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Hide and Seek Rules in Plain Words

There is no one official rulebook for hide and seek. This page shows the standard game played in most homes and playgrounds, and then the famous extra versions. This page has no sign-up and nothing to buy.

What the game is

One player is the seeker. The seeker closes their eyes and counts. Everyone else runs and hides. Then the seeker opens their eyes and hunts. The last player found is the winner of the round.

Players: 3 or more. More hiders means more fun. What you need: a place with good hiding spots, and edges everyone agrees on.

Setting up

Pick a home base — a tree, a wall, a porch step. The seeker counts there.
Agree on the boundaries. Where may hiders go? Inside only? The yard only? Rooms that are off limits stay off limits.
Pick the first seeker, and pick the count: 10 for a small space, 20 or 50 for a big one, 100 for a huge area.

How the game works

The seeker stands at home base, closes their eyes — no peeking — and counts out loud to the number.
While the seeker counts, all the hiders run and hide. When the count ends, hiders must be in their spots.
The seeker shouts: "Ready or not, here I come!" Then the hunt begins.
The seeker looks everywhere. When the seeker finds a hider, that hider is found.
Found hiders come back to home base and wait. The seeker keeps hunting until everyone is found.
The last player found wins the round.

Who seeks next — the big argument

The standard printed rule (the one in the game's Wikipedia article, matching most playgrounds) says the first player found becomes the seeker in the next round — first found "loses" and seeks — while the last found is the winner.

Some playgrounds play it the other way: the last player found seeks next, as a kind of prize for hiding best. Both are real ways kids play. Pick one before the first count.

Ways schools and families play it differently

Home base racing (the Forty Forty family of games): hiders may sneak back and touch home base to be safe — "free." If the seeker spots a hider, both race: the seeker must touch base and call out the hider's name and hiding place first. If the hider touches base first, the hider is safe.
"Olly olly oxen free": the seeker's call when giving up on a round, or when a hider is still missing after everyone else is found. It means: come out, you are free, nobody is It for you. The round ends and a new one starts.
Sardines: backwards hide and seek. One player hides. Everyone else seeks alone. When you find the hider, you do not shout — you silently squeeze into the hiding spot with them, like sardines in a can. The last seeker still looking is the next round's hider.
Kick the Can: a can sits at home base. Found players wait in a "jail" spot — but any free hider who kicks the can frees them all. The seeker must put the can back before hunting again.
Ghost in the Graveyard: hide and seek played at dusk. The "ghost" hides; the group searches together chanting the hours; when the ghost jumps out, everyone races back to base while the ghost tries to tag them.

Official rule, house rule, or schoolyard rule?

Moving to a new hiding spot: In the base game, hiders stay where they hid. In home-base racing versions, moving is the whole point. Agree which game you are playing.

Peeking during the count: Never allowed, in any version. Eyes closed means eyes closed. Groups that catch a peeking seeker make that seeker count a whole extra round.

Hiding in locked rooms, cars, or off-limits places: Out, everywhere. Boundaries agreed at the start are safety rules, not game rules — they beat every version on this page.

Words to know

Seeker — the player who counts and hunts.

Home base — the spot where the seeker counts and found players wait.

Olly olly oxen free — the call that frees any hiders still hiding. The round is over.

Common questions

The seeker found everyone but me and quit. Did I win?

Yes. If the seeker calls "Olly olly oxen free," the hiders still hidden have beaten the round.

Can I hide in the same spot as a friend?

In plain hide and seek, yes — but if the seeker finds the spot, you are both found together. In Sardines, sharing the spot is the game itself.

How long should the seeker count?

Long enough for everyone to reach a hiding spot. Small room: 10. Backyard: 20 to 50. Whole park: 100 — with a grown-up's agreement about boundaries.

Source: the standard published rules of Hide-and-Seek as collected at Wikipedia, "Hide-and-seek," including the Forty Forty family, Sardines, Kick the Can, and Ghost in the Graveyard. Read in full and rewritten in our own plain words. The next-seeker rule is printed both ways because playgrounds print it both ways.