You found our list of fun video call games.
Video call games are activities you can play over Zoom, Webex, Google Meet, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams and other conference call platforms. Example games include virtual trivia, scavenger hunts, and Bingo. The purpose of these games is to relax, have fun and promote team building. These activities are also called “video conference games.”
These games are the parent category of Zoom games, Skype games and Webex games. Many of these examples are also virtual team building activities for work, team building ideas for conference calls and online group games.
This list includes:
- video conference games to play with colleagues
- games to play on video call with friendss
- fun conference call games for the office
So, here is the list.
List of games to play on video call
Below, I’ve included fun games to play over video conferencing.
1. Chubby Bunny ?
Chubby Bunny is a classic game from many of our childhoods, that is also easy to adapt for video conference calls. To play, each person puts a large marshmallow in their mouth and then says the words “chubby bunny.” The players that say “chubby bunny” successfully then add a second marshmallow to their mouth and try to say it again. You repeat this process until a team member is unable to say the words.
Chubby Bunny works well for virtual conference call games because it combines the ability to see, speak and hear with something fun and tangible.
This list has more virtual minute-to-win-it style games.
2. Online Office Games (Fully Hosted)
Online Office Games is a fully facilitated video conference game for remote workers. For this activity, we bring your people on a video call for 90 minutes, and play a series of fun games and challenges. For example, we include team formations, trivia and communication games like “Can your hear me now?”
Online Office Games takes place over a secure video conference line that we provide. For your event, we provide both an energetic host to keep your people engaged and a co-host to manage the technical aspects. The games are fun, active, and a great way to bring your people together.
Learn more about Online Office Games.
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3. War of the Wizards (Popular)
War of the Wizards is a 90 minute online role-playing game, that is like a very simplified Dungeons & Dragons. The game is popular with pro-gamers and amateurs a like, and focusses on fun mechanics like storytelling and problem solving.
Our experienced host leads the game on a secure video call line that we provide. The game dynamics promote communication, collaboration and teamwork.
Learn more about War of the Wizards.
4. Video Conference Trivia
Video Conference Trivia is an easy way to get started with online conference games. To plan your team trivia event, source a set of questions and then run the trivia pub-style. You can read out the questions and the first person on the conference call to answer correctly wins one point.
Here are some fun Video Conference Trivia themes:
- Countries of the world
- Name that YouTube tune
- Things I found on Google Street View
- Podcast quiz
- Wikipedia adventure
You can create questions from each source to help create a fun theme for your trivia. Here is a guide to running your trivia game.
5. Three Little Pigs ?
Three Little Pigs is one of those fun conference call games you can play with a wide range of teams. To organize this game:
- Challenge each participant on the call to build the best pig-house they can in three little minutes. Players may use any materials they have within grabbing distance of their desk.
- Introduce an external force, like a deep huff and puff to blow each house down. Continue making the huff and puff blow stronger from level 1 to level 10.
- Any houses that remain standing at level 10 get one point.
Three Little Pigs is a fun game for teams that like crafts, puzzles, strategy, competition and more.
6. Sip-Sip
Sip-Sip is a fun game you can play on conference calls with your coworkers. To organize this game, choose one, unsuspecting, person as the trigger. When that person takes a sip of a drink, all other team members simultaneously take a sip of their drinks as well. The game continues until the trigger realizes what is happening.
Here are more online drinking games for Zoom and FaceTime.
7. 10 Minute Business
10 Minute Business is a conference call game that challenges teams with entrepreneurial thinking and business strategy development.
To play this game with remote teams:
- Form teams of four to five people each and put them in breakout rooms to work together.
- Provide 10 minutes for each team to develop a new business concept and pitch. You can provide a theme like “upgraded lemonade stand” or “zero labor required” or similar.
- Bring all of your people back to a main call and have each team present their idea.
Award prizes for the best ideas, and use the game as a platform to start talking about entrepreneurial values and decision making.
This list has more improv games for work.
