Last updated on January 15th, 2026 at 02:15 pm
SketchParty TV – Board Game Review
SketchParty TV is a Board/Education/Family game from Magnate Interactive Ltd, first launched in 20th July 2012.
It’s rated 4+ and currently has 1,415+ ratings on the App Store.
What Makes SketchParty TV Stand Out
"If you like Pictionary but hate cleaning up all those scraps of paper, SketchParty TV is the game for you." – Macworld
SketchParty TV is the fun Pictionary-style drawing and guessing party game to play on your iPad and Apple TV! As seen in a WWDC keynote!
A MUST-HAVE PARTY GAME
You could buy an easel, a huge pad of paper, and some markers, then write down a really long list of words and make up some rules and try and keep track of points and get marker smudges all over your furniture. But who wants to do that?
OR!
You could play a fun drawing game using items you already have around the house, like your iPad, high-definition television, and Apple TV. Just enable AirPlay Mirroring, choose sides, and start a SketchParty. It's so simple!
A TRULY SOCIAL GAME
SketchParty TV is a team game like Pictionary or "Win, Lose or Draw", and up to 8 players per team can join in on the fun. That's a pretty big party! And it's fun for ages 8 and up.
Gather up your family, call your friends, and play SketchParty today!
GAMEPLAY REQUIREMENTS
Note: SketchParty TV requires an AirPlay Mirroring-capable device and either SketchParty TV running on the 4th generation Apple TV or an Apple TV 2 or later to play. SketchParty TV can also be played using Apple's AV adapter or a Mac/PC app like Reflector. (See http://SketchPartyTV.com for device compatibility.)
AS SEEN ON
Engadget/TUAW and Mac|Format Magazine Editor's Choice app. As seen on ABC, Macworld, Fortune, Mashable, Techcrunch, Gotta Be Mobile, MacStories, iMore, Touch Arcade, 148Apps, The Loop, and more.
WHAT THE PRESS IS SAYING
"SketchParty TV is an extremely fun app, built to entertain friends and family members for hours on end." – CNET
"It's ingenious, executed to perfection and a huge amount of fun for groups." – Engadget
"If you own an Apple TV, you need to own SketchParty TV." – GottaBeMobile
"One of the best iOS party games." – iMore
"SketchParty TV is a real gem." – MacStories
"If you like Pictionary but hate cleaning up all those scraps of paper, SketchParty TV is the game for you." – Macworld
"There are some games, like SketchParty TV, that really sing on the Apple TV." – Mashable
"SketchParty TV really shines. Huge family fun." – Sixcolors
"SketchParty TV is a great way to get the whole family involved together in a fun game." – TWiT
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Made by Matt Braun | magnate interactive
This Board game offers engaging gameplay and regular updates for mobile players.
Player Feedback
As a newer release, SketchParty TV is building its player community. Early feedback suggests .
Recent Updates & Development
Latest Update: 24th December 2025
Recent improvements include:
Fixes an issue with connecting the TV app after setting up your teams.
Bug fixes and performance improvements.
Download & Availability
SketchParty TV is available through the official App Store for iOS devices.
Get SketchParty TV on App Store
Requirements: Requires iPhone 5s / iPad Air / iPad Air (Cellular) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina) / iPad Mini 2 (Retina, Cellular) / iPhone 6 / iPhone 6 Plus / iPad Air 2 / iPad Air 2 (Cellular) / iPad Mini 3 or later.
Compatible with iPhone and iPad devices.
Player Experience Highlights
Community Insight:
Tried this for the first time this week with the family It was an absolute hoot to see our terrible drawings up on the TV and pass around the iPad trying to help our team guess what we are drawing. Was very interactive with the kids and really all ages. The connection between the iPad and the Apple TV app was seamless and solid, no issues. Highly recommend. We used an iPad with an Apple Pencil in our situation and it worked awesome.
Update does not allow you to enter names and app support does not exist.
Love this game. Played for years now. Its just frustrating the word list is so small and repeats quickly. We would pay for different list of words. Monetize it. Make a way for us to load banks of words. Make games of different varieties of words. More words.
