32 games
Checked October 2026

Scary Sleepover Games

Scary games to play at sleepovers, each marked mild, medium or spooky: pretend-scary only, with no rituals and no dares.

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How Many Eyes Are Watching?1. Before lights-out, the host draws pairs of eyes on sticky notes and puts them around the room: on a shelf, behind a plant, on the ceiling fan.2. Everyone lies in a sleeping bag with a flashlight.3. On go, the players sweep their beams around the room for one minute without getting up, and count pairs of eyes.4. Each whispers a number. The host walks the room and collects the eyes for the real count.Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: sticky notes, a marker and a flashlight each.
Find the Key in the Pillowcase1. Fill a pillowcase with harmless things that feel odd: a wet washcloth in a bag, a bath sponge, a tangle of rubber bands, a furry slipper, a cold spoon. No food and nothing sharp. Add one key.2. Lights low. Each player has ten seconds to reach in and find the key by touch.3. A player who pulls out anything else puts it back and passes the pillowcase on.4. Count how many players it takes before the key comes out.Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a pillowcase, one key and a handful of odd-feeling things.
The Calm Newsreader1. The host writes a short news report about something strange in the house: "Reports are coming in of a sock that moves by itself."2. One player sits up straight and reads it by flashlight in a calm, serious news voice.3. The others make quiet spooky noises the whole time: a creak, a far-off howl, a slow knock.4. A newsreader who reaches the last word without laughing wins. Write a new report for each reader.Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: paper, a pen and a flashlight.

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Scary story games with a flashlight 8

Backward Ghost Story 1. Sit in a circle with one flashlight. The host gives the last line of a story, such as "And that is why the attic light is never switched off." 2. The player holding the flashlight adds the sentence that came just before it. 3. Pass the light on. Each player adds the sentence before the one they just heard. 4. After two laps, the last player gives the opening line. Then one volunteer tells the whole story forward. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight.
The Blanket Sound Crew 1. Two players are the sound crew. They go under a blanket with a few things from the room: a zipper, a chip bag, a comb, a water bottle. 2. A narrator makes up a spooky story out loud and leaves a pause wherever a sound belongs: "The door opened with a..." 3. The crew fills each pause from under the blanket. 4. After five sounds, the listeners guess what made each one. Swap crews. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 4 to 8. You need: a blanket and a few things that make a noise.
The Haunted Tour of This Room 1. Turn the lights low. One player is the tour guide and holds the flashlight. 2. The guide shines it on an ordinary thing in the room and gives its haunted history in three sentences: "This lamp has not been switched off since 1890. Nobody knows who pays for the bulb." 3. Pass the flashlight on. Each guide picks a new thing. 4. After everyone has had a turn, vote for the legend you will remember at breakfast. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight.

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Scary story games with a flashlight, continued

Roll a Ghost Story 1. Write three lists of six on a sheet. The first is who the story is about (a lighthouse keeper, a new kid, a night bus driver, twins, a piano teacher, a dog). The second is where (an attic, a school at night, a foggy bridge, a library, a train, a cellar). The third is what is heard (humming, scratching, a bell, footsteps, a whisper, a music box). 2. The teller rolls a die three times, once for each list. 3. The teller has one minute to tell a story with all three. 4. The listeners score it from one to five shivers on their fingers. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a die, paper, a pen and a flashlight.
Scariest Reason, Then the Boring One 1. One player reports a small mystery in a serious voice: "There is a tapping behind the bookshelf." 2. Going around the circle, every other player gives the scariest reason they can think of. 3. Then go around again. This time each gives the most boring reason that could be true: a pipe, a branch, the cat. 4. The reporter picks the best scary reason and the best boring one. The boring winner reports next. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: nothing.
The Scariest Shopping List 1. Find the most ordinary writing in the room: a cereal box, a shampoo bottle, the back of a board game. 2. Each player holds the flashlight under their chin and reads three lines of it in the scariest voice they have. 3. Nobody may change a word. 4. The room votes for the reading that made "rinse and repeat" sound like a warning. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight and something ordinary to read.
The Trap Word 1. Agree on a trap word that scary stories use a lot, such as "door", "dark" or "suddenly". 2. One player tells a spooky story by flashlight. 3. Every time the trap word comes up, everyone gasps and pulls a blanket up to the chin. 4. The last listener to gasp becomes the storyteller and picks a new trap word. A teller who says the word three times in one breath gets a round of applause. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight and a blanket each.
Two-Sentence Scare Contest 1. Everyone gets a slip and three minutes to write a scary story in exactly two sentences. The second sentence has to change the first. 2. Fold the slips and put them in a pillowcase. 3. One reader draws them out and reads each by flashlight, in the same slow voice. 4. The reader reads them all again. Each player raises a hand once, for their favorite. Nobody votes for their own. Scare: spooky. Youngest player: age 12. Players: 3 to 8. You need: slips, pens, a pillowcase and a flashlight.

