Pecking Order: the complete guide to the free chicken party game

You're one flap from the top. Then your best friend lands on your head and you tumble down through the floors, squawking. That's Pecking Order: a free chicken party game for 1 to 20 players in your browser. Flap up a neon tower, grab mystery eggs, stomp rivals back down and try not to fart. Play it here.

This page has the whole game in one place: the seven modes, the five worlds, the best powers, how to get your group into one room, and the Coop where you dunk your friends between rounds. Every part links to a longer guide when you want more.

What is Pecking Order?

Picture Flappy Bird, if Flappy Bird had nineteen friends and a grudge. One button flaps. Gravity always pulls. You steer left and right through the holes in each floor of a tower, and if you land on another chicken, down it goes, tumbling through the floors it just climbed.

Then the chaos piles on. Every "?" egg rolls a power when you grab it: an anvil, an ice ray, a homing missile, a seagull that steals the leader's egg. Traps flash a warning and then flatten whoever ignored it. Lose a round and you become an angel in chicken heaven, floating over the finish line to cheer (or heckle). Flap too fast and your chicken runs out of puff and farts. Loudly. In front of everyone.

At a glance:

• Players: 1 to 20 in one room. The host can cap it at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 or 20.
• Modes: seven, from a tower race to a fox hunt.
• Worlds: five, each with its own traps and two powers you only find there.
• Powers: 32 kinds of egg, plus a honk when your hands are empty.
• A match: first to 3 round wins. Hosts can make it 1, 2, 4, 5 or 7.
• Cost: free. The store sells looks only.
• Where: any modern browser, on a phone, tablet or computer.

Is Pecking Order really free?

Yes, all of it. Every mode, every world, rooms of up to 20 chickens. Guests can jump straight in with no account. Make one (just a username and a password, no email) or sign in with Pixaplay, and you keep your name, can chat and earn Seeds every time you play.

Seeds buy hats, trails, fart clouds and crates. Feathers buy the fanciest premium items, and they come from duplicate crate pulls, daily rewards, league rewards or Feather packs bought with Pixels, Pixaplay's shared currency. Crates are Seeds only, so nobody gambles real money on a hat. Nothing in the store changes how a chicken flies, and the Pixaplay Pass doesn't unlock anything here, because nothing is locked. The account side is explained in what Pixaplay is and how it works.

The seven modes: pick your chaos

Every mode takes up to 20 birds, and each one breaks friendships in its own special way.

• Race to the Top. First bird to the top wins. The leader gets most of the surprise traps, and grabbed eggs only come back once the leader is well past them, so the refills go to the birds behind. No lead is ever safe.
• Last One Standing. A pink doom laser rises from below and keeps speeding up. Fall too far behind the leader and it comes hunting for you. Last bird flapping wins.
• Chicken Chain. You're tied to a partner by a rope, racing sideways over a void. If either of you hits anything, you both splat back to the last flag. Flap in time for a SYNC! push, and between rounds throw curse cards at the leaders. It's our answer to games like Chained Together.

• King of the Coop. One crown, everyone grabbing. Hold it for 45 seconds to win. Stomp the king to take it, except one stomp in four sends it flying loose instead (FUMBLE!).
• Egg Heist. Red Hens against Blue Roosters. Steal their golden egg and fly it home without dropping it. First to 3 captures; a tie drops a giant egg in the middle for overtime.
• Fox in the Henhouse. Hide and seek at night. Foxes hunt, chickens hide in bushes and sneak eggs home, and a nervous chicken farts and gives itself away. Everyone gets a turn as the fox. The full story is in our Fox in the Henhouse hide and seek guide.
• The Pecking Peak. A mean mountain climb where you get only 3 flaps in the air. Reach the summit flag, then swan dive off the top into a haystack. New mountains every week, in the Pecking Peak guide.

Want to win them, not just survive them? Read our Pecking Order tips for every mode.

The five worlds, and what wants to squash you

The host picks a world, or the game rolls a new one every round. Each has a twist, its own traps and two powers you won't find anywhere else.

