39 free online team-building games

Remember when “team building” meant awkward trust falls in a hotel conference room or forced karaoke at the pub down the street? Yeah, we’ve come a long way. But remote work threw a wrench in the works. Suddenly, the water cooler chat vanished. The casual desk-side banter disappeared. And for a lot of leaders, the panic set in. How do you keep a team connected when they’re spread across time zones and only exist as pixels on a screen?

You get creative. And you get intentional. Virtual team building isn’t just about playing games. It’s about engineering serendipity. It’s about creating spaces where your people can be humans first and employees second. When you get that right, the work gets better. Trust goes up. Communication flows easier. The best part? You don’t need a massive budget to make it happen. Here are 39 free ways to bring your distributed team closer together.

What are team-building games?

At their core, team-building games are structured activities designed to improve interpersonal relationships and collaborative skills. In a remote or distributed context, they are the digital glue that replaces physical proximity.

They range from quick five-minute icebreakers to start a meeting, to involved strategy games that take an hour. They aren’t just “fun” distractions. They serve a specific business function: they break down silos. When your marketing manager laughs at a bad drawing by your lead developer, a barrier drops. Next time they have to solve a tough problem together, that shared human moment makes the friction less abrasive.

For remote teams specifically, these games combat isolation. They remind everyone that there is a person behind the email address.

Our top 5 team-building games

We know you’re busy. If you don’t have time to scroll through nearly 40 options, start here. These are the heavy hitters that consistently get the best engagement across our own remote teams.

Best for a good laugh: Skribbl.io

This is essentially digital Pictionary, and it is chaotic in the best way possible. You get a word, you draw it with your mouse (badly) and everyone else guesses. It levels the playing field immediately because almost no one can draw well with a trackpad. It’s fast, furious and guarantees laughter.

Best for communication skills: Can You Hear Me Now?

One person describes an image, and everyone else has to draw it based only on the verbal instructions. No questions allowed. It creates a hilarious (and sometimes frustrating) realization of how easily instructions can be misinterpreted. It’s a masterclass in precision communication disguised as a game.

Best for cultural exchange: Recipe Share

Food is the universal language. In this activity, team members share a recipe that means something to them—maybe a family staple or a comfort food. It opens a window into their personal lives and cultural backgrounds without being intrusive. Plus, you get dinner ideas.

Best for building relationships: Get to Know Your Team

Sometimes, simple is best. This isn’t about deep, probing questions. It’s about the light stuff. “What was your first concert?” or “What’s the worst haircut you ever had?” These low-stakes questions help people find common ground on things that have absolutely nothing to do with KPIs or deadlines.

Best for strategic thinking: Online Escape Room

If your team thrives on solving puzzles, this is the gold standard. You’re locked in a digital room and have to find clues to get out. It forces collaboration, requires different types of thinking (visual, logical, lateral) and creates a genuine sense of shared victory when you beat the clock.

What are the benefits of team building in a remote working environment?

It is easy to dismiss games as “fluff”. Don’t make that mistake. When you invest time in connection, you are investing in retention. Remote isolation is real, and it is a productivity killer. When employees feel disconnected, they disengage.

Regular team building improves psychological safety. When a team can laugh together, they feel safer admitting mistakes or offering a wild new idea. That innovation is critical for growth.

It also sharpens communication. Games often require giving and receiving instructions or collaborating under pressure. These are the exact skills needed to navigate complex projects. By practising them in a low-stakes game, they become second nature in high-stakes work.

Finally, it builds a lifelong learning culture. Many of these activities require learning new tools or rules quickly. It keeps the brain plastic and encourages a mindset of curiosity.

Free online team-building games for remote teams

Ready to dive in? Here is the ultimate list of free activities you can start using today.

Skribbl.io

As mentioned in our top 5, this drawing game is a staple for a reason. It is browser-based, requires no login and accommodates large groups easily. The game mechanic is simple: draw a word, guess a word. Points are awarded for speed.

How to play Skribbl.io

1. Go to the Skribbl.io website.
2. Click “Create Private Room”.
3. Customize your settings (rounds, draw time, language).
4. Copy the invite link and drop it in your team chat.
5. Once everyone is in the lobby, hit “Start Game”.
6. Take turns drawing and typing guesses in the chat box.

Donut

If you use Slack, you need Donut. It’s an integration that automatically pairs up team members for a “virtual coffee”. It takes the scheduling headache out of networking. It randomly selects people who might not usually work together, forcing cross-departmental collision. It’s crucial for replicating those kitchen conversations that happen naturally in an office.

