Dropout’s Game Changer has built its reputation on unpredictable challenges, elaborate twists and Sam Reich’s talent for putting contestants under pressure. Yet the show is not only about chaos. Its strongest episodes also make room for warmth, inventive game design and genuine generosity.
With 71 episodes available before season 8 concludes, narrowing the series down to 10 favourites is difficult. This ranking covers the episodes that best capture its mix of improvisation, emotional sincerity, escalating mischief and clever rules.
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10. Whodunnit
Season 1, episode 4
The show’s first six-episode season is easy to overlook beside its later ambitions, but it already contained standouts such as “Lie Detector” and “Make Some Noise”. “Whodunnit” turns a murder mystery into a fast-moving comedy showcase, with Rekha Shankar and Grant O’Brien making an especially entertaining detective duo. The final twist provides a satisfying finish, while Shankar’s performance makes it easy to see why she later received a show of her own.
9. Like My Coffee
Season 4, episode 2
Grant O’Brien, Jess Ross and former Um, Actually host Mike Trapp compete in an innuendo contest built for quick improvisation. The format reveals an unexpected side of Ross and Trapp, while O’Brien brings the necessary confidence to keep the jokes moving. The concept worked so well that it returned as a game samer in season 5.
8. Second Place
Season 6, episode 1
In this unusually pointed contest, players score for being the most “mid”. Brennan Lee Mulligan’s famously competitive approach collides with Reich’s calculated meddling, creating much of the episode’s energy. Mulligan is not the only contestant, but his inability to treat an apparently ordinary competition casually makes the central joke land repeatedly.
7. Don’t Cry
Season 4, episode 7
There is no elaborate central game here, and the episode does not need one. It was designed to lift Jess Ross’s spirits after her wedding was postponed and after she spent six months on bed rest following surgery. Silly challenges, including attempting to avoid tears while cutting onions, gradually become a celebration of Ross. The episode culminates in a pretend wedding ceremony for Ross and her fiancé, performed by Bob the Drag Queen.
6. One Year Later
Season 7, episode 1
Picking up a year after “Sam Says 3”, this episode checks in on Vic Michaelis, Lou Wilson and Jacob Wysocki. Reich assigns them 15 tasks, and the results range from absurdly inventive to unexpectedly heartfelt. One assignment led Wysocki to donate almost $3,000 in winnings to Rainbow Services, a nonprofit supporting survivors of domestic violence. The episode demonstrates that the show’s generosity can be just as memorable as its pranks. Wysocki donated almost $3,000.
5. Noise Boys
Season 4, episode 3
Brennan Lee Mulligan, Zac Oyama and Josh Ruben are a reliable comedy combination, having first appeared together in season 1’s “Make Some Noise”. That earlier success helped inspire several returning game samers and the Make Some Noise spin-off. Among their appearances, season 4’s “Noise Boys” is the strongest pick, thanks in part to an outstanding Oyama line delivered with exceptional timing.
4. Rulette
Season 7, episode 7
Season 7 also delivered “One Year Later” and “Samalamadingdong”, but “Rulette” concentrates the show’s chaos into one brilliantly unstable format. Contestants wear suits covered with rules that dictate behaviour, from speaking in a sing-song voice to being extra polite.
The episode’s final turn sees Jeremy Culhane take over hosting duties from Reich, reinforcing the idea that almost anything can happen. The format was strong enough to return as a game samer in season 8.
3. Sam Says 3
Season 6, episode 3
“Sam Says” transforms Simon Says into an endurance test disguised as a children’s game. Reich piles on increasingly elaborate attempts to catch the players out, including a puppet version of himself delivering instructions. In the third instalment, Vic Michaelis, Lou Wilson and Jacob Wysocki are tricked into believing the challenge has ended. They celebrate on a party bus, only to return to the set and lose points for every rule broken during the celebration.
2. Escape the Greenroom
Season 5, episode 9
Reich traps Brennan Lee Mulligan, Siobhan Thompson and Lou Wilson inside the greenroom, which has been converted into an escape room. Solving the puzzles demands communication, lateral thinking and a willingness to dismantle the space. The episode is satisfying both when the trio makes progress and when their frustration turns towards Reich’s deliberately devious setup.
1. Bingo
Season 6, episode 5
The apparent simplicity of bingo becomes the foundation for one of the show’s most intricate designs. Raph Chestang, Katie Marovitch and Brennan Lee Mulligan perform comic prompts to earn ball draws, while a separate group tracks their behaviour on customised bingo cards. A third group has its own behaviour-based cards, creating three overlapping games that the episode manages to follow without losing its rhythm.
The result is controlled madness. The behavioural layers produce increasingly clever predictions and eventually overwhelm Mulligan, whose reactions become part of the entertainment. “Bingo” combines escalating chaos, strong rules and several well-timed reveals, and its format was later included in the Game Changer board game.
That balance between spectacle and structure is what makes Game Changer so effective. Like a well-designed arcade machine buying guide choice, the best episodes look simple at first, then reveal carefully considered systems underneath the fun.
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