How to make a bingo card for Instagram stories: 24 squares, a free centre, and the rules people actually play by

Every new year, every fandom event, every family reunion and every conference produces the same post: a grid of 24 things that might happen, with a free square in the middle, that everyone marks up and passes on. It works because it needs nothing — no app, no account, no score — and because the person who reposts it is not copying your card, they are making their own.

Where the grid comes from

The 5×5 grid with a free centre is the American form of bingo, the 75-ball game sold from the 1930s onwards; the British 90-ball game uses a 9×3 ticket with no free square. The free centre is not decoration: with 24 squares instead of 25, a card holds an even number of items, the centre can be used for the title or the occasion, and the middle row and column need one fewer hit — which is why it is worth putting your two least likely squares on either side of it.

The story version keeps the grid and drops the numbers. Five in a row — across, down or diagonal — is still a bingo, but nobody is really keeping score: the card is a way of saying what your year, your job or your family is like, one tick at a time.

Writing squares that get ticked

A good bingo square is specific enough to be recognisable and likely enough to happen. “Someone is late” is too safe; “Someone blames the traffic on the bridge” is a square people will screenshot. Aim for squares that each have somewhere between a one-in-three and a two-in-three chance — a card where every square is certain gets ticked in silence, and a card where nothing happens gets thrown away.

• Mix the obvious and the personal. Four or five squares that only your group would understand are what make the card get shared inside it.
• Keep each square under about eight words. It has to read at the size a story gives it.
• Write at least 24. Write 40 and every card can draw a different 24 of them — that is how one list becomes a game for a whole table.

Making the card

1. Paste your squares, one per line, into the bingo card generator. Bullets and numbers are stripped, so a list from a note or a chat assistant works as it is.
2. Give it a title, or leave it blank for plain BINGO.
3. Pick a reading: paper prints well, night posts well.
4. Press the button. Press it again for another arrangement of the same squares.

The card comes out at 1080 by 1350 pixels — the 4:5 frame Instagram gives a feed image, which a story shows whole with a band above and below, and which prints on A4 or Letter without cropping.

How people play it in stories

Post the card. Tick the squares with the drawing pen as things happen, or all at once at the end of the day. Tag the people who should make their own — that is the whole mechanism: the card you post is an invitation, not a scoreboard. The link under the card carries the squares, so anyone who opens it gets the same list in a fresh arrangement.

How to play it at a party

Print one card per player from the same list. Each press of the button deals a new arrangement, and with more than 24 squares in the list, a different selection too. Every card shows the number of its arrangement, so a card can be drawn again if one goes missing. Call out the squares as they happen — or let the evening do it.

Frequently asked questions

Why exactly 24 squares?

Because the grid has 25 cells and the centre is free. Fewer than 24 leaves a hole; more than 24 becomes a pool the card draws from.

Can I get the same card again?

Yes. Each card shows the number of its arrangement; the same squares with the same number draw the same card.

Can two people get identical cards?

With 24 squares, only if they hit the same arrangement number — one chance in a million per deal. With a longer list, they also draw different squares.

Is anything stored?

No. The card is drawn and handed back in the same response. If you ask the page to keep your list, it is kept in your own browser only.

Sources and further reading

• Bingo (American version) — the 75-ball game and its 5×5 card with a free centre.
• Bingo (British version) — the 90-ball game and its 9×3 ticket, for contrast.
• Instagram Help Center — story image sizes and the drawing tools.