Here is our list of the best virtual team games for meetings.
Virtual team games for meetings are challenges, exercises, and activities that give employees a chance to bond and connect. For example: charades, blind artist, or penny for your thoughts. The purpose of team games is to allow employees to get to know each other better and have fun! These activities are also known as “online team games” and “virtual team building games.”
These exercises are a type of online team building game and video call game, and are similar to online team games, Zoom games and Microsoft Teams games. These games help create fun virtual team events.
This list includes:
- easy virtual games for team meetings
- icebreaker games for virtual team meetings
- team building games for virtual meetings
- fun activities for online meetings
Here we go!
List of virtual team games for meetings
Taking a few minutes to play a game can help break up the day for your team and help employees connect more personally. Here is a list of free games to play during remote meetings.
1. Online Office Games (Hosted)
Online Office Games is one of the most popular hosted virtual team games. The format is 90 minutes, and is a bit of an office olympics with fun icebreakers, trivia, lightning scavenger hunts, and a round of a unique game called “Can you hear my now?” The experience is designed from the ground up to encourage engagement, participation, collaboration, teamwork and communication.
With Online Office Games you get:
- 90 minutes with a world class teambuilding.com host
- Co-host(s) as needed to support
- Team to help you plan the perfect experience
- All game materials
- Access to our upgraded Zoom account
- 100% happiness guarantee
Your team will love it!
So, check out Online Office Games.
2. Ultimate Game Show (Hosted)
Ultimate Game Show is a fully hosted virtual game show experience that is designed for teams. Your group will work together to compete in games similar to classics like Jeopardy, Family Feud and Price is Right. We’ve built custom and unique games that inspire collaboration, communication, and more.
Your Ultimate Game Show booking includes:
- 90 minutes with an entertaining teambuilding.com host
- Co-host(s) as needed for technical support
- All game materials and access to our unique platforms
- Access to our upgraded Zoom account
- 100% happiness guarantee
Prepare for a virtual game show experience like no other.
Check out Ultimate Game Show.
3. Virtual Team Charades
A tried and true classic, charades is an easy but fun game to play in groups. At the start of each round, players choose a word or phrase, such as the name of a song or a movie title, and act out the prompt while the other players guess. The acting player is not allowed to speak, mouth the words, or point to objects in the room. For best results, you should use the spotlight feature to put the performer center screen.
Here is a charades generator to use to pick prompts:
--
For a competitive game, split your employees into two teams. Each team tries to guess as many phrases as possible in a two-minute period. The team with the most correct guesses at the end of the round wins! You can also play a casual version of the game and skip scorekeeping
4. Wordle
Wordle is a web-based word game where players try to guess a five-letter word in six attempts or less. Players enter a guess, and each letter gets marked with a color. Once a guess is in, the game marks each letter with a color. For example, green means the letter is part of the puzzle and in the right spot, yellow means the letter is part of the puzzle but in the wrong spot, and gray means the letter is not part of the puzzle. Wordle posts a new puzzle every day, and the game can be a regular meeting ritual.
Wordle is usually a solo game, but you can also play it with your virtual team. Completing the puzzle together will require communication, teamwork, and reasoning. These skills can carry over into the work your team completes daily.
You can also Make Your Own Wordle. Simply choose a word for your employees to guess, and the site will generate a link to share. You can use a random word for the puzzle or pick a phrase related to the meeting agenda. For example, you might choose a word like “money” or “funds for a budgetary meeting.” Whatever word you choose, encourage employees to work together to figure it out and have fun!
Play Wordle, and check out more vocabulary games to play with employees.
5. Heads Up!
Heads Up! is a fun twist on charades. Heads Up! is available as an app on Zoom and invites players to take turns guessing random topics. The game provides pop culture phrases such as celebrity names or sports teams. Players yell out clues while the guesser tries to guess as many correct phrases as possible in one minute. You can split your players into pairs to do the activity or play the game as one large group. Using Heads Up! as one of your icebreaker games for virtual meetings is a great way to loosen up the team before getting down to business.
Check out more Zoom apps for work fun.
6. Virtual Team Pictionary
Pictionary has lasted the test of time because it is a fun and easy game to play! To enjoy Pictionary, players break into pairs or teams. Each round, a player receives a prompt and must draw the phrase while teammates guess the subject of the drawing. The team must correctly identify the object before the picture is complete. The team that gets the most correct answers throughout the game wins.
Pictionary can inspire energy and laughter and is a good de-stressor.
To play the game during a virtual meeting, you can play the traditional way and have players draw on a piece of paper on a webcam or use the virtual whiteboard feature in the video call platform. There are also many online versions of the game, such as Drawasurus.
