The Best Free and Paid Zoom Games to Play with Colleagues

If you’re one of the 300 million daily meeting participants on Zoom, you’ve probably wondered about Zoom games to play with colleagues during virtual social time. Look no further! We’ve got you covered.  

Updated: June 20, 2022

The pandemic really supercharged global use of Zoom, both for meetings but also for Zoom games for work. In fact, it went from 10 million daily meeting participants to over 300 million today.  

And while there’s no doubt that a whole lot of the video conferencing platform’s estimated 42 billion annualized webinar minutes were attributed to work, it’s a safe bet that a significant portion was dedicated to socialization between colleagues. 

Now, we can’t say how fun and engaging that virtual socialization time truly was, but what we can say is this: with these 31 virtual team building Zoom games to play with colleagues, those on-screen get-togethers and virtual happy hours will be a lot more fun going forward.  

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16 Amazing Virtual Games to Play on Zoom for Free  

The great thing about looking for games to play on Zoom with coworkers is that there are a ton of options you can do for free. 

1. Home Scavenger Hunt 

Who says you can’t have a scavenger hunt without leaving your house? For this online Zoom game, create a list of items or characteristics. Then, jump on Zoom with your colleagues and take turns challenging each other to find something that matches and to show it onscreen. 

For example, you could ask them to find something that: 

• Is multicolored 
• Smells good 
• Starts with the first letter in your name 

The possibilities are endless! For each item your colleagues find, they get a point. At the end of the round, the person with the most points is the winner! 

You can even take your home scavenger hunt to the next level by sending your participants an at-home care package full of healthy snacks (no more running to the kitchen in the middle of the event!) 

The employee care experts at Caroo curate one-of-a-kind care packages filled with your company’s swag, healthy and delicious snacks, personalized messages, and other unique goodies that can be sent to your coworkers’ doorsteps the day of your next Zoom event. 

Take this 60-second quiz to find the best care package for your team. 

2. Five Things 

Get your creative juices flowing, use your imagination, and have a whole lot of laughs with this improv-based team building game on Zoom. 

First, decide on who will start. That person then names a topic and a person. The person who’s been named has 15 seconds to list five specific items within that topic. 

For example, you could pick a topic like “athletics” and pick John to answer. He could then pick things like: 

• Football 
• Stadiums 
• Figure skating  
• Fitness 
• Workouts 

Then, John would pick the next topic and the next colleague to answer.  

3. Would I Lie To You? 

This is a hilarious Zoom game to play with your colleagues and it’s based on a popular show from the United Kingdom. It’s a bit like Two Truths and a Lie, but slightly more involved.  

Here’s how it works. 

Split your virtual event attendees into two teams. Then, you’ll need to use Zoom’s breakout room functionality so that the two teams are able to confer in private.  

Together, each team taking part in this virtual game to play on Zoom will have to come up with an outrageous and unbelievable story to share with the other group. This can be either completely fabricated or a real-life story. 

Once both teams have decided on their story (we suggest setting a time limit), jump back into your main Zoom session. 

Next, alternate back and forth between teams, with each player asking one question to test the believability of the other team’s story.  

Once each person has asked their question, head back into the breakout rooms so the teams can discuss whether or not they believe the other team’s story.  

Finally, head back to the main room and vote accordingly. Each team that guesses correctly gets a point and you can do as many rounds as you want.  

Looking for other ways to discover more about your colleagues’ quirks and personalities? Ask them a few of these 131 would you rather questions for work.

4. Something in Common 

Something in Common is one of the best zoom games to play with coworkers. It’s a fun way to help colleagues get to know each other in a lighthearted environment. 

To play, you’ll want to set up breakout rooms for your colleagues. Ideally, you don’t want any more than five people per room. 

Then, you’ll split your team members up into groups to talk amongst each other and find the most unique thing they have in common. You can make each round slightly more challenging than the last by adding parameters like finding the most unique commonality excluding physical traits or places or adding categories like education or hobbies.  

There are no winners in this Zoom team building game, per se, but ultimately everyone wins because they walk away with closer bonds with their colleagues. 

If you’re into icebreakers, you should check out our list of 300 icebreaker questions designed for work groups, which will give you a ton of inspiration for fun questions to ask to get to know your teammates better. 

5. Blackout Truth or Dare 

This is a fun Zoom game to play with colleagues, and it’ll probably wind up with you finding out some hilarious facts about your professional peers.  

Here’s how to play. 

First, you need to pick a “dare master.”  

The dare master will go to each player, asking whether they want a truth or a dare, then deciding what said truth or dare will be. 

