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• Zoom has emerged as the go-to virtual collaboration platform in the past few months. It has also become the go-to choice for friends and family looking to catch up with each other. There are many games and activities that you can play over Zoom and one of them is Bingo. Bingo is one of the oldest and most popular games that is loved by people.

As the COVID19 pandemic continues to keep extended families, youth groups, and church friends physically separate, here are some games to enjoy via video conference (Zoom, FaceTime, Google Hangout).

These games can be used as stand alone events or as part of larger programs, for example as a meeting ice breaker or part of a youth group gathering. Either way, if you are using games in a church context we encourage you to include a formation element. You might begin with a prayer and brief check in (tell us your name, one thing you are mourning today, and one thing giving you hope) or you might end with Compline (here’s a Google Slide deck of Compline ready to use).

Bingo

Bingo is simple & extremely intergenerational. It translates well to Zoom and requires basically no prep work.

Suggested Age Range: 3 Years-Older Adult
Tips & Ideas: I generally do 4-5 rounds with my intergenerational group. The first three winners get prizes (a $5 gift card for ice cream in the mail). We close with Compline led by volunteers from the group.
Resources: My group uses these free printable bingo cards. The first time we played, I sent cards in the mail to families. But these can also be printed at home. The “Traditional Cards” offers 75 unique cards. I’ve been using a physical bingo board and spinner to call the numbers, but you can also use an online bingo number generator like this one.

Pictionary

In Pictionary one player draws a picture of a word/phrase that the other plays have not seen. Other players try to guess the word/phrase based on the drawing.

Suggested Age Range: Lower Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: My group used the whiteboard feature of Zoom. I made everyone a co-host so they could pull up the whiteboard when it was their turn. I sent words via text, but they could also be sent privately in the chat. We did not keep score.
Resources: This Pictionary word generator worked well for my group. As the moderator, I picked slightly easier words for our youngest players and used the “hard” or “really hard” category for adults.

Scattergories

Scattergories is a quick thinking game that draws out players creativity. Players number a piece of paper 1-5. They are given a letter of the alphabet and five categories. They have 90 seconds to fill in all five categories with words/phrases that start with the chosen letter. Players are awarded points for each unique answer.

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: This game was a huge hit with a middle school group at church as well as a group of six adult friends.
Resources: Here’s a Google Slide Deck version of the game. Or you can share your screen and play this online version that offers 11 categories per round. If you want to roll letters for each round, here’s a Scattergories dice and timer.

Jeopardy

Jeopardy is a great game for accessing a groups knowledge on a particular topic (for example, the season of Lent), but the topics can also be purely fun (for example, music, gardening, TV shows).

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Adult
Tips & Ideas: Assign a score keeper. Make sure you keep track of which categories have already been picked (for example, liturgical season for 200).
Resources: Here’s a template to make your own Jeopardy game using Google Slides. Here’s a keynote presentation with categories relating to the seasons of the church year.

Lamentations or Taylor Swift Lyric

Participants in “Lamentations or Taylor Swift Lyric” are presented with a quote and asked to decide if it is a passage from the book of Lamentations or a lyric from a Taylor Swift song.

Suggested Age Range: Middle School-Young Adult
Tips & Ideas: Depending on the size of your group, this can be played in teams or by voting using the poll feature in Zoom.
Resources: This game is available from Download Youth Ministries for $4.00 per powerpoint. There are four versions available for purchase here.

Balderdash

In Balderdash, participants are presented with an obscure word or person. Each player makes up a definition or reason the person is famous. The moderator reads all the answers to the group, mixing in the real answer. Everyone votes on the correct answer. Participants are awarded points for guessing correctly as well as for fooling others with their fake answers.

Suggested Age Range: Middle School-Adult
Tips & Ideas: For this game it is easiest to have everyone on a separate device so they can message the host separately using private chat. Alternatively, each player can text the host if everyone has a cell phone. If you have a large group, have someone make a list of the answers in the chat so everyone can vote more easily or use the poll feature in Zoom.
Resources: You can play using this Google Slide deck or share your screen and play this online version.

Digital Escape Room

Sydney Krawiec, a Youth Services Librarian in McMurray, PA creatively used Google Forms to create a Harry Potter themed digital escape room! The storyline is compelling and the challenges include math and geography. It might take a group about 20 minutes.