8. Never Have YOU Ever
Many people are familiar with the game “Never Have I Ever”, which is easily adapted to video calls. This version is a little different, where you still start with five fingers showing but instead of sharing something about yourself, you name something that a specific team member hasn’t done. For example, “Bobby, never have you ever eaten carrots with peanut butter.”
If Bobby has in fact mixed carrots and peanut butter then he puts a finger down, along with anyone else that has this shared experience, and the person asking puts a finger up, to a maximum of five. Then, the next player goes. The game ends when only one player has fingers remaining up.
Here are more small group ice breaker games and a list of get to know you questions.
9. Office Spirit Day
Office Spirit Day is a video call game that brings the fun of high school spirit days to the workplace. To get started, designate a theme for the day for your team to dress up as. Then, your team votes for the member whose outfit best fits the theme. The person who receives the most votes wins.
Some Office Spirit Day themes to try are:
- Pajama Day
- Fancy Dress Day
- Disney Prince/Princess Day
- Dress Like a Pirate Day
- Twin Day
- Flannel Day
- Celebrity Day
- 50’s Day
- Dress Like an Animal Day
Office Spirit Day is a great way to bring everyone together because it encourages employees to express themselves through their outfits. Not to mention, your team can bond over the more ridiculous or silly ensembles.
Here are ideas for virtual spirit week.
10. What’s On My Desk?
What’s On My Desk? is a game, where your team guesses whose desk is pictured based on their knowledge of coworkers. To play, ask your team to submit a photo of their desk, and upload the photos to a shared space that everyone can access. Then, employees guess the owners of the desks. The winner is the team member with the most correct guesses.
What’s On My Desk? is excellent for team building because employees can learn surprising things about each other through the memorabilia on their desks. And, if coworkers learn that they have some hobbies or other shared interests, then it may help them bond in the future.
11. Dance Off
Dance Off is a lively video conference activity that gets your team out of their seats and is a great stress reliever. Prior to the Dance Off, compile a playlist of music that is fun to dance to. Then, on the day of the Dance Off, everyone shows off their dance skills in the same virtual meeting room. The winner is whoever receives the most votes as the group’s best dancer.
Since Dance Off is a more active team building game, it can help spur engagement by giving your team a break through a rush of endorphins. And, since dancing is not usually a skill often showcased at work, Dance Off is also a fun opportunity to learn more about your coworkers.
12. Workout Challenge
Workout Challenge is a game inspired by the viral “See 10, Do 10” Instagram challenge. To play, one team member tags another to do ten push ups. When that person finishes, they tag the next person until everyone has completed ten push ups. However, if someone neglects to do ten push ups, that person buys everyone else a coffee.
Workout Challenge is a superb game for teams that want to add a bit of fitness to their workday. Because everyone participates, this exercise pushes employees to be accountable for ten push ups, and may even help them build strength for more push ups in their free time.
Here are more team workout ideas.
13. Umm True?!
Umm True?! is a rapidfire quiz game for teams. For 60 minutes, players wager guesses at 50/50 trivia questions, all while learning fascinating facts and socializing with remote teammates.
Learn more about Umm True?!
14. Virtual Murder Mystery
Virtual murder mysteries are often cryptic, and usually fun games you can play over video conference. To play, you can either start with a game template and host the event yourself, or you can work with an outside company to run the murder mystery for you. This activity is great for video calls because it mostly relies on speaking and listening.
Here is a list of free virtual murder mystery games you can start with.
15. Virtual Escape Room
Virtual escape rooms are another popular game for video calls. These games can take a variety of formats, but the most popular are either solving clues and puzzles via PDF, videos and other media, or having a host do a screen-share of an actual escape room. There are both free and paid online escape games available.
Check out this list of the best virtual escape rooms.
Final Thoughts
Many games exist that are perfect for playing on video conference calls, for example virtual happy hour games and online team building activities, and communication games for work.
You can invent your own games for video conference calls too! Customizing an experience to your match your team’s interests and personalities is a great way to boost employee engagement.
Next, check out our list of games to play on Microsoft Teams, this list of FaceTime games and these Google Meet games.
