This fun New Year’s Eve Outburst game is a fun game for the entire family! See how many of the ten items you can guess from on each of the category cards – all using things just from this past year!
One of the newest games I’ve been sharing this year has been outburst. Since I already did Christmas outburst cards and Thanksgiving outburst cards, I thought it only fitting to do New Year’s Eve outburst cards.
If you’re not familiar with Outburst, it’s really simple. You break into teams and then compete to try and guess the ten items on each chosen category card. Read this entire post to get full instructions but that’s the basic idea.
I love it because there are ten choices on each of the cards so typically kids, teens, and adults can all play with no problem. And this New Year’s Eve outburst game is specific to this year – so it’s all top things from this year, things that happened this year, etc. – rather than being just general New Year’s Eve things.
For instance, can you name the top worldwide box office movies this year? It’s a weird year for sure but the fun part is that often times for categories like these, kids that watched just as many movies as you, can come up with some of the answers!
This game goes perfectly with my 2021 New Year’s Eve trivia games and is one of my new favorite New Year’s Eve party ideas!
Supplies
One of the reasons I love this game most is because you need pretty much nothing to play. The only things you’ll need are:
- New Year’s Eve outburst cards (get them at the bottom of this post or in my shop here)
- Pen and paper to keep score and cross off answers
- 1 minute timer
- Prizes for the team that wins, there are some fun ideas in my New Year’s Eve games for adults post.
The cards are full of random events, people, and things from this past year. Things like John Krasinski’s Some Good News, things stores frequently sold out of, and top songs of the year! Lots of different categories so feel free to pick what makes the most sense to you.
Game Prep
There are just a few things you need to do to get ready to play, but I recommend doing them the day before so you can make sure you’re ready to go when you want to play!
- Print out your card sheets and cut out the individual cards. Try your best not to look at them if you personally are going to play.
- Put the cards in a bag or bowl and out of sight.
- Get pen and paper – I recommend a couple of pens for helping to mark off the answers.
Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to play.
How to Play New Year’s Eve Outburst
Divide your group into two teams with even numbers of players, or at least as even as you can get.
Teams should sit or stand together and on opposite sides of your space so that they won’t be able to see the card answers when they’re guessing.
Choose one of the teams to start. The other team should randomly pick one of the cards from the bag. Read the category at the top to the other team then flip the timer to get the round started.
As soon as the timer is flipped the team guessing should try to guess the items listed on the card for that category. The goal is to get all ten of the items on the card but if you can’t get ten, you still want to get as many as possible.
As the team is guessing, the team holding the card marks the items they guessed to keep track. You can also try to remember, but it’s a lot easier to just mark them off.
Once the time is up, read the answers out loud that were on the card and the team gets one point for each answer they got on the card.
note!
The lists on each of the category cards are not meant to be exhaustive lists – there are definitely other things that could be put on many of the lists, they are just lists of possible options for that category. It’s part of the fun having to figure out all of the options!
Teams also get three bonus points if they got the item with a * next to it on the card (randomly selected by me).
After you tally up the scores for that round, switch teams and the other team gets to guess for a new category.
How to Win
Keep playing until you’ve gone through all of the cards, a pre-designated number of cards, or until you’ve hit your time limit.
The team with the most number of points total wins!
Expert Tips
Go virtual by having one person, a host who is not playing be the person who chooses the card and marks it off every time. Then split your playing teams into two and just have them guess through the computer screen rather than in-person.
If you’re playing with a large group of people just have 2-3 people work on crossing off things on the card each round then rotate through. You’ll still have the entire team guess when it’s their turn, but this makes it easier to keep track of what is guessed.
Increase the timer to two or three minutes if you think your group will need more time. I prefer 1-minute but you can always increase the time depending on your group.
Play this game after you do these New Year’s Eve trivia games. If you play this game before, you’ll likely give people answers or put things in their head they may otherwise not have come up with for the trivia games.
Game FAQs
Technically you can play outburst with as many people as you want, but it’ll be better and a little more controlled if you play with a maximum of 12 people. You can play with more, you’ll just need to really listen as people yell out answers.
My typical outburst games are good for any age, kid through adult. This New Year’s Eve version in particular has categories that do still work for kids, but the topics are a little more knowledge based than just generic. For example, musicians that passed away – teens and adults are more likely to know that than kids. But kids will probably know things like items that were sold out this year and some of the top movies of the year.
Fill out the form at the bottom of this post for the games cards and printable instructions. Or you can get a copy in my shop here.
More New Year’s Eve Activities
- New Year’s Eve time capsule ideas – free printable time capsule to create for the end of the year PLUS fun ideas of things to put in it!
- New Year’s Eve would you rather – a fun New Year’s Eve themed version of the classic would you rather game, plus options to make it even more fun!
- New Year’s Eve Bingo – who doesn’t love bingo? These unique New Year’s bingo cards are a fun activity for any age!
- 20 Best New Year’s Games – games and activities for all ages to ring in the new year!
want more New Year’s Eve Games?
Download the Printable
Enter your first name and email address in the form below to get the printable PDF. You will receive a link to download the PDF to your email within minutes.
If you do not see the form below, click here to get to it.
If you would not fill out the form, you can get a copy in my shop here.
The PDF will include:
- Instructions
- Two pages with 9 Outburst cards each (18 category cards total)
If you do not immediately receive the email, make sure to check your promotions, spam, and junk folders!
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