8 Best Jackbox Games to Play With Friends via Streaming

COVID-19 (better known as the coronavirus) has forced all of us into social isolation. And you can only play so many single player games before you eventually miss hanging out in “meatspace” with your buddies.

You can recreate such hangouts by hosting themed parties with your buddies on Zoom, Skype, or other apps. But what if you want to play some silly party games while you’re at it? In that case, Jackbox Games is here to save your sanity.

This company specializes in party games where everyone plays with smartphones instead of controllers. While these games are great to play around a TV, more and more players are discovering that they make for the perfect games to play with friends via streaming.

Ready to take your digital hangouts to the next level? Check out our setup guide and then explore these eight awesome Jackbox games!

Before You Get Started

Using smartphones as controllers and setting up a stream may seem very new to you. Fortunately, you can get started in a few easy steps.

First, you’ll need a game. While you can purchase these games separately, you get the most value by purchasing Jackbox Party Packs. These packs offer several different Jackbox Games for one low price. Remember, only the person streaming the game needs to own a copy.

Second, you’ll need streaming capabilities. We recommend using Twitch for both PC and console streaming. As of this writing, Twitch has better latency and more options than competitors like Mixer, and Twitch streaming tends to be smoother. You’ll need to register an account before you can start broadcasting.

Third, you’ll want to tweak the games themselves. Most Jackbox Games have settings you can toggle such as extended timers (perfect for streaming delays) and family-friendly modes (to help avoid awkward prompts or scandalous user answers).

Now, you can start a game and start streaming. Once your friends tune into the stream, they simply head to jackbox.tv on their phone or tablet and enter in the room code. From here, they can use their mobile device as a controller and follow the onscreen prompts!

Make sure everyone has a way to talk while gaming. Discord is a great way to talk, but you can also use other apps. My crew makes group phone calls through the Facebook Instant Messenger, which is a great option if you already have a group chat going.

What should you play first, then? Here are a few of our favorites.

Drawful

Drawful (and its sequel, Drawful 2) is a perfect party game. Each player gets a silly prompt to draw on their screen. The catch? You can’t erase anything and you’re limited to a single default color (you can choose between two colors in Drawful 2).

After that, the game displays one piece of player art at a time. The artist gets to sit back while others enter in lies about what the prompt was. After that, players must choose what the actual prompt was. The artist gets points for each person who correctly guesses. Everyone else gets points for getting it right and points for fooling other players.