You found our list of the best online team building games for remote employees.
Online team building games are any games that you play online to help foster collaboration and team spirit with employees. Examples of these online games include Spreadsheet Wars, Online Office Games, and Virtual Charades. These activities are also known as “virtual team building games,” “remote team building games,” “online team games,” and “virtual office games.”
These games are similar to virtual team building activities, virtual team bonding activities, virtual team games, online team games, and virtual group activities. These games are effective for remote team engagement and virtual team events.
This list includes:
- fun online team games for work
- virtual games for team building
- examples of team games online
- fun online games for virtual teams
- quick games for online meetings
- free virtual games to play with coworkers
- free online team building games
- online group games
- the best virtual office games
So, check out the list!
List of online team building games
Below is a list of the best virtual office games. From Bingo to Lightning Scavenger Hunts to The Ground is Lava, you will find games that are fun, free, and easy to play with virtual teams.
1. Online Team Building Bingo (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐)
One of the best virtual games for team building is Online Team Building Bingo. Bingo, a game played across retirement homes and summer camps everywhere, is familiar, fun, and works extremely well in the online format.
Here is an Online Team Building Bingo board you can start with:
You can “Right Click + Save As” to download the Bingo board.
You can freely distribute and use this virtual Bingo board for internal use 🙂
To play Online Team Building Bingo:
- Distribute the board to your team
- Establish rules and a timeline to play
- Track the results and award prizes
Pro tip: Amazon gift cards and bragging rights are usually sufficient prizes for successful team building online.
Learn more about Online Team Building Bingo and icebreaker Bingo.
2. Online Office Games (Hosted Event)
Online Offices Games is a facilitated series of online games and challenges for remote teams. The challenges are specifically designed for remote teams and to help develop the essential skills for working from home.
Key features of this experience include:
- 90 minutes with a talented host
- pub-style trivia and games like “Can You Hear Me Now”
- lightning scavenger hunts, multiple-choice questions, and number games
These games emphasize the precision of communication you need for working remotely. If you are looking to boost your team’s bonds, then check out Online Office Games!
Learn more about Online Office Games.
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3. Murder in Ancient Egypt (Staff Favorite)
One of our most popular online team building games is Murder in Ancient Egypt. This game uses the mechanics of escape rooms, puzzles, and problem-solving to encourage your team to work together. This murder mystery also has an interesting twist! The murder is actually a real mystery from ancient Egypt, and after your teams make their guess, our master storytelling will share the big reveal.
Here is what you can expect:
- a 90-minute session led by a talented facilitator
- in-depth storytelling that sends your team back in time
- complex scavenger hunts, math problems, code-breaking, and riddles
- challenging puzzles and cryptic clues to discover the truth
The event is fun, challenging, and perfect for groups that want to work both collaboratively and competitively.
Learn more about Murder in Ancient Egypt.
4. War of the Wizards (RPG Game)
War of the Wizards is a collaborative storytelling game of wisdom and magic. The story goes that a group of wizards have been at war since ages past, and no one quite remembers why. Your people become the wizards’ minions, working together to collect magic items, cast spells, and overcome obstacles. For example, you may develop a strategy to leap over a wide chasm or challenge an ogre to a battle of wits.
Key features of this experience include:
- 90 minutes with a talented host
- detailed storytelling that sends players into a magical realm
- world-building and role-playing
- chances to overcome challenges and go on quests
War of the Wizards is a little nerdy and a whole lot of fun. You do not have to be a Dungeons & Dragons master, either. The game is simple to follow and fun to participate in for all skill levels!
Learn more about War of the Wizards.
5. Spreadsheet Battleship (Nostalgic)
If you grew up in the late eighties and early nineties, then you will likely remember the energetic proclamation, “You sunk my battleship!”
Over 20 years later, it turns out that Battleship has a perfect format for free online team building games. You can play the game multiplayer, with three to 10 players or more if you are feeling audacious.
Click the image to view the game board.
To play Spreadsheet Battleship, each player needs two things: a game board and the placement of ships. You can use graph paper labeled with letters and numbers for the game board and either randomly assign battleship placement or let each player choose where to place the ships.
Here is a Google Sheets game board you can use.
Spreadsheet Battleship game mechanics are a little like Go Fish. On each player’s turn, that player chooses another player and names a square on the grid, like A-5 or C-10. The receiving player says, “You missed,” “You hit,” or “You sunk my battleship!” depending on what happened. The next player then goes in sequence, which could be in order of age or geographic location.