Dark-room games, walking only 8

Clap and Answer in the Dark 1. Clear the floor. The seeker stands in the middle with eyes shut, and the others stand still around the room. Lights off. 2. The seeker claps once. Everyone else must clap once in answer, right away. 3. The seeker walks toward one clap and may clap five times in all. 4. If the seeker touches a player's shoulder within five claps, that player seeks next. If not, the seeker picks who goes next. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 4 to 8. You need: nothing.
The Cold Hand 1. Sit in a circle with the lights off and one hand out, palm up. 2. The host walks around and hands one player an ice pack wrapped in a cloth, to hold for a slow count of thirty behind their back. 3. That player hands the pack back, then touches one fingertip to the palm of a neighbor, who says "cold". 4. Lights on. Everyone but those two guesses whose hand was the cold one. Scare: spooky. Youngest player: age 12. Players: 4 to 8. You need: an ice pack wrapped in a cloth.
Count the Voices 1. Clear the floor and turn the lights off. Everyone walks slowly around the room for a count of ten, then stops. 2. The host taps one player, who sits down under a blanket and stays silent. 3. The host calls a roll: each standing player says "here" in a disguised voice. 4. Still in the dark, players guess who did not answer. The first right guess does the tapping next round. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 5 to 8. You need: a blanket.
Footsteps Stop Behind Someone 1. Clear the floor. Everyone but the walker sits in a circle, facing in, eyes shut. Turn the lights off. 2. The walker walks slowly around the outside of the circle, and stops behind one player without a sound. 3. The host says "now". Anyone who thinks the walker is behind them raises a hand. 4. Lights on. A player who was right becomes the walker. A player who raised a hand for nothing does three owl hoots. Scare: spooky. Youngest player: age 12. Players: 4 to 8. You need: nothing.
Haunted Pairs: Find Your Sound 1. The host whispers a sound to each player, so that two players share each one: an owl, a creaking door, the wind, a ticking clock. 2. Players spread out around the cleared room. Lights off. 3. Everyone makes their sound quietly and walks toward the matching one. Nobody runs, and nobody says a word. 4. A pair that has found each other sits down. The last pair standing does both sounds as a duet with the lights on. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 6 to 8. You need: nothing.
The Heartbeat Under the Floor 1. Send the seekers to sit on their sleeping bags with eyes shut. 2. The host hides a ticking kitchen timer, or a phone playing a quiet heartbeat sound, somewhere in the room: under a cushion, in a shoe, behind a curtain. 3. Lights off. The seekers walk, never run, and listen their way toward it. 4. The first to put a hand on it hides it next. Nothing is hidden higher than a shoulder. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a ticking kitchen timer or a phone.
How Many Eyes Are Watching? 1. Before lights-out, the host draws pairs of eyes on sticky notes and puts them around the room: on a shelf, behind a plant, on the ceiling fan. 2. Everyone lies in a sleeping bag with a flashlight. 3. On go, the players sweep their beams around the room for one minute without getting up, and count pairs of eyes. 4. Each whispers a number. The host walks the room and collects the eyes for the real count. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: sticky notes, a marker and a flashlight each.
The Sleepwalker 1. Clear the floor. One player is the sleepwalker and stands by the wall with eyes shut and arms held out in front. 2. The others each choose a spot and stand there. From now on their feet may not move, but they may bend and lean. 3. Lights low. The sleepwalker walks slowly, three steps at a time, then stops and listens. 4. A player the sleepwalker touches on the arm becomes the next sleepwalker. The host walks beside the sleepwalker the whole time. Scare: spooky. Youngest player: age 12. Players: 4 to 8. You need: nothing.

