Baby showers used to be a "girls only" thing — but co-ed showers (sometimes called "couples showers" or "Jack and Jill showers") are now an ordinary choice. The problem: most baby shower game guides still assume an all-female audience and recommend games that awkwardly exclude or embarrass the men in the room. This guide covers the best baby shower games for men and co-ed audiences specifically — games that work because they're fun for everyone, not in spite of the mixed crowd.
Plenty of showers now include partners, brothers and male friends as guests, and many younger hosts would rather throw one shared celebration than split it by gender. But the classic shower games — "guess mom's belly size," "smell the diaper," "don't say baby" — were designed for a different audience. Running them at a co-ed shower is a recipe for half the room checking their phones.
Baby shower games for men: the short answer
Five games reliably carry a room with men in it: emoji pictionary, baby price is right, baby animal trivia, old wives' tales fact-or-fiction, and "who's that baby?" All five are competitive, visual, and winnable by someone who knows nothing about babies — which is the entire test. The ones that fail are the ones that single out the mom's body, ask adults to smell a diaper, or split the room pink versus blue.
- Co-ed shower: plan 3–4 games at 10–15 minutes each, opening with the most visual one.
- Diaper party: plan 2–3 games, and nothing that requires everyone to sit in a circle.
- Either format: if a game takes more than 30 seconds to explain, cut it.
Every one of those five runs on a screen — a TV, a laptop, a phone, or a shared Zoom window — so there is nothing to print and nothing to hand out. Baby Phrase Emoji Pictionary is available as a full deck with a Show Pass, and the six-question mixed showcase is free, so you can see whether the room bites before you spend anything.
What makes a baby shower game work for men and co-ed crowds
Before getting into specific games, it helps to know what makes a game land across mixed audiences. Three qualities show up in every game that works for men and co-ed groups:
Competition: Men at baby showers (and honestly, most people) engage better with games that have a clear winner. Guessing games, trivia with scoring, and head-to-head challenges all tap the competitive instinct that makes people pay attention. Passive activities like filling out a worksheet alone don't create any stakes.
Skill or knowledge, not just intuition: Games that reward actual knowledge (trivia about baby milestones, baby product prices, old wives' tales) give everyone equal footing. No one wins or loses because of their relationship to the mother — it's about who remembers that babies typically start walking between 9 and 15 months.
Short rounds: Long, drawn-out games lose people's attention. The best co-ed shower games run in 5-15 minute bursts, letting guests cycle through multiple games without getting restless. This is especially important if you have a mixed-generation crowd.
Emoji pictionary — the universal winner
Emoji pictionary works because it has zero gendered content. You project emoji puzzles on a screen and everyone races to decode them. 👶🚿 = Baby Shower. 🐻🛏️ = Bedtime Bear. Everyone can play, everyone can win, and the "aha!" moments create the laughter that makes a shower memorable. It's also one of the few games that works equally well for grandparents, friends, coworkers, and dads-to-be in the same room.
Digital emoji games let you project on any TV, laptop, or Zoom call. The BabyShowerShow emoji pictionary game includes 75 puzzles across 5 themed decks — baby phrases, nursery rhymes, children's books, baby movies, and baby activities — with built-in answer reveals for the host to control the pace.
Baby price is right
This is the strongest pick for most co-ed showers. You show a baby product on screen (bottle warmer, crib, stroller, diaper pail) and guests guess the retail price. The reveal moments are golden because parents and non-parents have wildly different ideas about what baby gear costs.
Guests spend real money on baby shower gifts, yet most can't accurately price common nursery items anywhere close. That knowledge gap is what makes the game fun — you learn who has kids, who's been shopping for someone else's shower, and who thinks a Nuna Pipa car seat costs $50.
Baby animal trivia
Everyone knows a baby dog is a puppy and a baby cat is a kitten. But what's a baby kangaroo called? (Joey.) A baby swan? (Cygnet.) A baby porcupine? (Porcupette.) Baby animal trivia is great for co-ed showers because it rewards general knowledge, not baby-specific experience. Dads-to-be, single friends, and coworkers all stand a fair chance.
The Oxford English Dictionary lists over 400 terms for specific animal offspring, which is enough material for 50+ trivia rounds without repeating.
Old wives' tales: fact or fiction?
This one is surprisingly engaging for co-ed crowds because the "old wives' tales" format works as a conversation starter. You present a claim ("Carrying high means it's a girl" or "Heartburn during pregnancy means the baby will have lots of hair") and the room votes fact or fiction.
