Gender reveal games people actually play
The gender reveal game almost every party plays is a guess: every guest commits to pink or blue before the answer is shown, and the two totals are read out just before the reveal. The other games exist to fill the half hour before that moment, and the ones that work need no explaining, no printing on the morning, and nobody stuck tallying answers instead of watching.
Make your gender reveal pageSee the designs
Guessing games that pay off at the reveal
These are the ones with stakes, because they resolve at the reveal itself. Each guest commits to an answer, the answers are counted, and the count is read out before the balloon goes up.
Pink or blue vote. Guests pick a side as they arrive — a sticker, a wristband, a clothespin, a slip in one of two jars. Two jars beats one list, because counting is then a glance rather than a tally.
Old wives' tale scorecard. Carrying high or low, craving sweet or salty, the ring on a string. None of it predicts anything, which is exactly why it is a game rather than advice — say so on the card and it gets funnier, not flatter.
Heart rate guess. The old rule says a heartbeat above 140 means a girl. Studies have found no reliable difference, but the number is on a scan printout people already have, which makes it an easy round.
Chinese gender chart. Guests look up the mother's lunar age and the month of conception on the chart and call it. Folklore with a table attached, and people enjoy arguing about whose arithmetic is right.
Name predictions. Everyone writes the name they think you will choose. This one keeps paying out months later, when the real name arrives and somebody was right.
Due date and weight. Guests guess the day and the birth weight. Settled at the birth rather than the reveal, so it gives the party a second ending.
Games that fill the wait
These run before the reveal and need nothing to resolve. Pick two or three, not six — a party that stops for a fifth round of anything is a party watching the clock.
How big is the bump. Everyone cuts a length of ribbon they think will go round. Closest wins. Needs a ball of ribbon and scissors and nothing else.
Baby photo match. Both parents' baby pictures side by side, and guests vote on which one the baby will take after. Costs one message to each set of grandparents.
He said, she said. Read out things one of the parents has said about the pregnancy and guests guess who said it. Needs ten minutes of preparation and gets the most laughs of anything here.
Sweets in a jar. A jar of pink and blue sweets and a guess at how many. The closest guess takes the jar home.
Guess the baby food. Jars with the labels covered, and guests taste or sniff to name the flavour. Better than it sounds, and worse than it sounds for whoever gets the green one.
Pink and blue relay. Two teams, two colours, and anything from a balloon race to sorting sweets. The one game on this list that wants a garden.
Emoji riddles. Baby words spelled in emoji, printed or read out. Works indoors, works across ages, and nobody has to stand up.
Don't say baby. Everybody gets a clothespin, and anyone who says the word loses theirs to whoever caught them. Runs all afternoon in the background.
Wishes for the baby. One line each, written on a card, kept for the child to read later. Not a competition, and usually the thing the parents keep.
When half the guests are somewhere else
Anything that needs a room — ribbon, relays, sweets in a jar — stops working the moment part of the family is joining by phone. What survives is anything a person can answer on their own and have counted with everybody else's: the guess, the name, the date and weight. Those are answers rather than activities, and answers travel.
Collect them before the day rather than on it. A guess taken when somebody replies to the invitation is a guess you already have; guesses taken at the door are guesses somebody has to chase. And at the moment itself, read out the count rather than the list — fourteen said girl, nine said boy is the part people remember.
This is the part we built. On a tinynewlife page the guess is part of the invitation: a guest taps pink or blue when they reply, with no account and nothing to install, and the count builds on the page while the answer stays sealed on our side until you unlock it. Guests who are not in the room are counted exactly like guests who are, and the reveal then plays for everyone who opens the link for a week. See a gender reveal page.
Questions
What is the most popular gender reveal game?
The pink-or-blue guess, where every guest commits to an answer before the reveal and the two totals are read out just before it. It is the only game that ties into the moment the party exists for, which is why nearly every reveal runs some version of it.
How many games should a gender reveal have?
Two or three, plus the guess. A gender reveal is usually an hour or two and the reveal itself is the event, so games are there to fill the wait rather than to be the entertainment.
Do gender reveal games need prizes?
No, and many do not have them. Where there are prizes they are small and handed out at the reveal — the jar of sweets, a candle, a scratch card. For the guessing game, being right is the prize.
Are old wives' tales about predicting gender accurate?
No. Carrying high or low, the heart-rate rule, cravings, the ring test and the Chinese gender chart do no better than a coin toss. They make a good game, which is the only reason they are on this page.
The rest of the journey
The same address carries a family from the first guess to the first birthday. Whichever of these you are planning now, the others are the same page later.