Playing card games has been a means of human entertainment as far back in human history as the ancient Tang Dynasty of China — and it’s entirely possible that our cave-dwelling ancestors even further back played card games on decorated slices of bark or stiffened hides. Over many centuries, cards evolved first into the traditional 52-card decks in red and black that our grandparents played complex games with, and then later into colorful, artfully-designed cards created for specific games. Today, some of the best card games for teens not only keep them laughing out loud with outrageous humor and fast-paced fun but also help to stretch their mental muscles and develop problem-solving strategy skills.

When it’s time to choose a card game that teenagers enjoy — whether you’re in the early days of double digits yourself or you’re choosing a game for the teenager in your life — it’s good to know that you’re not only luring them away from their favorite video games and digital devices to put something real in their hands, but you’re also helping to boost their cognitive power and develop their social skills.

The best card games for teens are so much fun that they may never even know that they’re engaging in a brain-boosting, parent-approved activity. Shhh! We won’t tell.

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1. Strawberry Sunset

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Need a few minutes to escape the stress of the day? How about entering a zen-like world where your only task is to plot out a beautiful and effective strawberry garden before sunset? One of the best card games for teens who might want to enjoy a little downtime is the game, Strawberry Sunset. It’s a sweet game of quiet strategy using beautifully illustrated cards to solve a gardening puzzle. This card game is perfect for 2-4 players ages 12 and up. It’s also fun to play alone for practice or for a few moments of calm at the end of a busy day.

Strawberry Sunset is a puzzle-like game of gardening using illustrated cards to plan out a strawberry garden with watering systems, garden paths, koi gardens, and other landscaping features. As each player draws a card from the deck, they must effectively plan a garden for growing strawberries, earning points by plotting out the garden in the most strategic way possible with their cards. The player who ate a strawberry most recently is the first person to draw from the deck and the winner of the game is the player with the most points by the time they reach the sunset cards at the bottom of the deck.

Not only does this game feature beautifully artistic cards, but it’s also a game of quiet strategy to calm the body while engaging the mind. It’s one of the best card games for teens to enjoy after a stressful day or during campouts, sleepovers, power outages, or travel — no screen, power, or technology needed.

Key Features
  • Light strategy game for up to 4 people with beautifully illustrated cards
  • Plan an effective and beautiful strawberry garden with water systems, paths, koi ponds, and more before sunset
  • Puzzle-like game to plot out a garden and grow more strawberry plants than opponents before sunset
  • players landscape a garden by drawing new cards from a deck and strategizing the most effective strawberry gardne
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Puzzle-card game
  • Age Recommendation: 7+
  • Game Duration: 10-20 minutes
  • Brand: Stellar
  • What's Included: Deck of tile-cards
Pros
  • Beautifully illustrated cards
  • Highly replayable with different results every time and advanced rules available
  • Described as zen-like escapism
Cons
  • The linen finish on the cards make them slippery
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Strawberry Sunset

If you or the teen in your life has considered joining the special world of Magic the Gathering, one of the best card games for teens who are ready to play is Magic: The Gathering Game Night Free for All. It’s the simplest way to enter the mysterious world of Magic: The Gathering. The set comes with five 60-card decks, each with its own unique strengths, personal, and a special set of skills. Choose the White deck for Glorious Combat or Black for Dark Sacrifice. There’s also the Blue deck for Political Trickery, Red for Draconic Fury, or Green cards for Boundless Elves.

Each hand-picked deck is chosen for optimal balance and meant to play against the other decks in the set, so teens get started gaming right away without having to seek, sell, buy, or trade cards to build a unique deck. As teens progress in their skills, they can change out cards to customize their portrayed character’s skills and personalize their power.

Each of the five decks in the set includes a special legendary creature card as the deck’s center point. The decks are well-balanced and legal to play Commander, Legacy, and Vintage games with friends.

This is one of the best card games to give a teen as a gift. Magic: The Gathering is more than just a game, it’s a second magical life!

Key Features
  • 5 Ready-to-play Magic card decks for battling with 2-5 players
  • Choose the perfect deck for your strategy and strengths
  • Each 60 card deck comes packed with its own persona and special skills
  • Each deck is hand-selected for balance and includes a traditional foil card
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 13+
  • Game Duration: 45-75 minutes
  • Brand: Magic The Gathering
  • What's Included: 300 cards, 5 dice, instructions
Pros
  • Ready to play without having to wait to build a deck card by card
  • Card set also includes Spindown life counters and life counter platforms
  • Comes with complete rule book and 5 reference cards
Cons
  • Some Magic fans dislike ready-to-play decks because part of the fun is collecting to build a customized deck
  • Only available for pre-order until October 2022
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Magic: The Gathering Game Night Free-For-All

One of the best card games for teens is the one people call “the card game that changes game nights forever.” Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is one of the best card games for teens for laugh-out-loud fun with a friendly slap match, card matching, and matching reflexes in a race against friends and family around the card table.

