Here is our list of fun Microsoft Teams games for online offices.
Microsoft Teams games are puzzles, activities, and challenges for employees to play together on the video conferencing platform. Examples include Bingo, guess who, and charades. These activities aim to promote team building while using various features from the Microsoft Teams platform, such as chat boxes, whiteboards, and video calling.
These ideas are similar to online team games for work, Google Meet games, and online team building icebreakers.
This list includes:
- Microsoft Teams games to play with coworkers
- virtual games to play on Microsoft Teams
- fun things to do on Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Teams group games
- free Microsoft Teams games
Let’s get to it!
List of Microsoft Teams games
From emoji self-portraits to Pictionary, here are a few fun games to play with coworkers on Microsoft Teams.
1. Microsoft Teams Bingo
One of the most engaging games for Microsoft Teams is Bingo. To begin the game, create a Bingo card full of common work-from-home actions and statements.
Here is a Bingo template to get you started:
Throughout your meeting, watch out for coworkers who complete any of the actions on your Bingo card. The first player to mark five spaces in a row is the winner of the game. If you are looking for a way to get your team members actively engaged in your meetings, then Microsoft Teams Bingo is one of the best games to play.
2. Picture Prompt
Picture prompt is an excellent way for employees to unleash their creativity through photographs. To play this game, you should first come up with a quick prompt. Once you have your prompt, ask team members to submit their interpretation of the prompt in the form of a photo.
Prompts for this activity can include:
- Your best friend
- Your happy place
- Your favorite Starbucks order
- Your work-from-home area
- A peaceful moment
- A chaotic moment
For example, if you provide the prompt, “Your happy place,” then one employee may submit a picture of the beach. Picture prompt is a fun and engaging way to get teammates to share their interests through photos. Picture prompt is a great activity to help your team feel united and connected during a virtual meeting.
3. Virtual Myth-Busting Challenge
A virtual myth-busting challenge fosters critical thinking and dismisses misconceptions within your team. You can write general knowledge questions or focus specifically on your industry.
Here is how to host this game:
- Present the team with a mix of true or false statements.
- Set a timer.
- Team members take turns guessing whether each statement is a myth or a fact.
- Assign one point for each correct answer.
- The player who ends up with the most points wins!
After the game, you can discuss interesting facts or misunderstandings related to the statements. This game is a great way to teach folks to think critically and use their research skills.
4. Mysterium
Mysterium is an exciting game that challenges players to solve a murder! One player takes on the role of a ghost. The ghost sends clues to guide the other players, who play as psychic investigators. The investigators must use these clues to uncover the suspect, location, and weapon involved in the murder. