PULTEVENT
Teen party games: 8 things for the big screen that 13 to 17 year olds will actually play
Fifteen fourteen-year-olds in a basement, all on their phones, none of them talking. The parent upstairs is wondering whether to go down with more pizza or leave them to it. Then the TV on the wall switches to a black screen with a QR code and a line that says "Scan this. Anonymous. Who in this room would survive a zombie film?" Every phone in the room goes up at once. Two minutes later the whole basement is arguing about Jake.
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The trick with teenagers is that you can't make them play anything. The phone is already in their hand, so the games have to go through the phone. That's the whole idea here: the TV is the stage, their own phones are the controllers, and nobody has to stand up and do anything embarrassing unless they choose to.
An adult sets it up and keeps the laptop, usually a parent, an older cousin or the aunt everybody likes. PULTEVENT runs in the laptop browser and goes to the TV over HDMI. The teens join by scanning a QR code, nothing to install, no accounts. Their phones need internet, so give them the Wi-Fi password before anything else, or they'll use their own data and complain about it.
8 games teenagers won't roll their eyes at
1 Who in this room
Anonymous live voting: who would survive a zombie film, who'll be famous first, who takes longest to reply to a text. The bars grow on the TV as the votes come in.
How to run it. Write the questions yourself and read them twice. Keep them flattering or silly, never about looks, crushes or anything that could stick to someone on Monday.
It gets every phone involved within a minute, and nobody has to speak first.
2 Drift Arena
Up to twelve cars on a 3D track, each steered from a phone. It's chaos with a scoreboard.
How to run it. Run a qualifying round, then a final with the top players while everyone else heckles.
It's the one they'll ask to play again at the end of the night.
3 Guess the guest
Before the party, everyone sends one little-known fact about themselves. On the night, each fact goes up on the TV and the room guesses whose it is from their phones.
How to run it. Collect the facts privately through a parent or the host, not in the group chat.
Great when the party mixes school friends with cousins or friends from a club who don't know each other.
4 Fake karaoke
Someone sings along to a backing track, full confidence. The program quietly records their voice, then plays it back with no music under it.
How to run it. Only use a volunteer who's in on the fun afterwards. Pick the class clown, not the quiet kid.
Hearing your own voice solo is the funniest thing in the world, as long as it was your choice to sing.
5 True or false
A statement on screen, two buttons on every phone. Fast rounds on facts that sound fake and aren't.
How to run it. Mix in facts about the birthday teen. It's funnier when the room gets their friend wrong.
Short, no reading of long questions, and the leaderboard gives it an edge.
6 Karaoke battle
Two singers or two teams, one song each, the room votes from phones for the winner.
How to run it. Let them choose the songs in advance. Teens have strong opinions about music and they will tell you yours are wrong.
The confident ones get their stage. Everyone else gets a vote.
7 Horse race
A 3D horse race the whole room plays from phones. Pick your horse, then everything depends on the phone in your hand.
How to run it. Save it for the moment the energy drops, usually after food.
Two minutes of screaming, and it resets the room.
8 The raffle
Everyone who scanned the QR code is in the draw. The TV spins through the names and lands on a winner.
How to run it. Small prizes: a gift card, a hoodie, the last slice of pizza. It's the reveal that matters.
It ends the games on a clean note, so the rest of the night can just be hanging out.
Their phones, your screen
Teens play on the phones they already won't put down. The TV shows the results.
Anonymous where it counts
Votes and answers can be anonymous, so nobody is singled out for a choice.
An adult at the laptop
You control what goes on screen, what gets asked and when it stops.
No sign-ups
Scan the QR code and play. No app store, no email address, no parental account.
Why screens work with teenagers
Ask a room of fifteen-year-olds to play a party game and you'll get silence. Put a QR code on the TV and they scan it before you finish explaining. They're comfortable on their phones, and a question on a big screen feels like something happening to the whole room, not a test for one person.
The other thing: nobody is on the spot. They can vote, guess and race from the sofa. The ones who want to perform (karaoke, the dance-off) volunteer. The ones who don't still play.
Keep it kind
Teenagers can be brutal with each other, and a big screen amplifies whatever you put on it. You're the adult writing the questions, so you set the tone. Anonymous voting is good for "who would be the best teacher" and bad for anything about appearance, relationships or who's popular.
Read every question aloud to yourself and imagine the least confident kid in the room hearing their name attached to it. If you wince, cut it.
How long to run it
Forty minutes of games is plenty for most teen parties. Start after everyone has arrived and eaten something, run four or five games back to back, finish with the raffle, then turn the TV back into a music screen and leave them to it.
If they ask for more, that's your cue to run the car race once more, not to add another round of questions.
Sixteenth birthdays and bigger parties
For a Sweet 16 or a bigger birthday in a hired room, the same setup scales up: a projector instead of a TV, more phones, a proper sound system. The splash screen can show the birthday teen's name and photo when people arrive, and a short video from grandparents abroad can play before the cake.
Everything still runs from the one laptop, and the adult in charge still holds it.
Where the phones need signal
Basements and garden rooms can be dead zones. Walk around the room with your phone before the party and check the Wi-Fi reaches the sofa. If it doesn't, move the router or move the party. The phone games won't work without internet.
Testing without the teenager watching
Your teen will judge the setup harder than any guest. Try it on your own first with the free 3-day demo, no card needed, then show them a finished version. The full version is a one-time license, no subscription, priced 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 teen party games on a TV
- 1
Collect one secret fact from each guest a few days before, and let the birthday teen pick the karaoke songs.
- 2
Write the voting questions and the true-or-false round, then load them into the laptop.
- 3
Connect the laptop to the TV and check the Wi-Fi reaches every corner of the room.
- 4
Share the Wi-Fi password and put the QR code on screen once everyone has eaten.
- 5
Run four or five games, alternating something loud with something quick.
- 6
Finish with the raffle and hand the room back to the teenagers.
FAQ
Is this suitable for 13 year olds?
Do they need to download an app?
Can my teenager run it themselves?
How many can play the car race?
What if some guests don't have phones?
Are there ready-made question sets in English?
How much is it?
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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