Tea and coffee tasting

This requires a tiny bit of prep but zero cost if everyone uses what they have. Schedule a 30-minute break where everyone brings their favourite brew. Go around the “room” and have people describe what they are drinking. Is it a single-origin Ethiopian pour-over or instant coffee? Earl Grey or herbal? It’s a sensory experience shared digitally.

Wine tasting / Gin tasting

Similar to the coffee tasting, but for happy hour. You don’t need to send expensive kits. Just ask everyone to bring a glass of whatever they have in the cabinet. It’s less about the drink and more about the ritual of “cheersing” at the end of a long week. It signals the transition from work mode to relax mode.

Trivia

You can host this yourself or use an app. Create categories relevant to your team (e.g., “Company History,” “80s Music,” “weird animal facts”). It taps into people’s competitive spirit. We recommend rotating the “Quizmaster” role each week so everyone gets a chance to stump their colleagues.

Book club

Pick a book, read it, discuss it. Groundbreaking, right? But for remote teams, it provides a structured topic of conversation that isn’t work. It allows for deeper intellectual debates. You can alternate between professional development books and fiction to keep it fresh.

Run club

Use an app like Strava to create a club for your company. You don’t have to run together at the same time. Team members log their kilometres throughout the week. You can set collective goals (e.g., “Let’s run the distance from Toronto to Montreal this month”). It promotes health and gives a sense of shared physical achievement.

Bingo

Virtual Bingo is surprisingly engaging. You can find free card generators online. Instead of numbers, fill the squares with remote work tropes: “You’re on mute,” “Can everyone see my screen?”, “Dog barking in background,” “Wearing pyjama pants”. It turns the annoyances of remote work into a game.

Cutest pet competition

Ask everyone to drop a photo of their pet in a dedicated channel or share their screen during a meeting. Use a simple polling tool to vote. Categories can include “Fluffiest,” “Best trick,” or “Most likely to distract you during a meeting.” It is impossible to be grumpy looking at pictures of puppies and kittens.

Can You Hear Me Now? Game

Select one person to be the Speaker and the rest are Artists. The Speaker finds a random image (geometric shapes work best) and describes it to the Artists. The catch? They can only use geometric language. “Draw a circle in the top left. Draw a square touching the bottom of the circle.” They cannot say “Draw a sun.” Artists then reveal their masterpieces. The disparity between what was said and what was drawn is always hilarious and highlights the importance of a feedback culture where clarification is key.

Guess the emoji sentence

This is great for asynchronous fun in a chat channel. One person posts a string of emojis that represents a movie title, a song, or a common phrase. The first person to guess it correctly gets to post the next one.

Example: 👁️ 🐯 = Eye of the Tiger.

It keeps the chat lively without interrupting deep work.

Jackbox

Okay, so one person needs to own the game pack (it’s cheap), but everyone else plays for free using their phone as a controller. Games like Quiplash or Fibbage are absolute gold for teams. They are high-energy, witty and very polished. Screen share the main game via Zoom, and everyone joins via browser.

Two truths and a lie

A classic for a reason. Each person states three “facts” about themselves. Two are true, one is a fabrication. The team polls to guess the lie. It is fascinating to see what wild true stories people have hidden away. “I once met the Queen” sounds like a lie until it isn’t.

Charades

It works surprisingly well on video. Use a random word generator. The actor acts it out on camera while everyone else yells guesses. Just make sure the actor pins their video so everyone can see them clearly. It gets people moving and looking silly, which is great for breaking the tension.

Pictionary

If Skribbl.io is too high-tech, use the whiteboard feature in Zoom or Teams. It’s the same concept but more manual. It feels a bit more like being in a meeting room with a marker in hand.

Typing speed race

Use a site like 10FastFingers. Everyone takes the one-minute typing test and posts their screenshot. It’s a quick, competitive burst of energy. You’ll quickly find out who the keyboard warriors are.

Werewolf (or Mafia)

This is a game of deduction and deception. Players are assigned roles: Villagers or Werewolves. Werewolves “eat” villagers at night; villagers try to vote out the werewolves during the day. It requires debate, lying and persuasion. There are online versions that handle the moderation for you.

Scavenger hunt

Give your team a list of items to find in their own homes. “Something round,” “Something older than you,” “A travel souvenir.” First person to bring all items back to the webcam wins. It’s frantic and gets people out of their chairs.

