Codenames
It's from 2015, when you were 9.
- Maker
- Czech Games Edition
- Type
- Party word game
- Debuted
- 2015
- Note
- One-word clues for whole teams
As an Amazon Associate, OlderThan earns from qualifying purchases.
About
As of 2026, it's 11 years old.
Codenames cracked the party-game world wide open in 2015, a team word game where two 'spymasters' give one-word clues to guide their teammates to the right agents hidden in a grid of 25 words — without accidentally pointing them at the deadly assassin. A single brilliant clue can connect several words at once, to gasps and groans around the table.
Its blend of word association, careful risk, and the agony of watching your team wildly misinterpret your 'perfect' clue made it a massive hit and a Spiel des Jahres winner. It works with almost any group size and reveals exactly how differently everyone's brain connects words.
Clever, word-associating, and endlessly replayable, Codenames is the party game that turned giving one-word clues into a tense, hilarious test of how your friends think.
