200 Minute to Win It Games for Kids and Adults

Minute to Win It Games are one of the easiest type of games to play at any party and we have hundreds of different minutes to win it games to choose from for every holiday, occasion, and theme! Or generic ones to use just as boredom busters for the kids!

We’ve been creating minute to win it games for over ten years so whether you’re looking for something specific like Valentine’s Day minute to win it games or just minute to win it games for groups, you’ll find ideas here! Bookmark this page to have the ultimate minute to win it games list at your fingertips any time you need birthday party games or just want a fun night full of games! 

Minute to Win It Games 101

If you’ve never played minute to win it games before, they are basically quick and easy games that can be completed in under a minute (or at least that’s the idea). They typically use inexpensive items, often things from around your house, to keep the games cheap, easy, and a lot of fun!

There are a lot of different ways you can use minute to win it games and different ways to use them as party games. I’ve written out more details on how to play, how to play with teams, and how to score the games at the bottom of this post if you need more information.

But for now, let’s move right into the best minute to win it games!

I’ve written out details on our top games including seasonal variations, ways to mix things up to make it easier or more difficult for different ages, and so on.

Like I mentioned before, we’ve been playing and creating minute to win it games since we started our site in 2013, so we’re pretty familiar with what works and what doesn’t! If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment and we’ll do our best to help you make your minute to win it night as fun as possible!

I’ve also included a section in this post with links to all of our specific minute to win it game sets – we’ve created them for every holiday and occasion you can probably think of! If you want something for a specific event, feel free to hop over to those posts to get even more game ideas!

These minute to win it games are ones I’ve used over and over again, just with different holiday themes! There are definitely other ones that are fun too but if you need a quick game to grab right now, these are always a good option!

Face the Cookie

Place a cookie on someone’s forehead. They have to use only their face muscles (no hands) to get it into their mouth. If they drop it on the ground, they can pick it up and try again (or grab a new cookie). Use regular Oreos or switch it up with seasonal Oreos for different holidays or different types of cookies (like fortune cookies) for different events. It’s hilarious to watch the different ways people play cookie face!

Defying Gravity

Give each player three balloons and when you say go, they have to hit the balloons up in the air. They have to keep the balloons up in the air for the full minute to win. Use different colored balloons for different holidays and make it harder by adding weights into the balloons for adults!

Seek and Find

Hide 10 of the same items (stickers, stars, candy canes, plastic eggs, etc.) in an area of your house. When you say go, the player has one minute to find all of the items. Hide them all within plain sight (can still be tricky, but visible) so your house doesn’t get destroyed in the process

Bottle to Bottle

Fill one 2-liter bottle with something (Lucky Charms, Jelly Beans, etc.) then tape to another 2-liter bottle – players have to transfer all from one bottle to the other before the time is up.

Don’t Blow It

Give a player a piece of flat candy (we’ve done hearts, chocolate gold coins, mini candy canes, etc.) and a straw. When you say go, they have to use their plastic straws to blow the candy from point A to point B to win.

Make it harder by making it a round candy and having them have to blow it into a specific spot on a table without it rolling out.

Shamrock Shake

Tape an empty Kleenex box to a pair of panty hose, fill the empty tissue box with ping pong balls (or something else), then tape it around the player’s waist. They have to shake until all the balls fall out. We’ve done this for Thanksgiving with feathers, for birthdays with ping pong balls, and for St. Patrick’s Day with golden coins! You can use all sorts of things for this junk in the trunk game!

Wrap It Up

A two player game where one person has to wrap the other person in streamers, toilet paper, or something else. This works great for a mummy for Halloween, snowman for Christmas, and even an Easter bunny! We’ve even made a reindeer for our reindeer games edition.

Stack Attack

Pick an item (we’ve done apples, conversation hearts, ding dongs, and even chocolate Dove candies for turtle doves) and give everyone a pile of them. When you say go, they have to try and stack X number of them on top of each other before the time runs out. Make sure to clarify any stacking rules (like hearts have to be vertically stacked, not just stacked flat on top of each other).

Price it Right

Buy ten related items (like food items or drinks or toys or clothing items) of varying prices. When you say go, the player has to try and order them from highest to lowest correctly in a minute. When they check to see if they are right, you can only tell them how many items they have correct – not which ones are correct.

If you want to make it easier for younger kids and teens, you can tell them which items are correct.

Traffic Yam

Push a sweet potato across the floor from one side of the room to another. Try it with plastic eggs for Easter, a cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, or an ornament for Christmas! And if you want to make it more challenging, take out the spoon and make them push it with just their nose!

Iron Man

Use a chopstick to stack iron nuts on top of each other. You could do this with all sorts of themes and make the game work!

Knock Down

Stack ten cups on top of each other in a pyramid (4, 3, 2, 1) on one side of the room on a table. Then give the player a bucket of ping pong balls and when you say go, they have to bounce ping pong balls from one side of the room to the table and try and knock all of the cups off the table. We’ve done this with all types of cups and colors!