Words with Friends

The classic mobile game. Set up a bracket tournament. It’s a slower-paced game that can be played over days, perfect for busy periods where live games aren’t possible.

Map challenge

Use a tool like GeoGuessr. You are dropped onto a random street view somewhere in the world and have to guess where you are by looking at signs, vegetation and architecture. It’s collaborative detective work and sparks conversations about travel and geography.

10 common things

Split the team into small breakout groups. Their task: find 10 things they all have in common. “We all have legs” doesn’t count. It has to be specific. “We all love sushi” or “We’ve all watched The Office.” It forces people to ask questions and dig for similarities.

Whose office is it?

Have everyone send a photo of their home workspace (tidy or messy!) to a moderator. The moderator shows the photos one by one, and the team guesses whose desk it is. It gives insight into people’s working styles and personalities.

Baby photos

Same concept as above, but with baby photos. It is notoriously difficult and always adorable.

Spreadsheet Pixel Art

We spend all day in spreadsheets for work; why not for art? Create a shared Google Sheet. Resize rows and columns into tiny squares. Assign each person a section to “colour in” using cell background colours. You can create a giant collaborative mural.

Wikipedia Trail

Pick a starting Wikipedia page and an ending page (e.g., start at “Tacos” and end at “Quantum Physics”). The goal is to get from A to B by only clicking internal links within the articles. Race to see who gets there in the fewest clicks or shortest time.

Virtual debates

Pick a harmless, ridiculous topic. “Is a hotdog a sandwich?” “Does pineapple belong on pizza?” Assign teams to argue For and Against. It lets people practice persuasion and public speaking without the pressure of a business topic.

Movie night

Use a browser extension like Teleparty (formerly Netflix Party). It syncs playback so you are all watching the exact same second of the movie, and adds a chat bar on the side. Great for a Friday afternoon chill session.

MTV Cribs: Remote edition

If team members are comfortable, have one person give a video tour of their house or just their home office. It’s a vulnerable act that builds massive trust. You see their cat, their book collection, their messy kitchen. It humanizes them completely.

The “User Manual” to me

Have everyone write a short “manual” on how to work with them. “I am grumpy before 9am,” or “I prefer direct feedback.” Share these in a session. It’s a game of self-discovery that pays dividends in future collaboration.

Murder Mystery

There are free scripts available online. Assign characters to your team members beforehand so they can dress up (if they want). Spend the hour interrogating each other to find the killer. It’s immersive and theatrical.

Rock Paper Scissors tournament

Do it live on camera. It’s fast. It’s brutal. Pair people up, winner moves on. The final showdown is always intense.

Describe your day in GIFs

In your chat channel, ask everyone to sum up their week or day using only 3 GIFs. It’s a quick pulse check on morale that is often funnier and more honest than a status update.

Virtual dance party

This takes a brave team. But if you have the psychological safety, putting on a banger track and just dancing for 3 minutes is an incredible stress reliever. Turn cameras off if you must, but cameras on is where the magic happens.

Storytelling chain

One person starts a story with a sentence. “It was a dark and stormy night in Vancouver.” The next person adds a sentence. “Suddenly, a giant beaver blocked the road.” Go around until the story reaches a ridiculous conclusion.

Blind origami

Send everyone instructions for a simple origami shape, or find a YouTube tutorial. Play it and have everyone follow along. Compare the results at the end. Most will look nothing like a swan, and that is the point.

Meditation session

Not a “game” per se, but a shared experience. Use a free guided meditation video. Take 10 minutes to breathe together. It resets the collective nervous system of the team.

Virtual campfire

Use a site that plays crackling fire sounds. Gather round and share ghost stories or just share “war stories” from past jobs. It creates an intimate, cozy atmosphere even over Zoom.

Bucket list sharing

Ask everyone to share one item from their bucket list. Then, as a team, brainstorm how you might help them achieve it or at least support them. It shows you care about their life goals, not just their work output.

Aliens have landed

Tell the team: “Aliens have landed and they don’t speak our language. You have to explain our company to them using 5 symbols/images only.” Break into groups. It forces teams to distill the company mission down to its absolute essence.

Remote work doesn’t have to mean distant work.

These games are tools. Use them to build a foundation of trust and shared experience. When the pressure is on and the deadlines are tight, that foundation is what holds the team together.

So, pick a game. Send the invite. And get playing. Your culture depends on it.

Ready to transform your remote team into a powerhouse of connection and collaboration? Book a demo with Employment Hero today and discover how we can help you build a culture that thrives—no matter where your team is.