We grew up playing these amazing fun games, and often we find ourselves reminiscing about those fun times and just wish we could get them back and if we could enjoy that much over little things? But why not recreate them?
We live in a time where we are surrounded by screens all the time, during work, or during break-time scrolling through social media. Social gatherings are one thing that we should try to keep screens less, but you must have seen the invasion of technology there too. And if you are hosting an event, organising a large group retreat, or a celebration, you would want to keep your guests entertained and interacting. What better way than some old classic games and some modified new ones?
It can get trickier to hold a party with a lot of guests together and fun. Don’t you worry, we got your back 🙂
Here are Some Fun outdoor games for large groups
1. Seven stones/ Lagori
This is one of the oldest and most popular games in India. The group must be divided into two groups, the seeker and the hitters’. A member of the seekers throws a ball at a pile of seven stones. The seekers need to restack the stones without getting hit by the ball hit by the hitters.
Requirement- Seven flat stones (can be bought online or collected from around)
2. Tag
Most of you all must have played tag at least once as kids, and maybe you call it something else. The reason it is so popular is the simplicity of the game.
To play this game, more than two players are required, (more the merrier) one child is mutually chosen as “it,” who chases others to tag them (by tapping on shoulder or hand). The player tagged becomes the “it” now and tags others and so on.
3. Chain Attack
This is one of the top-rated games in India, and it is similar to tag. To play Chain attack, one player must be chosen as “Denner” (in some places the “it” is called as a denner) run to chase other player and tag them, the tagged player now holds hand with it and chases the others, and the third person is tagged then they also hold hands to form a chain. It is continued till the last person of the group is caught.
4. Monkey in the Middle
There are many versions of this game, in one of the simplified version, there are two teams who play catch and throw with a ball in a way to avoid losing the ball to one player in the middle who belongs to none of the teams and is called the monkey. If the monkey catches the ball, the one who threw the ball becomes the new monkey. And in another version, there is a group of people in the middle, and two players play catch and throw, avoiding losing the ball to the group in the middle.
5. Kick the Can
This is an exciting game that both adults and children can play.
One person is designated as the “it” who place a can in the center of the field and waits for a decided amount of time. Till then, the rest of the players hide. Then the “it” tries to spot the hidden players while keeping an eye on the can. If an untagged player kicks the can, they start all over.
6. Hopscotch
This is one of the most played games, and every child loves hopscotch that is like one mutual thing of every child from all generations. One can either draw the hopscotch grid and play or buy one from the market. The amount of fun remains unchanged.
7. Dodge ball
This game requires a massive group of people. For this game, the group of people hold hands and stand in a circle. In the center of the circle, three people are trying to dodge a ball in which the group of people around the is aiming at them. If the ball touches one of the players in the circle, they interchange position with the player who threw the ball.
8. Music chair
This is a popular game at parties and most social gatherings. This is how it goes, one person plays the music, and the others run around a set of chairs, the set has one less chair than the number of players. When the music is paused, everyone except one person is seated. The player not seated is considered out.
9. Blindfold
To play this game, the group must mutually decide one person to be “it,” who is blindfolded and tags others. If there is an obstacle in the way, other players must say “danger.” This game should be played in smaller and safer surrounding only.
10. Pass the Current
Suppose you are looking for a game which doesn’t involve much running and so on. You must try this.
One ‘it’ is chosen, and the rest of the players should be seated in a circle holding their hands (on their laps which must be visible by the ‘it’). The’ it’ than says “current pass from A person to B person,” then the players have to pass the current from person A to B through hand signaling via the people in the middle using gesture like tapping and pinching while still holding hand avoiding the ‘it’ from seeing if the ‘it’ catches a moment you are tagged.
11. Freeze Tag
A fun version of tag where if the “it” tags you, you freeze, and the other non-tagged players can unfreeze you. The game goes on until everyone is frozen.
12. Shadow Tag
The canonical tag modified in which the ‘it’ has to tag a shadow of the person, and they become the new “it.”
13. Treasure Hunt
In this game, there are two teams, and each one gets a chance to hide a set of things, and the other team has to find them with the help of clues—the team, which finishes the fastest wins.
14. Hide and Seek
Another one of the classic children’s game.
Here is how it is played, one child is chosen as the seeker and waits for a brief time with his eyes closed, just to give everyone time to hide. And then the seeker finds the hidden players one by one and the player found first then becomes the seeker in the second round.
15. One-legged Tag
This game is called initially “Langdi.” The “it” hops on one leg to tag the other players. It can be entertaining and fun even when adults try.
16. Kho-Kho
All the players have to be seated at an equal distance, each person facing alternating direction. The seeker has to tag one contestant, and the catch is the runners can “kho” that is, pass on, or nominate that person to now run while the seeker remains the same. The runner has complete freedom of going clockwise or anticlockwise or from in between the players. But the movements of the seeker are restricted.
