Games are our only go-to solution when we are stuck in a boring meeting or a never-ending lecture which keeps on taking forever to end. Most people retreat to social media but we all know how it affects our lives when you get addicted to them. Playing games has often been considered as a mood freshener and provides one with a better perspective.
One can play browser games if they do not hope to download the game onto their mobile phones. A browser game is accessed through a website and is commonly internet-dependent. Or you can download your favorite games on your mobile devices in advance.
Boredom can sap our energy, make us restless, and negatively impact our mood. Games provide an enjoyable escape and distraction that can get us through periods of boredom. The key is having some go-to games ready so you’re prepared whenever monotony sets in.
In this article, we’ve compiled top picks for browser games, mobile app games, and old-school physical games that make ideal boredom busters. We covers options suited for different environments like work and travel so you can beat boredom no matter where you are.
Browser Games to Play When Bored :-
1. The Chrome Dino Game
The Chrome Dino game is an endless runner game hidden in the Google Chrome web browser. It appears on the page normally showing connection errors when you have no internet connectivity.
Instead of the typical dinosaur image and unable to connect message, you’ll see a pixelated dinosaur standing on a blank screen. Hitting any key makes the dinosaur start running automatically to the right.
As you run, cacti and pterodactyls appear as obstacles you need to avoid by jumping – either tapping spacebar or up arrow. The game tracks your run time and distance.
See how long you can keep the dinosaur running and jumping over obstacles before eventually hitting one and dying. A simple tap mechanic lets you play easily with one hand.
This secret browser game is full of retro pixel charm. Having it conveniently built into Chrome makes it easy to access anytime you need a quick boredom buster, whether your WiFi is down or you intentionally disconnect to play.
The minimalist endless runner gameplay loop provides fun, frantic action. Challenge yourself to beat your highest scores and pass time when Internet access prevents other work or browsing.
2. Solitaire
Solitaire refers to a variety of card game variations played solo using a standard 52-card deck. The most well-known is Klondike Solitaire.
The goal is to move all cards from an initial tableau to foundation piles by suit and ascending order. You can only move exposed table cards, building by alternate colors. Stock and waste piles are used to draw and cycle through the deck.
Solitaire gained popularity on early Windows computers. Today it remains one of the most played computer games. Many free online versions are available to play instantly in your browser against yourself.
Solitaire is loved for its simplicity to learn but complex thinking required to figure out the series of strategic moves to win. Luck is involved but skill matters more in most versions. Games can be relaxing or intense depending on mood.
Playing solitaire provides mental stimulation and trains concentration, planning skills, patience, and analytics. But its short duration games also work well for quick boredom breaks. The general solo play makes it an ideal boredom buster anytime, anywhere.
3. Google Maps Snake Game
The Google Maps snake game allows you to play a classic Snake game with Google Maps as the background. It’s a fun, quick way to pass time and beat boredom right in your browser.
To play, go to Google Maps on your desktop or mobile browser. Navigate to a location you want to use as your game environment. Click on the menu button in the top left corner and select “Play Snake”.
Use the arrow keys or swipe gestures to move the snake around the map eating food dots and growing longer. Each dot eaten increases your score. Avoid colliding with your ever-lengthening snake body or the map edges.
As your snake gets bigger, you’ll progressively zoom out to reveal more of the map area. Your snake can roam across entire cities if you last long enough!
The snake game works on any street view location worldwide. Choose maps meaningful to you or scenic places to add some geographic diversity.
This is a unique take on the classic Snake formula that incorporates real world maps. It’s an engaging way to waste a little time and beat boredom with a fun gameplay twist.
4. PAC MAN Doodle
The PAC-MAN Doodle is a playable version of the classic Pac-Man arcade game that appears on the Google homepage sometimes. It was originally created in 2010 for Pac-Man’s 30th anniversary.
When active, the interactive doodle lets you play PAC-MAN on the Google homepage instead of searching. You navigate Pac-Man through the maze using arrow keys to eat pac-dots while avoiding ghosts.
Like the original 1980 arcade game, you race through mazes in 256 levels. Eat power pellets to turn the tables and chase down vulnerable ghosts temporarily.
