Roundup

26 (Actually Fun) Virtual Team Building Games for Work

Post by
Bridgette Mabuto
26 (Actually Fun) Virtual Team Building Games for Work

What can we do to team build and actually have fun with our remote team? Virtual team building might sound awful, but it doesn’t have to be.

We’ve run distributed teams for years, and we know exactly how to get people talking, laughing, and connecting, even while we’re all on Zoom. We’ve put together a list of some of the best team building games and activities to play virtually, focusing on ones that are easy to set up, simple for your team to understand and play, and (most importantly) are FUN.

Interactive Team Building Games

Combine team building with fun with these interactive, pro-social games. Each one has a different focus and is plug-and-play so you can get started quickly.

Team Building Questions Game for Work - A 10 to 20-minute slide deck that uses word clouds, image sharing, and polls to get to know the group better.

Mini Activity: Team Building Game - A 5 to 10-minute warm-up or mid-meeting break game that gives space for the group to share something about themselves and then debate a fun question.

Team Shenanigans Team Building Game - A 20 to 30-minute game that combines polls with trivia so the group gets to know each other better and compete a little.

Good Morning, Team - A 5 to 10-minute slide deck that prompts the group into sharing about themselves, including sharing a picture of something cute.

No matter which game you pick, your whole team will leave having learned more about each other.

Trivia Team Building Game

Keep things light and fun with 3 quick rounds of trivia in this slide deck. Copy the slide deck to your account and customize what you want.

Or just click and go! It's got the questions, points, and timers all set up for you.

Virtual Team Scattergories

Like the classic game, with virtual Scattergories the goal is to come up with words starting with the same letter for different categories.

While you can have your team come up with their own categories, we recommend using this Virtual Scattergories Prompt, which randomly selects the letter, presents a list of prompts, and times the group.

To start your game:

  1. Gather the group on Zoom and have them each open the chat function.
  2. Pull up the Scattergories Prompt and share your screen.
  3. Adjust the time on the prompt, if needed.
  4. Press 'play' and have everyone type out their answers until the timer stops, when they have to send the answers to the chat.
  5. Compare answers and award 1 point to those who got correct, unique answers.

Two Truths and a Lie - 2 Ways!

Encourage your team to get to know each other better by sharing 2 truths and 1 lie about themselves.

If you have a smaller group or are meeting in person, you can facilitate the game by going around the room and having each person share 2 real things about themselves and 1 lie.

Or, if you'd like to play this game virtually, use our ready-made deck and get started. It's simple to set up:

  1. Request your team members to each send you two facts and one falsehood about themselves, via email or on Slack.
  2. Duplicate the deck above in your account. You’ll be able to insert each person’s facts and lie, onto each slide.
  3. Launch the slide deck event (similar to starting a PowerPoint presentation) and come together with your team via Zoom or video conference call.
  4. Your team can join the game using their smartphones.
  5. Play! Scores will be automatically recorded.

Either option is fun and will help your team learn more about each other in a low-stakes way.

Heads Up!

Just like the real-life version, in a virtual game of Heads Up! one person has to guess what word a teammate is describing on their phone, without seeing it themselves.

To get started:

  1. Download the Heads Up! app and create an account (it's free!).
  2. Create teams of 4-5 people, with each team member joining on Zoom.
  3. Start the game in the app and assign one person as the guesser. They must put the phone to their head so they can't see the word.
  4. The rest of the teammates take turns describing the word until the guesser figures it out.
  5. Once everyone's had a chance to be the guesser, tally up the points at the end and declare a winning team.

If you don't have enough people for teams, you can always base the points on how many words individuals guess and have the entire group give clues together.

Virtual Pictionary

It's the classic game of 'Guess what I'm Drawing' and thanks to so many free online drawing tools, you can now play Pictionary virtually.

Simply:

  1. Get your team on Zoom.
  2. Have everyone open Sketchpad on Sketch.io.
  3. Send a prompt (you can find them at Pictionary Generator) in the chat to the assigned drawer and have them share their screen.
  4. Start guessing!