If a player doesn’t want to respond or do the dare, they have to turn their camera off. Then, the dare master will move on to the next person.  

The game goes on until only one camera remains on! Then, the winner becomes the new dare master.  

6. Codenames 

If you’ve ever played the in-person version of Codenames, you know just how fun and high-energy it can be. And if you haven’t, don’t worry. It’s one of the best online games to play on Zoom. 

And best of all, there’s a free online version of Codenames available.  

Codenames is a game that involves splitting into two teams and having each team guess which words in a set are related to a hint-word given by a teammate (known as the spymaster). So, start by dividing your teams—the red team and the blue team. 

When you’re playing this game virtually, have one player who is not a spymaster share their screen. As players attempt to guess which cards their spymaster hints at, send teams off into breakout rooms so that they can discuss their strategy. Whichever team successfully guesses all cards with their color first wins the game. 

7. Guess Who? 

If you and your colleagues love getting nostalgic, then this digital version of Guess Who is the perfect Zoom game for you. 

Before you get started, one person will need to start a room invite everyone to.  

Here’s how: 

• Click the link to open the game 
• Follow the prompts to get started 
• At the game screen, click the little button at the bottom right with the globe on it 
• Create a nickname 
• Create a room 

Once that’s done, your colleagues can also create a nickname and join your room. 

The premise of the game is simple: you’re assigned a character and your colleagues have to guess which ones you are through a series of questions. Make sure no screens are shared so that nothing is given away!   

8. Bet on the Crowd 

Here’s a fun Zoom game to play using the platform’s polling feature which allows you to ask for attendee opinions and instantly display the results.  

Creating a poll is fairly simple. This article from Zoom will teach you what you need to do. 

To play, participants will vote on a question or series of questions. This could be anything, like: 

• Coffee or tea? 
• Summer or winter? 
• Mountains or beach? 

For each question, have your colleagues respond to the poll with their answer and, before revealing the responses, ask your teammates to bet on which answer will be the most popular. 

Whichever teammate correctly predicts the majority wins the round. If there’s a tie, you can do a tiebreaker round.  

Pro tip: To keep everyone honest, have them write down their response before you reveal the right answer. 

You can play multiple rounds, assigning points for the winner of each, and you can even consider giving a prize to the teammate with the most points. 

9. Taboo 

Another classic game that’s been turned into a free digital version is Taboo. If you’ve never played Taboo before, the rules are simple: you’ll need to identify a word by explaining what it is but without using the word itself or a number of related words. 

To start, split your group up into two teams, take turns sharing screens, and choose someone each round to be a clue-giver. 

Each team will get a card that features one main word and five other words. The clue-giver will then have to guide their team to identify the main word. 

Here’s where it gets interesting: you’ll only have 60 seconds to identify the word and you won’t be able to use any of the other words on the card to describe it. If you do, you’re disqualified!  

Keep track of how many words each team guesses correctly and decide how many rounds you want to play.  

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!  

10. Name, Place, Animal, Thing 

This is a popular kids’ game so there’s a good chance you’ve played it before. But, if not, the rules are simple: to play, pick a letter from the alphabet. Once selected, each player must list a famous person’s name, a place, an animal and a thing starting with that letter. The first person – or group – to type them into the Zoom chat function wins. 

11. 21 Questions 

If you’re looking for a Zoom game to play with your colleagues that will help you all get to know each other better, 21 Questions is great. 

To get things started, have everyone come up with a list of 21 questions. Once they’ve done that, roll a die. Have the person with the lowest number answer first and the person with the highest number ask their questions first.  

When you’re asking questions, start easy, then move on to the harder or more risqué questions.  

You can ask things like: 

• You only get three words to describe yourself—what are they? 
• What habit are you proudest of breaking?  
• What’s the weirdest nickname you’ve ever had? 

If you’re looking for more inspiration, check out this comprehensive list of 300 ice breaker questions. 

12. Cards 

Who doesn’t love a good game of Go Fish or Crazy Eights? They’re a ton of fun! But not virtual games to play on Zoom, right? 

Wrong! 

At PlayingCards.io you can play more than 30 classic card games online with your colleagues.  

13. Cards Against Humanity 

Remember Cards Against Humanity? It was pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh, blush, and squirm. 

And now, it’s available as a virtual game to play on Zoom!  

Well, it’s not the original version, but All Bad Cards offers a very similar game that you can play for free with your workgroup on Zoom. 