The Doodle version remains faithful to the retro gameplay while adding updated graphics and animation. Backgrounds, sprites, and sound effects pay homage to the original.
Playing this iconic game right in your browser provides nostalgia and 1980s retro fun. The action and challenge keep boredom at bay for a quick work or home break.
Google brings the PAC-MAN Doodle back periodically for certain occasions like April Fool’s Day or relevant anniversaries. The next time it appears, take advantage of this free arcade classic diversion.
5. Chess
Chess is one of the world’s oldest strategy board games, dating back over 1500 years. It is played between two opponents on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Each player starts with 16 pieces – 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. The goal is to capture your opponent’s king piece by maneuvering your pieces into attack positions.
Chess is beloved by many as a way to stimulate strategic thinking, exercise problem-solving skills, and provide an engaging activity to pass time. Games can range from quick and casual to lengthy and highly competitive. To play, all you need is a chess board and pieces, which are quite portable and affordable.
Chess is fun to learn but takes true patience and practice to master. You can start off playing casually against friends and family. As your skills grow, you can challenge stronger players at clubs or competitions. Online chess lets you find opponents of all skill levels any time. Though the rules are simple, chess offers incredible depth through complex strategies and tactics. Mastering the game provides great mental rewards.
Whether playing a quick game to pass 5 minutes or sitting down for a longer match to truly engage your mind, chess is one of the best analog games for beating boredom. The skill required makes it endlessly challenging and enjoyable.
Games to Play when bored at Work :-
6. Type Racer
TypeRacer is a multiplayer online typing game that lets you race against others to see who can type passages of text the fastest. To play, you go to play.typeracer.com and enter a username.
You get matched into a race with up to 6 other typists. A paragraph of text appears that you need to recreate precisely. You race to type the text as quickly as possible before other players complete it. Your typing speed is shown in real time using words per minute.
Races last from about 15 seconds for very short texts to over a minute for longer paragraphs. Your accuracy is scored as well as speed, so you need to type carefully to avoid mistakes. Races feature text passages pulled from books, movies, songs, and famous speeches.
TypeRacer is free to play as a guest with limited options or $7 per year for full access. A full membership unlocks stats tracking, custom avatars, ranked matches, and other features. Prizes like pro memberships are awarded regularly to top racers.
TypeRacer is fun for practicing and improving your typing speed. Racing others provides exciting competition to beat boredom. Track your wpm over time to watch your skills progress. Fast typists can even compete in championship league matches on the site.
7. Tic Tac Toe
Also known as noughts and crosses, tic-tac-toe is a simple paper and pencil game for two players. It is played on a 3×3 square grid. Players take turns marking spaces with their symbol, either X or O. The goal is to get 3 in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally before your opponent does.
Tic-tac-toe is beloved for its simplicity – the rules can be learned and understood easily by young children. Games are quick to play through, making it an ideal boredom buster. However, the basic strategy is interesting enough to keep adults engaged as well.
The game dates back thousands of years with examples found in ancient Egypt. Tic-tac-toe can be played informally with paper and pencil or using a board with moveable pieces. Online versions are also available to play for free in your web browser against computer opponents.
Playing the game helps develop strategic thinking as players must block their opponent from getting 3 in a row while also seeking the best spots to create their own winning combination. Defensive tactics are as important as offensive moves.
Tic-tac-toe is often a childhood favorite that can continue providing quick, casual fun for adults as a classic game to pass time and beat boredom throughout life. Its simplicity and short game duration make it great for brief diversions.
8. Sudoku
The traditional game of sudoku is based on logical aspects of a player. You can find many versions of this game
Sudoku is a logic-based number placement puzzle game. The objective is to fill a 9×9 grid with numbers 1-9 such that each row, column, and 3×3 subgrid contains all digits only once.
Grids start out partially filled. Using logic and deduction, you determine the only possible placement for each remaining number based on the constraints.
Sudoku rules are simple but the puzzles can range from easy to diabolically hard. It provides an ideal boredom buster for short or long durations. Successfully completing puzzles provides a rewarding mental challenge.
Sudoku became popular worldwide starting in the 1980s. It was originally called Number Place and invented by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in the 18th century.
The puzzles are now widely available in books, newspapers, magazines, apps, and online. Many sites let you generate custom puzzles based on difficulty ratings from easy to expert.
