The history of games for adults is 5 thousand years old. The game “Senet” was found by archaeologists in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs. At that time, it was the best game for adults, the rules of which were deciphered by scientists in the 70s of the last century. There is even a mention of this logic game for adults in the Book of the Dead.
Thanks to archaeologists, today we know about many interesting games for adults:
- Ura or King’s Game was found by a team of archaeologists under the leadership of Leonard Woolley in the Sumerian city of Ur. The find is dated to 3 thousand BC. Curator of the British Museum Frenkel was lucky to find a Babylonian “instruction” for this game in the early 80s of the last century.
- Egyptologist Kibell from Great Britain found an image of the game Mehen dating to the middle of the 3rd millennium BC.
- The famous Mahjong game came down to us from ancient China.
- The prototype of modern chess is the Indian pastime of Chaturanga, an ancient game for an adult company played by 4 people.
- Slavs played adult games as well. Like people all over the world, they threw dice, but at the same time felt such excitement that sometimes they lost clothes, personal weapons and stocks of bread.
Propensity to play has been inherent in people since ancient times. Archaeologists around the world find children’s toys made of clay and wood. Becoming adults, people do not lose this tendency, inventing new and new collective games for adults. In the middle of the last century, whole families played lotto, moving chips around the playing field, calculating the moves by the number of points that fell on the dice. Chess and checkers, dominoes are classic logic games for adults, which were played on the beach and in sanatoriums, in train compartments and on picnics.
Games for adults got a second breath in the era of total computerization. According to BCG statistics, the market volume of the game industry, including various quest games, is more than $176 billion and adds 10% per year. The author of this report, David Panchas, commented on these figures as follows: “Only 10 years ago, they tried to attract the attention of a mass audience with the help of movies and music, but today all the activity has moved to the virtual space. This provides gaming capital with ample opportunities for investment.”
Games for the company of adults
Since 2010, a wave of escape room mania has swept the world. The novelty was so interesting to the mass audience that thousands of escape rooms began to appear in all major cities of the USA, Europe and Asia. Technology developed rapidly, projectors, sensors, virtual reality glasses, and sound equipment began to be actively used. Young people flocked to new experiences. In the mid-10s, quests were considered one of the best collective games for adults.
The peak of activity in this market was in 2017, when quests were among the Top 10 games for adults in real life. At this time, you could choose among hundreds of quest rooms, feeling new and new emotions. The industry seemed to have a bright future, but here people were locked in their homes due to the pandemic, quest rooms began to go bankrupt, and many left unprofitable businesses. Only those who adapted the idea to the online format were able to survive this blow.
The online escape room has become the best game for adults during the lockdown, bringing back the feeling of teamwork to people. All the features inherent in real escape rooms have migrated to the Internet, allowing youth companies and large families to escape into an alternative reality for an hour, immersing themselves in a plot with an unpredictable result.
Thoughtful digital interfaces have synthesized the best of real escape rooms and computer games. Players could pick up tools to solve a particular puzzle by communicating with other team members in voice or video chat. Quest-Room Online is a well-known Ukrainian portal of games for the development of attention for adults. The site contains a collection of virtual escape rooms that are among the top 10 games for adults of this class. Judging by the solid attendance of the portal, players managed to appreciate the advantages of such entertainment:
- You can have fun with your friends without leaving your cozy apartment.
- You can play at any convenient time.
- A large selection of the best games for adults allows you to choose a suitable theme for any group of players – a school class, a large family, an office team. By the way, such escape rooms are considered one of the most effective forms of online team building.
Top games for adults
As we age, our tastes and interests may change, but the desire to have a fun and fulfilling time with friends and family remains the same. Instead of traditional parties or meetings in cafes, sushi bars and pizzerias, people turn to the world of team games for adult company in search of fresh experiences and vivid emotions.
We present a selection of the best games for adults from amazing board games that require strategic thinking, to exciting games in the open air, capable of engrossing you for hours.
Mafia
One of the most interesting games for adults that requires attention to detail. The game takes place in a fictional city where ordinary citizens (civilians) try to find and expel the mafia – a secret criminal society.
The main objective of the civilians is to identify which of the players belongs to the mafia and remove them from the game before the mobs destroy most of the civilians. Players randomly get roles – they can be mobsters, civilians or special characters with unique abilities.
The game takes place in two phases: day and night. During the day, all players discuss suspicious behavior and then vote on who they think is the mobster. The player with the most votes is eliminated from the game. After that, the night comes when the mobsters choose their victim. When a new day begins, players will learn who was killed during the night.
The game continues until the mobsters are kicked out or become a minority among the players. “Mafia” requires logical thinking from players, the ability to analyze the behavior of participants and convince others of their rightness.
Paintball
An exciting team game for adults, in which teams try to win by “shooting” the opponent’s players, hitting them with special balls filled with bright paint. The game takes place on equipped platforms that can simulate city streets, jungles, deserts or ruins.
Paintball players wear protective gear to prevent bruises and scratches. The main goal of the game is survival and collective victory.
This game for the company of adults requires good physical fitness, tactical thinking and teamwork. Allows players to develop strategy, coordination and communication skills, as well as improve reaction and stamina. It is a popular type of active recreation and sport, attracting players of all ages and training levels.
Activities
One of the best games for adults that even made it to television. A television audience of one million watches with great interest how famous film actors and musicians try to explain the essence of some concept or phrase with the help of pantomime.
This interesting game for adults requires creativity and high artistry. The game was created in Israel and quickly became popular in many countries around the world. The goal of the game is to explain concepts and expressions to partners without words, using pictures, gestures and facial expressions. The players are divided into teams and alternate in the role of those who give hints and guesses. Each turn consists of one player taking a card with a concept and trying to explain it to his team without using words. The other players must guess which concept it is about.
The cards can depict various subjects, actions, professions, etc. The explanation time is usually limited, which adds an element of competition and excitement.
Bingo
This is a world-famous game for the company of adults, which can diversify leisure time at home, at a party or corporate party. This variety of our lotto in the West gathers hundreds of people who play for small amounts of money.
The game requires the simplest lottotron, from which winning numbers are randomly drawn. Players receive cards on which marks are made. The goal of the game is to fill all the numbers or a certain figure. When the player is lucky, he shouts “Bingo!”, after which he receives a prize. To create a prize fund, participants are reset or the party organizer buys the prize in advance.
Codenames
One of the best adult games released in 2015. The interest in the novelty was so great that in the year of its release the game won in the nomination “The best party game”. In 2016, Codenames was voted the best family game in Germany. In the ranking of adult board games, Codenames is only ranked 19th, but in the class of fun adult party games, this board game is still the leader.
Codenames is a multiplayer board game published by Czech Games Edition. This game became popular due to its unique mechanics. One of the teams plays as spies, and the other – as scouts. The aim of spies is to find all their agents on the playing field using clues. Scouts must detect enemy agents and avoid agents of their own team.
The game continues until one of the teams reveals all its agents. “Codenames” require players to have a good imagination and the ability to find connections between different words – all this makes the game exciting.