To play Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, players must keep the five words in mind and in the right order. As each player tosses a card into the center pile, they say the next word in the list. If the word they say matches the card placed on the pile, all players slap the deck. The last player to slap keeps all the cards. The first player to run out of cards wins the game. It sounds simple, but a few twists keep the gameplay fresh and fun. Don’t let your mind play tricks on you — if you try to slap the pile when the card doesn’t match the word, you lose the round. And that’s not where the excitement ends. Three wild cards in the deck are neither taco, cat, goat, cheese, or pizza and require some fast, funny actions before slapping the deck.

Each deck comes in a small portable package that’s perfect for game nights, camping, travel, and parties. The simple rules and adorable artwork make the game easy to learn and fun to play.

This is one of the best card games for teens who prefer fast-paced fun and laughter rather than serious strategizing. It’s certain to lighten the mood on game night or any night. Parents and younger siblings may also join in the family-friendly fun.

Key Features
  • Fast-paced, slap-jack-style card game for teens and adults
  • Each player places a card in a center pile taking turns saying Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, or Pizza
  • If the card tossed matches the word uttered, the last player to slap the deck keeps the cards
  • If you peek as you play, you lose the round
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 8+
  • Game Duration: 10-15 minutes
  • Brand: Dolphin Hat Games
  • What's Included: Deck of cards, instructions
Pros
  • Laugh-out-loud fun as players try to be first to slap the deck
  • Super fast-paced game
  • No strategizing needed
Cons
  • Teaches fast reflexes but not strategizing
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Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

One of the best card games for teens is also one of the most popular card games of all time and the most backed Kickstarter ever — the teen-talked-about game of Exploding Kittens. This card game of epic-proportion popularity now also offers multiple expansion packs and a new Netflix series based on the hilarious, Russian-Roulette-style game of exploding kitten cards. The game is perfect for 2 to 5 players — who don’t mind betraying their friends by plotting against them while avoiding exploding kitten cards.

Exploding Kittens includes 56 cards with silly, cartoonish illustrations, and entertaining bits of trivia — I’ll bet you never noticed that Tacocat spelled backward is also Tacocat!

Players enjoy the hilarious card game of luck and strategy by taking turns drawing cards and hoping to avoid an exploding kitten card that blasts them right out of the game. Unless … they also have a kitten yoga card, catnip sandwich card, belly rub card, or other calming cards to defuse the situation and remain in the game. Players can rely on luck alone or use action cards to plot against their friends. Players may betray friends and family by forcing them to draw extra cards, inching them ever closer to an explosion while avoiding an Exploding Kitten card themselves.

This is one of the best card games for teens to play together with friends, siblings, or parents for a guaranteed good time. It’s perfect to take along on camping trips, sleepovers, or parties.

Key Features
  • Silly, Russian-Roulette-style card game for 2 to 5 players
  • Players draw cards until they draw an exploding kitten, putting them out of the game unless they also have a defusing card
  • Laser pointers, belly rubs, and catnip sandwhiches all help to defuse an exploding kitten
  • Edge-of your seat excitement and hilarity with goat cards, magical enchiladas, weaponized back hair and, of course, exploding kitten cards
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 7+
  • Game Duration: 15 minutes
  • Brand: Exploding Kittens LLC
  • What's Included: 56-card deck, instructions
Pros
  • Never a dull moment in this game
  • Perfect blend of luck and strategy
  • Winner of multiple awards and the most backed Kickstarter ever
  • Expansion packs available
Cons
  • Cards include some sexual innuendo
  • You'll want expansion packs after playing this game a couple of times
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Exploding Kittens Original Edition

One of the best card games of all time is also one of the best card games for teens who enjoy an edgy game that flirts with offensiveness. Recommended for adults and teens age 17 and up, Cards Against Humanity is known as the party game for horrible people. With 100 question cards and 500 answer cards, the possibilities for humor, repulsiveness, and offense are endless.

Cards Against Humanity is one of the top-selling card games of all time and livens up any party. It’s perfect for game nights, dorm rooms, campouts, and road trips. Just bring along a sense of humor and leave your sensitivity at home.