Continue playing until only one player has ships remaining.
6. Lightning Scavenger Hunts ⚡ (Fast)
In the real world, we run scavenger hunts at some of the coolest locations in the world: like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and Grand Central Terminal. Scavenger Hunts can be a fun way for your people to work together.
Virtual scavenger hunts are more difficult to find that team spirit with. You might have game mechanics that have your team searching Google, Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites without really working together.
The solution for successful online scavenger hunts is to throw away the normal and adopt a lightning version instead. For Lightning Scavenger Hunts, fire off a rapid series of clues that have your team members dashing to find objects, solve clues, and win points. For example, you could have everyone grab their favorite mug and award points to the best mug story.
The fast-paced nature of Lightning Scavenger Hunts is what makes it work for quick games for online meetings.
Here are more ideas for lightning scavenger hunts and virtual scavenger hunt templates.
7. Guess the Refrigerator (Quirky)
My refrigerator mostly contains fatty pork, 100% dark chocolate, and pears. Your refrigerator may be different. A fun game we could play together is Guess the Refrigerator.
To play this game, everyone submits a photo of the inside of their refrigerator to one point of contact. That organizer then posts the photos to a channel where all participants can study the contents and make the best guesses at which refrigerator belongs to who. The players submit answers to the organizer, who then tallies up the scores and announces a winner.
Sharing an inside view of your refrigerator takes a degree of vulnerability, which is a factor that contributes to the success of great online games for virtual teams.
8. “Can You Hear Me Now?”
“Can You Hear Me Now” is one of the most popular online team games we play as part of Online Office Games. You can play this game 100% online and as part of a virtual conference call.
To play, name one person as the Describer and the other players as Artists. The Describer must explain to the Artists how to draw an item like a sunflower, kite, or calculator using only geometric terms.
For example, you could say, “Draw a large square” and then “Add a line at a 45-degree angle from the top,” but not “Draw the letter E.”
You can play each round for as long as you like, and three minutes is usually sufficient. At the end of each round, the Describer gets one point for each Artist that guesses the object correctly, and each Artist that guesses correctly also gets one point. Tally up points and award cool prizes to the winner.
Learn more about “Can you hear me now?”.
9. Five Clicks Away
Five Clicks Away is a logic game for online team building. To play, you select a starting topic and an ending topic, which you can decide on your own or randomly generate. For example, the starting point could be Blackbeard the Pirate, and the endpoint could be grilled cheese sandwiches.
Each player must start on the Wikipedia page for the starting point, and in no more than five clicks, reach the end point. The idea is that Wikipedia has so many internal links that you should be able to follow a chain to reach the end point in less than five clicks.
Five Clicks Away is difficult to get started with, but as you start to understand Wikipedia’s structure, the game becomes easier. Like “Can You Hear Me Now?”, the game is also a proxy for learning a useful remote work skill, which in this case is obscure research.
10. Typing Speed Race (Competitive)
One of my favorite fun online team games for work is a Typing Speed Race with friendly competition. For the Typing Speed Race, you can use a free tool like typingtest.com and have each of your team members do a one-minute challenge. Then, each person posts their test results to Slack, email, or another platform.
The Typing Speed Race is a great way to encourage friendly competition with remote teams. You can make the experience more collaborative by doing a Typing Speed Relay, which requires forming your people into teams and then adding the cumulative score from each person to create a team total.
With the Typing Speed Race, everyone wins because typing quickly is an important skill for remote work.
11. Chair Up! (Positive Powerup 🙂)
Chair Up! is both my favorite pun-inspired name for a chair store and also a fun and easy game for video conference calls.
The game is played over email, messenger, or conference call and is specifically meant to counter the doom and gloom that sometimes guides conversations. Whenever someone calls out, “Chair up!”, everyone must stand up and do something cheerful. For example, you could do yoga sun salutations, clap your hands, laugh, or have a small dance party.
Chair Up! is silly, fun, and an easy way to get started with team building online.
12. Water Shots 💦
When you work from home, taking care of your health and fitness is especially important. You can do squats and eat well, and also make sure you drink enough water.
Water Shots is a game meant to fortify your team around healthy hydration. To play, you first choose a trigger, which could be “every time a pet comes on screen in a video call” or “any time someone says mute.” When the trigger happens, all participants must drink a shot of water, which could be a literal shot or a sip.