The rules are simple:  

Every player gets a set of cards that have a word or short phrase on them. Then, one randomly chosen player (known as the Card Czar) picks a card that features a sentence with a blank word in it. Then, all the other players choose which of their words best fills in the blank in the sentence. 

This can be funny, gross, serious—the idea is to know what will play best with the person with the “fill-in-the-blank” card. 

Why? 

Because once everyone has submitted their answers, the Card Czar will read all the answers aloud and pick their favorite. Then, whoever’s word is chosen as the winner keeps that word card, and the next person becomes the Card Czar. 

Whoever has the most word cards at the end of the game wins. 

14. Taboo 

Another classic game that’s been turned into a free digital version is Taboo. If you’ve never played Taboo before, the rules are simple: you’ll need to identify a word by explaining what it is but without using the word itself or a number of related words. 

To start, split your group up into two teams, take turns sharing screens, and choose someone each round to be a clue-giver. 

Each team will get a card that features one main word and five other words. The clue-giver will then have to guide their team to identifying the main word. 

Here’s where it gets interesting: you’ll only have 60 seconds to identify the word and you won’t be able to use any of the other words on the card to describe it. If you do, you’re disqualified!  

Keep track of how many words each team guesses correctly and decide how many rounds you want to play.  

The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!  

15. Name, Place, Animal, Thing 

This is a popular kids’ game so there’s a good chance you’ve played it before. But, if not, the rules are simple: to play, pick a letter from the alphabet. Once selected, each player must list a famous person’s name, a place, an animal , and a thing starting with that letter. The first person – or group – to type them into the Zoom chat function wins. 

16. Trivia Games for Zoom 

Believe it or not, trivia is actually good for our minds. Science has proven that knowing obscure things is good for our mental health. 

So, that also makes it a great type of team building game for Zoom.

Here are a few free trivia games you can try.

DIY Trivia 

If you’re looking to simply host your own virtual trivia game, you might want to check out our list of 270 trivia questions and answers for workgroups, which includes:

Question: What was the first feature-length animated movie ever released? 

Answer: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 

Question: In which winter sport are the terms “stale fish” and “mule kick” used? 

Answer: Snowboarding 

Question: How did lone assassin George Elser attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1939? 

Answer: A time bomb 

Question: Which planet is closest in size to Earth? 

Answer: Venus 

You’ll find 267 other questions falling into categories including:

• 66 Entertainment Trivia Questions and Answers
• 23 Sports Trivia Questions and Answers
• 33 Geography Trivia Questions and Answers
• 22 Politics Trivia Questions and Answers and Answers
• 21 History Trivia Questions and Answers
• 25 Food Trivia Questions and Answers
• 20 Science, Space, and Technology Trivia Questions and Answers
• 20 Nature Trivia Questions and Answers
• 20 Holiday Trivia Questions and Answers
• 20 Health Trivia Questions and Answers

And with these questions, your virtual trivia party will be a hit with your colleagues.

Games on Houseparty   

Houseparty is a face-to-face social networking app that gained a ton of popularity last year. And, although this group video chat platform may seem like just another FaceTime or Skype, Houseparty comes with some unique social features – namely virtual trivia games!   

With Houseparty’s virtual trivia options, you can choose from 18 different decks that cover a range of topics that test your coworkers’ trivia knowledge.  

The 13 Best Paid Team Building Games on Zoom

If you want to level up your Zoom get-together, these paid games add a whole new dimension of fun and engagement.  

1. Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist 

Escape rooms might not be the first things that come to mind when you think about Zoom games for work. But they can be a whole ton of fun!  

With Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist, you and your team will need to retrieve a bounty of stolen jewels by uncovering hidden clues and solving a series of brain-boggling challenges. You’ll need to exercise collaboration, creative problem-solving, and outside-the-box thinking to track them down. But you’ll have to be quick! The clock is ticking before the stolen score is gone forever.  

2. Psych! 

If your team likes the game Heads Up, then they’ll love Psych (which was actually created by the same people who made Heads Up)! With this game, you’ll choose from a variety of fun categories in which each player makes up fake answers to real trivia questions. It’ll be up to you and your colleagues to choose the outrageous real answer among all of the fakes! 

3. Virtual Beach Staycation

We’re all in desperate need of a vacation. Luckily, Captain Furling has room for you and your colleagues on his virtually chartered yacht. Come aboard and transport to your “inner Cancun” for a tropical online team building adventure.

4. Virtual Happy Hour Trivia

Get together with your team and take a trip to “Hamish McDuff’s” virtual pub. This hilarious Scottish pub owner is the legendary host of a trivia game that is perfect for your team’s virtual happy hour fun! 

