15 Ideas — Virtual Happy Hour Games for Work

A good online happy hour game needs to be three things: fun, new / unique, and easy to play. Bonus points if you can somehow make it relevant to your team.

That's what we focused on as we created this list — finding 15 of the most fun, most unique, and easiest-to-host games that you can play virtually with your coworkers. All of these activities will get people laughing and make them feel like part of the team (even with the challenge that is meeting up online). Most of the list is free to play, but we did include some paid ideas (or software downloads) that we thought really deserved a mention.

Virtual Happy Hour Games & Ideas

Take a look to see which of these you think your team will like best:

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1. Ask (safe for work) Controversial Questions

Want to see where your team lands on several head-scratching questions? Then, play this office-friendly, ready-to-play game of head-scratching questions: 

An instant conversation starter, Controversial Questions will easily become the best virtual happy hour game your team has ever played. 

It comes with fun, silly questions like: 

• Does pineapple belong on pizza?
• Does the person in the middle seat get both armrests?
• Should you tell someone if food is stuck in their teeth?

Even though they're appropriate for all audiences including corporate / business groups, these questions are still guaranteed to spark fun, lively debates that will have your team laughing and engaged in no time.

Here's how to play: 

1. Use the deck linked above (you'll need a free account first)
2. Click "Start Event" (the button is in the top right corner). 
3. Share your screen on Zoom. 
4. Tell your team to join the fun! All they have to do is scan the QR code. 
5. Start playing by going through each slide (team members can submit answers using their mobile devices). 

This activity has 14 questions and only takes 10-20 minutes to play. 

Bonus Tip: This game accommodates up to 500 players and is customizable. If you want to add more controversial, safe-for-work questions, simply change the ones in the slide deck or add more slides for questions!

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2. Guess The Song 

Everyone loves music, so why not include it in your happy hour event? With Guess The Song, you can engage team members while having a little fun as they try to figure out the songs you play. This game is a great activity to implement halfway through your event to keep things lively and exciting. 

Here's how to play: 

1. Before your Zoom happy hour, prepare a playlist on Spotify or Apple Music. If you have employees with different music tastes, stick with a specific genre most people know like pop. 
2. When you're ready to play, open your playlist and play a ten-second clip of a song. 
3. Tell your team to guess the song's name by typing it in the chat. 
4. Whoever guesses correctly in the shortest time gets a point.
5. At the end of the game, give the team member with the most points a prize like a DoorDash Gift Card or a simple round of applause.  

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3. "I'll Drink to That" 

"I'll Drink to That" is perfect for a virtual happy hour because it requires people to stay attentive and focused to ensure they hear a specific phrase. 

Here's how you play: 

1. Pick a common (but not too common) phrase like "so anyway", "can you all hear me," "my screen's frozen," or "how are you." This phrase will signal when to take a drink. 
2. If someone hears the phrase during the happy hour, they should call it out.
3. Everyone should say, "I'll drink to that," and take a sip of their beverage. 

This activity is one of the easiest virtual happy hour ideas to implement, and it's a game that can last your entire event to keep things fun. Just make sure everyone knows they can play, even if they're drinking non-alcoholic beverages. 

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4. MTV Cribs: Home Office Edition 

Remember when celebrities invited camera crews to their homes for a house tour? Sometimes, celebrities even showed their favorite items and awards, and we loved this sneak peek into their lives, which is why we all watched MTV Cribs.

If you want to relive the excitement and interest you felt when celebrities gave a house tour, play MTV Cribs: Home Office Edition with your team! This game lets everyone get a sneak peek into the lives of people they actually know and work with, leading to deeper bonds and connections. 

Here's how to play: Pick one team member at a time to give a tour of their home office. Tell each person to share a couple of their favorite office items, views, or awards. 

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5. D&D: A magical team building adventure

If you're looking for one of the most creative virtual happy hour ideas, here's a game with a fun twist on Dungeons and Dragons (but no actual D&D knowledge required):

This interactive, ready-to-play activity will take your team into a magical world full of wizards, trolls, and team building activities! D&D: A Magical Team Building Adventure is a silly, fun game that gets your employees excited, engaged, chatty, and laughing! It's also a Zoom happy hour game that requires your team to work together, so it'll definitely boost camaraderie. 

Here's how to play: 

1. Make a free account to access the game (you only need to input an email and password): https://slideswith.com/
2. Click the slide deck and copy it. 
3. Look in the top right corner of the game and press "Start Event."
4. Make sure your screen is visible to your team. 
5. Invite everyone to play—they only need to scan the QR code! 
6. Enter the magical world with your team! (Players can use their mobile devices to submit responses.)

Features your team will love: This interactive activity is fun because it lets team members step into a unique world with great, engaging features like:

• User Voting 
• Pass the Mic 
• Image Sharing 
• Multiple Choice 

Also, there's a leaderboard slide at the end of the game, so you don't need to keep score to know who's carrying the team!

