Player guide
How to play Bingo Party
Bingo Party is a real-time multiplayer bingo room you host yourself. Share a six-character code, choose your patterns, and play with up to a few dozen friends or strangers from a phone or browser. This page walks through every rule, from how cards are generated to how a win is validated.
The 5×5 card
Every Bingo Party card is a 5×5 grid of numbers. Each column is tied to one letter of the word B-I-N-G-O and each column draws from its own range:
| Column | Letter | Range |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | 1 – 15 |
| 2 | I | 16 – 30 |
| 3 | N | 31 – 45 |
| 4 | G | 46 – 60 |
| 5 | O | 61 – 75 |
The center square at row 3, column 3 is the free space. It counts as marked from the moment the card is dealt and is shared by every pattern that needs it. The other 24 squares carry unique random numbers within their column range — a card can never repeat a number.
Cards live in your account and can be reused in any lobby. You start with 4 free card slots and can carry up to 8 if you upgrade. Inside a single lobby every card must be unique, so two players cannot accidentally play the same numbers.
Hosting a lobby
One player acts as the Game Master (GM). The GM creates a lobby, picks settings, and shares the lobby code. Other players type the code or follow a deep link to join. Anyone authenticated can host — there is no special role to unlock.
The GM controls:
- Auto-call speed: manual, slow (10s), medium (5s), or fast (3s).
- Enabled patterns: any subset of the 25 patterns.
- Cards per player: 1 to 8.
- Coins per card: 1 to 100, or coins disabled entirely.
- Multiple winners on (30-second window) or off (first-only).
- Spectators allowed and lobby visibility (public or private).
Calling numbers
Once the round starts, the GM's device draws random numbers from 1 to 75 without repetition and writes them to the live game state. Every player's screen updates in real time. If the GM backgrounds the app the timer pauses; resuming continues from the same number.
On manual mode the GM taps to draw. On the timed modes the next number is drawn automatically every 3, 5, or 10 seconds. The GM can also pause and resume mid-round at any time.
Marking and auto-mark
When a number is called, you tap any square on your card that matches. Free-tier players mark by hand. Premium players can turn on auto-mark, which marks the called number on every active card instantly.
Marks are stored on the live game state and not on the saved card, so when the lobby ends your card returns to a clean grid ready for the next room.
Calling BINGO
When a card matches one of the lobby's enabled patterns, you tap the BINGO button. Your device validates the claim locally first and refuses obviously wrong ones — for example a marked square whose number was never called. If the local check passes, your claim is sent to the GM.
The GM's device runs the same validation independently and either approves or rejects the claim. Approved claims are written into the round's winners list. Rejected claims simply disappear and play continues.
The validator checks four things in order:
- Card ownership: the claim references a card you own.
- Pattern enabled: the matched pattern is in the lobby's enabled list.
- Marks valid: every marked square is either the free space or a number that has actually been called.
- Pattern complete: at least one variant of the pattern is fully covered.
Multiple winners and the 30-second window
By default lobbies allow multiple winners per round. As soon as the first valid BiNGO is approved, a 30-second window opens during which other players can still claim — useful when several cards are close on the same call. When the window closes the round ends and results are recorded. With multiple winners disabled, the very first approved claim ends the round immediately.
The coin economy
Coins are an in-app currency with no real money value and no cash-out. They exist purely to give rounds stakes. Each player starts with 100 daily coins that reset every day at 00:00 UTC, plus any coins earned from rewarded ads (50 per ad, free tier) or optional in-app purchases.
When a round begins, the lobby's coins-per-card setting is deducted from each player for every active card they bring. The pot is split among the winners. If a player cannot afford the entry, that player is moved to spectator and refunded.
Deduction priority is fixed: daily, then ads, then purchased.
Daily limits
The free tier has soft daily limits to keep servers healthy:
| Limit | Free | Premium |
|---|---|---|
| Card slots | 4 | 8 |
| Concurrent lobbies | 3 | Unlimited |
| Daily lobby joins | 3 | Unlimited |
| Daily rounds | 100 | Unlimited |
| Auto-mark | Off | On |
| Ads | Shown | Removed |
Limits reset based on your device's local date, so if you fly across time zones you may see a reset slightly earlier or later than expected.
Fair play and anti-cheat
All win validation runs twice — once on your device and once on the GM's — and server-side security rules prevent any player from writing winners directly. Marked positions, called numbers, and the lobby's pattern list are all read from server state, not from local input, so a tampered client cannot fake a victory. Cheat attempts that bypass the local checks simply get rejected by the GM.
Reactions, friends, and leaderboards
During a round you can fire one of twelve emoji reactions that float across every player's screen — fire, claps, shocked, sleepy, prayers and more. Reactions cost nothing and last only a few seconds.
Friends are a standard request-and-accept system. Once connected you can invite each other to lobbies and see who is currently online. Public lobbies are also open to anyone in the lobby browser. Wins and losses are recorded both for the all-time leaderboard and a weekly leaderboard that resets every Sunday at 00:00 UTC.
Where to next
The full visual gallery of every win pattern lives on the patterns page. Common questions are answered on the FAQ. Ready to play? Browse open lobbies or host your own.