The problem with a Super Bowl party is that only some of the room is watching the game. Somebody is there for the food, somebody else is there for the commercials, and at least one person is there because everyone else was going.
Super Bowl bingo fixes that by giving every one of them something to watch for. The squares are things that will happen — a touchdown, a challenge flag, a shot of a coach looking furious, a commercial with a talking animal — and everybody marks their own card as the evening goes on. There is no caller and nothing to organize, which matters at a party where the host is trying to keep food coming out.
The maker above builds the cards. It is free, there is no account, and nothing is watermarked.
Make your own Super Bowl bingo cards
The list is loaded with the things a football game reliably produces: touchdown, field goal, interception, fumble, penalty flag, first down, sack, halftime show, instant replay, coach yells, end zone dance, two point conversion, punt, overtime, referee whistle, crowd wave, fourth down, someone yells at the TV, nachos, wings, and more. Edit any of it or paste in your own.
Print a different card for every guest. Identical cards mean the whole room shouts bingo at the same moment, which is funny once and then over.
Worth changing before you print
- Grid size: 5×5 for the whole game, 4×4 if you want a winner before halftime
- The title and subtitle, so cards can name the party or the two teams
- Black and white, which saves a lot of ink across twenty cards
- Blank squares, if you would rather guests wrote their own predictions when they arrive
Super Bowl commercial bingo
Commercial bingo is the version for everyone who is not really watching the football, which at most parties is half the room.
Instead of plays, the squares are advertising tropes: a talking animal, a celebrity cameo, a car driving through a desert, a beer ad with friends on a porch, a sentimental one about family, a trailer for a superhero film, an ad you cannot work out until the last three seconds, a delivery app, a crypto or tech ad nobody understands.
It works better than game bingo at a mixed party for one simple reason: the commercials are the part everyone watches. Nobody leaves the room during them, and the people who cannot name a single player have exactly as good a chance as the people who can.
Paste your own list into the maker. Ad categories change year to year, so a card built from broad tropes — a talking animal, a celebrity, something sentimental — lasts far better than one naming specific brands.
Printable football bingo cards
Print one card per guest plus spares, since people arrive late to these. Everything downloads as a PDF laid out for US Letter or A4.
Four cards to a page works for a big party. One card per page looks better if you are putting them out on a table with pens, and it gives people room to write.
Print before the day. This sounds obvious and is the thing most hosts forget, because the printing gets remembered somewhere around the coin toss.
Put pens or markers out with the cards rather than handing them round later. A card without a pen sits on a side table all evening.
What to put on the cards
The balance that works is roughly half things that will definitely happen and half things that might not. A card of only certainties finishes in the first quarter. A card of only rarities never finishes at all and people abandon it.
Touchdowns, punts, penalty flags and replays are near-certain. Overtime, a safety, a missed extra point, a challenge overturned, a fight breaking out are the ones that make a card interesting.
The squares people enjoy most are usually about the room rather than the field: somebody explains a rule to somebody else, a person who claimed not to care starts shouting, the host misses a touchdown because they were in the kitchen, someone asks who is playing at halftime.
If your group has a running joke, put it on the card. A square about your brother-in-law’s opinions on the referee is worth ten generic squares.
How to play Super Bowl bingo at a party
Hand out cards as people arrive, before kickoff. Everyone marks their own square when they see something happen — there is no caller, which is the whole point at a party.
Agree what wins before you start. A single line usually goes early in the second quarter. For a game-long contest, play blackout, or run a line game per quarter with a small prize each time.
Settle disputes fast and generously. Whether a hit counted as a sack is not worth twenty minutes, and the person arguing is not enjoying the party.
Small prizes given often work better than one big one, because a prize per quarter keeps people playing after they have lost a round.
Football bingo for kids
Children at a Super Bowl party are usually the ones with the least to do. A simplified card fixes that.
Use a 3×3 or 4×4 grid with things that are easy to spot and do not require knowing the rules: a referee, a cheerleader, a helmet, someone catching the ball, a mascot, an advert with an animal, confetti. The aim is that they mark something in the first few minutes.
For younger children, pictures work better than words, and a game that finishes inside a quarter is better than one that runs all night.
Game day and NFL bingo through the season
The same cards work for any game, not just the final one. NFL bingo through the regular season is the same idea with a lower-stakes version of the same list, and it gives a Sunday afternoon a bit of structure.
For a college game, a fantasy draft party, or a Thanksgiving game, swap a handful of squares to suit the occasion. Football turns up as a square on plenty of other cards too — there is a version in our Thanksgiving bingo game, which is the other day of the year when a television is on and nobody is fully watching it.
Other games for the party
Bingo pairs well with anything that needs no equipment and can be dropped when the game gets interesting. Charades works for the stretch after the game ends, and for a party where guests do not all know each other, human bingo gets people talking before kickoff.
For other occasions, the bingo card generator makes cards from any list you give it.
Super Bowl bingo questions
How do you play Super Bowl bingo?
Give every guest a different card filled with things that might happen during the game. Players mark their own squares as they see each one — there is no caller. The first to a full line wins. Agree the winning pattern before kickoff.
How do you play Super Bowl commercial bingo?
The same way, except the squares are advertising tropes rather than plays: a talking animal, a celebrity cameo, a sentimental family ad, a film trailer. It suits the half of the room who are there for the commercials rather than the football.
Should Super Bowl bingo have a free space?
For a party, yes. It gives everyone a square already covered, which gets people invested early, and it shortens a game that could otherwise run past most guests’ attention span. Turn it off only if you want the game to last the entire evening.
Are these Super Bowl bingo cards free?
Yes, completely. No account, no watermark, and no limit on how many cards you print.
How many Super Bowl bingo cards do I need?
One per guest and a few spares. Every card the maker builds is different, so nobody has the same one and the game does not end for everybody at once.
What should go on a Super Bowl bingo card?
About half near-certainties like touchdowns, punts and penalty flags, and half things that might not happen at all, like overtime or a missed extra point. Squares about your own guests usually go down better than squares about the game.
Can kids play Super Bowl bingo?
Yes, with a smaller card and simpler squares — a referee, a mascot, confetti, an advert with an animal. Use a 3×3 or 4×4 grid so a round finishes inside a quarter.
Can I print Super Bowl bingo cards in black and white?
Yes. The cards keep their border and decorations and print in greys, which saves a lot of ink when you are making twenty of them.
What is the difference between Super Bowl bingo and football squares?
They are unrelated games. Bingo uses a card of things that might happen, and you mark them off as they do. Squares is a grid where players claim boxes tied to the last digit of each team’s score, and winners are decided by the scoreline at the end of each quarter.
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