Fire Down

How to play Fire Down

Fire Down is the rapid-fire categories game: a topic appears on screen, such as “Fruits”, “European capitals” or “Cartoon characters”, and players take turns naming something in that category before the 5-second timer runs out. Hesitate, get it wrong or repeat an answer and you're out. The last player standing wins. It's one of the fastest, most exciting group games to play at home: no equipment needed, just a phone and quick thinking.

Step-by-step rules

1. Set up the players in the “Your teams” panel: individual players or teams, up to 6.
2. The host reads the category out loud and picks who goes first.
3. Press “Start timer”: the player whose turn it is has 5 seconds to give a valid answer. If they make it, the turn passes on and the timer restarts.
4. Anyone who stays silent, gets it wrong or repeats an answer is out: tap their name on screen to mark them.
5. When the category runs dry, press “Next category” and carry on with the remaining players.
6. When only one player is left, the game crowns them the winner and gives them +1 point on the leaderboard.

How many players do you need?

Fire Down works with 3 or more players and is perfect for groups of 4 to 8. With big groups it's better to form teams: each team's spokesperson answers after a quick huddle. A game lasts 5-10 minutes, so it's also a great warm-up before a longer game.

More than 120 categories

Categories range from geography and history to food, sport, music, film, animals and pop culture. Some are easy (“Colours”, “Fruits”), others challenge even the experts (“Chemical elements”, “Roman emperors”). They're shuffled every game and never repeat until the whole deck has been played.

Tips for a perfect game

• The host is the referee: they decide whether an answer counts. If in doubt, the group votes.
• Adjust the difficulty: for younger players, double the time by counting to ten out loud; for experts, ban the most obvious answers.
• Change direction with every new category so nobody always goes first.
• Cast it to the TV: the round timer and player names are easy to see from across the room.

Frequently asked questions