The Best Free and Paid Zoom Games to Play with Colleagues

14 min readMay 31, 2021

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.

Since the pandemic started, Zoom has gone from 10 million daily meeting participants to over 300 million today.

And while there’s no doubt that a whole lot of the platform’s estimated 42 billion annualized webinar minutes were attributed to work, it’s a safe bet that significant portion were 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 23 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.

15 Amazing Zoom Games to Play for Free

The great thing about playing Zoom games with your colleagues 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 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!

2. Five Things

Get your creative juices flowing, use your imagination, and have a whole lot of laughs with this improv-based Zoom game to play with your workgroup.

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:

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 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.

4. Something in Common

Something in Common is one of the best icebreaker games you can play on Zoom. 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 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 164 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 Zoom games to play with your colleagues.

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 deciding 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 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!

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 these 83 question examples.

12. Cards

Who doesn’t love a good game of Go Fish or Crazy Eights? They’re a ton of fun! But not games you can 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 online!

Well, it’s not the original version, but it’s 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

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.

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

The 10 Best Paid Zoom Games to Play with Colleagues

1. Virtual Escape Room: Jewel Heist

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

Escape rooms might not be the first things that come to mind when you think about Zoom games to play with your colleagues. 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 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.

4. 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!

5. 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.

6. QuizBreaker

Are you looking for ways to make virtual team building a recurring activity? With Quizbreaker, you can deliver scheduled team building quizzes to your team’s inbox, anytime you want. Quizbreaker delivers up to 100 predeveloped icebreaker questions to your team members via email. Then, colleagues are tasked with trying to guess the correct answers in gamified quiz rounds sent out on autopilot to help teammates get to know each other better and to have fun in the process.

Socializing with your remote colleagues online is a great way to strengthen bonds, get some interaction, and keep everyone’s morale high. And finding fun Zoom games to play can help make these virtual get-togethers even more fun.

Do you have any Zoom games to play with your teammates that we might’ve missed? If so, let us know what it is in the comments section below!

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!

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.

Originally published at https://www.outbackteambuilding.com on May 31, 2021.