If you don’t want to use red cups, empty soda cans work too!

If you don’t want to knock it down, you can also make them create cup towers blindfolded instead!

Keep It Up

Give players something light (a feather, a balloon, a piece of ribbon, etc.) and when you say go, they have to toss it in the air and keep it up as long as possible by blowing it back in the air. This one typically is hard to go for the full minute, but it’s a great head to head game!

Sort It Out

Give a player a pile of candy that are all different colors and when you say go, they have to sort the candy into piles of each color going one candy at a time. All candy must be sorted by color within the minute to win! Make it harder by using candy with letters on them and make it an alphabetical sort (arrange by letters of the alphabet) instead of color sort! M&Ms and Skittles work great fr this!

Countdown

Fill boxes with different numbers of bells (1-5) or other items. Players must shake them and put them in order of the number of bells. We’ve done this with bells for Christmas, gold coins for St. Patrick’s Day, and even conversation hearts for Valentine’s Day!

What Goes Around

Pick out some sort of round cookie like an Oreo and have one person on the team stand on one side of the table with a stack of Oreos and the other person stand on the other side of the table. When the time starts, the first player has to roll the Oreo down the table and the other person has to catch it in their mouth (with no hands) to win.

If you don’t want to do food, you could also give the person on the other side a cup and have the first person roll a ping pong ball instead and they have to roll and catch a certain number of balls in the minute.

Face the Pie

Hide letters inside of some sort of food – a pie, a cupcake, a cake, etc. – and players have to eat through the item to find the letters and unscramble the word before the time runs out. Pie is good anytime of year but we’ve also done this with cupcakes!

Balance Beam

Give players a stack of flat candy (we’ve done jelly beans for Easter, conversation hearts for Valentine’s Day, and candy corn for Thanksgiving) and a popsicle stick. When you say go, they have to put the popsicle stick in their mouth and place candy on it one at a time. Once they have X number balanced, they have to walk across the room to deposit the candy into a bowl on the other side of the room. If they drop any, they have to go back and start again.

Make it harder by forcing them to balance it on something trickier like their arm or play in partners and have to transfer the candy across to the other person before walking.

Just Eat It

One minute and ten small edible items in a jar (or do five if they are larger items). The player has ten minutes to completely eat all of them to win. We’ve done this for Halloween with individual pieces of candy, for Easter with things like a piece of deviled egg, a Peep, and so on.

If you want to make it more challenging for adults, blindfold them so they don’t know what they are eating! Just make sure you know any allergies ahead of time!

Jar of Hearts

Fill a large jar with anything you want – we’ve done hearts, jelly beans, rocks, and even sand – and put it on one side of the table. Then when you say go, players have to try and bounce ping pong balls into the jar from the other side of the table. If they can get five ping pong balls to land in the jar before the minute is up, they win.

Make it harder by taking the items out of the jar before you play (so they can bounce in and out).

Line Them Up

Tape ten lines across the length of a table starting one foot from one end and going all the way to the other end of a table. Give the player a pack of Oreos (or quarters or pennies or something else flat that will glide easily – the smaller the item, the harder it’ll be). When you say go, the player has to slide their items across the table and try to get them to land touching each of the lines. If they can land an Oreo on each line within the minute, they win.

Love Sucks

Place a bunch of marshmallows (or any other small candy) on one side of a table and place a bowl on the other. Give the player a straw and they have one minute to use the straw to suck up the marshmallows and move them to the other side of the table to win.

If you don’t want to suck things up with a straw, you could also give the ma pair of chopsticks make them transfer them one by one using chopsticks (easier for some people, harder for others).

Ring Toss

This game is played in teams (or you can have one player and a stationary pole to toss onto). Give one player a chopstick and one player a bunch of ring shaped items (we’ve done gummy rings, pacifiers with handles, and even actual rings). When you say go, one player has to toss rings to the other player who has to catch them on the ring. Catch a certain number of rings on the chopstick in a minute.

Movin’ On Up

Give a player a stack of 40 cups – all in one color except one. Place the other color cup on the bottom of the stack. When you say go, the player has to move the top cup to the bottom of the stack. They continue this until they get the other colored cup to the top of their stack. If they can do it in a minute, they win.

put a ring on it

Similarly to the game above, you’ll need a chopstick and a pile of rings. When you say go, players have to put the chopstick in their mouth and try and get X number of rings on their chopstick from the table before the minute is up. We’ve done this with gummy rings, paper rings, plastic rings, and even diamond rings (for bridal showers).

Paper Dragon

Give the player two rolls of party streamers and when you say go, they must unroll the entire party streamer (both of them) using only their hands and arms. If they can completely unroll them before the minute is up, they win.

