TikTokers are rediscovering a board game from their childhoods and giving it a new twist with the 'Subjective Guess Who?' trend

• On TikTok, people are going viral for trying a trend called "Subjective Guess Who?"
• The new version of the game is played with questions like, "Would your person be rude to waitstaff?"

On TikTok, users are rediscovering the Guess Who? board game, and going viral for playing it — with a twist.

Instead of asking objective questions about the characters such as "Does your person have white hair?" they're using subjective and comically specific questions to interpret facets of their personalities based exclusively on illustrations of their faces, asking "Would your person be rude to waitstaff?" or "Is your person anti-vax?"

Guess Who? is a two-player game in which the aim is to guess which character one's opponent has chosen, using yes-or-no questions to reach the answer fastest by process of elimination. It was created in 1979, and was popularized throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

It's now seeing a TikTok revival. The hashtag #SubjectiveGuessWho has received more than 12 million views on the app, with videos typically showing adults playing the subjective version that doesn't always lead to a correct answer.

Creators who took part in the trend told Insider they think it encourages players to be more creative, and even get into lighthearted arguments that make them feel more invested in the game.

The TikTok trend dates back to 2020, but has blown up in recent months

The first TikTok video using the hashtag #SubjectiveGuessWho appears to have been posted by Auel Kanaybekov, whose December 2020 video went viral and now has 11 million views. Many of the most-viewed videos under the hashtag were posted in February and March 2022. It even caught the attention of Hasbro Gaming, which owns the game.

Hasbro told Insider they were "thrilled" to see the game trending on TikTok, and as a result decided to create Instagram and Facebook filters inspired by the trend, where users can take a picture of their faces inside a frame that says "Subjective Guess Who?"

Kanaybekov, 26, has posted three #SubjectiveGuessWho videos since his original one, which have a combined total of around 400,000 views.

In his videos, Kanaybekov can be heard asking his opponent questions like, "Is your person a Trump supporter?" before narrowing down the characters on the board by putting the tabs with their faces down on the gameboard, as players are instructed to do in the original game.

Kanaybekov told Insider people often comment and disagree with how he interpreted his opponent's answers. "A lot of the comments on my video were people arguing that a certain character in the game would've definitely said 'ooo don't mind if I do' when offered dessert," even though he eliminated that player on his board based on his opponent's answer to that question.

The trend has brought back feelings of nostalgia for many adult players

Lauren Davis, who posted a subjective Guess Who? TikTok that now has 290,000 views, told Insider she used to play a subjective version of the game as a child and decided to film a TikTok about it in March when she saw other people trying it on the app.

Davis, who is now 29, said she has refamiliarised herself with a game she once enjoyed as a child, telling Insider she now plays it often and keeps a note of good question ideas on her phone as she thinks of them.

According to Hasbro, Guess Who? is suitable for players aged six and up. However, Adeyemi Taylor-Lewis, 25, who filmed a game of subjective Guess Who? with his girlfriend in March, told Insider he thinks the subjective element of the trend makes it fun for adults.

He said, "Asking, 'Does this person have a 5-minute makeup routine?' is way more fun than asking, 'Do they have blonde hair?'" Adults may enjoy the game because they are more likely to have "experienced enough people in day-to-day life to see how people act," he said.

For more stories like this, check out coverage from Insider's Digital Culture team here.