Assign points either to the drawers whose work is successfully guessed or to whoever guessed the drawing correctly.

Virtual Scavenger Hunt

With this virtual scavenger hunt, you and your team get to share pictures according to the prompts, giving a little peek into each other's lives. And the deck is very easy to run:

  1. Copy this slide deck to your personal account.
  2. Edit any of the photo-sharing prompts you want - Or leave them as is!
  3. Send out the invitation to your team and launch the deck on Zoom.
  4. Have the team join in on their devices and start sharing!

You can also add a poll at the end to vote for everyone's favorite image!

Would You Rather?

The best parts about the game 'Would You Rather?' are it's extremely easy to play (in-person or virtually) and it immediately lowers barriers and gets the group talking. You can play Would You Rather? 2 different ways:

  • If in-person, say the prompt and have people go to the side of the room that matches their answer.
  • If meeting virtually, use a poll slide deck and have the group vote on their answers.

Find an expansive list of Would You Rather or This/That questions in our 101 This or That Questions for Work or Students article.

Guess the (Baby) Team Member

To play 'Guess the Team Member', simply:

  1. Have the team send you a baby picture of themselves.
  2. Share them on Zoom.
  3. Everyone takes turns trying to guess which baby is who.

The winner gets a virtual high-five!

Virtual Typing Competition

A low-key way to kick off team building is with a virtual typing competition. As long as you can share your screen on Zoom and have a program everyone can log on to, the whole group can show off their typing skill together.

Some of our favorite typing speed competition sites include:

They all work great as lightly competitive team building games.

Tea vs. Coffee

Seeing where your teammates line up on SFW, important topics (like tea vs. coffee) works as a great icebreaker and a way to get to know each other better. Play this easy-to-launch slide deck by:

  1. Copying the deck to your free or pro account.
  2. Make any adjustments you want to the deck to make it just right for your group.
  3. Launch the deck and see where you and your group line up on 10 this/that questions.
  4. The deck also includes a little trivia for an added competitive component.

Guess the Emoji Keyboard

A quick and easy game to play, with Guess the Emoji Keyboard, have your team send in a screenshot of their - you guessed it! - emoji keyboards.

Then share each one with the group on Zoom and see who can guess the most correctly.

Virtual Escape Room

While a virtual escape room will cost you a little money, the engagement and teamwork that comes from finangling your way out of the experience is well worth it.

The best part about a virtual escape room: You book it and someone else does all the work.

Some of our favorites include:

Word Blurt!

A quick word association game, Word Blurt gets your team talking, even the introverts (we see you! we love you!).

Want to know where to start?

  1. Create a free or pro Slides with Friends account.
  2. Copy our Word Blurt! slide deck to your own account - Now you're free to use it as-is or easily make adjustments to tailor it to your group.
  3. Send out invitations and launch the slide deck on Zoom.
  4. Find out what your team is really thinking with fun prompts.

And like all the best team building games, Word Blurt keeps things light and fun.

Virtual Murder Mystery Experience

With an online murder mystery game, someone else does all the heavy lifting - You just invite your team and book the session.

Not sure where to start?

Check out:

With full casts of characters and prompts, your team will be fully involved and engaged with these murder mystery team building games.

Online Team Bingo

Liven up any work day or meeting with a game of online team building bingo. Our favorite resource to use is the Team Building Bingo Cards, which allows you to use a ready-made card or create your own.

Have your team pull up their cards (click 'new card' to shuffle the phrases) and then shout out the Bingo calls to the group.

First one to Bingo gets a prize!

Virtual Pet Fashion Show

Virtual pet fashion shows are a great way for your team to share their beloved pets with the group, which in turn encourages non-work conversation.

Simply ask your teammates with pets to send in their favorite picture of their decked-out pets and share them with the group.

To add a layer of competition, have the team vote on their favorite at the end.

Cocktail Convos

You and your team can test your cocktail knowledge (while sipping on cocktails, if you want) with this game that combines trivia with a few prompts for sharing.