Elephant March

Place round items (balls, apples, oranges, etc.) on top of cups spread throughout a room. Place a tennis ball inside a pair of panty hose and place the opening of the pantry hose on top of the player’s head. When you say go, they must swing the ball back and forth to try and knock the items off the top of the cup. If they knock over a cup, it doesn’t count and they have to put it back on and try again. If they can knock off all the items before the minute is up, they win.

Let’s Bounce

Give the player a bucket or basket of some sort (make sure it has a flat bottom) and a ping pong ball. When you say go, player has to bounce the ball on the bottom of the bucket and keep bouncing it until the minute is up (or they are the last person standing).

Just Roll With It

Tape off a small square somewhere on the ground in a room. Give the player a ball of some sort (we’ve also done this with ornaments and plastic eggs) and a piece of cardboard of some sort (we’ve done gift boxes, cereal boxes, and just plain cardboard). When you say go, the player has one minute to use just their cardboard box – waving it to create wind force, not hitting it – to get the item to roll and stop in the box.

If you can’t find cardboard, you can try it with a sturdy piece of paper (like cardstock) too! It can be harder to get it to the other end of the room so maybe just make the distance a bit shorter.

Choosing Cups

Set out like 25 cups, filling all of them part way with water. Put a sticker on the bottom of some of the cups. Players have to pick one cup at a time, trying to find a sticker. If they don’t pull the sticker, they have to drink what’s in the cup. Keep going until they find a sticker!

If you don’t want to deal with liquids, we’ve also done this with candy, challenge cards (in our trick or treat game), and a variety of other things you have to complete before moving on to the next cup! This one is so much fun because you keep thinking this is the time I’m going to get it!

Minute to Win It Games Video

Here’s the ultimate minute to win it game list! Click on the links below to be taken directly to game instructions, supply lists, and photos for each of the individual games. There are hundreds of games to choose from!

And it’s worth checking out the different posts if you need more ideas for a particular holiday. There are plenty of minute to win it games that can be changed slightly to work for another holiday or occasion! (e.g., baby shower games might work with different objects for Christmas)

The basic idea is that for minute to win it games, you are playing a simple game and trying to do it in under a minute. Depending on the number of people you are playing with, you minute to win it games in one of three ways:

1 – Minute to Win It for Individuals – Player vs. Clock

In this version, one player will be trying to beat the clock for each game. So for instance, they will have to try and complete the game within a minute (hence the minute to win it name).

If they do, they win a prize. If not, let someone else have a shot. If you go with this style, I recommend choosing a different person for each game.

As an alternate version to this, you could also let the same person continue playing games until they can’t finish one in a minute. Or you could have everyone playing individually all at the same time (similar to version 3 below but in individuals rather than teams) and see who all can finish the challenge in a minute.

2 – Minute to Win It for Groups

In this style, you’ll pick two players for each game who will going head to head against each other playing a game rather than trying to beat the clock. So you’ll give each person the game supplies and see who can finish first.

The first person to finish wins the prize. Again, rotate through pairs for each game, repeating players as necessary but this works well when you have smaller groups so everyone can participate in a variety of games.

3 – Minute to Win It for Teams

In this style, you’ll split your group into two (or 3 or 10 depending on the number of guests) teams. For each game, teams must choose one player to compete head to head in the game with the other teams. Or if you can’t do head to head – whichever team finishes in the shortest amount of time.

So for instance, one person from each team will be given the supplies and game instructions. When you say go, everyone competes to be the first to complete the game.

First team to finish gets 5 points, second team gets 3, third team gets 1, and everyone else gets none. This works best if you have quite a few people and is a good way to get everyone involved cheering for their team.

Minute to Win It Games Scoring

The only time you really need to score minute to win it games is if you’re playing in teams and having teams race against one another to complete the challenges. In this case, I highly recommend getting a large dry erase board or poster board and writing each team’s number across the top.

Along the left side of the board, write down the names of each game or at least the game number (1, 2, 3, etc.). For each game, the first team to finish receives five points, the second team gets 3, the third team gets 1, and the other teams don’t score that round.

If you want everyone to earn a point if they finish, set a timer for each game. First team to finish gets 5, second team gets 3, third team gets 2, and any other team that finishes within the minute timer gets 1 point.

The latter version of scoring will help keep the score a bit closer if you think one team might blow another out. Here’s what an example scorecard might look like at the end of the games.

If you were playing where anyone who finishes the challenge gets a point, it would look a little different. I just like to have it up on a big whiteboard for everyone to be able to see how each team is doing!

Most minute to win it games can be played with items that you have around the house, but there are a few key supplies that you’ll most likely want to purchase and have on hand if you’re going to play often.

I have a box with these 10 things in it in my craft room so we can always play when family comes around!pen

• Ping pong balls
• Plastic cups
• Chopsticks
• Popsicle sticks
• Plastic buckets
• Oreos
• Balloons
• Empty 2-liter soda bottles
• Party streamers
• Blindfold
• Large digital timer (so everyone can see the time left)