If the seeker catches someone, they become the new seeker.
17. Color- Color
This is an excellent game for children who just learned the names of the colors. To play this game, one person is chosen as “denner” to say the names of the colors. Suppose they say blue everyone has to rush and touch the color blue wherever they can spot it. But if the “denner” catches you before touching the color, you become the new dinner.
18. Cricket
You must have seen cricket on TV if you’re intrigued by this game, we recommend you give it a try. You can modify the rules according to what is comfortable to you. If you don’t know the game well enough to try it, here is a video that can help.
19. Football
This is a game a lot of teenagers are crazy about but why not play with your friends defining your own rules, no one is going to play the world cup, right? Then what stops you from having some fun?
Divide your group into two teams, decide the area-wise halves for each team and set up goal post (they don’t have to be actual goal posts) each team will pass the ball to each other and try to aim the ball towards the goal post in the opposite team’s area. The team with supreme goal wins.
20. Tangle-untangle/ Solve the Knot
There is a group of players holdings hands together, standing in a circle. There is one chosen person to untangle who waits for a decided amount of time, till then the rest of the group who were holding hand tangle themselves into a small chunk where it’s difficult to understand the loops. Now the person has to untangle the circular band, and the group has to make sure not to break the chain if they do they start again.
21. Freeze Dance
This is for all those who just need one excuse to start dancing. Here is how to play, dance while the music is playing and freeze as it stops; if one is caught moving while the music is paused, they are out (or in some cases punished with some fun dare), and one by one all are out the last one left wins.
22. Red light- Green Light
Another one of the classic games. In this, one person from the group of people becomes a traffic light, and all the others start by standing at a distance in a straight line. The traffic light turns around to say green light and the other player start moving towards the traffic light as soon as the traffic light says red light everyone has to stop and if anyone is caught moving they must start again otherwise the first one to tag the traffic light becomes the traffic light now.
23. Racing
Some groups happen to love competitions heartily, and this idea is aimed towards that group of people. But try to make it enjoyable by adding some props or build a race around a particular theme.
24. Relay Races
Relay races are fun team building activities that one can enjoy in a large number of groups when outdoors. It is a race where a team participates, and each one achieves parts of one whole task, lastly completing the whole, the fastest one wins.
Find a list of the best variation in our other article.
25. Never have I Ever
It is where you get to know the secrets your friends have been keeping. Do try this if you ever find yourself on a breezy evening around the bonfire, everyone gets seated in a circle with a beverage. And suppose one person says, “never have I ever peed in a pool,” everyone who has done it has to take a sip. And one by one, everyone has to participate.
26. Badminton
We love to see it on our TVs, why not give it a try. If you don’t know the game is, here is the basic structure; it is similar to other racket games. There is a feathered shuttlecock that needs to be swiftly hit towards the opponent using a racket. And the most important rule is not to let the shuttle fall on the ground. I warn you it can get competitive.
27. Flying Disc/ Frisbee
It is a simple game of catch and throws, but we assure you will end up having a great time.
28. Tug of War
Almost everyone has played this game one time or another; if you don’t know, don’t worry, it’s pretty easy to learn. Two teams are holding on to a rope on two ends, both teams pulling hard. The team that manages to pull the hardest wins.
29. Pass and Pass
This is one of the go-to games of every social gathering.
Here is the drill, music is played, and the ball is passed. When the music stops, the person holding the ball has to participate in a fun dare given by the others.
30. Jamming Battle
This one is for the music lovers, who just need a chance to start humming—one of the games that can be best played around a bonfire or that kind of setting. Divide the group into two teams, and one team can start singing and jamming (better if you happen to have instruments), the other team should, at any moment, pick a word and start singing a song with that word in it and so on.
31. Telephone
This is an excellent game if you want to end up laughing the whole time: more the players, more the fun. Get seated in a circle, and any one person will start whisper a phrase to the person next to them, and they repeat to the third person and so on until the message is whispered to the first person and he/she finally says it aloud.
Rules are simple, you can only use an unfamiliar or rare phrase, and a player can whisper only once (do not repeat).
32. Lava and Land
Suppose you are with a group on land with patchy grass over it or which is partially wet or of different colors. Decide one part and lava and one as land, if any player steps into lava, they lose or become the new “it”/” denner,” this being the basic concept. You can build anything around it, a race or play tag with lava and land.
33. Cut the Apple/ Thread the Needle
This is the last game from our list but undoubtedly one of the best ones. This is similar to tag, but the catch is if the “it” is chasing some player and another player happens to pass from between them. They become the new “it.” And have to chase others. This game goes by different names everywhere. Another famous name is the thread in the needle.
Conclusion
And with that we conclude our list of fun outdoor games, we hope our recommendations were useful. As a child, I personally never played a game without introducing a new twist or modifying it, we suggest you try your own rules and experiment with our specular list.
We hope you have fun!