In each round of Say Whaaat?!, one of the players becomes the judge and has to secretly define the "ranking of importance" between five seemingly unrelated items or even ideas. All the other players then try to guess this ranking, scoring points for each correct guess, with the player with the most correct guesses in a round scoring an extra point. When all players have been the judge once, the game is over.

An alternative way to play Say Whaaat?! is in teams of two. Each round, one of the two players becomes the judge and the other player the guesser. All the judges simultaneously rank their cards and all their guessers try to find their couple's preferences. The couple with the most correct guesses after five rounds wins.