Looking to bring your team together in a fun way? Icebreaker games can help build community in your workplace. Yes, some icebreakers are cheesy, but you can easily skip the eye-rollers. Creative icebreakers help teams bond and work better together.
Even if your co-workers know each other already, fun activities generate inspiration, creativity, and (occasionally) are a much-needed break from the workday. Remote work certainly has its perks, but it also makes it difficult to connect with teammates virtually.
Check out this list of 60 icebreaker games for every work scenario. The best part? Each game can take place virtually for remote teams. Whether you need ideas to kick off a meeting, get to know your co-workers, or have some lightweight fun on a Friday, we’ve got you covered.
60 Icebreaker Games To Get To Know Each Other
1. Fast Fives
If you could only introduce yourself in five facts, what would they be? Go around the room and share your fast five. These can be favorite shows and movies, things you’re passionate about, or where you call home.
2. Two Truths and a Lie
This one’s a classic, but for good reason. Think of three facts about yourself, but one’s a lie. Everyone has to guess what the lie is. Get ready to learn some crazy truths about your co-workers.
3. Show & Tell
Think of a theme, and ask everyone to bring in something related to it. Popular show & tell themes include “bring an object that’s meaningful to you”, “something that reminds you of home”, or “a desk setup essential”.
4. Photo Sharing Prompts
Similar to show & tell, but photos only! Ask everyone to share a photo of something, like their favorite food, laptop screensaver or weekend activity.
5. Mood Boards
Create and share weekly mood boards to see what your co-workers are inspired by. Add photos, videos, quotes, graphics, colors and more. You can use Notion, Canva, Adobe or any other design tool to make them.
6. Give Yourself a Name
Ask everyone to introduce themselves with their pronouns and an adjective that matches the first letter of their name, like “Adventurous Adam, he/they”. This is a great way to see how people identify and learn names (if you haven’t already!).
7. Red Bubble Stickers
Your stickers say a lot about you. Have everyone browse Red Bubble’s stickers and choose one that they’d like to add to their laptop or water bottle. Go around the room to share why you chose them.
8. Influencer Feed
We’re in our influencer era, so what better way to get to know your co-workers than to see what kind of influencer they would be? Using a collaborative design tool, have everyone upload photos of what they might post on social media.
9. Pecha Kucha
Finally, an easy and engaging way to share your story! PechaKucha is a 20×20 presentation style: a slide show of 20 images that last for 20 seconds each. That means you have just over 6 minutes to show your co-workers who you are.
10. Speed Meeting
If you’re a new team, sometimes it’s best to keep it simple. Split up into groups of two and rotate groups every three minutes. You can talk about anything with your partner. Here are 250 icebreaker questions to get you started.
11. Class Is in Session
Everybody has something they’re exceptionally good at—now’s your time to teach your co-workers. People can sign up each week to teach a 10-minute class about anything: how to make Starbucks drinks, design a logo or find the best travel deals.
12. Recipe Sharing
Ask your co-workers to add their favorite recipes to a collaborative board (with photos, of course!). Go around the room to share the recipes and ask questions.
Related: 50 Crock Pot Super Bowl Recipes Better Than a Touchdown
13. Zodiac Sign Challenge
Is your team into astrology? Play a guessing game to see what everyone’s zodiac sign is. You can use an online voting system like Doodle or just share your guess aloud.
Quick Icebreaker Games
14. Haiku Memoirs
Quick creative writing exercises help your team tap into their creative energy. Ask everyone to write a haiku about their morning, day or week.
15. Guess How Many
Stuff a jar with something small, like candy corn, M&M’s or paper clips. Everyone has to write down a guess for how many are in the jar. You could even offer a prize for the closest guess.
16. Live Polls
Ask questions live and see the responses come in on the screen. You can ask something work-related, like “Which of these five projects are you most excited about?” or non-work related, like “Which of these five movies do you like best?”—check out Slido for live polling options.
17. Quizzes
Add a competitive element to your icebreaker with a fun quiz. Slido and Kahoot make it easy to set up online quizzes and track live responses. You can also have people raise their hands to answer.
18. Show Your Phone Lock Screen
Go around the room and have everyone share their phone’s lock screen. Whether it’s friends and family, travel destinations, or furry friends, you’ll quickly learn a lot about your co-workers.
