Netflix adds new party mode with Codenames Party

Netflix has spent the past year and a half steadily expanding its collection of family-friendly and party games. The streaming service's newest addition is Codenames Party, a fresh take on the popular word association game.

As with other titles in Netflix's party game collection, players join by scanning a QR code and then play through their mobile devices, with no additional hardware or controllers required.

From tabletop to streaming

The social word game originated as a tabletop title before eventually moving online so groups could play the cooperative game virtually. In the traditional format, two teams compete, each led by a rotating Spymaster who chooses clues meant to help teammates guess as many target words as possible.

Netflix's version includes that classic team-based mode alongside a mode called Case Studies, where all players guess from pre-made word and clue sets rather than assigning their own spymasters.

A new twist: Party Mode

The latest addition drops the team structure entirely. In Party Mode, each player individually comes up with a single clue to connect their own unique set of eight words, drawn from a shared pool of 16 available options.

Players score points both by correctly guessing other participants' words and by having their own chosen words successfully identified by the group when their clue comes up.