We also have a list of Zoom improv games for work, a list of virtual meeting games, this list of DIY online office games, and list of ways to make virtual work meetings fun.
I’m confused of sip-sip because if you’re all waiting on the tiger to take a drink it could take a long time for them to take one.
And you’d have to teach the tiger how to use a computer. So impractical.
Keypad Tunes
Every person in the virtual conference is assigned a place in “line.” For instance Abby is 1st, Heather is 2nd, Doug is 3rd, Zack is 4th. All members put their cell phones beside their computer and turn their volume all the way up. Then the 1st will pick a number to hit on the dial pad (it makes a noise), the 2nd will pick a different number to hit (it makes a different tonal noise), the 3rd person hits a different number and the next will hit a different number but 3 times in a row. The different sounds from the key pads will make a sort of song. Then the group will speed up the game constantly and whoever messes up hitting their number on the keypad and messing up the song will lose.
Hi! First, I wanted to say that I love these ideas, and in the wake of COVID-19, I am always looking for ways to connect with friends and team mates through online calls!
One game I have thought up is called Bracket Wars. One individual such as the team leader, chooses a question, such as “Who would win in a race to eat an entire cake”, and would create a bracket of different celebrities, TV or movie characters, or any other type of pop culture trend. Once these competitors are chosen, each individual chooses a competitor, and then the individuals would have to debate why their competitor should win the contest of the chosen question, in this instance being “Who would win in a race to eat an entire cake”. These debates would happen again and again until one competitor has ascended to the top of the bracket and wins the tournament. This game could help individuals generate ideas on the spot and help develop communication skills while also creating a fun and engaging environment for a team!
I love these ideas, Michael! I would like to build off the idea of a classic game brought virtual.
“Capture the Question”
It is similar to the classic Capture the Flag game we played as kids. Each player prints out a yellow flag and red flag. These are the two teams: red versus yellow. There will be a “referee” who asks the random questions, could be trivia, about the topic of discussion, or company questions. The referee gives a question to the “yellow” team but if a “red” team member answers first he/she keeps the flag of someone (his choice) from the other team. The caveat being – if he/she is incorrect the other team gets to keep his/her’s flag instead. If the yellow team is incorrect, they have no punishment since it was their question. The game ends once one team has captured all the flags of the opposite team, or there can be a set number for time’s sake.
Tic Tac Toe
Team Fishing
Art Day-Painting or Photography
Pictionary
Hey there!
How about duck, duck, moose? It’s a game I invented where you tell 2 lies (ducks…quack quack) and 1 truth (the moose). Players have to figure out which are the ducks (lies) and which is the moose of truth. -Lauren
All of these video conference game ideas are great! The last few months have been rough on everyone, and this is a fantastic way to catch up and blow off some steam with friends, family, and coworkers.
A great idea for another video conference game would be “Virtual Olympics”. This is similar to Online Office Games, but with a twist!
It is a game where participants will compete in a series of at-home Olympic style games of their choosing. Participants will create teams with no less than three people in each and as evenly as possible. Participants are free to determine how many games will be included in their own personal Virtual Olympics as long as it fits within their allotted time.
Some great games to include in your “Virtual Olympics” could be:
Flip Cup: One player from each team pours their desired amount of beverage in their cup, chugs it, and then tries to flip their cup faster than the person on the other team. Once the first person on your team successfully flips their cup, the next person on your team has to do the same. The first team to have all cups flipped wins!
Virtual Scavenger Hunt: One person from each team will take turns calling out one random item for a person on each team to find. Whichever team finds the most items within the least amount of time wins!
Speed Texting: One person from each team will choose their own 160-character message to type and send as quickly as possible. Text-to-speech and predictive text features are ILLEGAL. The first person to type their message and send it wins!
These are just a couple of examples of fun games to virtually play. The fun of it all is coming up with your own games and rules!
