Instagram Story Game Ideas: Have Fun with Your Followers

Start a GIF challenge.

This is a great way to get people to repost your account on their own Stories. Just make sure to encourage your followers to tag you in their own stories. Here's how it works: Create a template in Create Mode or using a third-party app like Canva. On your template, label some categories that would be fun for people to add GIFs to, like: Morning Mood, Afternoon Mood, and Night Mood. Me 10 years ago, me today, Me 10 years from now. What my dog thinks of me, What I think of My Dog. Add your own GIFs to the template to give people ideas. Post the template to your story and encourage your followers to screenshot and repost the template with their own GIFs!

Make a trivia quiz.

Use the Quiz sticker to stump your followers. Start posting a story, tap the Aa button, then tap the sticker icon at the top to bring up more options. Scroll to the end of the options until you see Quiz. Fill in the given template to create a fun game of trivia for your followers to fill out! You may add as many options as you want, but aim for 3-5 so your followers can engage in some healthy debate in the comments. You may also use this format to set up a fun game of "true or false" or any other form of trivia. If you would like, you can post several stories in a row using this feature, offering up several questions for your followers to engage with. Consider posting a follow-up story at a later point in time sharing the quiz's results with your followers.

Play "Two Truths and a Lie."

Another way to use the Quiz sticker to teach your followers about your brand. Using the Quiz sticker, add two true statements and one lie as potential quiz answers. Invite your followers to spot the lie!

Create a word search or crossword puzzle.

Use an online crossword or word search generator to make your own word puzzle. In your puzzle, incorporate terms that are relevant to your brand! Take a screenshot of the puzzle, upload it to your stories, and then invite your followers to repost it.

Play a game of "Guess Who."

Make your followers guess an individual or celebrity based on clues. Using Canva or another design tool, create an Instagram story centered around the silhouette or distorted image of a famous figure, character, or celebrity relating to your brand. Include a few statements about this individual, and invite your followers to guess who this person is! Consider adding Instagram's "Questions" sticker here. Doing so allows you to answer the question publicly on your story when you're ready to announce the winning response. You can tailor this idea to fit your needs! Play a game of "Guess the Dish" if you run a food account, or "Guess the Movie" if you run a film account. If you run a music account, you can simply share some audio and invite users to guess the song.

Start a caption contest.

Post a meme or funny picture that could use a funny caption. Create a new Story, tap Aa, then tap the sticker to open the menu. Select the Questions option and post a meme or funny picture. Invite your followers to respond with the best caption, and offer an award or prize for the most fun or descriptive response. Repost several options, and then use the Quiz option to invite everyone to vote for their favorite!

Play "Picture Down the Lane."

Use the "Add Yours" sticker to start a chain of photos. Under the Instagram Stickers panel, find the Add Yours sticker, which encourages your followers to share a similar one. Create a long line of funny cat photos, landscape photos, or beautiful selfies!

Play "Would you rather?"

Use the "Poll" sticker to make your followers choose between two options. The Poll sticker is similar to the "Quiz" option, only there is no right or wrong answer. For example, if you're a food blogger, try posting two of your least appetizing-looking meals, and ask your followers "If you had to eat one, which one would you choose?"

Ask your followers to share unpopular opinions.

Hot takes are always a great way to drive engagement. Post a wild opinion to your story, and use the Questions feature to ask your followers to share their own. Then, you can share people's outrageous responses!

Start a fun drawing or design contest.

Invite your followers to draw a design using only the tools available on Instagram stories. The design can be something original, inspired by a famous piece of art, or even something relevant to your brand. Make sure they tag you so you can repost the designs!

Make people guess something about you.

What's something that only you or your company knows? This could anything, like "Guess how many Hot Cheetos are in this mason jar?" or "Guess how old I was when I started this blog?" Use the "Question" sticker to allow open-ended guesses, or try Quiz for a multiple-choice option.

Start a challenge that people will want to share.

Get your followers to want to hop on a new Story trend. First, think of something you want your followers to post—for example, lip-syncing to a specific song, sharing a photo of themselves as a child next to their current selves, or dressing up in a certain color and taking an outfit photo. Create a post with the rules, tell your followers to tag you in their Stories, and let them know you'll share their submissions! Everyone loves a free repost, and you'll love the engagement boost!

Play True or False.

Use the Poll sticker to quiz your followers on interesting facts. Find a little-known fact (or something that sounds true), and create a story with an image or video. Or, you could make this quiz about you or your brand! Have your followers vote on whether they think the statement is true or false. When the poll is over, you can share the results!

Make a sharable bingo board.

Create a fun bingo game for your followers to play. Create a board using Story tools, or just use an online bingo card generator like this one. For each square, enter something your followers can check off, like movies they may have seen, products they've tried, things their parents have said, or cities they've visited. Post the bingo card, and tell your followers to take a screenshot, draw an X over the squares they can check off, and repost their cards (along with a mention of your Instagram account).

Run a nomination challenge

Motivate your followers to complete a task. If you run a fitness, food, or health-related Instagram, a nomination challenge can be a great way to drive engagement. Post a story challenging your followers to something, and encourage them to repost the story and challenge at least 3 others in their life to do the same.

Create an AR story game.

If you've never played with Instagram's AR filters, you'll have to give them a try. These filters make it easy for anyone to play a game using augmented reality filters and share them to their stories. If you're an influencer or run a brand, you can really boost your reach by creating AR filter games that people can play. Here's how to get started: Download Meta Spark Studio from https://sparkar.facebook.com/ar-studio/download on your PC or Mac. There is a bit of a learning curve to using Spark AR, but it should come easy if you're familiar with software like Photoshop or Cinema 3D. Click Create Project and design your AR filter. If you are interested in creating a game for Instagram stories, you may want to begin by taking scripting course, as you will need a fairly firm grasp in order to code these filters into Spark Studio. Upload your game to the Spark AR Hub by clicking Publish. Meta must first ensure your game fits with their community guidelines. This can take up to 10 days, but you will be notified as soon as your game has gone live on Stories!

Play Pictionary.

Draw something using Instagram's Story drawing tools. Post the picture you drew, and make your followers guess what you drew! Add the Question sticker so people can reply with their guesses, and share the best ones! Another Pictionary-related idea is to ask your followers to reply with their own drawings, and then share them with your hilarious guesses!

Host a reveal.

This Instagram story game requires you to post at least two stories. On the first one, post a "before" or blank picture. Include text instructing your followers to tap to reveal. Then, on the second story post, offer up a picture of some exciting content. This can be a great way to reveal a new project or your outfit of the day!

Ask a fun question with the emoji slider.

Think of a question that could elicit strong opinions from your followers. This could be something like rating a recipe you've shared, your OOTD, a popular or unpopular current event, or a song you share. Find the emoji slider sticker in the Stickers option and attach it to your story. Invite your followers to gauge their emotional response to a prompt, or to aim for a specific range.