Hamish will host two rounds of virtual pub trivia, featuring four themed categories of your choice. With 20 category options to choose from, you’ll be sure to find the perfect themes for your remote team – from Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader to Sports, Food & Drink, or even Celebrity Real Estate. 

With pub soundscapes, visual surprises, and warm-hearted humor, Hamish McDuff makes your guests feel like they just had a memorable happy hour with friends in a real pub, like the good ol’ days. 

This virtual pub trivia game is guaranteed to produce plenty of laughs and lift team “spirits.” It might even include a few special surprises. 

And if you’re looking for even more ways to make your get-together extra fun, check out this list of virtual happy hour games for workgroups. There are more than 35 to choose from.

5. Virtual Team Pursuit  

Help your remote team get re-energized by tackling fun virtual challenges with their colleagues. In groups, your remote employees will tackle a series of mental, physical, skill, and mystery challenges, earning points for each one successfully completed. Whichever has the most points when time runs out will be crowned the winners!   

6. Virtual Clue Murder Mystery  

Using video conferencing software alongside Outback’s proprietary app, your group will split into teams, examine clues, review case files, and channel their inner detectives as they race against the clock to solve the mystery of who had the means, motive, and opportunity to murder Neil Davidson.   

7. Virtual Game Show Extravaganza  

In this virtual activity, teams will work collaboratively to answer trivia questions with topics ranging from pop culture to sports, world history, and beyond. Teams will earn points for each correct answer. Whichever team has the most points when time runs out will be named the winner!    

8. Virtual Trivia Championship 

Does your team have what it takes to win the Virtual Trivia Championship? In this virtual trivia team building activity, your colleagues will break into teams and turn the competition level up to ten as you challenge your wits, test your knowledge, and work your way through a list of trivia questions ranging from cities to movies, songs, objects, and even a round of Jeopardy-style challenges.   

To climb to the top of the leaderboard, you’ll need to earn points for each trivia question your team answers correctly. Between each high-energy trivia round, all teams will regroup to discuss notable submissions and engage in a spirited discussion about the answers.  

9. Virtual Social Shuffle   

Get to know your colleagues and build better connections with this ultra-social virtual team building activity for remote groups. Your group will learn fun facts about one another as you tackle a series of themed challenges together and engage in exploratory conversations.   

10. Virtual Trivia Time Machine

Step into the Outback Time Machine and take a trip through time, from pre-pandemic 21st century through the decades all the way to the 60’s. 

This exciting, fast-paced virtual trivia game, packed with nostalgia and good vibes, is guaranteed to produce big laughs, friendly competition, and maybe even some chair-dancing. 

Your virtual game show host will warm up guests with a couple of “table hopper rounds” (breakout room mixers) and split you out into teams. Within minutes, your home office will be transformed into a game show stage with your very own game show buzzers! 

11. Water Cooler Trivia

If you’re trying to find fun and unique ways to keep your team engaged on an ongoing basis, Water Cooler Trivia is a great way to do it. Water Cooler Trivia integrates into your email, Slack, or Microsoft Teams channels and automatically sends trivia quizzes directly to your team members on a weekly basis. You can choose the trivia schedule and categories, and Water Cooler Trivia will write the questions, automate their distribution, and grade the results for you.

12. Virtual Jeoparty Social

If your remote team is eager to socialize, have some fun as a group, and channel their competitive spirit, we’ve got just the thing for you! With Virtual Jeoparty Social, you and your colleagues will step into your very own virtual Jeopardy-style game show—equipped with a buzzer button, a professional actor as your host, and an immersive game show platform! Best of all, this game has been infused with an ultra-social twist: players will take part in a unique social mixer challenge between each round. 

13. Virtual Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse

In this virtual escape room experience, your team will be transported into a pyramid cursed by a restless mummy. You’ll have to work together to uncover clues and solve complex challenges to lift the ancient curse.

5 Virtual Team Building Activities for Office Holiday Parties

The holidays are a perfect time to virtually gather with your colleagues to celebrate, be jolly, and share in some laughs. And holiday-themed virtual team building activities you can play on Zoom are a great way to do that.

Here are four options you’ll love.

1. Virtual Holiday Hijinks   

If you and your team love a high-energy group activity, then Holiday Hijinks is perfect for you. 

Celebrate the holidays with this festive holiday-themed team building activity that’s all about working collaboratively to tackle a variety of holiday-themed physical, cerebral, and skills-based challenges. 