In Cards Against Humanity, one player reads aloud a black question card. The remaining players choose answers from the ten white answer cards they were dealt. Their goal is to come up with the funniest, craziest, most repulsive, or most offensive responses to the question. Use the cards to make hilarious or shocking jokes that liven up any party. Just understand ahead of time that at least one person in your group of friends is sure to take offense!

Crimes Against Humanity is the game everyone talks about. Love it or hate it, you’ll still want to play it. It’s one of the best card games for teens who are mature enough to pick up on some subtle and not-so-subtle innuendo. It also opens channels for important discussions … and maybe even some debate!

Key Features
  • Loud, uproariously funny card game matching black question cards with white answer cards
  • Players take turns reading a question card and players compete for points by choosing a response from their ten answer cards
  • Dealing player chooses the funniest response and players score points
  • Bring your sense of humor along- this game is instantly outrageous
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 17+
  • Game Duration: 30-90 minutes
  • Brand: Cards Against Humanity LLC
  • What's Included: 600-card deck, instructions
Pros
  • Many expansion packs available
  • Includes some blank cards so you can make up your own questions and answer choices
  • Players choose the funniest or most offensive answers and fill-in-the-blank responses by matching their answer cards to the question cards with hilarious results
  • Also described as America's number one gerbil coffin due to the heavy-duty black box
Cons
  • Recommended for teens and adults over age 17 due to mature content
  • Can be a polarizing game since the answers are often meant to be offensive
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Cards Against Humanity

One often overlooked aspect of card games is the artwork included on the cards, which makes them a pleasure to look at, shuffle, deal, and hold. That’s why one of the best card games for teens who enjoy brilliantly beautiful illustrations as well as the fun of a fast-paced game is Gnoming A Round by Grandpa Beck’s Games. This game of gnome golf is a pleasure for the senses as it takes players on a magical journey through Stottingham Shire. The gorgeous artwork continues in the illustrated rulebook and on the inside of the box which includes scenes from the Shire.

Although this is one of the best card games for teens to enjoy for the artwork alone, it’s also a fun, fast-paced game that follows adorable gnomes through a golf game while they compete to earn the lowest score. Each player begins with five cards arranged in a 3 x 3-card grid and then tries to drive down their scores by discarding cards and drawing new cards, seeking negative numbers — but watch out for water traps and hazards! Three like positive cards in a row or in a column turn that number into a negative. Rounds end when a player runs out of face-down cards. The gameplay is addictively different with every round, and the cards are a joy not only to hold but to behold.

Gnoming A Round makes a great gift for a teen in your life or as a family game night favorite. It’s one of the best card games for teens to take camping or to play with friends and family during sleepovers, power outages, or any time they turn off the tech.

Key Features
  • Light-hearted strategy game with scoring like miniature golf- the lowest score wins
  • Players form sets, avoid traps and hazards, and seek bonuses to get the lowest score
  • 15 to 30 minute games for 2-7 players of ages 7 and up, with beautifully illustrated cards
  • Fun for teens, but younger siblings and parents can play too
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 7+
  • Game Duration: 15-45 minutes
  • Brand: Grandpa Beck's Games
  • What's Included: 110 cards, instructions
Pros
  • 3 in a row equals negative points for extra excitement
  • Exceptionally beautiful artwork to enjoy on every card
  • The rulebook is also beautifully illustrated
Cons
  • Gorgeous artwork and family-friendly, but doesn't have any edginess for adventurous teens
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Gnoming A Round

For teens or adults who love a good murder mystery, the card game that leads them to uncovering a murderer in an English mansion makes game night a night not only of card dealing, but of deduction, death, and detective work. There’s Been a Murder is one of the best card games for teens to team together to strategize, follow leads, and become secret sleuths to track a killer.

There’s Been a Murder is best for 3 to 8 players of age 14 and up. The game includes 15 action cards, and 9 effect cards. Players must strategize to use their specific cards to their best effect in order to learn which player is secretly holding the murder card. It’s an exciting, intense game of collaboration and clues.

The game takes players back to England during the 1930s, when an elegant house party leaves one guest murdered before morning. If the murderer escapes, everyone loses the game. If a witness card and the murderer card end up in the same hand it may be game over.

Game night becomes a night filled with twists, turns, and danger lurking around every corner. From the start of the game when the player who has most recently read or watched a murder mystery gets to go first, to the end of the game when the clue-hunters and collaborators catch up to the murderer — or lets the murderer escape — this is one of the best card games for teens to see what their powers of deduction can discover.