19. Spotify Wrapped/Apple Replay
Much like your lock screen, music is very telling of personalities. Do a quick round of revealing your Spotify Wrapped, Apple Replay or another music summary.
20. “If You Were A…” Questions
Ditch the boring icebreaker questions, and try asking creative ones like, “If you were a Panera menu item, which one would you be?”. You could also try: “If you were a plant…”, “If you were a dessert…”, and “If you were an app…”. Make sure everyone explains their answer!
Related: ‘If I Was A’ TikTok Trend: 37 Questions To Ask Your Partner
21. “Favorite” Questions
Everyone shares their response to a “favorite” question, like “What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream?” Movies, food, and seasons are great, but try thinking outside the box. For example, “What’s your favorite Instagram account?”
22. Hot Topics
If there’s a trending topic in your industry, open it up for a five-minute discussion. If you’re in marketing, maybe you want to have a quick debrief about ChatGPT.
23. Screen Time Breakdown
While this shouldn’t be the first icebreaker you do, it’s a funny way to see what your co-workers spend their time on. Go around the room and share your screen time breakdown. If your co-workers don’t want to reveal the time itself, just share the most-used apps.
Icebreaker Games To Kick Off Meetings
24. Rose, Bud, Thorn
An easy way to share updates about everyone’s week, go around the room and share a highlight, something you’re looking forward to, and something not so great.
25. High, Low, Buffalo
Similar to Rose, Bud, Thorn, this game asks you to share a highlight, a lowlight, and something that made you laugh during the past week.
26. Rotating Questions, Visual Responses
Using a collaborative design tool, ask your co-workers to draw their responses to a question. You can ask something related to the topic of the meeting to get the conversation going in a fun, visual way.
27. Kahoot
Create a Kahoot game related to the topic of the meeting. Not only does this gamify the meeting’s content, but it helps managers gauge how much people already know.
28. Thanks
What better way to kick off the meeting than to give thanks to teammates? Open up the room for people to thank their co-workers for their collaboration that week. Set positive vibes heading into the meeting!
29. Genie in a Bottle
Ask everyone: “If you had one wish for this week, what would it be?” After one person answers, they can pass the virtual “bottle” to someone else to answer.
30. Energy Levels
Not exactly a game, “Energy Levels” is an exercise to see how everyone is feeling. Ask people to share where their energy is at on a scale from 1 to 10. This creates a safe, transparent space heading into the meeting.
31. Closest Thing to Magic
While real magic may not exist, there are a lot of things around us that feel magical. In this game, everyone goes around the room and shares what they think is the closest thing to magic. Yet another way to set positive, creative vibes during a meeting!
32. Critique THAT
Start the meeting off with a creative critiquing activity that preps people for the meeting content. If you’re a design company and the meeting is about logos, show a few big-name logos and ask co-workers to say what they like and don’t like about the logos.
33. Stretch It Out
An energizer activity to get your team moving before the meeting, lead everyone in a few stretching exercises. You don’t have to be a yoga enthusiast, but try some basic movements like reaching towards your toes and doing jumping jacks.
34. Themed Meeting
If you want to mix things up, try a themed meeting. Ask people to bring or wear something related to the theme. It can be a super general theme like “Mindfulness” or a timely theme like “Holiday Season.”
Related: 75 Teamwork Quotes That Reminds Us All That We’re Better When We Work Together
Icebreaker Games for Team Building
35. Build a Story
In this storytelling game, everyone pitches in to craft a tale. The catch? You can only say one word at a time. Go around the room and have everyone add one word to build a collaborative story.
36. Personality Test
Better understand your co-workers by taking personality tests. You can take these ahead of time and share your results during the meeting.
37. Soup, Salad, Sandwich
Assuming every food can be classified as a soup, salad or sandwich, ask your team to classify yummy eats. When you run into debates, like which category pasta falls under, don’t move on to the next food until everyone shares their point of view and comes to a conclusion together.
38. TikTok Challenge
An active, creative way to bond, split up into groups and make a TikTok. You can choose a theme, like a TikTok dance or trend you want to learn together.
39. Count to 10
Counting to 10 seems pretty easy, but this game makes it tricky. Everyone closes their eyes and has to collaboratively count to 10, but nobody can speak at the same time. If two people happen to both say the next number, you have to start all over. See if your team reaches 10!