The twist: one of these has a little research behind it. A small 2006 Johns Hopkins study of 64 women found an association between heartburn severity and newborn hair — one study, not proof, but enough to split the room. Other tales are complete myths. The back-and-forth debate is where the entertainment lives.
The "who's that baby?" game
Ask guests to submit baby photos of themselves before the shower (via email or a shared Google Drive folder). At the shower, project the photos on screen one at a time and let everyone guess who's who. This works spectacularly well for co-ed showers because it's equally embarrassing for everyone and has nothing to do with pregnancy knowledge.
Pro tip: include a few photos of celebrities as ringers. When a photo of baby Ryan Gosling shows up in the middle of your coworkers, the confusion is worth the effort.
Baby movie emoji guess
Variant of emoji pictionary specifically for co-ed crowds: use emoji puzzles for kids' movies. 🦁👑 = Lion King. 🐟🦈 = Finding Nemo. 🏠👆🎈 = Up. Dads and grandparents who've watched these movies a hundred times with their own kids crush this game, which is part of the fun.
Guess the baby food
The classic "what's in the jar" game, but with a co-ed twist: instead of actually opening baby food jars (which is messy and unhygienic), show photos of baby food labels on screen with the flavor names blacked out. Guests guess whether it's "sweet potato and squash" or "beef and vegetables" from the color alone. Faster, cleaner, and surprisingly hard.
Diaper party: the dad-only version of a baby shower
A diaper party (sometimes called a "man shower" or "dad shower") is a separate event for the dad-to-be — bachelor-party energy, but with diapers. Guests bring a box of diapers as the entry fee, and the celebration centers on grilling, drinks, watching a game, and a few light competitive activities. Diaper parties are increasingly common in 2026 as a complement to (not replacement for) the main co-ed shower.
Best games for a diaper party:
- Diaper-changing relay: teams race to put a diaper on a baby doll one-handed. Genuinely competitive, low-stakes, surprisingly hard. ~10 min.
- Baby price is right: works as well at a diaper party as at a co-ed shower. The "wait, a stroller costs HOW much?" reaction is universal. ~10 min.
- Dad name trivia: famous TV/movie dads (Phil Dunphy, Bob Belcher, Tony Stark, Ted Lasso). Pop-culture trivia lands at any dad gathering. ~10 min.
- Beer and diapers: guests bring two things — a six-pack and a box of diapers. The pairing reframes "baby shower" as "guys-night-with-stakes."
- Bottle-chugging race: juice (or beer for adults) from a baby bottle. Fast, ridiculous, takes 60 seconds, generates great photos.
What's typical at a diaper party (vs a baby shower):
- Held 4-8 weeks before the due date, often in someone's backyard or basement
- 10-25 guests, all male (or whatever close-friend group)
- Beer, BBQ, big-screen TV with a game on in the background
- Each guest brings 1-2 boxes of diapers (size 1, 2, or 3 are most useful)
- 2-3 short games, not 5-6 — the format is "hangout with structure," not "structured event"
- 1-2 hours total — shorter than a baby shower, no formal gift opening
What NOT to do at a diaper party:
- Skip anything that requires sitting in a circle ("everyone share a piece of dad advice"). Wrong format.
- Skip the elaborate decorations. Diaper parties are more about the casual hangout than the aesthetics.
- Don't make the dad-to-be the center of attention the whole time — the format works because it feels like a regular guy-hang with the diaper twist, not a roast.
Standalone games for the dad-to-be (and his friends)
Some dad-to-be celebrations skip the "diaper party" framing entirely and just gather the dad's close friends for an evening hangout. Games for this format need to feel native to a guy gathering, not like a sanitized baby shower transplant.
Picks that work:
- Famous fictional dads emoji: 👨🦁👑 = Mufasa. 🚀🦊 = Star-Lord (raised by space pirates, technically counts). 🏠🎈 = Carl from Up. Decoded fast, works across generations.
- Baby movies and TV trivia: Bluey, Pixar, Disney — dads recognize them all from years of screen time with nieces, nephews, or older kids.
- "Will the dad survive year one?" prediction game: guests predict comedic milestones — first 3am wake-up disaster, first daycare meltdown, first viral toddler moment. Read predictions in 12 months for a follow-up reveal.
- Old wives' tales fact-or-fiction: the "is heartburn linked to baby hair?" round generates real debate (one small 2006 study found an association, which is enough to start an argument). Works at any guy gathering.
Games to avoid at co-ed showers
Some classic baby shower games genuinely don't translate to mixed audiences. Skip these:
"Guess the belly size": Uncomfortable for the mom-to-be in a co-ed setting and often awkward for the guessers, especially men who don't know the mom well.