Sudoku develops critical logical thinking and pattern recognition skills. Trying to solve complex grids can fully engage your mind and make time fly by. The puzzles stimulate your brain whether playing for 5 minutes or a few hours.
9. Excel Sheep
Excel Sheep is a secret pixel art game hidden within Microsoft Excel. It can provide some quick entertainment when work spreadsheet tasks become mundane.
To generate it, simply enter “=RAND()” into a cell and hit enter to get a random decimal number. Copy that formula across columns and down rows to fill a sheet with numbers.
Then select this range of cells and change the number format to “Progress” instead of general or numeric. The cells will convert to a pixelated image of a sheep!
The more cells you fill, the larger and more detailed the sheep image becomes. Change the number format back to reveal the random numbers again.
Excel Sheep offers a bit of silly, unexpected fun when spreadsheets get boring. The steps are simple enough to generate it quickly anytime you need a little work break.
Some other animal shapes are possible too like rabbits, ducks, and pigs based on the starting random values. See what shapes you can create to beat Excel boredom!
10. Office Bingo
Office Bingo provides some silly workplace entertainment when boredom strikes. To play, employees first come up with 25 potential work scenarios like:
- Someone brings treats to share
- You get stuck in a meeting running over time
- The printer jams
- A coworker rants about a client/customer
- You have tech difficulties
- Someone says TGI Friday
Arrange the scenarios randomly in a 5×5 bingo card grid. Distribute cards and give everyone markers like beans or coins to cover squares.
During the week as you encounter situations on your card at work, mark them off. The first person to get 5 in a row and yell “Bingo!” wins.
This game adds some humor and camaraderie to the office when work feels dull. It also offers a communal way to blow off steam about workplace headaches. Just adjusting the board topics can make it work for various professions.
A variation is to have employees collaborate on writing down scenarios and take turns drawing them from a hat to arrange your cards rather than pre-making them. Office bingo helps energize and engage teams during mundane work periods.
11. Hangman
Hangman is a simple word guessing game typically played between two people using paper and pencil. One player (the host) chooses a secret word and writes down a row of blanks representing each letter in the word.
The second player tries to guess letters one at a time to fill in the blanks and reveal the full word before running out of attempts. For each wrong letter guess, the host draws one element of a hanging man stick figure.
If the stick figure is completed before the word is filled in, the guessing player loses. If the player correctly fills in all the letter blanks first, they win.
Games are quick and suspenseful as players race to beat the hangman drawing. Hangman works great as an impromptu time-filler and boredom buster. The basic materials make it playable anywhere. Players develop vocabulary, spelling, and creative thinking about letter choices.
Fun variations include choosing a theme like animals, having the host draw puzzles instead of hangman, or using films, song titles, or names as the secret words. It provides a great screen-free way to pass time and beat boredom.
Physical Games to Play When Bored :-
When you are not in the mood to play any kind of online or mobile based game, then you can always turn to physical Games.
1. Ludo
Ludo is a strategic board game that originated in India but is played worldwide. It is a classic race game usually played by 4 players.
The game board consists of a cross-shaped track with four home bases, one for each player, located in the corners. The middle of the board has blocks that form the home column. Each player has 4 tokens of the same color that start in their home base.
Players take turns rolling a single die and moving their tokens along the track according to the number rolled. If a player lands on another player’s token, they bump it back to its starting position in the home base. The goal is to move all 4 tokens completely around the board to your home column.
Special squares allow you to capture opponent’s tokens or get an extra turn. The first player to move all tokens into their home column wins. Games tend to be exciting and involve lots of luck in die rolls. Part of the fun is sometimes having token knocked back to start.
Ludo is easy to learn but provides engaging play for all ages. Games tend to move quickly enough to avoid boredom. The portability and simple components make it a great choice for playing anywhere, anytime.
2. Chess
Chess is one of the world’s oldest strategy board games, dating back over 1500 years. It is played between two opponents on a checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an 8×8 grid. Each player starts with 16 pieces – 1 king, 1 queen, 2 rooks, 2 bishops, 2 knights, and 8 pawns. The goal is to capture your opponent’s king piece by maneuvering your pieces into attack positions.