Two great ones that I thought about came from childhood games, one of them being Charades, the other being Don’t Say It. I think Charades would be a great one for getting the team involved and working together to guess whatever the other person is, and Don’t Say It could just be a fun one where you pick a word and throughout the day are trying to get someone else to say that word without saying it yourself, and whoever says the word loses, there can only be one winner.
A game I’ve actually played a lot with past teams is something I like to call “Get Perspective”. I find generic high-quality images on the internet (things like flowers or a close up of someone’s eye). I zoom as far in on the image as I can until it is either blurred and distorted or you can’t see the full image. People take turns guessing what the image is of until someone gets it correct or everyone gives up. You can show the original image at the end. This could work is at the beginning of the conference call, everyone received a list of the zoomed-in images that would be shown during the call just in case they can’t see it clearly through the video call.
Revisionist History Trivia –
This is like two truths and a lie but with history. The objective is to name the person, event, time period etc. and then name what the lie was.
Ex: 1. He had 6 wives 2. His line ended with Elizabeth 3. Two of his wives were named Mary
Answer: Henry VIII; lie: Two of his wives were named Mary
BASE COMMANDER
This is a very, very simple game but its simplicity doesn’t undermine how hilarious it can be.
Here’s the idea:
Each member of the call pairs off with someone. Make sure to have your partner full screened! Now, you simple go take turns saying “Base Commander” to one another while looking into each other’s eyes. The goal is to make the other person laugh. Bring out your silly voices and funny faces! If you make your partner laugh, you get a point. A timer is set for 2 minutes, and each set of partners goes back and forth, tracking how many times they made each other laugh until time runs out. The winners of Round 1 are partnered with each other, and Round 2 commences in the same style as Round 1. This continues until just one pair remains – the Final Base Commander! Everyone on the video conference watches along with this final match, until the true Base Commander is crowned!
The Weird Al Yankovic Challenge
Everyone loves a good songwriting competition, right?
Here’s how this one goes:
– Team members break off into teams of 2 or 3
– Having a list of hit songs to choose from, each team has 15-20 minutes to write a funny parody song (a verse and a hook) about a work-related topic (For example, Domino’s employees change the lyrics to John Legend’s “Ordinary People” to “Ordinary Pizza”.)
– Songwriting duos perform their musical masterpiece for each other when the general video call reconvenes
– Everyone laughs and has these parody songs on loop in their minds for days =)
Bonus: “Weird Al Karaoke” – For extra laughs, songwriting duos create slides of their lyrics, have instrumentals ready, and the teams are randomly selected to perform each other songs. Since the lyrics are a surprise to everyone but the team who wrote the song, it gets funnier for the performers as each lyric pops up on the screen!
Hello there! I’ve thought of a version of the “Whisper” game that could be done in front of a video conference instead. 🙂
The first person would start with a simple word or short phrase and mute their microphone. They would clearly speak into the webcam, ensuring that we can see their mouth move when they speak — but we wouldn’t be able to hear them because they’re muted!
The rest of the group would then write down their guesses for what we think they’re saying. Once everyone has submitted their guesses, we get informed on what the word or phrase actually was!
Rinse and repeat, making sure everyone gets a turn to say a word or short phrase. The person with the most correct guesses by the end is a winner, but it could be a fun way to get to laugh with each other over camera!
Hey everyone!
Has anyone ever played “Thumper?” I love playing this game with my friends at home. It usually works best with groups of 5-10, but any number over 4 can play. It would translate well to a video call, especially because it involves no talking, but lots of communication. It’s bound to get people laughing and having fun!
The rules are very simple. Everyone makes up a hand signal and a facial expression for themselves. Then, everyone shares their personal signals with the group. Once that’s been made clear, everyone begins to pat on their laps (or a table in front of them) quickly to add tension. The team leader breaks that tension by doing their signals and then does another teammate’s signals, then returns to thumping with the rest of the team. Then, quickly, that 2nd teammate has to stop thumping, respond by doing their own signals followed by yet another teammate’s, and the stressful pattern continues. The game ends if someone doesn’t respond quick enough, messes up a team member’s sign, or they get to a predetermined goal (I recommend starting at 10 passes, and then moving forward from there.)
