The Jackbox Party Packs are a go-to party game in my household. Each pack comes with several mini games, and anyone who’s played Jackbox games can tell you they’re not all winners. Fortunately, we’ve gone through them all and picked out the packs that give you the best bang for your buck.
For the uninitiated, Jackbox Party Packs are a collection of five mini games each. They’re mostly played using your cell phone, so you don’t need a lot of controllers to include everyone. You can install the games on just about any console you want, though we’ve found that the Switch versions are especially great for it. You can take a Switch and its dock with you to a friend’s house or a hotel and boom: you’ve brought the party with you.
Some of the party packs come with really great games, but if the other games suck, it might not be worth your time. For this ranking, we’re not necessarily looking at which individual games are the best—because it’s Trivia Murder Party—but which packs have the best value on the whole. It doesn’t hurt to have a couple on hand, but with this list, you shouldn’t have to buy too many to keep your party lively.
5. Party Pack 5 (Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More)
The most recent pack isn’t bad by any means, but compared to the others it’s...exceedingly average. The best game in the pack, by far, is Patently Stupid. In this drawing game, players first complete fill-in-the-blank sentences to come up with market “needs” like “I need a more powerful ___” or “I’m only happy when I ____.” That need is then delivered to other players who have to draw an invention to solve the need. Come up with a name and a tagline and then deliver your presentation to the group.
This game combines a lot of the elements that make a good Jackbox game. Unfortunately, most of the other games in Party Pack 5 are pretty average. It marks the return of the classic You Don’t Know Jack trivia game, but it’s more geared towards streaming your game on Twitch or YouTube. Mad Verse City—a robot rap battle—gets a shoutout, but it can get tedious if your group isn’t terribly creative. With only one truly stand out game, this pack isn’t a bad buy, but there are better options. Buy: Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More
4. Party Pack 1 (Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More)
The first party pack comes with the You Don’t Know Jack trivia mini game that gave the series its name. However, several of the other games in the pack are also trivia-based. If you like trivia, this pack might suit you, but otherwise it’s not terribly diverse.
Two standout games catch the eye, though. Fibbage XL feeds players trivia questions but lets them submit incorrect answers to fool other players. The player that deceives everyone else the most wins. Drawful challenges players to draw something based on a prompt. Without knowing the prompt, other players enter what they think it might be, and then everyone tries to guess the right answer. The two games are similar, but both are entertaining enough to play over and over. Buy: Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More
3. Party Pack 3 (Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More)
Now we’re getting somewhere. The third party pack comes with Trivia Murder Party which has—you guessed it—more trivia, but with a Saw-like twist. If you get a question wrong, you have to play a mini-game to “survive.” Once only one player is left alive, players compete in one last rapid fire trivia session to race to the exit. “Dead” players can catch up to the living one to take over their body and escape. It’s a blast to play, and has a competitive element that many of the other trivia-style games lack.
The rest of the pack is fairly well fleshed out. Quiplash 2 gives pairs of players a prompt like “The worst Halloween costume for a child.” Everyone else votes on the best (or worst) one. This game is extremely fun and replayable, but you’ll see it in other packs. Tee K.O. is a drawing game about designing T-shirts that can be fun, but the rest of the pack is usually only good for one or two playthroughs. Buy: Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More
2. Party Pack 2 (Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More)
The second party pack puts together two of the best games in the series. First, Quiplash XL provides the outrageous head-to-head creativity of its successor, while Fibbage 2 brings the trivia-with-a-twist. If you only had these two games, you could keep your party playing all night.
However, it also comes with a third fantastic game: Bomb Corp. This one is unlike most other minigames. Similar to the wildly exciting Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes, this game gives each player part of the instructions to defuse a bomb and forces everyone to work together before time runs out. Of the other games, Bidiots is a bluffing game that can get overly complicated, and Earwax relies on a set collection of sound effects and is only good for one or two playthroughs. Still, three out of five solid games isn’t bad. Buy: Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More
1. Party Pack 4 (Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More)
It’s a tough call to pick between Party Pack 4 and Party Pack 2 for the top slot, but this one gets the edge for sort of having six games. Two games—Monster Seeking Monster and Bracketeering—are...fine. They’re fine. Survive the Internet lets players respond to prompts like a photo of a dolphin with responses like “Check out this dog I found!” Some of the prompts suck, but most are great! There’s a lot of room for creativity here, and it’s endlessly replayable.
Civic Doodle is another drawing game that’s as entertaining as your friends’ artistic skills (or lack thereof) allow. You might get tired of the announcer with a faux nasally voice, but it’s still hilarious and comparable to Drawful from Party Pack 1.
Fibbage 3, however, gives you a double whammy. As another follow up to Fibbage, it rounds this pack out to three great games. Except it also comes with a second mode, Fibbage: Enough About You. In this mode, you attempt to make up lies and guess trivia about the people in your group. It’s a fun twist that can strengthen—or destroy—relationships. And what are party games for if not testing your connection with each other? It’s not quite the same as having six games, but if you want the best value for your dollar, Party Pack 4 is the way to go. Buy: Fire TV | PS4 | Xbox One | Switch | PC | More