PULTEVENT
Sleepover party games: 7 games for the TV between the pizza and lights out
Eight sleeping bags on a living-room floor, lined up like sardines. Pizza boxes stacked by the door. Six ten-year-olds in pajamas are kneeling in front of the TV, two to a phone, arguing in whispers. On the screen: "What was the name of Maya's first teddy?" Four answers. Maya herself is lying face down on her sleeping bag, laughing so hard she can't breathe, because three of her friends have just locked in "Mr Sausage" and the right answer is much worse. From the kitchen doorway, her mom, who is in charge of the laptop, counts down from five.
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A sleepover has a very particular shape. There's the arriving and the showing-off of sleeping bags, the food, a long evening that needs filling, and a bedtime that everyone, including the parents, knows will be ignored. The evening part is where it goes right or wrong. Too little to do and it turns into bickering; too much sugar and nobody sleeps until three.
PULTEVENT runs from a laptop plugged into the living-room TV, and a parent keeps hold of the laptop all evening. Some games are played from phones by scanning a QR code on screen, no app to install. Those phones need internet. At eight or nine most children don't have their own phone, so they play in pairs on a parent's phone. At eleven or twelve, if they have phones and you're happy for them to use them, they can join directly.
7 sleepover games for the TV
1 How well do you know the birthday girl
A quiz about the host or birthday child, answered from phones: favorite animal, worst subject, what she wants to be, the name of her first teddy.
How to run it. Write the questions with the birthday child beforehand. She'll want to put in trick questions, and you should let her.
Friends love proving they're the best friend, and the birthday child loves every second of it.
2 Would you rather
Two silly options on the TV: would you rather have a pet dragon or a pet unicorn, only eat pizza or never eat pizza again. Votes appear as bars.
How to run it. End each question by asking one person from the smaller side to explain themselves.
No right answers, lots of arguing, all of it harmless.
3 Tower
A 3D tower game on the TV, played from a phone. Pass it around the circle and take turns while everyone else watches the screen.
How to run it. Great for the calmer part of the evening, after the pizza.
Turn-based and slower, so it suits the moment when the sugar starts to wear off.
4 Silly challenges
The task randomizer spins and lands on a challenge: speak in an accent for a minute, do your best animal impression, say a tongue twister three times fast.
How to run it. Write the challenges yourself. Nothing messy, nothing that involves going outside, nothing that could embarrass someone who's shy.
Nobody picks their own challenge, so nobody feels singled out.
5 Karaoke in pajamas
A karaoke battle between two teams with the words on screen, the room votes for the winning team.
How to run it. Let them pick their songs as they arrive, so the argument happens early and is over by the time you start.
It's the loud bit of the night. Better at eight than at eleven.
6 Fun Flight
A 3D flying game the whole room plays together on the TV, each player from a phone.
How to run it. Try it yourself first so you can explain it in one sentence.
Short, bright, and even the child who's homesick joins in.
7 Countdown to lights out
A break screen with a countdown: "Lights out in 20:00." Soft music underneath. When it hits zero, the TV goes to a slow-moving background and the laptop closes.
How to run it. Put it on before teeth-brushing, not after. The countdown does the arguing for you.
Kids handle bedtime much better when it's on the screen and not coming from a grown-up.
A parent at the laptop
You choose the games and you decide when the screen goes off.
Pairs or own phones
Younger kids share a grown-up's phone in pairs. Older ones can use their own.
The living room is enough
A TV, a laptop, an HDMI cable and floor space for sleeping bags.
A built-in bedtime
A countdown on the TV makes lights out a thing everyone can see coming.
The shape of a good sleepover evening
Arrivals and pizza take the first hour. Then about an hour of games: the quiz and would you rather while they're still eating, the karaoke once they're full of energy, the tower and Fun Flight as things calm down, the challenges whenever there's a lull. Then the countdown, teeth, sleeping bags.
Don't run games past the countdown. Once the screen says lights out, the laptop closes and the TV goes off. They'll whisper for another hour anyway.
Phones at a sleepover
Every phone that joins a game needs internet, which at home means your Wi-Fi. Young children won't have their own phones, and that's fine: pair them up on an adult's phone, or pass one phone around for turn-based games like the tower.
If the children do bring their own phones, you might want them to use them for the games and then hand them in at lights out. Many parents collect phones in a basket before bed. The countdown gives you a natural moment to do it.
Keeping the peace
Sleepovers have their own politics: who sleeps next to who, who's best friends with who this week. Avoid anything that ranks the guests against each other. The quiz is about the host, not about the guests. The voting is about dragons and pizza, not about which of them is funniest.
"Can we do a vote for who's the prettiest?"
"No. Next question: dragon or unicorn."
Older kids, twelve and up
At twelve they'll want more competition and less supervision. Add a true-or-false round, let them write some of the questions and run a drift race on their own phones. The parent still keeps the laptop. The screen still goes off at the agreed time.
Twelve-year-olds also like being given a job. Let one of them be the scorekeeper who reads out the standings, or the DJ who picks the next karaoke track from an approved list. It keeps the ones who are slightly too old for party games inside the fun rather than rolling their eyes at it from the sofa.
The practical bits
Tape the HDMI cable down, because the floor is about to be covered in sleeping bags and small feet. Keep the laptop somewhere the children can't knock it, like a shelf or the kitchen counter. Turn the TV brightness down later in the evening so it doesn't wind them up.
Try it before the big night
Run it once with your own children on a school night. The free 3-day demo needs no card and covers everything here. After that, the full version is a one-time license, no subscription; the price is listed at pultevent.ru/en.
About the author
PULTEVENT was built by Ruslan Barashkin, who has hosted weddings, birthdays and office parties since 2014: over 500 events, best host of Moscow 2024 and of Saint Petersburg 2023 at the TOP 100 Awards. He made it for his own nights first. The rest is at pultevent.ru/en.
How to run sleepover party games on the TV
- 1
A few days before, write the birthday quiz with your child and load the challenges.
- 2
Connect the laptop to the TV and keep it somewhere out of reach.
- 3
Check the Wi-Fi works from the sleeping-bag end of the room.
- 4
After pizza, put the QR code on screen and pair up any children without phones.
- 5
Run the quiz, voting, karaoke and the calmer 3D games in that order.
- 6
Start the lights-out countdown before teeth and close the laptop at zero.
FAQ
What age are these sleepover games for?
Do the kids need their own phones?
Who runs the games?
Do they need to install an app?
Can we make the quiz about my daughter?
How do I stop it going on all night?
How much does it cost?
See also
Run brighter events — with PULTEVENT
All audience interactions, a second screen and timing in one app. Guests join by QR — internet is needed for you and for them.
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