Build stronger remote relationships with irresistible ice breakers

60 Virtual Team Building Activities to try in 2022

Zoom call

Team building in a remote or hybrid environment can be challenging, it’s not as easy as getting everyone in the same room.

But if you can find activities that your team resonates with the payoff in camaraderie is worthwhile. So fire up the Zoom rooms, get on Slack, and give some of these activities a try.

I’ve put together a list of 60 virtual team building activities I’ve enjoyed or seen other teams enjoy. Your team is bound to like a couple on this, at the very least I hope this list provides some inspiration for your own virtual activities.

Activity NameGroup Size(Max)EffortLength
Icebreaker QuestionsNo limitLow30-60 mins
Among Us15Low10 mins
Jackbox Games8-10Low30-60 mins
Online Poker Tournament48HighHalf day
Internal TED TalksNo limitMedium10 mins
Virtual Cooking Classes20-50High60-180 mins
Virtual Wine Tasting20-50High60-120 mins
Virtual Pictionary12Low30 mins
Virtual Puzzles10LowAsync
Virtual Charades12Low30-60 mins
Virtual Escape Rooms4-6, VariesMedium60-90 mins
Remote scavenger hunt20Low30-60 mins
Two Truths One Lie10Low30-60 mins
Virtual Murder Mystery30Medium60-120mins
Guided MeditationNo limitLow5-30 mins
Virtual Debate Club10Medium 30-60 mins
Virtual Trivia Night500Medium60-90 mins
Virtual Happy Hours20Low60 mins
Virtual Cocktail Workshop20-50High30-60 mins
Remote MTV cribs20Medium60 mins
Virtual Dance Party40Low30-60 mins
Virtual Never Have I Ever20Low60 mins
Bomb Defusal Game4Low60 mins
Virtual Book Club20Low60 mins
Movie Night50Low90-120 mins
Virtual Beer Homebrew Lessons20-50High60-120 mins
Virtual Yoga ClassNo limitLow30 - 60 mins
Personality TestsNo limitLow30 mins
Virtual Fitness ClassNo limitLow30 - 60 mins
Coworker Feud10Low60 mins
Taboo10Low30 mins
Virtual Karaoke20Low60 mins
Baking Class20-50High60-180 mins
Virtual Casino Night100Medium60-90 mins
Virtual Talent ShowNo LimitHigh60-90 mins
Virtual Mini Golf12Low30-60 mins
Virtual Paint Night20-50High60-180 mins
Werewolf75Medium30 mins
Would You Rather20Low30 - 60 mins
What The Dub12Low30 mins
Virtual Farm ToursNo LimitLow30 mins
Scattergories
6Low30-60 mins
Group Spotify Session5LowAsync
Online Settlers of Catan
4-6Low60-90 mins
Codenames8Low15-30 mins
Jeopardy4Low30-60 mins
Papa's Quiz8Low30-60 mins
Monopoly6Low60-90 mins
Secret Hitler10Low30 mins
Tic Tac Toe Tournament60MediumAsync
Who's Office Is It Anyway?40Medium30-60 mins
Virtual Bingo30Low20 mins
Who's That Kid40Medium30-60 mins
Chess Tournament60HighAsync
Virtual Coffee Tasting
20-50High30-60 mins
Virtual Tea Tasting20-50High30-60 mins
Virtual Paris Trip2-300+Low60-90 mins
Fantasy Sports League4-20MediumAsync
Create User Manuals4-30Medium30-90 mins
Virtual Museum ToursNo LimitLow30-90 mins

1. Ice breaker Questions

A simple classic. Get on a zoom call and have someone facilitate a list of ice breaker questions. You can go around in an order or have the asker pick someone at random to answer the question.

There are a lot of resources for ice breaker questions, the Proust Questionnaire is a fun list or simply google and find a bunch of them.

Banter automatically asks icebreaker questions in Slack, it’s a great way for teams to have a regular moment to get to know each other asynchronously. Try it out!

2. Among Us

YouTube video

Among Us blew up in popularity in 2020 and 2021, it’s essentially a digital game version of Werewolf. You’re all crewmates on a spaceship trying to return back to civilization, but some crewmates have been replaced by a parasitic alien shapeshifter.