Key Features
  • Cooperative game of social deduction to solve a murder mystery
  • Use the hand your dealt to work with others to solve a murder
  • For 3-8 players of 14 and up
  • With action and effect cards to give clues
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 14+
  • Game Duration: 30-60 minutes
  • Brand: Pressman
  • What's Included: 24-card deck, instructions
Pros
  • Up to 8 players can play
  • If murderer and witness cards end up in the same hand it's game-over
  • Lots of fun twists and turns
  • Different every time it's played
Cons
  • Can take a little time and practice to learn
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There's Been A Murder

One of the best card games for teens and adults comes from the creator of Exploding Kittens. The fun game of sea-crets under the ocean, You’ve Got Crabs, is sure to cause an uproar on your next game night — uproarious fun, that is. This team-based game keeps eyes and wits keen as players exchange secret signals and try to catch other players in the act of exchanging secret signals of their own.

You’ve Got Crabs comes with funny crab-themed cards, like “Low Crab Diet” and “Abracadabra.” With 78 cards, an instruction book, and cardboard crabs, you have everything you need for a laugh-out-loud game for up to 8 players.

To play You’ve Got Crabs, players choose a partner and invent a secret signal. Then they collect crab cards and seek a matched set. Once a player gets a matched set, they have crabs. Then they must try to communicate this to their partner through the secret signal. If the partner yells “You’ve got crabs!” it means they saw the signal and the player scores a point. If someone else sees the signal first and yells, “You’ve got crabs!” the player loses a point. The player who manages to catch the most crabs wins the game.

This is one of the best card games for teens who love deception, duplicity, and keeping sea-crets. There’s also a fun expansion pack available called, “Imitation Crab,” to keep the fun going and going.

Key Features
  • Fun games for teens and adults with 78 cards for a game of secrets in the deep, dark ocean
  • Pick a playing partner and agree on a secret signal and then collect crab cards to try to match a pair
  • Once you have a matched set you "have crabs" and must send a secret signal to your partner
  • Earn points when you partner sees your signal and yells, "You've got crabs!
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 17+
  • Game Duration: 15-45 minutes
  • Brand: Exploding Kittens LLC
  • What's Included: 78-card deck, 28 crab points, turn indicator, instructions
Pros
  • "Imitation crab" expansion kit available
  • From the creator of Exploding Kittens
  • Loud, exciting game that's hilariously fun to play
Cons
  • Rule book needs improvement
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You've Got Crabs

Do you ever think about stealing your friend’s stuff? Well, now you can feel free to steal, sabotage, and engage in trickery against your friends in one of the best games for teens to play with friends or family. It’s perfect for camping, power outages, parties, or whenever it’s time to turn off the tech and take gameplay out of the video games and put it into your hands with cards and coins to manipulate in the real world. Get That Pirate’s Booty is the perfect game to get you hooked — Captain-hooked, that is.

Get That Pirate’s Booty includes 110 artfully designed cards, 8 real metal pirate coins, a drawstring coin bag, a nicely illustrated rule booklet, and a beautiful, pirate-treasure-themed storage box. To play, two to six players compete to acquire 3 sets of 4 matched treasure cards or gather all 4 rare pirate ship cards to win — all while protecting your gathered treasure from buccaneer thieves and strategizing to sabotage competing marauders. A coin helps protect your stacks of treasures, but nothing is foolproof against pirates intent on thievery. You’ll either become the Pirate King or go down with your ship in this game of light-hearted strategy combined with traditional, luck-of-the-draw fun.

This is one of the best card games for teens to play to stretch their brains while showing their pirate brawn.

Key Features
  • Strategy card game of thievery, sabotage, and tricks while players compete to become Pirate King
  • Includes 110 cards, 8 real metal pirate's coins, drawstring bag, rule booklet, and decorative storage box
  • Win by obtaining three matched sets of treasure cards or 4 rare pirate ships
  • Follow action cards, challenge opponents, and use pirate coin game pieces to protect your treasure
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: 8+
  • Game Duration: 15-45 minutes
  • Brand: BA Games Co.
  • What's Included: 110-card deck, 8 metal coins, coin bag, instructions
Pros
  • Easy to play, but requires brain-stretching strategy
  • Artfully designed cards
  • Family-friendly game teens can play with friends, parents, and siblings as young as 8 years old
  • Highly addictive game because you'll think of new strategies between sessions
Cons
  • Takes a little while to learn, but rewarding fun once you've mastered the rules
  • Hard-won strategies may be disrupted at any time by an opponent stealing your treasure!
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Get That Pirate's Booty

Have you ever wondered what your friends really think about you? It’s time to find out for better or worse while you take your turn in the hot seat. Hot Seat is one of the best card games for teens to test the strengths and weaknesses of their friendships while learning sometimes uncomfortable truths about the way their friends see them. This fun, enlightening game of question cards, answers, and hard truths is perfect for long-time friends to play together at game nights, parties, campouts, and get-togethers.