Nerve games with no dares 8

The Bell That Must Not Ring 1. One player sits in the middle and holds a jingle bell on an open, flat palm. 2. The others tell the scariest story they can, a sentence each, for one minute. They may whisper, pause and drop their voices, but nobody touches the player or shouts. 3. If the bell rings, the turn is over. 4. A player whose bell stays silent for the minute scores a point and picks who sits in the middle next. Scare: spooky. Youngest player: age 12. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a jingle bell.
The Calm Newsreader 1. The host writes a short news report about something strange in the house: "Reports are coming in of a sock that moves by itself." 2. One player sits up straight and reads it by flashlight in a calm, serious news voice. 3. The others make quiet spooky noises the whole time: a creak, a far-off howl, a slow knock. 4. A newsreader who reaches the last word without laughing wins. Write a new report for each reader. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: paper, a pen and a flashlight.
The Feel Box With a Story 1. Put six ordinary things in six paper bags: a damp sponge, a ball of yarn, a hairbrush, a rubber glove filled with rice, a pine cone, a peeled-off sticker sheet. No food and nothing sharp. 2. The host gives each bag a spooky label and reads it aloud: "the wizard's beard", "the swamp creature's handshake". 3. Each player reaches into each bag for five seconds, lights low. 4. Players write down what each thing really is. Most right wins. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: six paper bags, six ordinary things, paper and pens.
Find the Key in the Pillowcase 1. Fill a pillowcase with harmless things that feel odd: a wet washcloth in a bag, a bath sponge, a tangle of rubber bands, a furry slipper, a cold spoon. No food and nothing sharp. Add one key. 2. Lights low. Each player has ten seconds to reach in and find the key by touch. 3. A player who pulls out anything else puts it back and passes the pillowcase on. 4. Count how many players it takes before the key comes out. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a pillowcase, one key and a handful of odd-feeling things.
The Longest Silence 1. Everyone lies in a sleeping bag. Lights off. 2. On go, nobody makes a sound: no words, no giggles, no rustling. 3. The host waits a while and then makes one small odd noise somewhere in the room: a slow zipper, a tap on the window frame, a page turning. 4. Anyone who makes a sound sits up and helps the host make noises. The last silent player wins. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: nothing.
Open the Door Without a Creak 1. Everyone sits on the floor with eyes shut, facing away from the bedroom door. The door is closed but never locked. 2. One player has to open it all the way as slowly and quietly as possible. 3. Listeners raise a hand the moment they hear anything at all. 4. The player scores one point for each listener whose hand is still down when the door is fully open. The door stays open for the rest of the night. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: nothing.
The Stare-Out by Flashlight 1. Two players sit face to face with one flashlight standing between them, pointing at the ceiling. 2. On go, they stare at each other. No talking, and no making faces. 3. The first to laugh, look away or speak is out, and the next challenger sits down. 4. The others may whisper anything they like from behind the starers, as long as they touch nobody. Three wins in a row makes a champion. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight.
Thirteen Coins by Flashlight 1. Each player gets thirteen coins or buttons. One flashlight lies on the floor, so the light is low and the shadows are long. 2. Players take turns stacking one coin at a time into a single tower in front of them. 3. While one player stacks, the others count down from thirteen in a slow whisper. 4. A tower that falls starts again from nothing. The first standing tower of thirteen wins. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 2 to 8. You need: thirteen coins or buttons each and a flashlight.