While everyone is fixing up the ship, no one can talk to maintain anonymity. Once a body is reported, the surviving crew will openly debate who they think The Impostor is. The Impostor’s goal is to pretend that they are a member of the crew. If The Impostor is not voted off, everyone goes back to maintaining the ship until another body is found. If The Impostor is voted off, the crew wins!

Among Us can be played on PC, Switch, and is free on mobile. Suitable for up to 15 players, games take 10-15 minutes each.

3. Jackbox Games

YouTube video

Jackbox Games is the party game-making studio best known for hit games like YOU DON’T KNOW JACK, Quiplash, Fibbage, Drawful, Trivia Murder Party, and more!

YouTube video

One Jackbox Party Pack has a set of party games that can be played on your mobile phone through a browser. A pack of games costs $30 one time, you can play it as many times as you’d like, hosting up to 8 players and 10,000 spectators. The host just needs to share their screen on Zoom.

Check out Jackbox games

4. Online Poker Tournament

Quickly create a poker table for 10 people and play in your browser for free!

Just create a table, copy the link and invite your teammates.

Check out Poker Now

5. Internal TED Talks

15 Of The Best Health TED Talks To Better Understand Chronic Pain

Discover secret experts on your team, invite people to hold an 18 minute session on topics that they know a lot on.

6. Virtual Cooking Classes

person slicing green vegetable on brown wooden chopping board

Virtual cooking classes are a great way to share an experience (that you can eat!) with your team. Costs for virtual cooking classes vary, usually charging per device connected. Your team will need to order the ingredients required to cook the dish.

Check out Cozymeal

7. Virtual Wine Tasting

clear wine glass with yellow liquid

Find out who’s most qualified to be a sommelier with virtual wine tasting. Virtual wine tastings come with buying a tasting pack. Tasting pack prices range, from $100 to $300 per person.

Learn more about virtual wine tastings

8. Virtual Pictionary

Skribble.io

Skribble.io is online, browser-based Pictionary! Create a room for up to 12 players, everyone gets words to draw while everyone else guesses what the word is. The fastest solver wins the most points, the drawer with the fastest solves wins points.

Skribble.io is 100% free to play.

9. Virtual Puzzles

Puzzles at jigsawpuzzles.io

Work together to solve a virtual puzzle. Jigsawpuzzles.io is a free and browser based. Just create an account, start a new puzzle and invite your team members in.

Check out Jigsawpuzzles.io

10. Virtual Charades

Boy acting out charades

Charades translates very well to a virtual setting. Pantoparty.com will provide a list of words to act out, time you and keep score. All you need to do is divide yourselves into teams and start the Zoom call.

Check out Pantoparty.com

11. Virtual Escape Rooms

red escape rooms neon sign

Virtual escape rooms come in generally two flavours, with live facilitation or with an interface to input answers as your team screen shares. Virtual escape rooms vary in cost, the live escape rooms charge a per person fee of anywhere from $10 to $60 per person, while programmed rooms have a fixed per room cost.

Teambuilding.com has a great list of virtual escape rooms.

12. Remote scavenger hunt

old looking map for a treasure hunt

Get your team scrambling around their home offices in the spirit of light competition. All you need to facilitate a remote scavenger hunt are a list of things to find, a place to post photo proof (Slack works) and a way to track score to declare a winner. Set a timer, give your team a list and go!

13. Two Truths One Lie

Lies Liar GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

A classic icebreaker game, team members take turns sharing 3 things about themselves, except 1 of them is made up, the rest of your team has to guess which one is the lie. No special software or prep needed, just get your team in a Zoom and lie away.

14. Virtual Murder Mystery

Adam Sandler Murdermystery GIF by NETFLIX - Find & Share on GIPHY

Like the escape rooms but with murder! Virtual murder mystery games can either be facilitated live by a vendor or as a pre-packaged self-serve offering. Get your team, gather clues and figure out whodunnit. Costs can vary per person or per murder mystery.

Quizbreaker has a good list of virtual murder mystery games.

15. Guided Meditation

woman on beach meditating

Take 5 to 30 minutes and help your team take a breather. Meditation is a great way for your team to relieve stress, enhance self-awareness and improve focus. No special set up necessary, you can find guided meditation on YouTube or use an app, Headspace and Calm are both great!

16. Virtual Debate Night

Lisa Simpson Episode 3 GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Take sides and get your team involved in a spirited conversation. Pineapple on pizza, milk first or cereal first. Constructive discussion will help your team get to know each other but also help with productive disagreements in the workplace.