Love this app. It is so much fun. Love playing with the family! We really love the fact that you can add your own words – it has allowed us to include words that the little ones can read on their own and has made the experience so much fun.
We enjoy playing with the whole family.
So much fun to play in teams on the appletv. This game is so perfect we only wish that they would update it with new words. Please make a version that can be played online with a group. We would pay any amount to be able to do this with our family remotely.
The family enjoys playing the game, especially the grandkids at family get-togethers. Were always in for a laugh with some of the drawings. Even though you can add words, it would be nice if a new group of words were added with an update or paid add on word packs. It might be worth the fifth star.
We could not get this hooked up to our tv. So it was a waste.
Looking for the Russian language support. Thank you.
Love this app. It is so much fun. But.it seems to only work with Apple TV, which we dont have at home and we cant just mirror the screen. Also, we cant adjust the score after the time is up, which sometimes we need to, because we get too excited and cant get to the pause before the time is up.
Great game but incredibly frustrating in that if anyone in your party hits the power button on the iPad or accidentally swipes causing an app switch the game will be lost. Even with careful management of the iPad its hard to not lose a game. We love this but its way too frustrating. Just lost a game with 14 ppl half way through.
We bought the app. Half way through the first game, everything froze. We tried restarting the app. 5 minutes into the next game it froze again. We could never finish a game.
Great game for the whole family, but the words repeat. It would be great to have more variety of words.
Havent played in a while. But now it crashes constantly. Loops within a single tram. Total mess. So disappointing. Just deleted.
Game is fun but the app always crashes. Every time. You cant finish a game because it crashes every time.
This game is very fun. You can enter act with your family members on your TV. It works great and the creators are amazing! This is an AWESOME GAME! And we recommend it to even (246810) family… SO BE AMUSED TODAY! DIAL 057473394584Y3 FOR MORE ANSWERS.
Used to play this a lot with friends back in the iPad 2/3 days. Eventually stopped using those iPads and forgot about it. We recently purchased a new iPad Pro 12.9 after years of not using an iPad. The other day, we decided to check out what we had on our iPad 3, and we found this game! Immediately went to download it on our new iPad. Looks like it works with Apple TV natively now (instead of AirPlay). It also works with Apple Pencil, which is a huge plus. Cant wait to play this again and relive some memories! The only thing Id suggest is to add more mature word lists. Other than that everything is great.
Our family and we love this game. Its a regular thing for us to play. We play so much we know most of the words so please update more words in the kids section.
This is the closest game to Pictionary we have found for iPad. Using it with screen mirroring makes for a great family game night. Our only complaint is with the words and categories. The standard words are sometime so abstract and weird that they are impossible to draw (e,g, extra sensory perception or charity event) but the kid words are far too easy. Overall a great game.
Our kids ages 5, 9 & 11 love this app! Brings back memories of pictionary when we were their age. Works perfectly with the apple pencil and iPad Pro along with the apple tv.
Update!! We heard from the developers and they worked on a fix! Since the last update early July 2018, this has been a blast to play on our SE and the whole family has loved it. Thanks! Old version review-Since the touch on the screen does not correspond with the resulting line being drawn, it is beyond maddening. The most fun youll have is when you give up and just starting laughing at the app for failing so much.
This is a fun game! Love love love it.
We have been playing this game over a year without a single crash, delay or hiccup. None of our friends are super artistic and those slightly inclined this game levels the playing field enough to be fun for everyone! Some people have connection issues or out of sync(delayed). We dont know how theirs is setup or maybe using an old router.
Im Sydney Pepple and this game is da best.
Please make an option in the app to make it say the word out loud when a word is correctly guessed. We use this to teach English for ESL students.
We thing its fun but its five dollers.
Waste of money, wish we could get it back, fails to connect no matter how you try, the help the app provides is a huge joke. Save your money skip this one.
Could have been fun, but, until the interface works this is $4.99 wasted.
Sketchparty has entertained countless party guests with its easy to use, high resolution screen app. The larger the device, the better, but the instant mirroring to the apple tv has made it worth every penny.
