Parents' Guide to

Exploding Kittens

By Chris Morris, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 10+

Potentially great but flawed version of the card game.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Paid Card Games
Exploding Kittens Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Exploding Kittens App: Screenshot #1
  • Exploding Kittens App: Screenshot #2
  • Exploding Kittens App: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 14+

Based on 2 parent reviews

Grape R.
Grape R. Parent of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7-year-old
July 29, 2023
age 18+

Exploding kittens sucks!!!

My children now have PTSD after seeing a cat blowing up!!
rosi53
rosi53 Adult
May 10, 2016
age 10+

Great Game - Limited Settings

This is a great app and I highly recommend it. It would be great to be able to turn off sound so I can listen to music while playing. That's a standard feature on every game, surprised it was not included.
See all 2 parent reviews

Privacy Rating Warning

  • Unclear whether personal information is sold or rented to third parties.
  • Personal information is shared for third-party marketing.
  • Personalised advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • User's information is used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for personalised advertisements.
Learn more about our privacy ratings

What’s It About?

Players take turns playing and drawing cards from the EXPLODING KITTENS deck. If you draw the "exploding kitten" card and don't have a "defuse" card in your deck, you're out. There are also action cards such as Shuffle and Nope!, which negates whatever card the previous player used, and other comically named cards such as Tacocat, Abracrab Lincoln, and Catterwocky, which -- when used in pairs or threes -- let you steal cards from another player. Players must decide which cards to play, in which order to play them, and whom to target with their cards.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (2 ):
Kids say (5 ):

Though there's a lot to like about this adaptation of the Kickstarter smash, it ultimately falls a bit short. The illustrations, taken from the Oatmeal online comic strip, are hilarious, and the cards themselves will likely make you laugh out loud. But there's a big roadblock in finding opponents: You can play with people in the room who have the game downloaded on their devices, but you might as well buy the actual card game in that case. Currently, there's no online multiplayer option, but it's almost certainly coming in a future update. When it does, parents will need to look it over carefully to see what sort of communication options there are for players, especially young ones.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about strategy and the need to think ahead to succeed. Where in the deck should a player place the exploding kitten card? Which action cards should they hold on to?

  • Talk about competition and how trying to beat other players is all in good fun. Make sure your kid is ready for the card stealing and sabotage, which feels a bit like playing Sorry!.

App Details

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