17. Virtual Trivia Night

sign that says trivia night

Trivia is an easy way for your best and brightest to show off what they know and to spark a little competition amongst the team. Get everyone together in a Zoom, you can find questions trivia questions on Google, Pinterest, Canva, or you can even make your own. Random Trivia Generator is a really great source of trivia questions.

If you want something a little more facilitated and automated, Watercooler Trivia is a great option.

18. Virtual Happy Hours

two cocktails at a bar

Have a pour and shoot the breeze, a good happy hour is a relaxed one where everyone is snacking, drinking, and chatting. It might be helpful to have a theme or topic for the happy hour to get those social waves flowing.

19. Virtual Cocktail Workshop

old fashion being mixed

If your team is looking to learn a new skill while enjoying the social lubricant benefits of alcohol, then a virtual cocktail workshop is a great option. There’s a good amount of setup and planning required, including getting ingredients and tools to your team members.

hey-bartender.com is a good option to look into setting up a Virtual Cocktail night

20. Remote MTV cribs

YouTube video

Have your team members give virtual house tours of their abodes. MTV cribs tours give your team a chance to get to know what their lives are like beyond their computer desk.

21. Virtual Dance Party

A great event for the groovier folks on your team. Pick a team member to be the DJ and invite everyone to shake their money maker.

How to throw a Virtual Dance Party.

22. Virtual Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever GIF by De’arra & Ken 4 Life - Find & Share on GIPHY

Another classic drinking game is a great icebreaker game that can supercharge your team’s sharing. You can tone down the questions for a professional environment, “never have I ever dozed off during a meeting.”

Get in a virtual room and pick someone to start sharing something they’ve never done. You can either score the game with a drink, where people that have done the thing take a sip of your drink. Or just score by holding up 5 fingers, whoever has done this at work, closes a finger, and when all 5 fingers go down, that person is eliminated. 

23. Bomb Defusal Game

YouTube video

Keep talking and nobody explodes is a co-operative video game where you and your friends play bomb defuser.

Player 1 is in a room with a bomb. Their friends, the “Experts”, have the manual needed to defuse it. But there’s a catch: the Experts can’t see the bomb, so everyone will need to talk it out – fast!

Put your puzzle-solving and communication skills to the test as you and your friends race to defuse bombs quickly before time runs out!

24. Virtual Book Club

woman in blue sweater reading book

Your team can either tag along on a larger book club or start their own. Book clubs are a great way for teams to regularly meet and enjoy casual conversation.

Time has a list of great bookclubs that any one can join.

25. Movie Night

Netflixparty lets your team watch a show or movie with completely synced video and audio. You can then hop on Zoom at the same to react in real time.

Disney+ also allows everyone with an account to sync streams and watch together.

26. Virtual Beer Homebrew Lessons

Homebrewed beer in a mason jar

For the fermentation fans, send homebrewing kits to your team and get instructed making your own brew. There’s an added benefit of later comparing how your beers turned out.

Checkout Virtual Beer Making

27. Virtual Yoga Class

woman on beach doing yoga

Get limber together with a Virtual Yoga Class. You can choose to sign up for a live-streamed facilitated yoga class, or do what I do and pop in some Yoga with Adriene on Zoom and get your shapes going.

28. Personality Tests

INTJ? INFP? Get a better sense of your teams personality types with a Meyer’s Briggs test from 16Personalities.com. It’s a great way for people to discuss whether or not they agree with their assessment and to just talk about the questions.

16personalities.com

29. Virtual Fitness Class

woman on yoga mat doing a virtual fitness lesson

Schedule a group fitness class that only requires body weight and movement. A fitter team is a healthier and happier team.

30. Coworker Feud

Get 4 to 10 people and start a feud! Playing this popular tv show is easier than you think. Coworker Feud enables a virtual Family Feud game over Zoom.

31. Taboo

screenshot of Playtaboo.com

You can play the classic card game easily online by heading over to Playtaboo.com. Everyone has access to cards, they have to get their team to guess the word without using the word. The person presenting the word can share their taboo page with the opposite team for monitoring.

32. Virtual Karaoke

microphone in front of a blurred crowd

Virtual Karaoke only needs two pieces of software. Watch2gether lets you sync up Youtube videos across your team and build a karaoke playlist, there are a lot of good Karaoke videos on Youtube. From there, it’s just a simple Zoom call to get singing.

