47 Long-Distance Relationship Games to Play When You're Miles Apart

There’s a specific kind of long-distance silence that every couple knows: you’re on a video call, you’ve both said how your day was, and then… nothing. Not because you’ve run out of love — because you’ve run out of prompts. Talking is the only thing on the menu, and after a few hours of separate days, the menu is thin.

Games fix that. Not because the game matters, but because a game gives you a reason to take turns, react, compete, and laugh — the texture of being together that distance strips away. The right long-distance relationship game turns “what do we even talk about” into “okay your turn, hurry up.”

Here are 47 of them, organized by how you’re connecting — because the best game on a 3-hour video call is useless when you’ve got 90 seconds between classes.

Texting games (for the gaps in a normal day)

These need zero setup and live in the cracks of your day. Perfect when you can’t be on a call but want to stay woven into each other’s hours.

1. The story game — One writes a sentence, the other adds the next, all day. By evening you have a deranged little saga. The best version: no planning allowed, and you have to honor whatever the other person wrote.
2. 20 Questions — One picks a person/place/thing; the other gets 20 yes-or-no questions. Stretched across a workday, it’s a slow-burn delight.
3. Two truths and a lie — Even after years together, people have untold stories. This game finds them.
4. The song lyric game — Send a lyric, they guess the song. Loser sends the next.
5. This or That, rapid-fire — “Mountains or ocean? Texts or calls? Big wedding or elope?” The fast pace surfaces real preferences you’ve never asked about. (We’ve got 50 of these as conversation starters too.)
6. The emoji story — Describe your day in only emojis; they have to translate it back.
7. Would You Rather — The classic, and a sneaky way to learn what your partner actually values.
8. Kiss, Marry, Cliff (fictional only) — Keep it to movie characters and it’s pure fun.
9. The A–Z game — Pick a category (date ideas, baby names, places to travel) and alternate, A to Z.
10. Caption this — Send a photo from your day, they write the funniest caption.
11. Five-word check-in — Each of you describes your day in exactly five words. Oddly intimate.
12. The countdown game — Take turns naming things you’ll do on your next visit. No repeats.

Video-call games (for when you’ve got real time together)

A game on a call removes the pressure of nonstop conversation — you get to just be together, with something to do.

13. Online chess (Chess.com / Lichess) — Slow, focused, and you can talk the whole time.
14. Codenames Online — Free, browser-based, genuinely great for two if you play co-op or against a clock.
15. Skribbl.io — Pictionary in your browser. Watching your partner fail to draw a “lighthouse” is elite content.
16. Online trivia night — Pull up a free trivia site and keep score. Bonus: pick categories you each think you’ll win.
17. Catan / Ticket to Ride (board-game apps with online play) — A longer, cozy weekend game.
18. GeoGuessr — Get dropped somewhere on Street View and guess where you are. Surprisingly addictive together.
19. Watch-and-react — Sync a show or movie (here’s how to set up a synced watch party) and treat each other’s reactions as the game.
20. Cook-off — Same recipe, two kitchens, camera on. First to plate wins; both of you eat dinner “together.”
21. The drawing challenge — Both draw the same prompt in 5 minutes, reveal at once, vote on the worse one.
22. Show and tell — Each grabs an object from your space with a story behind it. Distance makes you forget you haven’t seen each other’s stuff in months.
23. Truth or Dare (LDR edition) — Dares become “text your mom something nice” or “do 10 pushups.” Keeps it playful.
24. Online escape room — A handful of sites do remote two-player rooms. Great for a date night with stakes.

Screen-share & party games (for a big night in)

25. Jackbox Party Pack — One of you owns it and screen-shares; you both play from your phones. Quiplash and Drawful are perfect for two.
26. Gartic Phone — Telephone, but with drawings. Hilarious with even two players if you invite a couple friends.
27. Among Us (with friends) — Turn a group LDR hang into a weekly ritual.
28. Words With Friends / online Scrabble — Async or live; works either way.
29. Online poker / card games — Free play-money rooms, camera on, trash talk encouraged.
30. Movie poster / trailer trivia — Screen-share a muted trailer, race to name it.

Async & mobile games (for opposite time zones)

When you’re awake while they’re asleep, turn-based is your friend. You move, they wake up to it, the game lives on.

31. The same daily puzzle — Wordle, Connections, the mini crossword. Send each other your scores. It’s a tiny shared ritual that takes 90 seconds.
32. Turn-based mobile games — Words With Friends, Draw Something, online chess by mail.
33. A co-op mobile game you only play together — Pick one game that’s “yours” and agree to only progress it when you’re both on. Instant standing date.
34. Habit/streak games — Compete on a fitness app, a language app (Duolingo leagues), or a reading goal.
35. The photo scavenger hunt — Send a list (“something blue, your lunch, a stranger’s dog”) and they hunt through their day to collect them.
36. Question of the day — One prompt, both answer, compare. The backbone of staying current with someone you can’t see. (Far Fox sends you a fresh one daily so you never have to think it up.)

Games that build intimacy (not just kill time)

The best long-distance games do double duty — they’re fun and they close emotional distance.

37. 36 Questions to Fall in Love — The famous NYT set, spread over a few nights. Skip to the deep ones.
38. “Tell me about a time…” — Take turns finishing the prompt with a real memory. A game that’s secretly a love letter.
39. The highlight/lowlight game — Best and worst part of the day, every day. Simple, and it keeps you in each other’s ordinary moments — the thing distance steals most.
40. Future-building — Take turns adding one detail to your imagined future home/trip/life. It’s a game and a reassurance that there’s a finish line.
41. The appreciation volley — Alternate naming things you appreciate about each other until someone runs dry. Nobody runs dry.
42. Love language guessing — Guess how your partner would rank their love languages, then compare. Eye-opening.

Flirty & romantic games (for the two of you only)

43. Strip Trivia / Strip [anything] — You know the rules. Camera on.
44. The compliment auction — Bid compliments back and forth; whoever blinks first “loses.”
45. Truth or Truth — Like Truth or Dare but only truths, escalating in intimacy.
46. The slow reveal — Take turns sharing something you’ve never told the other. One per night.
47. “What would you do if I were there right now?” — A prompt, not a game, but it turns into one fast.

How to actually make game night a habit

A list of 47 games is useless if you play one once and forget. The couples who make this work do three things:

Pick a recurring slot. “Tuesday is game night” beats “we should play games sometime.” A standing time removes the negotiation.

Keep a default. Have one zero-setup game (usually a texting game or the daily-puzzle ritual) you fall back to when you’re tired. The goal is consistency, not novelty.

Lower the stakes. The point isn’t the game — it’s the 40 minutes of laughing and reacting together. A boring game played joyfully beats a perfect game you keep postponing.

If keeping the habit alive is the hard part, that’s exactly the problem Far Fox is built to solve. It hands you a daily question, a this-or-that, and little challenges automatically — plus a shared photo timeline and a fox companion that grows the more you both show up. It’s the “default game” that never makes you think of what to play. Free on iOS, Android, and web.

And if you want more ways to spend the time, our guides to long-distance date ideas and 25 activities for couples apart pick up where the games end.

The distance is real. But “your turn” is a small, repeatable way to keep reaching across it — 47 times over.