Bonus Tip: This game accommodates up to 10 players. If you have a lot of people at your happy hour, invite ten employees to play first. After they're done, ask another ten team members to play and so on.

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6. Speed Crossword Puzzle 

Speed Crossword Puzzle is a fun, collaborative game that has team members solve a crossword puzzle within a specific time limit. 

Players are separated into two teams and compete to see who can finish a crossword puzzle the fastest, making it a fun, light-hearted competition that encourages camaraderie, problem-solving, and team building. 

Here's how to play: 

1. Use the free daily crossword puzzle from Arkadium: https://www.arkadium.com/free-online-games/crosswords/
2. Send the link to your team via the chat on Zoom. 
3. Divide your group into two teams (or more if you have over ten people). 
4. Establish an honor system where everyone agrees not to use the internet for help. 
5. Set the time limit to complete the crossword puzzle (provide at least 10 minutes). 
6. Send each team to their own breakout room to solve the crossword puzzle. 

The first team to return to the main room with their crossword complete is the (potential) winner. You'll need to confirm their answers are correct. 

If neither team returns within the allotted time frame, decide the winner by checking which team has the most correct answers. 

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7. Never Have I Ever 

A classic game that always gets people engaged and connected, Never Have I Ever is a virtual happy hour activity that helps team members learn more about each other. It's also super simple, and you can play for as long as you want.

Here's how to play: 

1. Say an activity or experience you haven't done yet. 
2. Whoever has done the action must take a drink of whatever they're sipping on.  
3. Pick a team member to go next.

If you don't want this to be a drinking game, you can have team members lift one hand at the beginning of the activity. Then, whenever someone's done an action, they must put a finger down. When a team member has all of their fingers down, that person is out of the game. The last person with at least one finger up is the winner. 

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8. Most Likely To

When you've been managing the same team for a while, it's fun to see how well everyone knows each other! Not only does it reinforce a sense of belonging, but it also deepens camaraderie and connections. 

With "Most Likely To," your team will test how well they know each other in a really fun way. This activity asks team members to guess who'd most likely be in a specific situation based on their knowledge of one another. 

Here's how to play: Before your Zoom happy hour, create at least twenty "most likely to" prompts. Here are ideas to get you started: 

• Most likely to break a world record? 
• Most likely to become a millionaire? 
• Most likely to have their own reality show?
• Most likely to eat something off the ground?
• Most likely to marry a celebrity?
• Most likely to win the Nobel Prize?
• Most likely to get lost in their own hometown?
• Most likely to write a bestseller?
• Most likely to become prime minister?

When you're ready to play, go to your list and say each prompt. Then, let your team members respond!

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9. Sneak It In 

While this virtual happy hour game takes some record-keeping and prep work, it's really fun and usually a team favorite. 

The purpose of the game is for teams to have a secret word and use it as many times as possible during the Zoom happy hour to amass points while trying to determine and guess the other teams' secret words. It's a great team building game that keeps everyone engaged, attentive, and on their toes! 

Here's how to play:

1. Before your event, verify how many team members will attend. Using that information, create teams and assign a secret word to each (don't reveal teams or secret words until you start playing).
2. Determine who will lead each team as you're planning your game.
3. When you're ready to play, tell everyone which team they're on and who's their leader. 
4. Email each leader their team's secret word.
5. Send each team to a breakout room, where they'll learn their secret word and strategize how to sneak it into conversation while detecting other teams' secret words. (Give teams 5 minutes to strategize.) 
6. Let the virtual happy hour continue as normal. 
7. Use a piece of paper or Google Doc to keep track of when players use their team's secret word undetected. Every time someone uses their team's secret word, their team gets a point. 

If someone guesses another team's secret word, that team loses all their points and is out of the game. 

Also, here are good ideas of secret words you can assign to teams:

• Jet ski
• Witness 
• House plant
• Remote 
• Railroad 
• Moon

Overall, the word should be common but whacky enough that it's hard to use regularly at a virtual happy hour for work.  

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10. Hustler Happy Hour Game 

Do you and your team work at a startup? Then, you all know the grind that comes with working at a new company. Only hustlers survive startup culture, but here's an activity that will test how much your team actually knows about the world they're trying to survive in: 

Packed with startup-themed trivia and icebreaker questions, Hustlers Happy Hour Game is the best virtual activity to keep your team engaged and interacting on Zoom. 

Here's how to play:  

1. Access the game by signing up for a free account here: https://slideswith.com/ 
2. Click the slide deck and copy it. 
3. Start the event by pressing the button in the top right corner.
4. Share your screen so your team can see it.
5. Ask team members to join the fun by scanning the QR code.
6. Start testing your team's startup knowledge one slide at a time! Players should use their mobile devices to submit answers. 

Features your team will love: This virtual happy hour game has unique features to boost connections and engagement on your team, including:

• User Voting 
• Image Sharing
• Ratings
• Text Answers 

Also, there are slides throughout the game that'll tell you who's in the lead, so you don't have to keep score! 

