Hitster rules: how to play Hitster
Everything you need to play Hitster tonight: setup, a turn, the tokens, winning, the Bingo and Battle of the Generations variants, plus how it works with Hitify cards.
This page explains the standard Hitster rules in our own words. The official rulebook is in the box and on the publisher’s website; if your edition says something different, the box wins.
What is Hitster?
Hitster is a music party game by Jumbo for 2 to 10 players. Every card carries a QR code on one side and the song’s title, artist and release year on the other. You scan the code with your phone, a song plays through Spotify, and you have to place the card in your own timeline: before, after or between the cards you already hold, according to the year it came out.
You do not need to know the exact year. You only need to decide whether the song is older or newer than your other cards. That is what makes it work for mixed groups: a grandparent hears a 1960s hit and knows, a teenager hears last year’s single and knows, and everybody argues about the 90s. A round takes about half an hour, and the first player with ten correctly placed cards wins.
- Publisher
- Jumbo
- Players
- 2 to 10, solo or in teams
- Goal
- 10 cards in the right order
- You need
- A phone with Spotify (Premium recommended)
Setup
Setting up takes a minute. In the standard rules:
- 1. Shuffle the cards and put the deck in the middle of the table, QR side up, so nobody sees the years.
- 2. Every player (or team) takes the top card and lays it in front of them with the year face up. That is the start of your timeline.
- 3. Every player gets two Hitster tokens to start with. You can never hold more than five.
- 4. One phone opens the Hitster app (or scanner) and connects to Spotify. Whoever holds it is the DJ. The DJ can be one person for the whole game or the phone can be passed around.
- 5. The player to the left of the DJ goes first, then play continues clockwise.
A turn, step by step
Every turn follows the same rhythm. Here is what happens when it is your go:
The DJ scans the top card
The DJ takes the top card of the deck, QR side up, scans it and the song starts playing. Nobody looks at the year side yet.
You place the card in your timeline
Listen and decide where the song belongs: before your oldest card, after your newest, or in between two. Slide the card into that spot, still face down (QR side up). Take your time, the song keeps playing.
Bonus: name the artist and title
Before the card is flipped, you can also say who sings it and what it is called. Get both right and you earn one Hitster token, even if the card ends up in the wrong place.
Others may challenge you
Anyone who thinks you are wrong can bet one token by putting it where they believe the card really belongs. See "the tokens" below for how that resolves.
Flip and check
Turn the card over. Is the year in order with its neighbours? Then it stays and your timeline grows by one. Is it out of order? The card goes to the discard pile (or to a challenger who called it right).
Next player
Play passes to the left. If the DJ is a fixed person, they scan for every player in turn; if the phone is passed around, the new DJ is the player to your right.
The Hitster tokens (coins, chips)
The little tokens in the box, also called coins or chips, are what turns Hitster from a quiz into a game. They reward music knowledge beyond the year and give the other players a stake in your turn.
How you earn tokens
In the standard rules you earn a token by naming both the artist and the title of the song that just played, correctly, before the card is flipped. Placement does not matter for this: a wrong placement with the right artist and title still pays a token. You start with two and can hold at most five. Some house rules also hand out a token for a correct challenge, but that is not in the standard rulebook.
What you can spend them on
Skip a song (1 token)
Never heard it? Pay one token, the current card goes to the discard pile and the DJ scans a fresh one for you.
Buy a card (3 tokens)
Hand in three tokens and take the top card of the deck straight into your timeline, year side up, without having to guess. A quick way to close the last gap.
Challenge another player (1 token)
When someone else has placed a card and you think it is wrong, put one of your tokens where you believe the card belongs. If the card is flipped and you were right and they were wrong, you take the card into your own timeline. If they were right, your token is gone. If several players challenge, the first token placed goes first.
Tokens are the difference between a close game and a runaway one. A player who is one card short can be stopped by two well placed challenges, and three saved tokens can win a game outright.