Hot Seat: The Game That’s All About YOU is best for 3 or more players and becomes a different game depending on the group playing. Players take turns in the “hot seat” and draw three cards. The remaining players read the questions on the cards and write down answers while pretending to be YOU. That means they get inside your head and answer the cards the way they think you would answer. Meanwhile, the player in the hot seat also answers the questions. Then the hot seat player reads the responses out loud and players guess which response belongs to the player in the hot seat. Players earn points through a scoring system based on how well they know the person in the hot seat.

The answers you hear while in the hot seat may be right on target for the way you see yourself, or you may just have to take it on the chin if you hear something unexpected or that you didn’t think anyone knew.

This is one of the best card games for teens to play with their closest long-time friends.

Key Features
  • Learn who knows you best and hear the stories about yourself that you hoped no one remembered
  • Beware of seeing yourself through the eyes of others as they answer questions while pretending to be YOU
  • Can you guess which answer was the one actually written by the player in the hot seat?
  • Get into your friends' brains while answering questions the way you think they would
Specifications
  • Type of Game: Card game
  • Age Recommendation: All ages
  • Game Duration: 13-30 minutes
  • Brand: Dyce LLC
  • What's Included: 200-card deck, instructions
Pros
  • Fun, insightful, and thought-provoking
  • It's a different experience with every group of friends you play with
  • Learn what your friends really think about you (which could also be a con)
  • Includes perforated sheets for answers
Cons
  • May start arguments... for example, when players answer a question like, "what job would I be horrible at?"
  • Includes a card about what makes you horny, so remove the card if playing with parents or young siblings
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When it comes to teens and gaming, action-packed video games with blazing guns and exploding zombies may be the first images that come to mind. But what happens when it’s time to turn off the tech? Campouts, car trips, power outages, parties… sometimes video games aren’t practical or possible. Plus, taking time away from digital devices and playing one of the best card games for teens can be important for social development and cognitive skills building — and it’s also just good fun with friends!

Whether you’re a teenager yourself, you’re looking for a card game to play with friends, or you’re an adult in search of a great card game to gift to a teen in your life, it helps to know a little about card games and what makes these little boxes of cards engaging enough to lure a teen away from the technology.

Feel-Good Fun

There are many reasons why card games have been popular for a millennium or more, and it isn’t just the fun of strategizing and winning out over opponents. There’s something satisfying about the way cards feel in our hands. That’s why learning to shuffle decks and deal cards is uniquely gratifying. It’s soothing to feel the stiff little cards in your hands as you play. It’s a completely different experience compared to holding a controller to play a video game and it stimulates a different part of the brain, offering a tactile reward for the senses that adds to the satisfaction of gameplay.

Planning, Plotting and Strategizing With Friends — or Against Them

If you’ve ever imagined stealing your friends' stuff, sabotaging their plans, and besting their skills, the best card games for teens are the way to do it without losing a friendship. In fact, they’ll be plotting and planning against you too.

A good card game offers fast-paced fun but also involves an intense mix of luck-of-the-draw and strategizing skills. You have to play the hand you’re dealt, but what you do with it is all up to your planning powers — and maybe your poker face, since you’ll want to keep your strategy hidden until it’s time to pull it off.

Facing off with friends over a good card game is a fun way to match wits and battle skills, with no controllers needed, just a good deck of cards.

Card or C-Art?

One often under-appreciated attribute of cards is the artwork displayed on them. Some of the best card games for teens become wildly popular not just for the fun of the gameplay but also for the beauty or comic artistry of the illustrations. It’s one of the most appealing ways to enjoy a wide variety of artwork by artists in many different genres. From the collectible cards of Magic The Gathering and Pokemon to the sweet berries of Strawberry Sunset and the hilarious artwork of Exploding Kittens, enjoying the pictures on the backs of playing cards is a big part of the fun.

Cards are portable, require no power, and fit into a pocket or purse. They are a great way to bond with friends while boosting brain power. The best card games for teens pack a lot of fun into a little box.