Late nights with friends, drinking way too much alcohol, playing games you won’t remember in the morning, waking up with a hangover, and wanting to do it all over again.
We’ve all been there before, and whilst the games may be a little different where you are, one thing remains the same wherever you are: the alcohol.
Like popular games such as King’s Cup and Beer Pong, Koreans also have a myriad of drinking games that take people from 0 to 100 really quick!
From simply bottle cap flicking to games that require (much) more effort and thus get harder and harder as you consume more and more alcohol, you will love how some of these get everyone involved as drunk as possible!
Some of the Korean drinking games may just be versions of what you already know – fun and alcohol are often universal!
Let’s go through 10 Korean drinking games you should try right now!
1. Titanic
This game is inspired by the movie Titanic and is a fun game to play with a small or large group of people.
Required: tall glass, soju shot glass, beer, soju.
How to play: Grab a tall glass and fill it halfway with some beer. Place an empty soju shot glass floating on top of the beer. You will go around in a circle and take turns pouring however much soju you want into the shot glass.
The person who pours the last amount of soju that causes the shot glass to sink – just like the Titanic ship – loses and will have to drink the entire glass of Somaek (= soju and beer)!
2. Sense Game
This is a super popular game amongst young people who want to get drunk quickly.
Required: nothing.
How to play: Everyone sits down in a circle and faces down or away from each other. You will then take turns saying the numbers 1 to the number of players in the game.
If everyone manages to say one number each without doubling up, the person who says the last number drinks, and you can start again. However, this rarely happens!
If you happen to say the same number as someone else, you both have to drink.
This game requires you to be on alert as to who may or may not be saying the next number, hence the ‘sense’ game.
3. Soju Bottle Cap Flick
This is one of the most popular soju drinking games and is almost a requirement when opening bottles of soju around the table,
Required: soju bottle cap.
How to play: When you open a soju bottle, the cap usually comes off along with a long strip attached to it.
Simply twist the long strip until it is close to coming off, and then pass the bottle around the table and everyone gets a turn at flicking the long strip until it falls off the cap.
You can either play it where the person who flicks it off has to drink, the two people on their right and left have to drink, or everyone else has to drink.
Related Post: The 10 Best Soju Flavors
4. Sam Yu Kgu (3-6-9)
This is a popular Korean drinking game you will often see being played on variety shows! In Korean, ‘sam’ means 3, ‘yuk’ means 6, and ‘gu’ means 9.
Required: nothing.
How to play: Starting from the number 1, go around in a circle and every player has to call out the next consecutive number or stay silent and clap if it’s a multiple of 3.
You must take a drink if you accidentally call out any of the multiples of 3. The higher you get, the more people will be drinking!
5. Hello Cleopatra
There are variations of Hello Cleopatra all around the world, but for these Korean drinking games, we highly recommend you yell out this particular phrase!
Required: nothing.
How to play: Firstly, everyone must learn the phrase “Hello Cleopatra, this is the best potato chip in the world!”.
Everyone will then take turns to yell the phrase in a higher pitch than the previous person.
You are deemed a loser if everyone else thinks your pitch is lower than the previous person’s!
You need to be somewhere where you can yell out and not get into trouble!
Read More: How much Soju to get drunk?
6. Attendance Game
If you’re looking for a quick ice-breaker game, this is a fun one to start with!
Required: nothing.
How to play: One person starts by pointing at someone but yelling out someone else’s name.
The person whose name gets called must then do the same thing but they cannot do it back to the person who pointed at them.
There are three reasons why you would drink: your name gets called out but you miss your cue, or you get pointed at (but your name wasn’t called out) and you call out someone else’s name, or you point at someone and also say their name.
This quickly gets confusing and a little bit crazy and once you get your drinks and speed on, it’s over!
You May Also Like: The 12 Most Popular Korean Alcoholic Drinks
7. Baskin Robbins 31
We all know the famous ice cream brand Baskin Robbins 31, right? Well, this game is named after it!
Required: nothing.
How to play: Everyone sits in a circle and the aim of the game is to get to the number 31 without people doubling up on any number.
This is similar to the sense game, however with this game, you can say up to three numbers at a time.
For example, the first person can quickly say ‘1,2,3’, the next person can say ‘4’, and the person after that can say ‘5,6’.
You must drink if you double up in number with someone, and also if you’re the last person to say the number 31.
8. Soju Bottle Cap, Higher or Lower
Most people don’t realize it, but underneath the soju bottle cap, there is always a faded number printed. This is the core of this game.
Required: soju bottle cap.
How to play: Appoint someone as the game master. They must then peek at the number underneath the cap, and the game will start.
People must take turns guessing what the number is, which is always something between 1 and 100.
As people are guessing the number, the game master must indicate whether it is higher or lower.
You can play where the person who eventually guesses the number must drink, or they become the winner and then the rest of the players must drink.
Read More: Most Popular Soju Brands
9. Babo Game
The babo game is another confusing yet fun drinking game that is similar to the attendance game.
Required: nothing.
How to play: In this game, a player will start by saying a number between 1 to 5. At the same time, they must indicate a different number with their fingers.
For example, they can yell out “3” but show only 2 fingers.
The person next to them must then say the number of fingers that were previously held, whilst then holding up a different number of fingers.
This goes on until someone says out loud the number of fingers they’re holding up, or they mess up the number that the previous player held up.
10. Spoon Game
If you’re looking for a fun game that gives everyone equal footing, to begin with, this is a great one!
Required: one spoon per person.
How to play: Everyone starts by sitting in a circle and placing the spoon in the exact same position in front of them.
On the count of 3, everyone must then either flip their spoon or leave it the way it is. Those in the minority group of action (or inaction) must drink.
It’s a game of luck!
Korean Drinking Games Bonus – Soju Pong!
Everyone’s heard of beer pong, right? Well, this is the same game as beer pong except it’s played with soju!
This game, however, will likely get you a lot more drunk, a lot quicker. Soju has an average alcohol content of 20% whereas beer is only 4%. What a difference!
To add a bit more fun to the game, you can choose to have some of the cups have a mixture of soju and beer instead of straight soju.
Read More: 10 Best Korean Beers
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Next time you’re out drinking with your friends, try and teach them some of these games. If you’re looking for laughter, fun memories, drunken shenanigans, and lots of drinking, Korean drinking games are the way to go.
Played 4 of them already haha Thanks for the article!