33. Baking Class

loaf of banana bread, a slice with a pat of butter

Bread is all the rage these days, give your team the ability to bake a loaf, or cupcakes, or banana bread or anything else, it’s all gonna be tasty. The Spruce Eats has a list of virtual baking classes to try.

34. Virtual Casino Night

virtual three card poker

Blackjack, Roulette, Craps and a Money wheel are all streamed live to your team over Zoom with a real dealer. Virtual Casino’s are all set up for you and usually has a per person cost.

Checkout Team Bonding or Fun Casino Nights

35. Virtual Talent Show

Bend GIF by America's Got Talent - Find & Share on GIPHY

Your team’s got talent! Give your team a chance to show off their unique skills, maybe someone is really good at throwing swords or juggling. Setting up a virtual talent show is easy, find people willing to participate, get everyone in a Zoom and let the show begin!

36. Virtual Mini Golf

Golf with your friends is a golf video game that allows up to 12 players hop into virtual mini golf courses to see who has the steadiest stroke. Golf With Your Friends is available on PC, MAC, Switch, Xbox and PS4/5. It costs around $10 per person for the game.

37. Virtual Paint Night

A set of paint brushes with red and orange paint on them

Who doesn’t like happy little trees? A brush, canvas and a few squirts of paint are all you need to get your team to set up a Virtual Paint Night. Yaymaker hosts private events for team with a live instructor, or you can Zoom a Bob Ross video on Youtube.

38. Werewolf

full moon

Werewolf is a game where each player deceives the others while trying to hunt down the werewolf and kill it before the whole village becomes food for the beast. Can you survive the night? It s like Among Us, but less spacey and there’s no video game to interact with.

Werewolf translates to Zoom quite well, your moderator is the host of the Zoom room and controls the flow of the game.

Anjuan Simmons has a great blog post on how to set up a game of Werewolf on Zoom.

39. Would You Rather

Tonight Show Nbc GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon - Find & Share on GIPHY

A classic icebreaker game. People take turns answering would you rather questions. Simply get everyone on Zoom and have someone start the ball rolling by asking would you rather questions.

Google is littered with would you rather question ideas.

40. What The Dub

YouTube video

What The Dub?! is a multiplayer party game where each player overdubs missing dialogue from hilariously awful B-movies, outdated PSAs, and bizarre industrial films, with their own witty (or just plain stupid) dubs!

You just need one copy of the game, then share it over Zoom to get the Dub party going.

Check out What The Dub

41. Virtual Farm Tours

three cows with ear tags

Sit back and relax as a guided tour shows you around a working farm. Virtual farm tours are a pleasant change of pace and provide a relaxed, shared experience for your team.

virtualfarmtrips.com

42. Scattergories

YouTube video

Play the classic board game online. Scattergories is great for 4-6 players. You take a letter and a list of categories and try to name things that fit both the starting letter and the category. If nobody else has your answer, then you get a point, if it’s a common answer, no one gets a point.

Scattergories on Zoom is easy, have one person set up the categories, everyone else answers questions on a piece of paper, or in a document. At the end of the timer, everyone compares answers and see who has unique answers. Swellgarfo has a great categories generator that’s completely free to use.

Swellgarfo Scattergories

43. Group Spotify Session

laptop with spotify running

Spotify easily lets you set up a group session so your team can listen to the same tracks at the same time. Anyone invited to a group session can play, pause, forward, rewind and add songs to a queue to keep everyone grooving on the same track.

Spotify Group Session

44. Online Settlers of Catan

YouTube video

Colonist.io allows up to 8 players to play Settlers of Catan online for free! Just create a free weekly game and colonist will create an easy invite link. I’ve included a video above in case you need to learn how to play Settlers.

45. Codenames

screenshot of codenames.game

Codenames.game is the official online version of the popular board game Codenames.

Two rival spymasters know the secret identities of 25 agents. Their teammates know the agents only by their codenames. To win the game, your team will need to contact all of your agents in the field before the other team finds their own agents. And watch out for the assassin – meet him in the field and your team is done!

46. Jeopardy

The Jeopardy You Know GIF by Jeopardy! - Find & Share on GIPHY

JeopardyLabs lets you play Jeopardy with your team online! Simply create a room with a password and invite your friends to login. You can play with up to 10 teams, either using a pre-made Jeopardy board, or you can edit and make your own!