Chess is beloved by many as a way to stimulate strategic thinking, exercise problem-solving skills, and provide an engaging activity to pass time. Games can range from quick and casual to lengthy and highly competitive. To play, all you need is a chess board and pieces, which are quite portable and affordable.
Chess is fun to learn but takes true patience and practice to master. You can start off playing casually against friends and family. As your skills grow, you can challenge stronger players at clubs or competitions. Online chess lets you find opponents of all skill levels any time. Though the rules are simple, chess offers incredible depth through complex strategies and tactics. Mastering the game provides great mental rewards.
Whether playing a quick game to pass 5 minutes or sitting down for a longer match to truly engage your mind, chess is one of the best analog games for beating boredom. The skill required makes it endlessly challenging and enjoyable.
3. Uno
Uno is a card game where players race to empty their hands by matching cards based on number, color, or symbol. It was invented in 1971 and has become a classic American game for all ages.
Each player starts with 7 cards. On your turn, you must play one card that matches the top card on the discard pile either by number, color, or symbol. For example, a red 8 can only be followed by another red card or another 8.
Action cards add fun challenges like forcing the next player to draw extra cards or skip their turn. The first player to empty their hand and discard their last card wins the round.
A full game consists of multiple rounds until one player reaches 500 points. Points are earned for being the first to finish each round. If you get stuck with cards, you earn negative points.
Uno is affordable, portable, and has simple rules that make it accessible and fun for kids and adults alike. Games are fast-paced, keeping boredom at bay. It develops color and number recognition skills plus focus and reaction time. Uno provides interactive, screen-free family fun.
4. Cricket
Cricket is a classic outdoor game that originated in England and is played informally, especially in backyard settings. To play, you need a ball, cricket bat, wickets, and minimum of two players.
One player bats while the other acts as bowler, rolling the ball to try and get the batter out. The batter’s goal is to protect the wickets behind them while scoring runs by hitting the ball and running between wickets.
A run is completed each time the batters successfully run to each wicket without getting out. Ways to get out include having the ball hit and dislodge the wickets, being caught out, or being stumped out.
Once the batter is out, teams switch roles. Each batter keeps track of their individual runs. Innings or target runs can be set to decide when to switch batting and fielding.
Cricket is beloved for its simplicity – all you need is a ball, basic gear, and open space. Longer innings can really challenge stamina and focus. Cricket is great for informal play outdoors and drives away boredom through active fun.
Frequently Ask Question
Q 1: What Are Some Good Two Player Games I Can Play When I’m Bored With Someone Else?
A: Great two player game options include battleship, dominoes, cribbage, Bananagrams, playing card games like war or crazy eights, checkers, Connect Four, Guess Who?, charades, and tic-tac-toe.
Q 2: What Are Some Boredom Busting Games I Can Play by Myself?
A: Solitaire, minesweeper, and sudoku make for great solo games. Other good options include crossword puzzles, virtual escape rooms, coloring apps, Tetris, brick breaker games, and rhythm games like Guitar Hero.
Q 3: What Classic Arcade Games Work Well for Beating Boredom?
A: Retro arcade game options that hold up as boredom busters include Pac-Man, Space Invaders, Asteroids, Donkey Kong, Tetris, and Super Mario Bros. You can play them on their original machines or through collections and emulator apps.
Q 4: Are There Any Games That Can Help Me Learn Something New?
A: Some games that let you pick up new skills and knowledge while beating boredom include trivia apps, language learning apps like Duolingo, typing practice games, and even interactive cooking games.
Q 5: What Are the Best Texting or Social Media Games I Can Play With Friends Remotely?
A: Great games to play remotely with friends via text, Facebook messenger, WhatsApp or other social media include Words with Friends, Draw Something, 20 Questions, Would You Rather, SongPop, and online multiplayer games like Heads Up! and Trivial Pursuit.
Conclusion
The next time you feel boredom starting to set in, be sure to go through this wide selection of entertaining games that we’ve put together just for you and your loved ones. Whether at work, a friend’s house, or hosting a family meal, these activities will keep you entertained wherever you are. We have listed all the top Games to play when bored, so do not get boredom catch up with yourself and be creative.