• Neon Tower: the classic. Saws, maces and lasers. Its powers are the Bass Drop (a boombox that blasts birds away) and the Glitch Bomb (rivals teleport about in jerky jumps).
• The Deep: a pitch-dark cave where you only see around birds, crystals and eggs. Stalactites fall and cave spiders drop. Powers: the Blinding Torch and a Bat Swarm.
• Neo City: boost rings fling you upward and hover-car traffic zooms past. Watch the live cables. Powers: a Grapple Hook and the Billboard Hack, which covers everyone else's screen in pop-up ads, sponsored by you.
• Canal Town: green warp pipes, usually a shortcut up a few floors, with scalding geysers and leaping fish. Powers: a Seagull that robs the leader and a Laundry Line.
• Haunted Barn: moonbeams float you up through holes in the floor, past rolling jack-o'-lanterns and ghost chickens. Powers: Ghost Form and BOO!.

Every trap warns you first. Stalactites glint, cables spark, geysers bubble, pumpkins' eyes flicker and ghosts shimmer. Learning those tells is the whole difference between a new player and a smug one.

Hosts can turn the dials too: traps OFF, NORMAL or CHAOS; floaty MOON physics or fast and heavy TURBO; stomping and stamina on or off; any power switched off if your group hates it. Or grab a ready-made rule set: STANDARD, CHILL, CHAOS or PARTY.

What's inside a mystery egg?

Every egg is a "?" until you grab it, and then it rolls one of 32 kinds of power. You hold one at a time. With empty hands, the power button honks instead and shoves the birds right next to you. Here's the trick: birds at the back roll the big catch-up powers (jetpacks, swaps, updrafts), while the leader mostly gets shields and sneaky stuff. That's why a race is never over at the halfway mark.

The fan favourites:

• Anvil: drops straight down on whoever is under you. Classic.
• SWAP: trade places with the closest bird above you. SWITCHEROO! pops up, and you take their spot and their speed.
• Freeze Ray: the bird above you turns into an ice cube for about a second and a half.
• Shell: blocks one hit, and bounces a Zap straight back at whoever sent it.
• Zap: a storm cloud chases the bird ahead and drops one bolt. They can run out from under it, if they're quick.
• Predator Missile: it hunts the highest bird other than you. Lovely when you're second.
• Pray: a real player's chicken flies in as a god to stomp birds in your way. Now and then it's a WRONG NUMBER and the god just falls asleep.
• Bad Burrito: the rare one. Everyone else farts a tune, one note each, on the beat, while you conduct.

Rooms of 8 or more birds add three crowd powers: Chain Lightning, the Bowling Ball and a Meteor Shower. Egg Heist brings seven powers of its own, like the Frying Pan and the Chicken Cannon (yes, you are the cannonball). Chicken Chain and the Pecking Peak have no eggs at all, so they stay fair.

How do you control a chicken?

One flap is the same kick upward every time, gravity always pulls, and you steer left and right. You'll get it in ten seconds. Getting good takes a lot longer.

• Keyboard: Space, W or Up to flap; A and D or the arrows to steer; E, Shift or right click for your power.
• Phone: SPLIT is the default (hold the arrows to steer, tap FLAP, tap POWER). There are also BUTTONS, STICK and TILT, and SWAP SIDES flips it for left-handers.
• Controller: A to flap, the stick to steer, X or B for powers. Button names match your Xbox, PlayStation or Switch pad, and the game says it plays best on one.

Two rules shape every fight. A stomped chicken is stunned and drops through the floors, then it's safe for about a second and a half, so don't stand on it gloating: bounce to the next head. And don't mash flap. Keep a steady beat and your stamina never runs out; mash and your chicken farts and loses its wings for a moment. Press T to chat, hold Tab for the scoreboard, and press P in the waiting room to strike a pose.

Your Coop: dunk tanks, disco and a pool

Every account has a Coop, and it's your waiting room whenever you host. Your name hangs over the door, and whoever won the last match there stands on the plinth as a shiny gold champion statue (which visitors can peck over). It has its own permanent link, so friends can drop by any time.