How you win
The first player or team with ten correctly placed cards in their timeline wins and is crowned the Hitster. Ten counts everything in your row: the starting card, cards you placed, cards you bought with tokens and cards you won by challenging.
Prefer a shorter game? Agree on a smaller number before you start; five or seven cards is common for a warm-up round. In a two-team game some groups play a final round so both teams get the same number of turns, then the longer timeline wins.
Hitster variants
Once the basic game clicks, there are two official variants worth knowing about (Hitster Bingo and Battle of the Generations) and a handful of house rules that almost every group ends up using.
Common house rules
None of these are in the box, all of them are popular. Agree on them before the first scan.
Exact year mode
For experts: you must say the exact year, or land within two years, to keep the card. Order alone is not enough.
Timeline of 5 or 7
Play to five or seven cards instead of ten. Good for big groups or a quick round before dinner.
Teams
Two or three players share one timeline and discuss out loud. This is the best way to play with a wide age range or with more than six people.
Everyone answers
Every player, not only the active one, may name artist and title. First correct answer earns the token. Loud, fast and great for a party.
No skips
Drop the one-token skip so tokens are only used for buying and challenging. Makes the challenge economy tighter.
One deck, one theme
Play with a single decade or a single genre deck. Harder, because the songs are closer together, and the exact-year variant shines here.
Hitster Bingo: how it works
Hitster Bingo is a separate edition that swaps the timeline for a bingo board. Instead of ordering songs by year, you answer questions about the song that is playing and cross off squares. It plays faster and is easier for people who do not care about years but do know their music.
In the standard rules of the Bingo edition each player or team gets a bingo board with a grid of squares. Every square is a small challenge about a song: is it a band or a solo artist, name the artist, is the year within a few years of your guess, that sort of thing. A disco ball spinner in the box tells you which pile to draw from. The DJ scans a card, the song plays, everybody writes their answer on their wipe-clean card, and when your answer is right you tick a square that fits.
A Bingo round in short
- 1. Everyone gets a bingo board and a wipe-clean answer card.
- 2. Spin, draw a card from the pile it points to, the DJ scans it.
- 3. While the song plays, everyone answers the question that goes with the square they are aiming for.
- 4. Flip the card, check the answers, tick a square for every correct answer.
- 5. The first player to complete a row (or a column, or the whole board in the long game) shouts Bingo and wins.
Battle of the Generations
Battle of the Generations is the team edition built around exactly the argument that Hitster starts at every family table: who knows music better, the parents or the kids? In the standard rules of that edition the cards are split into separate decks by era, roughly the vinyl years, the cassette and CD years and the streaming years, and each player or team picks the era they will play from.
Turns work like the standard game: the DJ scans the top card of your chosen deck, you place it in your team’s shared timeline, flip and check. Tokens are earned and spent the same way (two to start, one to skip, three to buy). The first team to ten correctly placed cards wins. Because every team plays from its own deck, the game stays fair even when one team knows the classics and the other only knows this year’s charts.
Spotify Free or Spotify Premium?
The official Hitster cards play songs through Spotify. With Spotify Premium a scanned card starts the right track immediately and the DJ can hand the phone around freely. With Spotify Free the songs still play, but the free tier adds ads and can restrict track selection on mobile, so the standard advice is: it works, Premium is smoother, and with a free account it is easiest to keep one person as DJ.
Hitify cards work differently: they play a 30-second preview straight in the browser at hitify.app/scan, no Spotify account or app needed. Since previews are short you may want to agree that a song may be replayed once.
Playing Hitster with 2 players
Hitster is listed for 2 to 10 players and the two-player game needs no rule changes: you take turns being the DJ for each other, place your card, flip, and the challenge rule still works because there is always one opponent to bet against.
Two tips for a duel: play to a longer timeline (12 or 15 cards) so the game does not end in ten minutes, and use the exact-year house rule if you both know your music well. If you want the game to feel less like a quiz, play cooperatively: one shared timeline, and you try to reach 20 cards with as few misses as possible.
