5 online games to play with your friends for free

We’re inching closer to the end of the Circuit Breaker period. 

Congratulations, you have completed over 35 days of staying sane at home, managing work, cooking up a storm, working out, watching endless hours of TV shows, or doing absolutely nothing (which is totally fine, by the way).

Point to be noted: that’s 35 days (and counting) of not meeting your friends, hanging out over impromptu dinner plans or game nights.

We get it — it’s been hard. Luckily, we’re fortunate enough to be able to send our friends care packages and donations to the not-so-fortunate. 

Thanks to technology, you can connect and party with anyone, at any time, without flouting the Circuit Breaker rules.

How? Well, all you need is to get your friends to download some of these online games and kickstart a party from your living room. 

Now, who’s up for some much-needed social interaction, fun and games with friends tonight?

Houseparty 

If you claim that you have gone through Circuit Breaker without ever hearing about the Houseparty app, it’ll be a little hard to believe you.

Houseparty is the new Yahoo chat room, only much cooler, enabled with video and games.

Currently, it’s the one face-to-face social networking app where all the cool people are hanging out.

Okay, strike that out. It’s where almost everyone is hanging out right now.

Get your gang of friends to download the app while we’re still in quarantine. The CEO of Houseparty rightly claimed, “People use Zoom by day, Houseparty by night.”

Trust us when we say this — you will have space for just one more video chat and it’s this one.

It’s a lot like Zoom but with an added element of fun.

With Houseparty, you can video call to connect with friends, and play online games together.

The app comes with classic games such as Heads Up, which is a charades-like game where you give out clues to your friend for him/her to guess the given word.

There’s also Quick Draw, which is the online version of Pictionary where you draw to let your friends guess the given word.

If you are feeling the urge for some quiz games, hit up Trivia. My personal favourite? The general knowledge category.

Price: Free 
In-App Purchase: Yes 
Operating Systems: Android and iOS

Bunch 

Just like Houseparty, Bunch is a group video chat app where you can play mobile games with your friends. Only Bunch has a lot more games than Houseparty.

With Bunch, you can play casual games like FlappyLives (i.e. Flappy Bird) and Mars Dash while video calling your friends.

There are also a whole lot of games that you can choose from Roblox.

For the uninitiated, Roblox is the Miniclip Games of the millennial era.

But, wait, that’s not all. If you and your friends are into some serious gaming, you could also pick mobile games such as Fortnite and Minecraft on Bunch.

So, if variety is your jam, Bunch is where you should be.

Price: Free 
In-App Purchase: No 
Operating Systems: Android and iOS

Psych! 

Psych! saw roaring popularity way before Covid-19. Primarily because back in 2017, Ellen Degeneres introduced it to the world.

In the post Covid-19 world, though, Psych! turned it a notch higher.

There are various games that you could choose from such as Is That A Fact? and Word Up. The objective of the game is to get as many points as possible.

Here’s how most of the games work.

Each of you in the room will come up with a seemingly true answer to ‘psych’ your friends into choosing your answer as the correct one.

Your goal is to get the right answer while ‘psyching’ as many friends as possible. The more friends you ‘psych’, the more points you get.

Among the outrageous answers you and your friends provide, there’s also a right answer. Getting the correct answer, naturally, gets you points.

A pretty simple game but one that we promise will leave you hooked.

Price: Free 
In-App Purchase: Yes 
Operating Systems: Android and iOS

Plato 

The Plato app has more than 30 multiplayer old school games that you can play with your friends.

From table soccer to werewolf and classics like 4 In A Row and Uno, you won’t ever run out of games to play with your friends.

This app is also large-group-friendly where you can have up to 100 friends come together to play, chat, and spend time together. Sounds fun, right?

If you and your gang are a competitive bunch, you can even create your own tournament to compete.

But if your friends aren’t free to play games with you right now, Plato lets you mingle with new friends online to create your own new group.

Price: Free 
In-App Purchase: Yes 
Operating Systems: Android and iOS

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp 

Thanks to Covid-19 lockdown measures across the world, Animal Crossing is now one of the hottest games on the planet.

But, in order to be part of the Animal Crossing community, you need a Nintendo Switch (costs $299).

Unfortunately, Nintendo Switches might be low in stock as the demand skyrocketed with the global lockdown.

That being said, it doesn’t mean you can’t get your hands on this fun social networking game. Luckily, you can still download the Pocket Camp version of Animal Crossing on your smartphone.

Pocket Camp is an Animal Crossing-themed mobile game that lets you build your own island, just like Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch!

Once you have your island built, you can invite your friends to visit your island.

Caution: It’s highly addictive; you may want to slot timings outside of your working hours.

Price: Free 
In-App Purchase: Yes 
Operating Systems: Android and iOS 

This article was first published in SingSaver.com.sg.