Suggested Age Range: Upper Elementary-Middle School
Tips & Ideas: This game works well with screen share and someone reading each page. Players may want to have paper and pen available.
Resources: Here’s the link to this escape room!

This page includes a list of the best virtual games to play on Zoom.

Zoom games are fun activities played over video call. For example, Lightning Scavenger Hunts, Conference Call Bingo, and Guess Who?. These games tend to involve Zoom features like breakout rooms, white boards, screen sharing and reactions. Usually these games are free or low cost. The purpose of these games is to have fun, relax and do team building at work.

These games are a subcategory of video call games and are useful for virtual game nights and team building online.

This list includes:

• Zoom games for adults
• online games to play on Zoom
• fun games to play on Zoom with coworkers
• Zoom party games for large groups

And more too.

So, let’s get started!

List of Zoom games

From scavenger hunts to word games and more, here is a list of fun games to play on Zoom.

1. Lightning Scavenger Hunts ⚡

For Lightning Scavenger Hunts, create a list of items or characteristics. Then, on a Zoom call, challenge your coworkers to gather the items and show them on screen to earn points. You can encourage winners of each round to share stories about the item.

Here is an example of items to find:

• Something red.
• Your favorite mug.
• Whatever is in the pockets of your winter jacket.
• The thing you have had the longest.
• A book that you did not enjoy.
• Your must unusual key chain item.

You can get creative with your hunt; the more obscure the objects the better.

Here are some sample scavenger hunts to start with, and more virtual minute to win it games.

2. Zoom “Conference Call” Bingo

Bingo has a number of advantages for team building on Zoom, including a familiar format, fun game mechanics and the potential for prizes. Your team will love it 🙂

Here is a free Zoom Bingo Board you can use:

To play Bingo games over Zoom, distribute the game board and then encourage your coworkers to track their progress throughout the virtual conference call. The first player to complete a row gets a prize.

Zoom Bingo is a version of Online Team Building Bingo.

3. Zoom Trivia

Zoom Trivia tests your team’s knowledge on a variety of random topics. To play this game, compile a list of trivia questions and answers. Then, split your coworkers into groups, and assign a Zoom breakout room to each one. Each time you pose a question, send groups to their respective breakout room. Whichever team returns with the correct answer first earns a point.

Here are some trivia questions you start with:

And here is an entire guide to doing trivia online.

4. Online Office Games (Popular)

Online Office Games is a series of competitive games and challenges played over Zoom. For example, game types include “Can You Hear Me Now?”, virtual trivia, and rapid Bingo.

The event is 90 minutes and fully facilitated by world class hosts. The entire event is optimized for fun, engagement, and team building. We have run Online Office Games for teams at Google, Amazon and hundreds of other organizations.

Learn more about Online Office Games.

5. Five Things

Five Things is an improv game you can play over Zoom to encourage team building. Here is how to play:

1. Name a topic and a person. That person has 15 seconds to name five specific items within the topic.
2. That player then chooses another topic and player to continue.

For example, you could choose a topic like “aliens” and name your coworker, Peter, to answer. Peter would have 15 seconds to name five aliens, which could be “ALF, Marvin the Martian, Spock, Yoda and Ford Prefect.”

6. Something in Common

Something in Common is one of the best icebreaker games you can play on Zoom. The purpose of the game is to help improve employee engagement by connecting people with similarities.

• For round one, challenge your team members to find the most unique thing they have in common.
• For round two, challenge your team members to find the most unique thing, while excluding physical traits and places.
• For round three, challenge your team members to find the most unique thing in a specific category, like high school.

Pro tip: One of the most powerful Zoom features to support games is breakout rooms. For this game, organize your people into breakout rooms with four or five people each to encourage participation.

Here are more icebreaker games to play with remote teams.

7. Blackout Truth or Dare

Blackout truth or dare is a fun Zoom game hat will help your group become better acquainted. The rules are simple:

1. One player acts as the dare-master.
2. The dare-master calls out dares or truths.
3. Players who do not wish to share must stop their webcam feeds.
4. The dare-master will call on one brave player to respond.