"Smell the diaper": Whatever the guide says, nobody actually enjoys smelling a dirty diaper, even if it's just melted chocolate. It feels juvenile in a mixed setting.
"Don't say baby": Tends to work only if everyone already knows each other well. At co-ed showers with coworkers, in-laws, or distant friends, half the room forgets the rule and the other half gets annoyed enforcing it.
Anything with pink vs blue team assignments: Reinforces gender stereotypes that many 2026 parents explicitly want to avoid. If you're doing teams, use neutral names.
How many games should you actually play?
The temptation with co-ed showers is to over-schedule to keep everyone engaged. Resist it. Most baby shower veterans agree that 3-4 games is the sweet spot — enough to keep energy up without turning the party into a game marathon. Our guide on how many games to have at a baby shower covers this in more detail, but the TL;DR is: fewer, better, shorter. If you'd like the three picked for you, set the baby shower game picker to competitive and it suggests a three-game lineup with a price-guessing round in the middle.
The 30-second setup rule
Any game that takes more than 30 seconds to explain is too complex for a mixed-audience shower. Guests from different generations, different relationships to the parents, and different levels of enthusiasm need games they can jump into immediately. Digital games win here because "here's the screen, here's the buzzer, go" is all the setup required.
Ready-to-play games for your co-ed baby shower
BabyShowerShow has 20 interactive baby shower games built specifically for projecting on any screen — TVs, laptops, phones, or Zoom calls. Every game is designed for group play with built-in answer reveals controlled by the host. The fixed six-question mixed showcase is free; all full decks require a Show Pass. $9.99 once unlocks all 20 games for 30 days — no account, no app, nothing to print.
Popular picks for co-ed showers: emoji pictionary (5 decks), baby price is right, old wives' tales trivia, baby movie emoji, and baby animal trivia. Browse all 20 games and pick 3-4 for your shower.
Final tips for hosting a great co-ed shower
A few practical things we've learned from hosts who've run dozens of mixed showers:
Start with the easiest game. Opening with emoji pictionary (visual, obvious how to play) gets everyone comfortable. Save the trickier trivia for later when the room has warmed up.
Have a host, not a moderator. The difference: a moderator reads questions and declares winners. A host adds energy, reacts to the room, and keeps things moving. Pick whichever guest (or grandparent) is the most animated and put them in charge.
Don't force participation. Some guests will be into it, some won't. That's fine. Make the games visible and fun enough that people opt in voluntarily, but don't single out quiet guests or embarrass people who'd rather watch.
Prize suggestions: Skip the "women-only" prize defaults (bath bombs, candles). For co-ed crowds, get gender-neutral prizes that anyone would want — Starbucks cards, local coffee shop gift cards, a bottle of nice wine, or donuts for the winner to take home.
For more on running a baby shower with a mixed crowd, see our guides on baby shower games for large groups, funny baby shower games, and how to actually run baby shower games.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best baby shower game for a mixed crowd of men and women?
Emoji pictionary is the overall winner. It has zero gendered content, works on any screen, and the puzzles generate the "aha" reactions that make a shower memorable. Baby price is right is a close second for co-ed audiences — everyone participates in the pricing guesses regardless of parental experience.
Do men actually enjoy baby shower games?
Some do, some don't. The ones who enjoy them typically like competition and visual/active games. The ones who don't typically dislike sentimental or "guess what the mom feels" style games. Your safest bet is picking games that work regardless: trivia, pictionary, price-is-right, guess-the-celebrity.
How many games should I plan for a co-ed baby shower?
Three or four total, about 10-15 minutes each. More than that and you risk losing energy; fewer than that and the party feels under-planned. Our full guide on shower game timing covers this in detail.
What about baby showers for just men (a "diaper party")?
Diaper parties are technically a different event — typically a bachelor-style gathering for the dad-to-be where guests bring diapers. The games there lean toward poker nights, watch-the-game parties, or themed competitive games. Many of the co-ed games on this list work fine at diaper parties too, especially emoji pictionary and baby movie trivia.
Are online baby shower games good for co-ed audiences?
Yes — in fact, they're better than printed worksheets for mixed crowds. Online baby shower games are visual (so everyone can see the same thing), group-based (no solo activities), and require zero printing or prep. Baby shower games online also work on Zoom, which matters if any of your guests are joining virtually.
What games should I avoid at a co-ed shower?
Skip anything that singles out the mom physically (belly measurement, weight guessing), anything that feels juvenile for adults (smell the diaper, drink from baby bottles), and anything divided by gender (pink vs blue teams). Co-ed showers work best when the games feel genuinely ungendered and focused on shared entertainment.