7. Perspective Drawing
Each employee looks at the world differently, and you can highlight these unique perspectives by playing virtual drawing games. To play Perspective Drawing, give teammates a prompt, ask each player to draw that concept individually, and then share those creations as a group. For example, ask players to draw a picture of “summer” and then share the interpretation with the group. One person may draw a picture of the beach while another person draws a thermometer reaching a high temperature. What a person draws can reveal facets of personality and perspective and can provide your team with some new insight about each other.
A twist on this game is to have your team draw pictures using the same starting point. For example, choose simple starting shapes, such as two circles or three random lines. Next, ask employees to copy the shapes and expand upon the image. The only rule is to use the original shapes within the new drawing. You will be amazed by how different the pictures turn out!
8. Two Truths and a Lie
If you are looking for easy virtual games for team meetings, then look no further than this icebreaker! Two truths and a lie requires very little preparation and no outside websites or apps. Employees simply come up with three personal tidbits, two that are true and one that is a lie. Each employee takes a turn sharing their facts while everyone else guesses which one is the lie. While this activity can work as an icebreaker, well-acquainted teams can also play and enjoy the game. Spotting the lie about a teammate you think you know well can be surprisingly challenging, and the game can reveal fascinating facts.
Here are more fun group question games.
9. Virtual Team Scavenger Hunt
Employees often fail to get up and move around enough when working remotely. Besides being fun, a scavenger hunt gives teammates the chance to get away from their desks and stretch their legs. You can create lists of clues or use pre-made hunts available online. At the beginning of the game, provide teams with lists. Then, give participants five to ten minutes to retrieve as many listed objects as possible. Another option is to release the items one at a time and have employees find them as you announce them. Participants earn points for being the first player to show the item on screen.
Check out our Virtual Scavenger Hunt Ideas & Sample Lists for some ideas.
10. Bunch
Bunch is a video chat app with multiple games your employees can play. You can ask your team to download the app from Apple or Google Play and start a group. Bunch has a number of games available, including a Pictionary-type game called Draw Party, Pool, Trivia, and a group version of the popular mobile game, Flappy Bird. Most games allow two to eight players, thus Bunch may be best for smaller teams.
Check out Bunch to download the app.
11. Virtual Team Scattergories
Scattergories is a fast-paced word game playable in groups of any size. Players start each round with a list of 12 categories such as ” U.S. city,” “office supplies,”or “types of zoo animals.” Next, the round leader chooses a random letter. Players have two minutes to create an answer for each category using the chosen letter. Answers cannot start with “A”, “An” or “The,” and players cannot use the same answer twice in one round. Employees only earn points for unique answers, so creativity is key!
Here is a Scattergories generator to use for your game:
--
You can create work-specific categories or use these pre-made Scattegories lists.
12. Never Have I Ever: Virtual Team Edition
Never Have I Ever is an easy game option for meetings because there is no prep work needed. The game topic is also adaptable for any subject or situation. The goal of Never Have I Ever is to end up with the least number of points at the end of the game. Players take turns saying something they have never done. For example, “Never have I ever gone skydiving.” Players who have gone skydiving get one point. The person with the least number of points at the end of the game wins. You can adapt the game to fit any theme, including only allowing work-related answers like “Never have I ever worn pajama pants on a video call” or “Never have I ever answered my personal phone using my work greeting.”
Here is a prompt generator to use for your team’s game:
--
Here are more work-friendly Never Have I Ever prompts.
13. Guess My Fridge
You can learn a lot about a person by peeking in their refrigerator. There is even an entire subreddit called Fridge Detectives, where people post a picture of their fridge, and strangers use the contents to make guesses about their lives. You can uncover details about teammates by asking remote call participants to share pictures of the fridge’s current contents during group calls. Simply share a slideshow of the collected photos and take turns guessing the refrigerator owners, or have teammates drop the files into the chat and guide the group on a short virtual tour around the shelves.
14. Blind Artist
Blind Artist is one of my favorite team building games for virtual meetings because this activity uses communication skills and gives insight into how people think. During blind artist, one employee has a picture or object to describe without using the item’s name or obvious related words. Other players try to draw the article based on the description. At the end of the game, the player whose drawing is closest to the original wins. Seeing everyone’s drawings is usually good for a few laughs and it is interesting to see how each person interprets the instructions.
15. ABC Game
In the ABC game, you choose a topic, and players come up with a word under that topic, using each letter in the alphabet. For example, if the topic is “Fruits,” then the list may go apple, banana, clementine, and so on. Once the alphabet is over, go through the lists together. Players earn one point for coming up with an answer and two points for being the only one with that answer. The player with the most po ints at the end of each round wins. You can make the game work-related and choose a topic like “Clients the Company Works With” or ask for topics related to the work you do.
16. Penny For Your Thoughts Game
Penny For Your Thoughts gives teams the chance to share unlikely and unusual personal information. First, ask each employee to bring a coin to the meeting. The coins should be no more than 15 years old. You can change the age range based on the age of your team members, yet do not go back too far. Employees take turns and pick a coworker’s coin and then share something significant that happened to them or something they witnessed in the year on the coin.