40. Pass the Ball
Pretend you’re throwing a ball around the room. Before you throw it, say the person’s name that you’re throwing it to and make a sound. The catcher has to make the same sound, then pick a new person to throw to and come up with a new sound. The cycle repeats until everyone has had the ball at least once.
41. Make That Shape
Call out a shape and see if your team can physically recreate that shape using their arms and hands. If you’re on a virtual call, use gallery view to see the shape come together.
42. Podcast Debrief
This exercise helps you see how your co-workers learn and what they’re interested in. Listen to a podcast clip and facilitate a discussion around it. People can share what they liked, learned and thought about the topic.
43. Ways of Working
Take the time to learn how your teammates work. Using “This or That” scales, ask everyone questions like: “Are you a morning or evening person?”, “Do you enjoy remote work or in-office?” and “Do you like specific or limited directions to complete tasks?” Using a collaborative design tool, people can add their responses to any part of the scale.
44. Quick Write
Show a photo and ask everyone to do a five-minute free write about it. Share what you wrote and listen to your teammates to see how they interpreted the photo differently.
45. Build a Travel Itinerary
Split up into groups of three or four and work together to create an itinerary for a travel destination. Your group can choose the destination, but your itinerary should include transportation, stays, restaurants, and fun things to see or do.
46. Write Instructions For…
Writing instructions for tying a shoe is a classic exercise. In this rendition, break off into small groups and write instructions for an everyday work skill, like creating a Zoom invite. Trade instructions with another group, and use their instructions to try to do the exercise.
Fun Icebreaker Games
47. Skribbl.io
Basically an online Pictionary, Skribbl.io is the perfect Friday afternoon activity. Co-workers take turns drawing, while everyone else has to guess what it is.
48. Trivia
Choose a trivia topic and play a couple of rounds to test your team’s knowledge. You can create the game on Google Slides or use an online site like Kahoot. Try out these 30 Super Bowl Trivia Questions!
49. Name That Tune
Similar to trivia, “Name That Tune” tests your music knowledge. Play a short clip of a song and have your co-workers submit guesses for what song it is.
50. Guess That Movie
The movie version of trivia, “Guess That Movie” tests everyone’s film knowledge. Show short clips from movies and have people guess what movie it is. Check out this list of 125 Fun Movie Trivia Questions.
51. This or That
A fast-moving game that asks what side of the coin you’re on, “This or That” is always an ice breaker hit. Try asking debatable questions, like “Appetizer or Dessert”, “Beach Vacay or Ski Resort”, and “Marvel or DC”.
52. Create a Self-Portrait
Make self-portraits using a collaborative design tool or pen and paper. People can be as realistic or abstract as they want. Share your final artwork and why it represents you.
53. Virtual Charades
Using the Heads Up app or another online charades game, act out different things while everyone has to guess what it is.
54. Decorating Party
Decorate seasonal items with your co-workers! If your team is remote, you can find templates in design tools to decorate online. Try decorating holiday cookies, spring umbrellas or jack-o-lantern pumpkins. Mural even has a template for decorating festive sweaters.
55. Caption THAT
A funny activity to do with your team, “Caption THAT” asks people to come up with creative caption ideas for memes and photos. Display photos on Google Slides and ask everyone to write an Instagram caption for them.
56. Emoji Challenge
A form of trivia, “Emoji Challenge” uses emojis as clues. For example, try guessing: “A popular 80’s rom-com was 💁♀️➡️💗.” Answer: “Pretty in Pink.” Come up with creative emoji clues and have co-workers submit their guesses.
57. Codenames
Codenames is a fun online word game for a team competition. Add this to your list of Friday games to send the team off to the weekend on a great note!
58. Once Upon a Time
Tell an entertaining story with your co-workers. One person starts the story, and once the facilitator says “switch,” the next person takes over. Keep going until everyone has a chance to pitch in. You never know where your story can end up…
59. Going on a Picnic
A simple memory game, “Going on a Picnic” asks each co-worker to come up with things they would bring on a picnic in alphabetical order. One person names an item, then the next person has to name all the items before them and their own. By the time you get to the letter Z, you have 25 picnic items to memorize.
60. GIF Challenge
Come up with entertaining prompts for people to respond to with GIFs, like “Pick a GIF for Monday morning.” Everyone can send their GIFs in a chat.
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