Virtual team building games that focus on building healthy habits are a great way to support company culture and development with remote teams.
13. Virtual Charades
Charades is one of those games that nearly everyone plays at school or home while growing up. With this proliferation of Charades, Virtual Charades has the advantage of being fairly familiar while also being fun.
To play Virtual Charades, prepare a set of links that go to Google Image pages or use a random image generator. On each player’s turn, that player must act out what they see in the image, and the player’s teammates can guess each one to earn points. Rinse and repeat until you are all out of fun.
Here is a random charades word generator you can use for your game:
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Here are more improv games.
14. Pub-style Trivia
You don’t need a pub to play online trivia, and beer and peanuts are also optional. Instead, you can play with at least two teams, a series of trivia questions, and positive attitudes.
Playing pub-style trivia online is similar to the in-the-pub version, with one crucial difference: you need an easy way for people to communicate. Instead of mumbling across a table, we recommend using virtual breakout rooms so that each team can discuss the answers openly. Each team can then submit the answers via a web form, and the host can award points as needed.
Here are more instructions on how to play virtual happy hour trivia, and a list of team trivia questions.
Pro tip: Playing virtual happy hour games like pub-style trivia gives you a unique opportunity to include wildly different clues in the game. For example, instead of “guess that tune,” you could have players guess the tune, find it on YouTube, and identify a clue at a specific time stamp. The internet is your oyster for virtual group games.
15. Virtual Werewolf (Team Favorite 🏆)
Werewolf is one of the best remote team building games, as it is full of cunning deceit and tactful manipulation. The game relies primarily on the spoken word, which makes it perfect for remote teams.
To play this game virtually, nominate one person as the narrator and then randomly distribute the following roles to players:
- Werewolf: a werewolf has two jobs: eat villagers, and survive to eat more villagers.
- Villagers: these are the common folks in the game who have no special powers but desperately hope to survive the night.
- Medic: the medic can save up to one villager each round.
- Seer: a seer can peer into the depths of another player’s soul to reveal whether that player is a werewolf or not.
- Hunter: when the hunter dies, the hunter can point a finger at any other player and take that person down with them.
To play, first distribute the roles via private message or email the players in advance. For a group of five people, you should have 1 werewolf, 1 medic, and 3 villagers. For each additional five people, add 1 werewolf, 1 special role, and 3 villagers. The ratios are flexible, so can modify them to suit your needs.
To start the game, the narrator declares that “Night has fallen,” and all players must close their eyes and tap their knees or keyboards to create a pitter-patter sound. After a few seconds, the narrator says, “Werewolves wake up,” and any players with the werewolf role must awake and choose a single victim via private message.
The narrator then puts the werewolves back to sleep and has the medic and seer wake up in sequence. During the medic’s turn to be awake, the medic can point to one player to save that player from the jaws of the werewolf. If the medic selects the same player as the werewolf, then nobody dies during the night. When the seer points to a player, the narrator can answer yes or no to whether that player is a werewolf.
After all the special roles act, the narrator says, “The sun is coming up,” and either the name of the player that the werewolves ate or that no one was eaten if the medic chose correctly. All players can open their eyes and then debate on who the werewolf might be. To end the round, all players vote on one player to eliminate from the game or can pass and wait until the next round. Any player that is eliminated either by the werewolves or by vote becomes a friendly ghost that is not allowed to speak for the rest of the game but may observe it in quiet frustration.
Repeat until the only remaining players are werewolves or villagers.
Learn more about how to play Werewolf.
16. We Didn’t Start the Fire 🔥
We Didn’t Start the Fire is one of the top free virtual games to play with coworkers inspired by Billy Joel’s song of the same name. To play, divide the attendees of your virtual conference call into groups of four or five people, and then give the groups 15 minutes of prep time. During those 15 minutes, each team writes a verse of lyrics that follow the general melody of We Didn’t Start the Fire.
After the 15-minute breakout session, bring everyone back to the main virtual meeting and have the teams present their creation. Vote on the best one with thumbs up and cheers.
17. Spreadsheet Wars (Challenging)
Spreadsheet Wars is one of my favorite virtual team building games to play with coworkers. Like other games on this list, Spreadsheet Wars is a combination of fun and skill-building, which makes it perfect for remote teams and offices.
