Drinking Games for Couples

Most drinking games are built for a crowd. Take away the crowd and the rules that say “everyone drinks” or “pick a teammate” stop doing anything, which is why half the lists of couples games online are party games with the player count changed. This list is the other half: drinking games for 2 that are actually better with two, whether that is a first date at the kitchen table or a tenth anniversary on the sofa. Each game has short rules below and a link to the full page where we have one.

One thing before you start. In a two-player game there is no table to spread the drinks across. Every penalty lands on one of two people, so the games below are written for sips, and the tips at the end say more about that.

Truth or Drink

The simplest game here and the best one for a couple. One of you asks a question, the other answers honestly or drinks to skip it, then you swap.

1. Agree on what a drink is. A sip. You will be asking a lot of questions.
2. Take turns asking one question each. One follow-up is allowed, then the turn changes.
3. Answer or drink. A drink drops the question for good.
4. Either of you can pass for free. Say the word and move on, no drink.

With a partner, the easy questions are the ones you already know the answers to, so start in the middle: worst date before me, the habit of mine you would delete, the thing you have never said out loud. The full page at Truth or Drink has fifty questions sorted by how brave they are.

Higher or Lower

A deck, a table, and a guess. The whole game takes thirty seconds to explain and fills an hour if you let it.

1. One of you flips a card face up. The other guesses whether the next card is higher or lower.
2. Flip the next card. Wrong guess, the guesser drinks and the pile stays. Right guess, keep going.
3. After three right guesses in a row, hand the deck over. The other player starts a new run.
4. Aces are high, and a tie counts as a wrong guess. Decide before the first flip.

Higher or Lower is a two-player game by design and the couples version needs no adjusting. The only house rule worth adding: a wrong guess on a face card is two sips. Full rules and the odds for each card are at Higher or Lower.

Drunk Jenga, couples rules

A Jenga set with a rule written on every block. You pull, you read, you do what it says, and whoever knocks the tower over finishes their drink. It is the one game on this list where something sits between you on the table, which makes it feel like an event.

1. Write a rule on each block before you start. Half of them drinks, half of them tasks.
2. Take turns pulling a block and doing what it says. Put the block on top of the tower.
3. Whoever topples the tower finishes their drink. Rebuild and go again.

Couple-friendly blocks: “tell me something you have never told me”, “describe our first date in three words”, “swap drinks”, “the other player picks a song and you both sit through it”, “compliment me, sincerely”, “do an impression of me”. Mix these with plain “drink 2” blocks so the tower keeps a bit of bite. The standard rules and 36 block ideas to copy are at Drunk Jenga.

Never Have I Ever for two

The party version relies on a big circle where somebody has always done the thing. With two, you already know most of each other’s history, so the game changes: it becomes about what you do not know.

1. Take turns saying “never have I ever” and something you have not done. The other player drinks if they have.
2. If neither of you has done it, the speaker drinks. This is the two-player fix. It stops people saying “never have I ever been to the moon.”
3. If the other player drinks, they tell the story. Short version. That is the point of playing it with two.

Keep it to things you actually want the answer to. Full rules and a long list of prompts are at Never Have I Ever.

Beer Pong for two

Beer Pong is a team game, but the rack does not know that. Play it one on one and the only thing that changes is that nobody is waiting for their partner to shoot.

1. Set up six cups a side in a triangle instead of ten. Ten each is a lot for one person to drink.
2. Take turns throwing one ball. Make a cup and the other player drinks it and pulls it.
3. Re-rack at three cups and at one. Ask before you re-rack; you each get one.
4. Clear the other side to win. The loser drinks whatever is left on the winner’s side, or you both do.

Bounce shots and redemption work exactly as in the full game. The full rules, distances, and re-rack shapes are at how to play Beer Pong.

Would You Rather

No cards, no cups, and the one game on this list that works on a long drive home from the party, with the driver sober and judging.

1. One of you offers two options. “Would you rather never eat cheese again or never listen to music in the car?”
2. The other picks one. They have to pick. Refusing or saying “neither” costs a drink.
3. Now the asker answers the same question. If you picked differently, you both drink. If you picked the same, nobody drinks and the asker has to do better next time.
4. Swap and repeat.

The “both drink on a split” rule is the part that makes it a couples game, because the questions quickly turn into “would you rather move abroad for my job or stay here for yours”, and those are worth asking.

Movie night

Pick a film you have both seen, write five rules, and drink to them. This is the slowest game on the list and the one you can play with dinner on your lap.

1. Choose a film you both know. Something with repeat lines and a predictable plot. Action sequels and romantic comedies are ideal.
2. Write five rules before you press play. “Drink when someone says the title”, “drink when a car explodes”, “drink when the love interest walks in slow motion”.
3. Add one rule each for the other person. “You drink whenever your favorite character is on screen.” This is the couples part.
4. Sips only. A ninety-minute film with five rules is a lot of triggers.

Ready-made rule sets for popular films are at movie drinking games.

21 Questions

The get-to-know-you game from the back of the school bus, with a drink attached. Better for a new couple than an old one, though the old ones find out things too.

1. One of you answers, the other asks 21 questions in a row. Any topic. The answerer can skip a question by drinking.
2. The asker drinks for any question the answerer has already been asked tonight. Keep track, or do not and argue.
3. After 21, swap roles. A full game is 42 questions and most of a drink each.

Keep a running list of the best answers on a phone. Round two, a few weeks later, is the game of asking whether any of them have changed.

Flip Cup head to head

Flip Cup is a relay race, and a relay with one person a side is just a race. It still works, it just needs a best-of.

1. Each of you fills a cup a quarter full and stands across the table. Same amount in each cup.
2. On “go”, drink the cup and set it on the table edge. Flip it with one finger so it lands upside down.
3. First flip that lands wins the round. The loser refills and drinks theirs again.
4. Play best of five. Or best of seven if it is close, and it is always close by round three.

Most couples find that one of them cannot flip a cup and the other can, which settles the game fast. Swap hands to even it out. The flipping technique that actually works is explained at Flip Cup.

Keeping it fun for two

The games that fail with two players are the ones that move drinks around a table. Waterfall needs a circle; Categories needs six people to get stuck. A game for a couple needs a different engine: conversation, a guess, or a small skill contest. Everything above runs on one of those.

Put the talking games first. Truth or Drink, Never Have I Ever, and 21 Questions are best early, when you are both clear-headed enough to give a real answer and remember it. Save Beer Pong and Flip Cup for when you want to stop talking and start throwing things.

Set the stakes together. In a group, a harsh rule spreads across ten people. With two, one bad rule means one person drinks a lot. If one of you drinks more slowly, or is smaller, or has work tomorrow, say so at the start and change the unit to suit whoever is drinking less. It is not a handicap, it is the only way the game stays even.

And keep a free pass. Every question game on this page has a “skip with no drink” rule for a reason. Questions between partners can land harder than the same question from a stranger, and the game is there to make the night better, not to win an argument you did not know you were having.

Tips

• Use sips, and pour small. Every drink in a two-player game lands on one of two people, with nobody else to absorb a bad run. Six losing guesses in Higher or Lower is six drinks for one of you, and that arrives faster than it does in a group of eight.
• Eat first, and put water on the table next to the drinks. It sounds boring and it is the difference between a good night and a short one.
• Mix the list. Two question games in a row gets heavy. Question game, skill game, question game, film.
• Stop when it stops being fun, not when the deck runs out. The deck does not care, and it will still be there next week.