The game continues for a certain number of rounds, or until only one player remains. Prompts can be personal or silly, and should be safe for work. For example: “change your display name to a childhood nickname,” or “sing Firework by Katy Perry.”

Blackout Truth or Dare is a great Zoom game for large groups. Here are more virtual games for large groups.

8. Codenames

While Codenames is usually an in-person card game, you can also play online. When playing Codenames via Zoom, have one player, who is not a spymaster, share their screen. Then, split participants into either the red or blue team, and designate one person as the spymaster of each team. As players attempt to guess which cards their spymaster hints at, send teams off into breakout rooms, so they can discuss their strategy. Whichever team successfully guesses all cards with their color first, while avoiding the forbidden card, wins the game.

Here is a link to play Codenames online.

9. Desert Island Intelligences

You may have heard of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, which states that people can have different strengths and abilities called intelligences.

Gardner’s eight intelligences are:

1. Visual-spatial
2. Linguistic-verbal
3. Interpersonal
4. Intrapersonal
5. Logical-mathematical
6. Musical
7. Body-kinesthetic
8. Naturalistic

Desert Island Intelligences borrows this theory by pitting eight individuals, each representing a different intelligence, against each other on a desert island. Since the island has limited resources, players vote one intelligence off the island at a time in order of usefulness. Since the definition of usefulness is broad, this game leads to fierce debate among team members. You can facilitate this game with the polling feature on Zoom calls.

10. War of the Wizards (New)

War of the Wizards is a collaborative storytelling game with elements of RPGs and escape rooms. Basically, a group of wizards have been at war since ages past; you and your colleagues become the wizards’ minions, gathering resources and magic items to bring the war to a peaceful end.

The game is 90 minutes and played on Zoom with coworkers. Throughout the game, you and your colleagues will develop your stories, take actions, spin the “Chaos Wheel” and work through the results. War of the Wizards is a fun Zoom game that promotes creativity, collaboration and problem solving.

Learn more about War of the Wizards.

11. Guess The Movie

For the movie buffs at your office, Guess That Movie is one of the best Zoom games. Prior to the game starting, curate a YouTube playlist with movie scenes. Then, when playing Guess That Movie, mute all participants and play the movie scene without revealing which film the clip is from. Then, ask the players to submit the name of the movie in Zoom’s chat box. The first person who guesses the film correctly wins the round. Try searching “best movie scenes of all time” or “top movie clips” on YouTube to put together your list.

12. Virtual Rock, Paper, Scissors

Even if your teammates did not grow up playing rock, paper, scissors, the rules are easy enough to explain: scissor cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes scissors. You can give the game a modern update for Zoom by using the reactions feature to answer in place of hand gestures. The key is as follows:

👏 = Paper

👍 = Rock

Teammates cross arms = Scissors

To play, prompt participants with the classic rallying cry, “rock, paper, scissors, shoot!” Teammates will have three seconds to answer. When all players respond, count up the reactions and the majority wins.

13. Virtual Murder Mystery

Most adults love a good murder mystery, and your coworkers can solve an engaging mystery right on Zoom. Players can work in teams and use breakout rooms to swap clues and unravel the case together. A facilitator can guide the game and entertain attendees while moving the story forward.

Learn more about virtual murder mysteries.

14. Bet on the Crowd

Zoom’s polling feature allows you to ask for attendee opinions and instantly display the results. Bet on the Crowd turns Zoom polls into a fun wagering game. First, participants will vote on a question or series of questions. You can either stick to a two answer format, or allow for up to four answers.

Here are some sample questions:

• Would you prefer to vacation in your own country or travel abroad?
• Cat or dogs?
• Summer or winter?
• Would you rather give up your phone or your car for a month?
• Work at night or in the morning?
• Emails or phone calls?

Before you reveal the responses, ask your teammates to guess which answer will win. Any player who correctly predicts the majority wins the round. You can play multiple games and keep score, awarding a prize to the highest-ranking teammates.

Here is a list of this or that questions you can use as prompts.

15. Trial by Trolley

To play Trial by Trolley, separate your team into two groups with each group assigned to one side of the tracks. After drawing cards, each group places cards with characters onto the track. Once all players have put down their cards, each group debates with the conductor over which side should be run over by the trolley. The group that loses the debate sees all their characters killed, and the game resets for the next round.