To play, use a collaborative spreadsheet program like Google Sheets and select a theme like “choose your own adventure” or “scrappy recipe generator.” Each team then has up to 30 minutes to build a tool that matches the theme. The best tool wins, and really everyone wins because you are getting better at using one of the most powerful free tools on the internet.
Because Spreadsheet Wars doesn’t rely on any specific video conferencing platform, you can use it for games on Webex, Slack games, MS Teams games, and other platforms.
18. A World of Risk
Growing up, one of my favorite games to play was Risk, the game of global domination that meshes perfectly with my own aspirations. Risk is a game of cutthroat collaboration, friendly competition, resource management and other strategic dynamics that make it perfect for team building online.
The most flexible way to play Risk-like team games online is to use one of the many clones, for example, Conquer Club, which provides a free browser-based game.
Here are more online board games to play at work.
19. Sudoku Throw-down
In the early 2000s, Sudoku took the world by storm, inspiring nerds everywhere to complete numerical logic games instead of the daily crossword. Today, you can play a version of Sudoku for online team building called Sudoku Throw-down.
Here is how it works:
- Send everyone on your team a free game board from a site like Web Sudoku.
- Challenge each player to complete the game board as quickly as possible.
- The first player to complete the game board with 100% accuracy is the winner.
For Sudoku Throw-down, you can easily up the competitive spirit by including prizes for the top three finishers. I recommend nerd-friendly prizes like more Sudoku puzzles, science kits, and whiteboards.
Here are more problem solving games.
20. Something in Common (Icebreaker)
Something in common is an icebreaker game that works on video conference calls and similar. To play, first organize your attendees into manageable-sized groups of four or five people and gently push them into breakout rooms. Each group has the goal of finding three similarities they have in common with other members of that group. For example, “We all have cats, no one was born in Chicago, and we loved Hamilton.”
For the next round, keep the same teams and add a restriction that you can’t mention locations or physical similarities. For the round after that, remove pets and preferences. The goal is to make the game increasingly difficult and encourage your remote team to deep dive into what they may have in common.
Check out our list of icebreaker games for large groups for more ideas.
21. Quick Draw
Pictionary is a fun game where some people draw while other people guess what the drawing could be. This game is one of the top examples of team games online that includes elements of improv, creative thinking, competition, and more.
You can play online games for virtual teams that are similar to Pictionary:
- Divide your people into breakout rooms.
- Have each person in each room draw three clues. You can use this random word generator do return three nouns.
- Teams accumulate 1 point for each drawing someone on the team guesses correctly. Teams get no points for any clues that players skip or do not guess correctly.
- After 15 minutes, return everyone to the main room and compare scores.
You can play Quick Draw over Zoom, Webex, and other virtual conference call platforms. You can also mix up the game and rules by varying the number of clues each person draws and drawing verbs instead of nouns.
22. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition
Truth or Dare is a kind of NSFW game that is a fan favorite of students across Canada, America, and other parts of the world. Truth or Dare: Remote Work Edition takes those popular game mechanics and optimizes them for team building online.
Here is a tool to generate random truth prompts:
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And this one creates random dares:
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The major guideline for Truth or Dare is to keep the questions and prompts friendly.
Here is a list with more question games.
23. Jackbox Games
A year or two ago, I played Jackbox Games with Tasia, Ethan, and some other close friends. The game prompted me to lie about “How many beers did you have last night?”, and that was game over for Michael “prefers tea” Alexis.
Still, Jackbox Games provides options you can use for online team building games. The game options include trivia and similar, and the virtual games to play with coworkers have some unexpected and creative dynamics. To play online, everyone logs into a website via a special URL.
Learn more about Jackbox Games.
24. Yellow Submarine (Unique)
When I lived in NYC, two dudes at the metro station would play the same two Beatles’ songs over and over. If the train was late and people were standing on the platform longer, sometimes the two dudes would stop playing for a bit. Neither of those songs was Yellow Submarine.
Yellow Submarine is also an online team building game you can play with remote teams. Here is how:
- Each of your remote employees needs to craft a submarine. You can use paper, magazine cutouts, or nearly anything else to craft your ship.
- Players get one point every time they show the submarine on a video conference call. You can hide the submarine in the background, have it float up from the bottom of the screen, camouflage it into your outfit, or any other incognito method.
- You get one point each time you show the submarine.
- If someone spots your submarine, then you are out. You still get one point for showing your submarine that time.