In this activity, your group will split into teams. Each team will race against the clock and try to outpace the competition as they earn points for completing challenges, such as:  

• Cookie Conundrum – Luke made 42 holiday cookies. He brought half of them to his office. He ate one third of the cookies that were left. Then he gave 8 cookies to his neighbor. He left the rest of the cookies out for Santa. How many cookies did Santa get?  
  
  
• Elf Yourself – Each team member needs to create the most unique gift you can using only the items available to you. Snap a photo of everyone showcasing their gifts.  
  
  
• Junk Yard Jingle – Record a 5-second video of a teammate creating the beat to a holiday song using objects found around your house or office. Be sure to practice getting your notes right as the instrumental version has to be in tune!  

You’ll need to be mindful, though. Each challenge is worth a different number of points based on its level of difficulty, so you’ll need to keep a close eye on the leaderboard and tackle challenges strategically if your team wants to be crowned Holiday Hijinks Champions! 

2. Virtual Yuletide Showdown

Looking for a way to ring in the holiday season with your team while exercising communication and collaboration skills, having a lot of laughs, and creating bonds with your colleagues? 

Then Yuletide Showdown is the perfect activity for you.  

In this fast-paced and high-energy virtual team building activity, you and your colleagues will race the clock, competing to unlock six different challenge categories: Sounds of Christmas, Holiday Trivia, Holiday Characters, Holiday Pictionary, Festive Scavenger Hunt, and Holiday-Style Who-Dun-It.  

Then, you’ll need to strategically complete challenges, keeping a close eye on the real-time leaderboard and staying one step ahead of the competition.  

3. Elf’s Virtual Merry Mingler

As the holidays get underway, sometimes all you and your colleagues want to do is celebrate the season and spend quality time together. And with Elf’s Virtual Merry Mingler, that’s exactly what you’ll do. 

Set in a venue in Santa’s North Pole village, this virtual holiday team building activity is made up of a series of social mixer activities that are all about sharing a laugh, creating some positive festive energy, and letting teammates enjoy each other’s company—regardless of the geographical distance between them.

4. Frost’s Virtual Holiday Trivia

The holiday season is all about coming together and celebrating! So, in Frost’s Virtual Holiday Trivia, you and your team will be invited to join the Frosts in the lounge of their brand-new ice hotel. 

While you’re there, you’ll compete through three rounds of holiday and winter-themed trivia questions, earning points for each one answered correctly. But the fun doesn’t stop there! You’ll also become better acquainted with your colleagues as you take part in a round of Frost’s Icebreaker Questions. 

5. Virtual St. Patrick’s Day Happy Hour

One thing’s for sure. St. Patrick’s Day brings out the Irish in all of our hearts, no matter where we are in the world! So, this year, gather your remote team and celebrate Celtic culture with St. Patrick’s Day Virtual Happy Hour, an immersive, interactive, and highly engaging virtual experience hosted by a professional actor. Together, you’ll face a series of Celtic-themed challenges, including a buzzin’ Irish trivia game, a Famous Irish Faces challenge, an Irish-themed “Would You Rather” conversation game, and even a few Irish pub song-based memory challenges. 

Zoom Trivia Game Ideas for Workgroups

When it comes to team building games on Zoom, there are few activities more fun and easier to organize than a trivia night.

The hardest part of pulling these activities together is finding the perfect trivia questions and answers, but we’ve got some ideas you’ll love, including:

Question: What was the first feature-length animated movie ever released? 

Answer: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 

Question: In which winter sport are the terms “stale fish” and “mule kick” used? 

Answer: Snowboarding 

Question: What is the only state in the United States that does not have a flag in a shape with 4 edges? 

Answer: Ohio 

Question: How many time zones does Russia have? 

Answer: 11 

Question: Who ran for President of the United States with the campaign slogan “A chicken in every pot and a car in every garage”? 

Answer: Herbert Hoover 

Question: One of the ancient world wonders, the “Hanging Gardens,” was found in which city? 

Answer: Babylon 

If you liked these but you’re looking for even more, you’ll love our full list of 270 trivia questions and answers for workgroups. We’ve also got a list of 13 incredible virtual trivia games for work teams that you might find helpful.

No matter the occasion, Zoom has made it easy to connect with your remote colleagues for some much-needed facetime together.

What’s your favorite Zoom game to play with your remote colleagues? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Learn More About Virtual Team Building Zoom Games to Play with Your Colleagues       

If you’ve got questions about how virtual team building can make for the perfect Zoom game, reach out to an Employee Engagement Consultant.   

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