Playing with Hitify cards
Hitify cards are printed from your own Spotify playlist and play exactly like Hitster cards: QR code on the front, title, artist and year on the back. The rules below are the same game, written for a Hitify pack.
Goal of the game
Be the first player to build a timeline of 10 cards in the correct chronological order. Guess the year of each song and place the card in the right spot on your timeline!
Setup
- 1. Each player gets 1 starting card with the year visible - this is the start of your timeline
- 2. Place the rest of the cards in a pile in the center with the QR code facing up
- 3. Open the scanner at hitify.app/scan on one phone - this person is the DJ
- 4. The youngest player goes first
Gameplay
Draw a card
The player whose turn it is draws the top card from the pile. DON'T look at the year!
Scan the QR code
The DJ scans the QR code. The song plays automatically as a 30-second preview.
Guess the year
Listen to the song and decide where the card belongs in your timeline. Is this song older or newer than your other cards?
Place the card
Place the card where you think the year fits. Then the DJ reveals the year.
Check your answer
Placed correctly? The card stays in your timeline. Wrong? The card goes to the discard pile and your turn is over.
Winning
The first player to complete a timeline of 10 cards wins the game! In case of a tie, the player with the longest consecutive sequence of correct years wins.
Tips
Pay attention to production quality - synthesizers and drum machines often indicate later decades
Recognize voices - artists often have a distinctive style per period
Know your genres - disco was big in the 70s, grunge in the 90s, EDM in the 2010s
Listen to audio quality - older recordings often sound different from modern production
Variants
Shorter game
Play until 5 or 7 cards for a quicker game.
Team mode
Play in teams of 2-3 people. Discuss together where the card belongs!
Expert mode
You must guess the exact year, not just the correct order.
Print your own cards or expansion with Hitify
Played through every card in the box? Hitify turns any Spotify playlist into a printable deck of Hitster-compatible cards: your wedding songs, one decade, one artist, or 300 tracks nobody at the table has heard of. Print at home or order them printed, and shuffle them into the original deck as an expansion.
Frequently asked questions
What is Hitster?
Hitster is a music party game by Jumbo for 2 to 10 players. You scan a card, a song plays, and you place the card in your timeline according to its release year. The first player with ten correctly ordered cards wins.
How do you play Hitster?
Everyone starts with one card face up. On your turn the DJ scans the top card, the song plays, and you slide the card into your timeline where you think the year fits. Flip it: right order, you keep it; wrong order, it is discarded. Name the artist and title too and you earn a token.
What are the Hitster tokens for?
You earn a token by naming both artist and title correctly. Spend one token to skip a song, three tokens to buy a card straight into your timeline, or one token to challenge another player’s placement and take the card if you were right.
How does Hitster Bingo work?
Hitster Bingo replaces the timeline with a bingo board. A song plays, you answer the question on the square you are aiming for (artist, band or solo, year within a margin), and a correct answer lets you tick that square. The first full row wins.
Can you play Hitster with Spotify Free?
Yes. Songs still play with a free account, but with ads and some restrictions on mobile, so Premium is recommended and with Free it is easiest to keep one person as DJ. Hitify cards need no Spotify account at all; they play a preview in the browser.
How many cards do you need to win Hitster?
Ten correctly placed cards, including your starting card. Many groups play to five or seven for a shorter game.
Can you play Hitster with 2 players?
Yes, the box says 2 to 10 and no rules change. Take turns as DJ, keep the challenge rule, and consider playing to 12 or 15 cards so the game lasts a bit longer.
Is there a Hitster rules PDF?
The official rulebook comes in the box and the publisher offers it on its website. This page explains the standard rules in full, including the tokens and the variants, so you can play without the PDF.
Hitster is a trademark of Jumbo. Hitify is an independent tool for printing your own music cards and is not affiliated with Jumbo or Hitster.
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