No matter if you are doing tv mode or through airplay this is littered with connectivity issues. Dont waste your money on a game that works for a partial amount of time. We are running and iPad Pro and an Apple TV 4K yet somehow it cannot stay synced. We have a strong reliable network powered by an Asus AC 3100. Apple TV has direct connection with network, still unable to maintain a good connection. App is not worthy of the 5 star reviews that it has.
Downloaded this game and had a blast with 6 friends. We did two teams first then at the end, passed the iPad around and one person would draw and all others guessed. That was a blast.
We played this with our family and our father in law over thanksgiving and we all had so much fun. Great game to bring families together.
Great app. Super fun. Need some new music.
This is really a good app! Fun and has a lot of options.
This app gets everything right. But what would make it crazy-awesomer is if they moved the five dots of progress to somewhere else that doesn't block our view of drawings. C'mon. Poor design right there.
At first we were ok with paying the $4.99 for the app because it looked like fun. However, after purchasing it and downloading it on all of our families devices, we found out that we cannot each use our own device. It is a pass and play game so we have to use just one device. It would be so much easier if we could all use our own phones instead of having to pass them around the room the whole time. Also, there are some other bugs that need worked out. The color chooser won't slide over right, and there is too much in the middle of the screen that blocks the view of what is being drawn. Fix these, and we'd be willing to give it a higher rating.
We needed something to do on a hot Saturday night and couldn't decide. We remembered this game and thought it was worth $6 to give it a try. We had a total blast! Drawing on the iPad Pro and watching on the 4th Gen Apple TV is genius, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Highly recommended for family fun or party game.
If you have friends coming over soon, get this game and set it up with your Apple TV. It's so much fun!…especially if you have an iPad for the drawing part.
We bought an extra Apple TV just to play this on vacation with our friends! It rocks! Enjoy; gt stuff.
AirPlay works elsewhere, but with this app our screen goes black, unplayable black. Looking for an inexistent display app. Developer's advice? Buy the app and a new Apple TV to run it. We think not! Back to pen and paper – they don't need a hardware upgrade to work.
Great game, our kids really love it. Best feature is the availability of a "kids mode" for limiting the words to those that are easier to draw. This mode is available either through the paid app or via in-app purchases with the free version. Well worth it for the younger players. Also kudos to the developer for lightning quick replies to our basic questions. Don't think twice, go buy it today.
Our friends came over the other night, and we loaded up Sketchparty on our Apple TV and used the iPad with Apple Pencil to draw. We had so much fun, making fun of each others' drawings and guessing. This is one of the best synergies of iPad and AppleTV, and we can't wait to have friends over again to play.
Great for families with young kids. Would be nice if they had an adult version.
Our fam loves to play this. If you have a new appletv you will love this game.
Really fun. Played a few times with family over the holidays. Great excuse to have friends over for drinks and a game.
We play this with 3 young children and have a blast. It was the hit at our New Year's Eve party.
We have the new Apple TV. And we play this game all the time with our family! It's a great game and the ability to create your own custom word list is a nice feature.
Was so much fun for us over the holidays. It's become an instant family favorite.
Downloaded this over the holidays and had a great time playing it with family and friends. We all loved it. App worked well when mirroring to tv using Apple TV. A few changes we'd like to see: 1. More words! We got through the entire word list after a few rounds of play, and getting repeat words took some of the fun out of the game. 2. Ability to edit ALL of the word lists. This would be really helpful. We could then add words ourselves rather than waiting for an app update, or starting a whole new custom word list ourselves. 3. A way to get bonus points based on how quickly you finish your round of 5 words. Overall, great app with the ability to be even better with a few changes.
Had a blast with this game on our new Apple TV. With 2 kids under 12 everybody had fun playing this game and entertained. Worked great using an iPad 2 for drawing. Only feature we'd like to see added is the ability have a different word list for each team. This way if it was adults vs kids, the adult team could have a harder list then the kids team. Add this feature and it is a 5 star game.
User feedback from Apple App Store
App Details
- Version: 5.2.1
- Size: 41.51 MB
- iOS: 16.6 or later
- Languages: NL, EN, FR, DE, IT, NB, PT, ES
- Content Advisory:
- Developer: Magnate Interactive Ltd
Last updated: 24th December 2025 | Genre: Board, Education | Developer: Magnate Interactive Ltd