This site has a Zoom friendly version of Trial by Trolley.

16. Virtual Werewolf

Virtual Werewolf is the online version of the popular game of deception. To play this game, privately message everyone their role. These roles should include a werewolf, a medic, a hunter, a seer, and villagers. Once everyone knows who they are, gather your coworkers in a Zoom room.

Declare night has fallen, and have everyone close their eyes. During each round, let the werewolf eat someone, the medic attempt to save someone, and the seer guess who the werewolf is. To keep the mystery alive, have the werewolf, the medic, and the seer submit their responses through private message. Then, declare that the sun is rising, and reveal if the werewolf succeeded. Let everyone discuss who they suspect is the werewolf, and vote players out each round. If the werewolf survives until the end, they win.

Here is a step by step guide to play Werewolf online.

17. Robot Training

To play Robot Training, ask one of your colleagues to share their screen. Then, using step-by-step directions, proceed to dictate the steps necessary to complete an action on that screen. For example, ask the player to pull up Microsoft Paint and provide instructions on how to draw a cat. The point of Robot Training is to develop your coworkers’ communication and cooperation skills, which is helpful for team building.

18. Guess Who?

Guess Who? is a Zoom game that challenges players to identify an opponent’s chosen person. For example, a player might ask, “does your person wear glasses?” If the opponent says yes, then the player would eliminate the cards of any non-glasses wearers, and vice versa.

To play Guess Who? on Zoom:

1. Choose a random coworker.
2. Allow all other players to take turns guessing traits.
3. When eliminated, the attendee will stop their webcam, and can continue to play.
4. The game ends when only one person remains, and the turn-taker confirms the identity of the person.

Since you and your coworkers know each other, you do not need to limit guesses to physical traits such as clothes or hair colors. For example, a player may guess, “has your person been with the company for more than ten years?” or “did your person travel abroad this year?” Players should try to confirm the identity in as few questions as possible.

Here are more question games to play with teams.

19. Zoom Pictionary

Pictionary is a classic board game that is easy to adapt for remote teams. To play Pictionary online, you share screens and select the whiteboard app in Zoom. The drawing teammate will receive a prompt: you can use an online Pictionary generator to choose a word. The playing team has one minute to guess the drawing. If the team does not guess before the minute expires, then other teams have a chance to steal.

20. Zoom Charades

How To Do Online Bingo On Zoom

Charades is one of the best games to play over Zoom. To start playing Zoom Charades, split players into two teams. Then, use a random word generator to find a word to act out in front of the camera. Since an important aspect of charades is that players cannot use spoken words to express the prompt, mute participants when it is the player’s turn to act. Whichever team can guess the most prompts correctly wins the game.

21. Mystery Singer

If you are familiar with The Masked Singer, then you may already be familiar with this game format. For this game, have multiple participants enter the Zoom call with their video turned off and with an alias as their name. Then, let each competitor cover one minute of a song. At the end of each round, have audience members vote for a favorite singer using Zoom’s polling feature. Once voters narrow down the singer to an absolute favorite, ask the audience to guess who the last surviving singer is.

22. Who Wins the Bracket?

If your team is a fan of tournament brackets, then this game is the one for you. Who Wins the Bracket? seeks to find the ultimate winner of a particular category by pitting representatives of that category against each other until only one winner is left.

Some examples of Who Wins the Bracket? topics are:

• Best snack food
• Best Marvel superhero
• Best Disney prince
• Best cuisine
• Best 90’s song
• Best movie dad

To determine who is the best of each of these categories, set up a tournament bracket. As you proceed further down the brackets, your game will come closer and closer to the final winner.

Here are more workplace competitions you can adapt to play on Zoom.

23. Spot the Difference

Like many kids, I grew up reading the funny papers, and got pretty good at solving spot the difference puzzles. These riddles would show the audience two nearly identical illustrations and challenge viewers to find the variations. You can adapt the game for Zoom meetings with the breakout room feature.