Hello! Wonderful folks out there. During this global pandemic, a lot of people were glued to their different screens watching various web series. My idea revolves around the Narcos of Colombia, Mexico, and El Chapo. I wish to call the game “Positive from Negative” to work on the emotional intelligence and gauging the decision-making capabilities of the players involved.
At the outset, this is nothing to glorify those criminals that shook and disrupted countries and the lives of the people but the idea is to look at their positive aspects, no matter how negative they were in their real-life causing so much pain and trouble. This idea also draws its inspiration from the management lessons that are taught in MBA from the cult classic “The God Father”.
The game could be played among teams of two to three or even a single player with a duration of ninety minutes. Each participant (Team, Individual) gets ten minutes to highlight the positives that they found that reflect on areas such as IQ, EQ, Innovative Ideas, Leadership, Communication, Maintaining order, How to deal with situations that go haywire, Commitment, Focus, etc. For example – I found Joaquin (El Chapo) with the capability to “Thinking on the Feet”.
The task should be divided into two parts – the first five minutes as to what were the qualities they observed and the next five minutes their justification for the observations.
This game will also help in highlighting which team members are the ones with a high level of EQ and IQ.
One fun remote game is Quiplash. This relies on users submitting anonymous, witty, and hilarious answers to a series of questions like, “New movie idea,” or “What is likely an unadvertised ingredient in hot dogs?” The best answer wins, then the winner is revealed and receives points.
Dad Jokes
Dad jokes make you roll your eyes and laugh at the same time. Each player has to deliver a dad joke in the most serious tone possible. Anyone who laughs is out. Last person standing wins!
Hi there!
I’ve been working remotely for some time now, and my team loves to have Friday video chats. Unfortunately, they get a bit boring without a game to play. Here’s what I’ve come up with:
Say What? (Patent pending) (just kidding)
I love misheard lyrics. The object of the game is to guess the correct lyric of the Singer’s song. While on video chat, the Singer will sing a popular misheard lyric and provide the artist of the song. The Guesser will have to respond with the correct lyric. This can be played in teams or with turns! Here’s a play-by-play:
Singer: Pat Benatar sings this one! “Hit me with your pet shark! Why don’t you hit me with your pet shaaaark!”
Guesser: “Hit me with your best shot! Fire away!”
And there you have it! We have a lot of fun playing it and it’s been a highlight of Friday virtual happy hours!
A fun and easy game that I have been playing with friends and family during this pandemic over video conferencing is Family Feud! Break the conference call into two teams and a host. Like Family Feud, each team will send a representative each round to answer the “top” things in a category, which can be researched and determined by the host prior to the call. It’s a great game to play because typically only one person is speaking at a time, and it’s easy to get sucked into the competitiveness of it!
A fun and simple game that anyone can play to break the ice during a video conference is the “ha-ha” game. I’ve found that this game is particularly fun to play during virtual happy hour! The rules are simple- players go around taking turns saying the word “ha” but adding an additional “ha” after each player. This means that the first person will say “ha”, the second person will say “ha ha”, and so on. The objective is to say “ha” as many times as possible without the group erupting in laughter. If any players start laughing, you must restart the game. This is more challenging than you think!
I love these remote games and I can’t wait to try them out! Another game I like to play with my team is “Three Word Story”. Everyone picks a number from 1-how ever many people are online with you. The number the person picks is the order in which they go in the game. The first person will start the story with three words and the next person must keep the story going by adding three words as well. You can make the game interesting by giving your team a topic or giving them a specific letter they must use. Give it a shot!
I would change “Sip-Sip” so once the person chosen is identified, they then get to choose another coworker as “it” at a meeting within a certain time-frame (to add suspense/keep people on their toes). I feel like that gives the person chosen some power back so they don’t feel like they were the only one targeted for a prank, and continues the game. You could even add other innocuous actions to all copy, carefully chosen to not hurt anyone’s feelings, like touching hair, looking at a phone, yawning, writing something down, etc.