Playing anywhere earns Coop points, and hosting earns half again. Those points fill 30 Coop levels, and the levels bring the toys: a disco ball for the dance-off at level 4, the dunk tank at 5, a trampoline at 6, a fountain at 7, a piñata at 10, a stomp ring at 12 and the pool, with springboards and diving judges, at 22. A Hall of Fame keeps 19 kinds of record, from MOST DUNKS to TOP DIVE, so bragging rights stay on the wall.

Every waiting room is a playground too, Coop or not: steal the crown, dig up one of 40 finds (usually a worm, now and then something legendary), or start a TUG-A-WORM between two chickens. The full tour is in our guide to Your Coop, the online hangout with friends.

What do you earn as you play?

Signed in, you earn Seeds for every round, every stomp and every win, and a lot more for winning the whole match. Spend them in a store of 409 items across 22 slots: paints, hats, trails, fart clouds, honks, crowns, anvils, ropes, fox skins, poses, dives and more. Four daily deals change at midnight.

If you like having something to chase:

• Trophies: 120+ of them, each a wearable animated pixel badge. One unlock in 20 comes out SHINY.
• Seasons: one a month. Season 1, HARVEST MOON, runs to the end of November 2026, and FROSTBITE starts on 1 December 2026.
• Leagues: EGG, CHICK, HEN, ROOSTER and GOLDEN GOOSE, with the season's top 3 crowned DIVINE CHICKENS.
• Daily rewards: a 7-day calendar of Seeds, crates and Feathers.

None of it changes how a chicken flies. The best-dressed bird and the plainest bird flap exactly the same.

How do you play Pecking Order with friends?

Four ways in, all of them working across phones and computers:

1. Host a game. Name it, list it in the game browser or keep it code-only, and pick the mode and rules. You press start. If you leave, the next bird takes over.
2. Share the room code. It's 4 letters, and it skips I and O so nobody types a 1 or a 0 by mistake.
3. Invite from Pixaplay. Host a room and invite friends from the Pixaplay panel, or JOIN a friend from your list. Parties hold up to 8, and when the leader goes to a room, the whole party follows.
4. Quick Play. It drops you into a public game, which starts by itself 20 seconds after a second bird turns up.

Public games switch mode after every match: Race, Last One Standing, Chicken Chain, King of the Coop, Egg Heist, then Fox in the Henhouse once there are 4 or more birds. The Pecking Peak only comes up when someone hosts it. You play on one device at a time, so if you join on a second one, the first says PLAYING ON ANOTHER DEVICE.

Chat is text only, so most of the yelling happens on a voice call. The Pixaplay guides cover browser games to play on a Discord call and how to join a friend's game.

Which mode should your group start with?

It depends who turned up:

• 2 or 3 friends: Chicken Chain (with just two of you it's a co-op run) or King of the Coop.
• 4 to 8: Egg Heist splits you into red and blue, and Fox in the Henhouse needs at least 4.
• 9 to 20: Race to the Top and Last One Standing. The tower grows with the crowd: a 40-floor Nest for up to 4 birds, a 50-floor Spire for up to 10, and past 10 the 60-floor Mega Tower with three holes in every floor. Rooms of 8 or more roll the crowd powers. Our list of online party games for 20 players has more big-group ideas.
• Just you: chase medal times and your own ghost on the Pecking Peak, or learn the traps in Race to the Top.

How does Pecking Order compare with other party games?

It's a 2D chicken game in a browser, so it isn't a 3D obstacle course and it isn't a trivia night. What it does that few free games do is put up to 20 people in one action room with no download. We wrote honest lists for the comparisons people search for, and each one says where another game is the better pick:

• Games like Fall Guys you can play in a browser
• Free action Jackbox alternatives where everyone plays
• Games like Chained Together, free
• Online party games for 20 players

Got a mix of phones and laptops? The Pixaplay guide to games phone and PC can play together has you covered. Ready? Open Pecking Order, make a room and drop the code in the group chat.