These printable New Year’s Eve games are perfect for any New Year’s Eve celebration! Simply print out one of the five New Year’s Eve trivia games and see how much you can remember about the year’s biggest news, pop culture, and sporting events! These are definitely our favorite best New Year’s Eve party games to play each year!
New Year’s Eve Trivia Games
One of my favorite traditions each year is creating printable New Year’s Eve games based on pop culture, sports, and news events from the year. I’ve been creating New Year’s Eve trivia games for the last like nine years, and they’re always a big hit for New Year’s whether you’re doing it in person or virtual this year!
I like to put one in each of our New Year’s Eve countdown boxes and play all night long!
While you could play these possibly with teens or young adults, the questions will likely be tricky for kids! If you’re playing with kids, these New Year’s Eve minute to win it games or really any of the New Year’s Eve party games on this list would work!
2020 update!
2020 New Year’s Eve trivia is here! Five brand new games for 2020 are ready to play with your family and friends this year!
Printable New Year’s Eve Party Games
Let me start by saying that 2020 was a year full of loss, heartache, and struggles for millions of people around the world. I know this, I understand this, and I acknowledge this.
Know that these games that mainly focus on the good parts of the year and avoid the really sad and controversial are not meant to make light or ignore any of the hardships of this year. These are solely meant to be used for a little entertainment at a New Year’s Eve party.
They use pop culture, sporting events, and celebrity news because those are things that are shared and known by most people universally. That doesn’t mean that any of those things are any more important than the hundreds of thousands lives lost this year – they’re just what I used in my games.
The other thing you may notice is that some of the trivia questions or facts are used on multiple games. Most people don’t play all five of these games at their parties (you definitely could), they normally play one or two at most.
Since a lot of the trivia things used on the games are major events, they will span across multiple games. So the second game may be easier for anyone who played the first.
Although this year they’re a bit less related than in year’s past, so you really could just do all five.
Where are the Answers???
Before we get into the games, I’m going to answer the #1 question I get about these printable New Year’s Eve games every year – where are the answers??
The answers are in the PDF file that you get when you enter your first name and email address in the pink form toward the bottom of this post. You have to fill out the form or buy a copy of the game in my shop to get the answers.
New Year’s Eve Game #1 – 2020 Streaming
In past year’s I’ve always done a pop culture matching game where you had to match popular lines of songs or movie quotes to movies/songs that came out that year. Since movies weren’t really a thing this year, I chose to go a different route this year.
Introducing 2020 Streaming – because 2020 was the year of streaming and binge watching all the shows.
In this game, all you have to do is come up with the name of the network that created and premiered the new 2020 shows listed for each number.
Who knew there were so many streaming services?? Not me!
New Year’s Eve Game #2 – 2020 Trivia
This is one is just what it sounds like – trivia from the year. No matching, no fill in the blanks, and no shortcuts – you either know the answer or you don’t.
I’ve heard from a lot of teachers that they like to use this with their students on the last day before winter break so honestly while it’s great for New Year’s Eve (and one of my favorites), it’s really just fun any time you want some year end trivia!
This is probably the toughest of all of these New Year’s Eve party games because you actually have to know the answer, no hints or clues. This is also a fun one to play just to remind people that there some good things that happened this year!
New Year’s Eve Game #3 – Celebrity Death Match
I created this game as a way to remember the celebrity icons that passed away this year. This does not mean that the lives of any of these celebrities are more important than the other hundreds of thousands who died this year, it’s just because they’re celebrities that universally people may know.
In this game, I’ve put together 20 of the most famous celebrities who passed away in 2020 on the left side. On the right side, there are words and phrases – each one is associated with one of the celebrities who passed away.
Match the celebrities to the correct phrase on the right side to get a point. But be careful, some of them are a little tricky! There’s only one celebrity match per phrase.
New Year’s Eve Game #4 – Fill in the Blanks
One day I’m going to come up with a better name for this game but for now it’s just fill in the blanks. And this my friends is my very favorite out of all of the New Year’s Eve games I make each year for one reason – I get to rhyme.
I have a thing for rhyming and putting together this fill in the blank couplet game is one of the most fun things I do every year. Weird, I know, but I love it.
There’s a reason I’ve made up so many scavenger hunt ideas!
The game is simple. I’ve put together a bunch of rhyming lines that spell out events that happened this year. Those lines have blanks that players have to fill in. When lines are filled in correctly, they’ll rhyme. This year’s game has everything from the pandemic to The Promised Land.
New Year’s Eve Game #5 – Where did 2020 go?
This is a game I’ve been doing since the very beginning and almost didn’t do this year. But I had a reader request it, so here you go!
This game is more difficult than some of the others as it asks you to put events that happened this year in order from the beginning of the year to the end. I did include an option to give bonus points for getting the date correct though so it’s possible to not get the order correct and still get points!
It’s one of my favorites, and I’m glad I ended up doing it after all!
More New Year’s Eve Games
Want something other than trivia? Try one of these fun New Year’s Eve games too!
- Would You Rather Game
- New Year’s Eve Dice Game
- Saran wrap game
- New Year’s Eve Scattergories game
- Who can ring in first?
- New Year’s Eve minute to win it games
- 20+ New Year’s Eve party games
Get the Free Printable Trivia Games
Enter your first name and email address below to get the free printables – both the games and the answers.
If you’d rather not fill out the form, you can get a copy in my shop here as well.
If you don’t see the form below, click here to get to it.
The file includes:
- Full-sheet trivia game
- Full-sheet trivia game answers
- Full-sheet streaming game
- Half-sheet streaming game
- Streaming game answers
- Full-sheet celebrity death game
- Half-sheet celebrity death game
- Celebrity death answers
- Full-sheet fill in the blanks game
- Fill in the blanks game answers
Linda Burnham Brasseur says
I love this could I have the answer key plesase.
Moo says
Thank you for the great games! Happy New Year!!!
Tina DeWees says
I love all your trivia and charade ideas. I live in a senior community and these games can be enjoyed by everyone from 50 to 90. Thank you.
Lauren says
Thanks so much Britni! We’ve been playing your New Years games for years and it has become a tradition. Even though this year has been quite different, we’ve still been looking forward to this throughout 2020.
Janai says
This is pure gold. Well done❤️
Amelie Bagwell says
Thank you!
Casey Lavarge says
I always love your ideas! They are always great to use at home or adapt to use in the classroom. Thank you and Happy New Year!!!
Laurie Anderson says
Your trivia games are always the highlight of our party. We are all so competitive! Happy Nee Year to you and your family! Thanks for always making our party fun.
Mari says
I look forward to these games every year. Thank you so much for the fun content.
cheryl squires says
Great resources