- Continue playing until everyone is out, and then tally up the points and name a Yellow Submarine Captain.
The mechanics work for online team games because the incentive is for each player to show their submarine as many times as they can. If you wait it out, then you may be one of the last players in the game, but you will also need to catch up on points.
25. Nintendo Game Night
A few years ago, video game cafes took the world by storm. The idea of going to play Mario Kart or Goldeneye 007 while someone delivers you nachos and beer was a strong pull.
You can host a Nintendo Game Night for your team by using an emulator. The emulator allows you to play team building games online via most modern web browsers. Choose a game like Excitebike, Popeye, or Ice Hockey, and host a tournament to see who gets the most points. You should probably make the game night “bring your own nachos.”
Learn more at Emulator.online and start planning your virtual team building games.
26. Ten Strikes (Quick & Easy)
Ten Strikes is a fun icebreaker game for groups, so it’s a good way to get to know new team members or to build deeper relationships with existing teams.
Here is how to play:
- All participants hold up 10 fingers.
- The youngest person on the call goes first and shares one true statement about themselves. For example, “I have a pen pal.”
- Anyone that the statement is true for gets to keep their fingers up, while anyone that the statement is not true for puts one finger down.
- If all of a player’s fingers are down, then they are out of the game.
- Play until only one player remains.
The strategy in Ten Strikes is to share facts about yourself that are unique enough that other players will not be able to say it is true of them and will have to put fingers down.
Pro tip: You can also play Five Strikes or Twenty Strikes. Generally the more fingers and toes you start with, the longer the game will go.
27. The Question Game
The Question Game is a fun and free online team building activity that requires no prep or special equipment. To start playing, ask someone a question, and that person must respond with a question directed back at you or another participant. If you delay for five seconds, then you are out. If you speak without forming a question, then you are out too. 🙂
Here is an example of how this game might go:
- Ally: “It’s a beautiful day, don’t you think Jackie?”
- Jackie: “What do you think makes it beautiful, Michael?”
- Michael: “Sorry, I was writing a blog article.”
In this example, I would be 100% out of the game. A more clever Michael would have said, “Sorry, what was that, Jackie?” and kept moving the game forward.
28. Online Escape Games
Escape games are a popular group activity in person and are increasingly popular online team building games too. These virtual escape games provide opportunities for teamwork, collaboration, and developing team building skills. There are dozens of options to choose from, including free or DIY escape rooms and fully facilitated ones.
Check out this list of online escape rooms for more ideas.
29. Online Murder Mysteries
Virtual murder mysteries are similar to online escape rooms but generally have more theatrical flair. Typically, you either download scripts and choose actors on your team or hire an outside company to perform the murder mystery for you. These online murder mysteries tend to have fun themes that match holidays, entertainment, and other interests.
Here is a list of online murder mystery games.
30. Virtual Game Shows
Game shows are a ubiquitous part of growing up. Your team members have likely seen and maybe even participated in shows like Price is Right, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? You can play online versions of these game shows with remote teams. These games are fun since they are familiar, a little nostalgic, and easy to match with prizes.
Check out our list of virtual game show ideas and this on on how to play Jeopardy online.
31. Lexulous “Scrabble” Style Game (Free)
Lexulous is one of several free team games online that is modeled after Scrabble. The main difference is that Lexulous has eight tiles in play at a time, and the value assigned to each letter is a little different.
You can easily include Lexulous in your options for online games to play with coworkers. You can keep track of points and total scores over a month and award a Lexulous champion at the end.
32. Virtual Crime Scene Investigation
Virtual crime scene investigation games are great for online team building because they involve problem-solving, clue-following, and teamwork. Participants will race against the clock to find clues and answer the ultimate questions: who is the killer, how did it happen, and why?
Here is a list of ideas for virtual crime scene investigation games.
Conclusion
Playing fun team games online is a great way to do team building and create meaningful relationships with coworkers while working from home.
You can play the online team building games on this list, create your own, or check out other resources for more ideas. Be sure to check out our lists of online group games, online games for large groups, and offline team building games too.
With online team building, the most important element is that you dedicate some time to games because all work and no play makes for a pretty dull time.
Next, check out our lists of fun games to play on Zoom, Zoom team building games, Google Meet games, and this one with virtual game night activities.
We also have a list of the best team building activities for conference calls, the best free virtual team building games/activities, the best free online office games, and the best virtual team challenges.
Michael Alexis