17. 5 Second Rule
5 Second Rule is a board game easily adaptable for a remote environment. The first step is to create a list of categories such as state capitals, school supplies, or children’s books. On each player’s turn, provide a category and five seconds to name three objects or ideas that fit into that category. For example, if the category is types of trees, the player might answer “maple, birch, and oak.” Players who fail to answer in under five seconds are out of the game. Five seconds pass in a flash, and the game sharpens employees’ quick-thinking and reaction skills.
18. Virtual Pub Trivia
Pub trivia has been a staple in bars for years. Players love the chance to show their smarts. During a virtual team meeting, split your employees into teams for a head-to-head competition. Teams can create group chats to debate the answers before choosing one as a group, or play as individuals. The easiest way to play trivia virtually is to have players or teams enter their answers in the chat. You can also have players or teams take turns and allow other groups to steal if the first team gets an answer wrong.
Check out this list of starter trivia questions, and take a peek at our guide to playing trivia virtually.
19. Virtual Family Feud
Family Feud is a great option for virtual meetings because employees play in teams but do not necessarily have to confer to come up with answers.
To play the game, employees split into two teams. Each team typically has five members, however, can vary team size based on the size of the overall group. One player from each team at a time guesses the most popular answers from a survey. For example, “Name something you take to the beach.” Possible answers may be a beach towel, book, or a beach chair. The team whose player chooses the more popular answer gets to play the rest of the round by guessing the remaining survey answers.
If the team guesses all the answers on the board, then that team wins the round. However, each wrong answer earns a strike. If a team gets to three strikes, then the opposing team gets one chance to steal the round. If the stealing team names a correct answer, then that team wins the round and scores the points.
We created this list of Family Feud Questions and Answers ready for you to use!
20. Culture Connection
Culture Connection is a game that works well with a virtual team and also doubles as an icebreaker. Company culture is the foundation of your company, and it is vital to check in with your team about how they view the culture. This game can be played both periodically as a touch-base or when you have new hires join the group.
In Culture Connection, each participant shares one word about what the company culture means to them. As each team member shares their word, ask the rest of the group for their thoughts. Discuss how employees feel about each description of the culture. This game is an excellent opportunity for discussion within your team. The exercise helps introduce new people to the company culture and can help you recognize when a shift in the culture has happened. This scenario is a great chance to incorporate icebreaker games for virtual team meetings.
21. Song Windfall
Song windfall is a fast-paced game playable in a virtual environment. To start the game, share your screen with your team and pull up a random word generator. On each player’s turn, pull up a word and give the player 10 seconds to name a song with that word in the lyrics. If the player does not return an answer in 10 seconds, then the other players can steal the round by answering in the chat. You can give bonus points to players for singing their answers!
22. Virtual Amazing Race
A fun online team game to do is a virtual amazing race. You can form your people into smaller teams, and send them on unique challenges like photo scavenger hunts and rapid-fire trivia questions.
Check out this full list of virtual amazing race ideas.
23. Waffles vs. Pancakes
Waffles vs. Pancakes is a cooperative game that requires teams to make decisions together. To start the game, ask the question, “What should we keep, waffles or pancakes?” Next, the team must decide which one option to keep and one to eliminate. The winning answer moves to the next round to compete against a new option. For example, if waffles win, ask “What should we keep, waffles or cereal?”
You can play this game just for fun by choosing a theme like breakfast foods or vacation spots, or can revolve around industry topics. For example, if you work in Marketing, then start with Print Media vs. Social Media and narrow down your team’s favorite way to market the company. You can even put together a list of games and use Waffles vs. Pancakes to decide which game to play at your next meeting!
For inspiration, check out this list of This or That questions.
24. Guess the Baby
You can make meeting games more personal and nostalgic by playing a guessing game with baby pictures. Before the meeting, ask your team to send you a baby picture. During the meeting, share your screen while displaying baby photos one by one, and challenge players to guess the adult coworker pictured as an infant. Employees get a kick out of seeing mini versions of their coworkers, and the fashion choices are also amusing!
Conclusion
Meetings are crucial to business success, but a back-to-back schedule can also lead to burnout. This situation is especially true when employees take part in virtual meetings and miss the benefit of interacting in an office. Working in a remote environment is convenient but can be isolating. In virtual offices, employees miss out on the social interaction that would normally help them connect. Playing a quick game at the start of a meeting or dedicating an hour or two to playing games can go a long way in engaging your employees. These exercises support team relationships, and playtime supports workers’ mental health as well!
Next, check out this list of Zoom meeting ideas, this list of virtual meeting ideas for work, and this guide to online meeting etiquette.
We also have a list of the best Zoom team building games for work, a list of the best large group virtual team building ideas, and a list of fun virtual team icebreaker games.
Grace He