How to play:

  1. Schedule a time your whole team can join you for a little end-of-day happy hour. Let them know it's BYOC (bring your own cocktail).
  2. Duplicate our Cocktail Convos slide deck into your own account and adjust any of the prompts or trivia questions you want.
  3. Gather on Zoom and launch the slide deck, having the group join on their phones.
  4. Click through the deck and compete to see who knows most about cocktail ingredients!

While this is heavy on the trivia slide deck, it also includes polls and chances for people to have their turn on the 'mic'.

Online Storytelling Workshop

Let the experts handle things with a storytelling workshop that will help your group learn to communicate better, give them more sales tools, and boost employee loyalty.

Museum Hack offers a 2-hour Virtual Storytelling Workshop with games, as well as storytelling training.

Water Cooler Trivia

Team building games don't have to be a one-and-done experience, as Water Cooler Trivia proves. Water Cooler Trivia allows you to send your team weekly trivia quizzes through email, Slack, or Teams.

The scoreboard is shared with the whole team every week, with the top 10 responses as well as superlatives to keep things fun.

Guess the Song Emoji Challenge

Have your team show off their musical chops with a simple game of Guess the Song Emoji Challenge. The best part is you can just use one of the below options to launch the quiz in a few seconds.

Just pull up the above quizzes and share your screen. Then have your group guess the answers out loud or type it into the chat.

Hot Takes: The Game

Let your group pretend to be reporters with the game Hot Take. Pull up the game on your screen and have one person pitch to the editor an article idea based on an AI-generated phrase.

It's a hilarious game that will have your group filibustering as best they can.

Harry Potter Themed Trivia Game

Before HBO ruins all of our childhoods, have a little fun testing your team's Harry Potter knowledge with this easy-to-launch slide deck.

  1. Create or log into your free or pro Slides with Friends account.
  2. Copy our Harry Potter Trivia slide deck to your own account - Now you're free to use it as-is or adjust any of the prompts or trivia questions you want.
  3. Invite your team via Zoom and launch the deck on the platform, having people join in from their phones or computers - In their house colors, of course.
  4. Click through the slides and find out who's up to speed on all things Harry Potter!

The deck includes polls and chances for people to sound off too - it's a great way to get people talking and laughing.

Virtual Werewolf Game

Test your team's detective skills with a virtual take on a classic favorite, One Night Werewolf. The easiest way to play this game as a group is to use Wolvesville. The website will prompt you to:

  1. Make an account.
  2. Add your friends.
  3. Create a game with your friends.

After you've started the game, it will assign roles and prompts to lead you through finding out who the werewolf in your group is before all the villagers are killed.

Five Finger Showdown

There are 2 ways to play Five Finger Showdown, in-person and virtual. The good news is, both are super simple and both get your team talking and sharing.

  • For an in-person game, stand in a circle and hold up 5 fingers.
  • On Zoom, people hold up 5 fingers so everyone on the screen can see.

Then, you just go through a 'put a finger down' list, like the ones offered by Ice Breaker Ideas or Ponly.

The winner is either the person who puts all their fingers down first or the last one standing.

War of the Wizards

Tell stories, solve puzzles, and compete to win magical items with this fully facilitated game. War of Wizards is designed to be a fun, interactive virtual experience for work teams.

  • Each player will receive a welcome package with materials to create their own wizard or witch.
  • The facilitator will guide your team through the game as they attempt to find magical artifacts hidden around the world.
  • You all work together to bring the wizard war to a peaceful end.

The game is designed to encourage collaboration, communication, and team building skills.

The ‘Why’ Behind Team Building Games

We've given you plenty of team building games to get your team started, but these games are much more than just for fun. In the State of Remote Work, it was found that the second biggest struggle remote workers had was loneliness, with the third being collaborating and communication.

Playing team building games addresses both the fostering of friendships between co-workers and improving communication, which leads to better collaboration.

So while these may just look like games, these team building activities have a real impact on the success of your team.

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