47. Papa’s Quiz

YouTube video

Papa’s Quiz is a fun quiz game where you need 1 copy of the game to allow up to 8 players to play with their phones. Available on iOS, PC, Xbox and PS4. Papa’s Quiz rewards fast and right answers and is suitable for a more tech-oriented crowd.

48. Monopoly

Monopoly with train game piece

Monopoly needs no introduction, Rento is a free version of Monopoly that you can play online with up to 6 players. Create a game with your own house rules and let’s see who the best landlord is.

49. Secret Hitler

screenshot of secrethitler.io, featuring crabs and seagulls

Secret Hitler is a Werewolf style game, players are secretly divided into two teams – liberals and fascists. Known only to each other, the fascists coordinate to sow distrust and install their cold-blooded leader. The liberals must find and stop the Secret Hitler before it is too late.

Secrethitler.io lets you play the card game online for free with up 10 players.

50. Tic Tac Toe Tournament

You can use Challonge to generate a tournament bracket for your entire team. A tic tac toe tournament can be run asynchronously, match pairings can face off whenever it works for them and report in results. The next match doesn’t start until previous matches have been reported.

tic tac toe bean bags

You can use Paper games to play your matches.

51. Whose Office Is It Anyway?

office set up with a lamp and surfboard

This is a simple game that can be done on Slack, one organizer collects pictures of teammates’ offices and shares them in a channel or on Zoom call and the rest of the team has to guess who the office belongs to.

52. Virtual Bingo

YouTube video

Virtual Bingo is free to play for up to 30 players.

53. Who’s That Kid

Vintage baby gown

Similar to the Whose Office is it anyway, have an organizer collect baby and kid photos, share them on Slack or Zoom and have the team try to guess who that baby is.

54. Chess Tournament

two senior men playing chess at a bench

Use Challonge to set up a tournament bracket, and use lichess.com to set up a game quickly without needing to create accounts.

It might be a good idea to set up two different brackets depending on skill level, as chess can be really punishing for beginners.

55. Virtual Coffee Tasting

Coffee cup plate

Ship to your team and share discover the surprising subtleties that this bean has to offer. In this session, a coffee expert will discuss how coffee is grown and processed and guide participants in tasting and describing the flavor of each cup of coffee. Followed by a Q&A where participants can ask about anything coffee!

Check out Coffee Tasting from Confetti

56. Virtual Tea Tasting

tea being brewed in a french press cup

Find your inner zen as you relax and taste at least 3 unique types of tea. Confetti offers a guided virtual tea tasting where they will ship teas to your team, and have a host guide through different varities of tea.

Check out Virtual Tea Tasting from Confetti

57. Virtual Paris Trip

YouTube video

You can almost smell the baguettes. Woyago offers a virtual guided tour of Paris with local hosts. From guided virtual bike tours through the city, to wine & cheese tastings, French stereotype trivia, and beyond.

Woyago charges per tour taker and is a 60 to 90 minute excursion.

58. Fantasy Sports League

Toronto Blue Jays stadium

Fantasy sports is an amazing way for teammates to casually compete and discuss a shared interest. Fantasy Football, Basketball, Hockey and Baseball are all spread throughout the year, meaning you could have a fantasy league year round.

I like Yahoo Fantasy Sports the best for all leagues. Set up is easy, Yahoo handles everything from rules, drafting, trades, and scoring.

59. Create User Manuals

early mac, macintosh, macintosh plus, desktop publishing, 1986, aldus, pagemaker, page maker, pagemaker v.1, apple, apple macintosh, manual, instruction manual

Popularized by companies like Atlassian, get your team to create a user manual documenting how they best like to work. Atlassian provides useful templates that your team can easily fill out.

After the templates are filled out, get your team to present their templates and answer any questions.

60. Virtual Museum Tours

People passing by Vincent van Gogh’s self portrait and snapping a photo. More info at the Rijksmuseum’s website: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-A-3262

Goodhousekeeping has a list of museums offering virtual tours. You can virtually take your team to the Louvre, the Guggenheim, the Smithsonian and more.

If your team works in Slack, check out Banter, a slackbot that sends ice breakers to help build stronger remote teams.

How does your team feel about pineapple on Pizza? 🍍 +🍕 = ?

Get conversation starting ice breakers in Slack and build a closer team.

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