Why squares win on game day
There are a lot of ways to make a football game more interactive. Fantasy leagues, prop sheets, bracket challenges, and plain old trivia all have their place. But for a party, office event, or group gathering, football squares has some advantages that the others cannot match.
Fantasy football is great if you follow the NFL closely, have time to draft a team, and enjoy managing your roster week after week. But it is a terrible party game. It requires significant knowledge, a season-long commitment, and excludes anyone who is not already into football.
Squares require none of that. You click a square, type your name, and you are done. No research, no drafts, no waiver wire. The game resolves in a few hours, and everyone from die-hard fans to people who cannot name a single player has equal odds of winning. For a single-game event like the Super Bowl, squares is the clear winner.
Prop sheets (lists of predictions like "Who will score first?" or "Will there be a safety?") are fun and popular at Super Bowl parties. They work well for people who enjoy sports trivia and predictions.
The downside is that prop sheets reward sports knowledge, which means the person who watches football every week has a big advantage over the person who is just there for the commercials. Squares level the playing field completely. Also, prop sheets require someone to grade every answer at the end, which is tedious. Squares determine winners automatically based on the score.
That said, there is no reason you cannot do both. Run a squares game alongside a prop sheet and let people participate in whichever one appeals to them.
Bracket challenges are perfect for tournaments like March Madness where you are predicting outcomes across multiple games. They are a different kind of fun than squares because they reward prediction skill and play out over weeks.
Squares are better for single games. If you want to add excitement to one specific matchup, a squares grid is the way to go. For a tournament, you can run both: a bracket challenge for the full tournament and individual squares games for the biggest matchups. Our college basketball squares page has more on how to set this up.
The reason football squares has been the go-to game day activity for decades comes down to a few things. It is inclusive, meaning anyone can play regardless of sports knowledge. It is fast, taking less than a minute to set up and participate. It creates ongoing excitement through the game because winners are determined at the end of each period, not just at the end. And it is social, giving people something to talk about and root for together.
No other game day activity checks all of those boxes. For a deeper dive into the history and staying power of the game, check out our History of Football Squares page.
Create a free football squares game and try it at your next event.
Create Your Game →