15 Creative Retirement Party Games

Retirement is the culmination of a fulfilling career, marking the beginning of a new chapter of adventure and relaxation. As you honor the retiree’s journey into this exciting new phase, add a touch of fun to the festivities with these creative retirement party games. They’ll infuse your celebration with joy and a sense of camaraderie!

As important as your choice of retirement party games is, choosing the right venue is also extremely important to planning a successful event. If you’re considering renting a space for your party, check out the retirement party venues near you that are available for rent through Peerspace, the internet’s largest marketplace for short-term rentals. You may just find the perfect space as you plan the retirement party—games and all!

A quick word on retirement party venues

Instead of hosting the retirement party at the office, your usual happy hour bar, or a less-than-exciting venue, use Peerspace to book and discover an amazing retirement-party-worthy event space. With Peerspace, you can book stylish cabins, spacious penthouses overlooking your city, chic cafes with personalized drink and food service, and more.

What’s great about Peerspace is that you can book a venue that’s seemingly tailored to the retiree based on the venue’s style and amenities. As one quick example, check out this Midtown industrial loft and lounge in Cleveland, OH. It boasts a large screen and projector for showing photos, a full kitchen for setting up a catering team, plenty of comfy seating for mixing and mingling, and amazing style that will make the guest of honor feel special. There are thousands of venues like this in cities near you, so hop on Peerspace to start your search. And stick around for our favorite retirement party games!

1. Help the retiree choose a new hobby with a game of ring toss

For this retirement party game, hand each of your guests small plastic rings and allow them to compete to choose the retiree’s new hobby, which will be selected based on which labeled water bottle accumulates the most rings. This is not only a fun activity, but also a practical one that might actually help the retiree make a tough decision about how to spend their hard-earned free time.

2. Have guests share their wisdom with a retirement wishes bucket

Technically, this is more of an activity than a retirement party game, but it’s definitely engaging for guests. Provide slips of paper where your guests can write down advice, bucket list suggestions, best wishes, fond memories, and any other thoughts they’d like to share with the retiree.

3. Get competitive with a game of “Who Knows the Retiree Best?”

Pass around this fun paper “quiz” for guests so they can compete to prove they know the retiree the best out of anyone at the party! To make this game even more exciting, offer the winning guest(s) some kind of prize, big or small, for their knowledge.

4. Banter over their preferences with a game of retirement “Would They Rather”

Similar to our last suggestion, this game also tests the party guests on their knowledge of the retiree—specifically, their preferences for things like chocolate vs. vanilla, dogs vs. cats, and more.

Check out our memorable retirement party ideas to discover more exciting party planning suggestions to enhance your gathering.

5. Throw it back with a round of retirement word scramble

Word scrambles are an easy, classic brain teaser. Let your guests know that whoever unscrambles this list of retirement-related words first will be the winner!

6. Hunt for facts during “Find Someone Who…” bingo

This bingo game isn’t just a random game of chance. Instead, it’s more like a scavenger hunt that also prompts guests at your retirement party to interact with people they might not otherwise talk to, looking for someone who fits the criteria for each of the boxes. Incentivize this further by rewarding the first party guest to get bingo with a cool prize!

7. Get silly with retirement fill-in-the-blank

These are a bit like Mad Libs, but instead of filling in the blanks with silly, random words, the person filling it out is choosing specific words to include—whether serious and heartfelt, or funny.

8. Scroll for clues when you play “What’s in your phone?”

After all your guests check off everything on the list that’s true of their own cell phone, they’ll add up the points they earn. Whoever earns the most points is the winner of this game.

9. Act the part when you play career charades

Have party guests act out career-related terms or experiences in a thematically appropriate game of charades.

10. Play “Never or Ever” in honor of the retiree

For this retirement party game, guests compete to guess whether the retiree has ever done the various things on the list, from getting a speeding ticket to being fired from a job or pranking someone.

11. Guess their future with a retirement hobbies emoji quiz

Since the ages of guests at a retirement party will tend to skew older, many of your guests might not be as familiar with emojis as younger generations. However, give them a chance to puzzle out the meaning behind each set of emojis—maybe the winning guest will surprise you!

The best parties are those that provide their guests with parting souvenirs. Discover our favorite retirement party favor ideas to plan what to gift your guests!

12. Create memories while playing retirement scavenger hunt

Your party guests can compete in this scavenger hunt individually or can divide up into evenly sized groups to search for all the items on this list and take photos of them. As you might have guessed, the person or group who checks off everything on the list first is declared the winner!

13. Share their biggest moments with a game of guess the years

Display photos of the retiree throughout the years, allowing guests to guess which year (you can also use five- or ten-year ranges, to make things a little easier) each photo was taken! Not only is this a challenging competition that’ll draw guests’ attention, but it’s also a fun way to reflect on the life of the retiree, sharing photos of the guest of honor in a format that’s more unusual and engaging than your usual slideshow or photo display board.

14. Ramp up the competition while playing Retirement Scattergories

As guests compete to come up with retirement-related words that start with specific letters, they’ll rack their brains and engage their competitive spirits! This is a fun, relatively accessible mental puzzle that also manages to stay on the retirement party theme.

15. Go for a classic and play retirement word search

Last but not least: how about a retirement word search? Especially if there will be kids at your party, providing games like these that are relatively easy for children will be important to ensure they have activities to keep them busy during the event. Plus, this word search is perfectly on theme, including words like “beach,” “freedom,” “happiness,” and more!

Retirement party games: conclusion

We hope these retirement party games have you more excited than ever to celebrate the special retiree in your life. Planning the games you play at a retirement party is a surefire way to ensure the person of the hour feels special, but remember, it’s only one part of the equation!

Head to Peerspace to book an amazing retirement party venue that comes pre-packed with the style and fun you’re looking for. With gorgeous venues available to rent from local hosts in cities across the globe, planning a curated party to honor your loved one has never been easier!

Find unique retirement party venues on Peerspace