have to be complete devoid of celebration if you plan a virtual Valentine’s Day party with your friends — single, cuffed, or otherwise. And there are plenty of Valentine’s Day games to play on Zoom so it’ll feel a little less like you put streamers in the office conference room and a little more like the kind of love-centric celebration you’re used to.
On the bright side, planning a Zoom party can be a lot less stressful. Instead of sending out invites, you can just email a link to your Valentine’s Day Zoom party. No need for full-out decor. Just pick out which Valentine’s Day Zoom background you want to use. And while you might not want to make dinner reservations, you can absolutely create a romantic dinner menu based entirely on TikTok recipes. From there, all that’s left is deciding how you’ll entertain your guests, aka which games will keep the Zoom fatigue at bay.
Whether you’ll be celebrating with other couples or are planning a group call with all your single besties, here are 20 games you’ll actually want to play on Zoom this Valentine’s Day.
The New York Times’ 36 Questions That Lead to Love
Sure, the 36 Questions That Lead to Love isn’t necessarily one’s first thought for a game night with friends. But, just as romantic partners can benefit from this exercise in mutual vulnerability, it can be a great bonding activity for you and your besties. Given the intimate nature of this quiz, it’s best to save this for a chill night with a small crew of close friends.
We’re Not Really Strangers
Designed to spark meaningful conversations, We’re Not Really Strangers offers a variety of card packs with prompts to foster unique experiences between you and your loved ones. Purchase the family edition or relationship expansion pack, and break the ice that you didn’t know was there between you and your loved ones. To play the physical card game via Zoom, assign whoever owns the deck the role of emcee for the evening, and have them dole out each player’s question prompts via chat feature.
Rom-Com Drinking Game
Most of the greatest Valentine’s Day rom-coms are as saccharine as drugstore candies and as formulaic as a Hallmark card. But, the predictability of their plots makes rom-coms the perfect structure for a drinking game. Find a list of classic rom-com tropes, or make a list of your own, and drink every time one of the tropes occurs. If you’re hoping to celebrate your beau without the booze, you can always opt for a festive mock-tail.
Finish the Love Song Lyrics
If Zoom lag is interrupting your virtual karaoke night, you can still enjoy some silly serenading with a game of finish the lyrics. Have each guest arrive with a few half-finished lyrics from popular love songs, and take turns filling in the missing lyrics.
The Alphabet Game
You might remember playing the alphabet game the family road trips of your childhood. The impromptu game is still a tried and true staple for ice-breaking and curing boredom. Choose a Valentine’s Day-inspired theme, like candies or types of flowers, and take turns naming an item from the category that starts with the next letter of the alphabet. For instance, Player 1 might say, “Almond Joy,” to which Player 2 can respond with, “Butterfinger.”
Matchmaker
If you're the kind of friend that is forever trying to set your other friends up, this is the perfect game for you. Play Matchmaker using a list of fictional or celebrity couples, giving your friends the name of one person in the couple and having them guess the other. For instance, if you say "Chrissy Teigen," whoever says "John Legend" first wins.
Valentine's Day-Themed Bingo
If you're looking for something that requires minimal explanation and maximum fun, bingo is for you. You can make your own bingo cards or get ideas from existing Valentine's themed bingo cards online.
Secret Admirer
Want to get really honest with your friends? In this game, you'll use an anonymous name generator and have each of your guests write three compliments about the person that was selected for them. Then, take turns guessing who gave who what compliment. If touchy-feely isn't your friend group's thing, you could have everyone just write three words they associate with the person they get.
Scavenger Hunt
Just because your party is virtual, doesn't mean you have to stay in your seats the entire time. Get everyone moving by setting up a V-Day scavenger hunt. You can choose prompts that are related to the holiday like "find something red and pink" or "grab a heart-shaped object." If you need some ideas, this Valentine's scavenger items list from Chiff is a great place to start.
Jackbox Games
You can never go wrong with breaking out the Jackbox party games pack. Games like Fibbage and Word Spud will give your group low-key activities that also leave room for conversation.
Charades
If you're feeling a flair for the dramatics, then Rom-Com Charades is for you. Use a site like The Game Gal for a set of predetermined words or make the game thematic by having everyone write down names of Rom-Coms, celebrity crushes, Valentine's Day gifts, etc.
The Newlywed Game
This is perfect if you'll be Zooming with other couples. If you want to prep ahead of time, email out your list of Newlywed Game questions to everyone and have them send back answers before your call. You could also just ask questions as you go and have each person secretly write their answers on a piece of paper. The questions can be specific to each relationship (e.g. Where was your first date together?) or about each partner's likes/dislikes (e.g. If your partner won one million dollars, what's the first thing they'd buy?) For the latter, make sure everyone sends in/writes down their own answer as well. Then, compare the answers in each couple. Whenever an answer matches or a partner is able to guess what their partner wrote down, they get a point.
Valentine's Day Trivia
Take a deep dive into the lesser-known facts of this love-centric holiday. There are plenty of sites with pre-made Valentine's Day trivia quizzes or you can create your own trivia game with more personalized questions about love, dating, and the holiday itself.
Code Names
Codenames will test communication between each couple. In this guessing game, you want to get your partner to pick out which cards are yours. You'll give single-word clues that could apply to multiple cards in order to get your partner to correctly guess which ones are yours. For example, if your team had cards with the words love, chocolate, and flowers, you might say something like "Valentine's Day" to get your teammate to pick the correct cards. Whichever team guesses all their cards first wins.
Backyard.co
If you've run out of Zoom games to play, Backyard.co will be your new best friend. They've got dozens of games to choose from, like Fish Bowl, Mafia, and Pictionary. Plus, there's a camera and mic built into the platform so you don't have to worry about screensharing.
Scattergories
Play a standard game of Scattergories online or check out a downloadable Valentine's Day version on Etsy. You could have each couple on the call work as a team or have everyone fend for themselves.
Taboo
There are a couple of ways you can play Taboo on Zoom. You can use a site like PlayTaboo.com that generates cards for you or build your own Taboo game in Google slides and incorporate Valentine's Day-themed words.
Most Likely To
High school superlatives, be damned! This game asks you to name "Who's most likely to get married in Vegas? or "Who's most likely to have ghosted a date?" among your friend group. If you need ideas, this list of "most likely to" questions from Scary Mommy is a good place to start. You could also ask questions within each couple, having everyone decide whether they or their partner is messier or more likely to run out of gas while driving.
PowerPoint Party
If you're unfamiliar, a PowerPoint party has each guest create a PowerPoint that is strange, uber-specific, or some combination of the two. It could be a presentation on which flower is the worst to get as a gift or an ultimate ranking of the hottest Disney characters. Then, everyone presents. If you really want to mix it up, have everyone present someone else's PowerPoint so they have to make up their presentation on the fly. Just like in high school!
Dirty Minds
If you're looking for something that sounds NSFW but is actually extremely SFR, Dirty Minds for you. It's a word guessing game where you give salacious clues for an extremely non-salacious thing. For example, "What goes in hard and pink and comes out soft and sticky?" The answer is bubble gum, you perv. You can play a condensed version of Dirty Minds online or download a set of questions from Etsy.
If all else fails, you can't go wrong with a Rom-Com watch party. Turn it into a drinking game for an extremely low-stakes, high-inebriation activity.
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