To play:

1. The group will split into teams of two to five people.
2. All teams will have one minute to study the screen before entering breakout rooms.
3. Within breakout rooms, the teams will decide one background object to change.
4. Teams will rejoin the main room.
5. Players will hunt for differences, and make guesses by typing in the chat box.
6. The first player to spot the difference wins a point for the team.

You can play as many rounds as you like. At the end of the game, the team with the most points wins.

Pro tip: Setting ground rules is helpful. For example, the moved object must be at least three inches large. You could also narrow the choices by asking your coworkers who did not make a change to black-out webcams one by one.

24. Read my Lips

Many of us have been in a Zoom meeting when a presenter’s audio cut out or the speaker forgot to take the microphone off mute. Read my lips turns this awkward or frustrating situation into a fun game.

To play, one participant will mute the mic, and then speak a word or phrase. The other players must try to guess the word or phrase correctly. Players have one minute to figure out the message. The turn-taker can also give clues by using the chat box, if necessary.

25. Story Races

Crafting a story one line at a time is a common team building activity. By using the chat feature on Zoom, you can turn the exercise into a race.

Here is how:

1. Elect one team member as the story master.
2. The story master will begin to tell a tale.
3. At random, the story master will stop to let other attendees add details.
4. The first answer in the chat box becomes part of the story.

The story master can either speak the story or type out the tale in the chat box. The story master also has the power to veto the “first answer” in favor of a more creative option.

Pro tip: Record the meeting or copy and paste the story into a new document.

26. The Counting Game

In this game, your coworkers must count to ten. If any players say a number simultaneously, then you start over at one. Reading body language and making eye contact is more challenging during video meetings, and it is important for adults to learn this skill. Savvy virtual employees can even devise strategies to play the game more effectively.

27. Virtual Musical Chairs

For Virtual Musical Chairs, instead of stealing chairs before the music ends, the last participant left dancing when the music ends loses the round, and wins at life.

To play musical chairs on Zoom, create a Spotify playlist with dance tunes. Once everyone is in the Zoom room, start playing songs, pausing at random and phasing out the last player who is still dancing. As each participant is eliminated, ask them to turn off cameras to help keep track of who is still playing. Keep broadcasting great dance tunes until only the winner is left.

Final Thoughts

Playing virtual games on Zoom is a fun way to make these meetings more engaging. Especially with adults, these games will help bring joy to the workplace, and support meaningful team building.

You can either plan a dedicated 60 minutes or so to play your games, or include a few quick games at the beginning of your Zoom call as an icebreaker activity.

Next, check our lists of Zoom drinking games, Zoom meeting ideas and this one with dozens of virtual team building activities.

FAQ: Zoom Games

Here are some of the most common questions about playing games over Zoom.

What are Zoom games?

Zoom games are fun activities you can play with friends and coworkers over the video conferencing platform Zoom. These games may include Bingo, Charades and Werewolf. The purpose of these games is to make the meeting more fun and engaging.

What games can you play on Zoom?

Two of the quickest games to play on Zoom are Lightning Scavenger Hunts and Five Fingers. For online scavenger hunts, send your attendees to retrieve items like “your favorite mug” or the “last book you read”. For Five Fingers, everyone puts up five fingers, and the host names life experiences like “made pasta from scratch” or “visited three countries”. Any player that has that life experience puts a finger down.

What are the requirements to play games over Zoom?

For most Zoom games, no special equipment is needed. Anyone with an internet enabled device and decent WiFi should be able to participate. In some cases, you may want to use the breakout rooms feature.

Are Zoom team building games effective for remote engagement?

Yes! Playing games over Zoom is a great way to connect with coworkers and other teammates. You can do a virtual meeting dedicated to these group games, such as a virtual happy hour, or include a quick game at the beginning of your meeting.

What drinking games can you play on Zoom?

Most drinking games that you can play in person also work over Zoom. For example, Around the World, Cheers to the Governor, and even Beer Pong. For Beer Pong, just setup a cup on your desk and shoot ping-pong balls or little balls of paper into it.

What activities can you do on Zoom?

Many activities are Zoom friendly. For example, you can do icebreaker questions, games like Never Have I Ever, and online team building Bingo. Most offline activities that revolve around talking and listening can be adapted to a Zoom format.

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CEO of teambuilding.com. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.

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