Detective games after lights-out 8

Ear Witness 1. The detectives lie down with eyes shut. Lights off. 2. One player makes five sounds in a row with things in the room, leaving a pause between them: a zipper, a pen click, water poured, paper torn, keys shaken. 3. Lights on. Each detective writes down the five things in order. 4. One point for each right thing, and one more for each in the right place. The best ear makes the next five sounds. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a few things that make a noise, paper and pens.
Fingerprint Files 1. Each player rubs a soft pencil on scrap paper until there is a dark patch, and presses a fingertip into it. 2. Lift the print with clear tape and stick it on a card with the player's name: this is the file. 3. The detective looks away. One player makes a second print and leaves it on a blank card by the "missing" snack bowl. 4. The detective compares it with the files by flashlight and names the culprit. Three tries. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a soft pencil, scrap paper, clear tape, cards and a flashlight.
The Message One Letter Late 1. The host writes a secret message in code. Every letter is replaced by the one after it in the alphabet, so HELLO becomes IFMMP and Z becomes A. 2. Each pair of detectives gets a copy and a pen. 3. Pairs race to decode it by flashlight. A good first message tells them where to look next: under the lamp, behind the door. 4. The winning pair writes a coded message for the others to solve. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 4 to 8. You need: paper, pens and a flashlight for each pair.
The Room Was Disturbed 1. The detectives study the room for one minute with the lights on. 2. They pull their sleeping bags over their heads and count slowly to thirty. 3. Meanwhile the "ghost" moves five things: a pillow swapped, a book turned around, a shoe on the windowsill. 4. The detectives search by flashlight and call out what changed. The detective who finds the fifth change is the next ghost. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: a flashlight each.
Three Clues to the Culprit 1. Everyone stands. The host secretly picks one player as the culprit who "left the fridge open at midnight". 2. The host gives one true clue about the culprit, such as "wearing socks". Every player the clue does not fit lies down in a sleeping bag. 3. Give a second clue, then a third. 4. The players lying down then name the culprit together. If more than one suspect is still standing, the host owes a fourth clue. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 5 to 8. You need: nothing.
The Torn Note 1. Before lights-out, the host writes a note that sounds spooky and is not: "What you seek waits in the blue tin." 2. Tear the note into twelve pieces and hide them around the room, none higher than a shoulder. 3. Lights low. The detectives hunt by flashlight and bring every piece to one sleeping bag. 4. They put the note together, read it out and go where it says. The blue tin holds the midnight snack. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: paper, a pen, a flashlight each, a tin with a snack in it.
The Vanished Guest 1. The host tells the case: "At midnight there were six sleeping bags and five guests. The window was shut. Nobody heard the door." 2. The detectives may ask only questions that can be answered yes or no. 3. The host answers from the solution, which the host has made up beforehand and which must be ordinary: the sixth guest was in the kitchen making toast. 4. The detective who gets there writes the next case. Scare: medium. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: nothing.
Who Wrote the Warning? 1. Every player writes the same sentence on a slip with the hand they do not usually write with: "Do not open the closet." 2. Fold the slips and mix them in a pillowcase. 3. The detective draws them out one at a time, studies each by flashlight and may ask any player to write one word again as a sample. 4. One point for each slip matched to its writer. The writer who fooled the detective longest goes next. Scare: mild. Youngest player: age 10. Players: 3 to 8. You need: slips, pens, a pillowcase and a flashlight.

How this list was compiled: Our suggestions, written for this site for a sleepover of three to eight friends aged about 10 to 15 who want to be a little scared indoors. The wording, the scare levels, the ages and the player counts are ours. Left out on purpose: summoning and mirror rituals, anything that tells a player something is coming for them, dares, locked doors, leaving the house and running in the dark. The list states no rule or history of a traditional game, so no outside source was needed. Licence: own work

How it works

These scary sleepover games are for three to eight friends, ages 10 to 15, who want goosebumps and a laugh. No door is locked, nobody leaves the house, and every mystery has an ordinary answer.

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Start mild, and agree on a stop word

Before the lights go off, pick a word that stops any game at once, with no questions asked. Then open with a mild game: The Scariest Shopping List makes everyone laugh first. Move up to Footsteps Stop Behind Someone or The Cold Hand only if the whole room wants to.

Scary games to play at night, in one room

Before any game under Dark-room games, walking only, clear the floor, and walk. For the last hour, switch to Detective games after lights-out. The Torn Note ends at a tin of snacks, which is a good place for a scary night to end.

One flashlight left standing on the floor, pointing up, lights a room enough to walk in.
Tell the adults in the house which games involve a dark room, so nobody opens the door mid-game.

Questions and answers

What scary games can you play at a sleepover?

Story games such as Backward Ghost Story, dark-room games such as The Heartbeat Under the Floor, nerve games such as The Bell That Must Not Ring and mysteries such as The Vanished Guest. All of them are played indoors, in one room.

What are scary sleepover games that are not too scary?

Fifteen games are marked mild, such as The Haunted Tour of This Room, How Many Eyes Are Watching? and Fingerprint Files. Those are spooky in mood only. Under More filters, choose Mild to see them.

What scary games need no supplies?

Nine games need nothing but the room, among them The Sleepwalker, Clap and Answer in the Dark, The Longest Silence and The Vanished Guest. Backward Ghost Story, The Haunted Tour of This Room and The Stare-Out by Flashlight need only a flashlight.