Bonus Tip: This happy hour activity lets up to 250 people play, so invite other teams in the company to your event. The more players you have, the more exciting this game gets!

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11. The Statement Game 

For a team building activity that's fun, unique, and challenging, The Statement Game is one of the best virtual happy hour ideas! This game starts with a statement and requires team members to add to the statement to keep it going.

Here's how to play: 

1. Have a team member say a statement. 
2. The team member should pick the next player to continue the statement. 
3. The new player must respond with a statement that continues the chain of logic and conversation. Then, they should pass it to the next player. 

If someone can't think of a logical statement to continue the sentence within five seconds, the game ends. 

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12. The GIF Game

There's always that one person who knows how to pick the best GIF for any situation, and this activity for your virtual happy hour will help you determine which team member it is! The GIF Game is fun, engaging, interactive, and a great way to get your team laughing. 

You can play it at the beginning of your virtual happy hour to break the ice. Or, you can play it halfway through your event if the mood is getting stale and you need to liven things up!

Here's how to play: 

1. Before the happy hour, create a list of feeling or reaction categories (e.g., hangry, chilling, work/life balance, sleepy, action, happy, energized). 
2. At the beginning of the game, pick a team member to be the judge. 
3. The judge must select a category from your list.
4. Everyone has 30 seconds to find the best GIF for that category. They can look for ones here: https://giphy.com/explore/boards  
5. When time is up, team members should share their screens at the same time to present their GIFs. 
6. The judge must pick the best one. 

The team member with the winning GIF will become the next judge. 

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13. I Spy 

"I Spy" is a simple, fun virtual happy hour game that will keep your team's attention and get them interacting as they try to find whatever items are being described. This childhood favorite is also super easy to implement remotely. 

Here's how to play: 

1. A team member should say, "I spy with my little eye… something that's (insert descriptor)." The item being described should be in someone else's Zoom background. 
2. Give team members five minutes to guess the item and whose background it's in. 
3. Whoever guesses correctly gets a point and goes next. 

If no one guesses correctly, the person describing the object gets a point and picks who's next. 

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14. Either Or 

Sometimes, a good classic is the best game to play, and "Either Or" is particularly great if you have a new team who's still learning about each other. With this game, team members will answer questions to discover each other's preferences and favorites. 

Here's how to play: Before your Zoom happy hour, compile a list of "either-or" questions. Here are some ideas:

• Cash or credit?
• Tea or Coffee?
• Texting or Calling? 
• Veggies or Meat lover?
• Spice or Non-Spicy?
• Summer or Winter? 
• Oceans or Mountains? 

Once you have a list and are ready to play, simply say each "either-or" question and let your team members respond. 

This game works best for smaller groups—that way, you can hear everyone's responses. But if you have a big team, have each person put their answers in the chat.  

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15. Photo Sharing Game 

Do you have a newer team? Then, help them get to know each other with a game that lets people share snippets of their lives! If you need an easy way for team members to share photos of their favorite memories, food, or random things, here's a ready-to-play game to use: 

This virtual happy hour activity deepens bonds, encourages interaction, and fosters camaraderie as team members learn about each other! It's a great way to kickstart your event on a high note.

Here's how to play: 

1. Create a free account (using an email and password) to access the deck: https://slideswith.com/ 
2. Click the game. Then, copy it. 
3. Start the event—there's a button in the top right corner for you to press. 
4. Share your screen so that your team can see the game.   
5. Invite team members to play! They only have to scan the QR code. 
6. Start playing, so your team can start sharing!
7. For each prompt in the game, team members should find a specific picture in their camera roll and submit it using their mobile devices. 
8. Give everyone a chance to discuss the photos that pop up on the slides to deepen connections.  

Features your team will love: This fun show-and-tell game is super simple—that way, the main focus stays on sharing photos and experiences. However, there are still some cool features like: 

• Ratings
• Fun questions to encourage great photos! 

Bonus Tip: This activity works for up to 50 players and is completely customizable, so feel free to change the questions in the slide deck to get photos that relate to your team's projects, lifestyles, and more.

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Enjoy the Benefits of Virtual Happy Hours

Keeping your team connected is the best way to enhance your employees' success at work, especially if your team is remote. Activities like virtual happy hours lead to strong relationships that have long-lasting impacts.  

"Having virtual happy hours, coffee breaks, or lunches with remote teams can foster a sense of togetherness, camaraderie, and understanding. That kind of interaction makes remote working relationships much stronger in the long run." - Brie Weiler Reynolds, career development manager and coach at FlexJobs, said this in an article on SHRM. 

To build bonds that'll build your team's success, make your virtual happy hour unforgettable by playing the games listed in our article. We promise our recommended activities will make your employees' relationships so strong that they withstand the test of time and excite team members to work hard for each other every day.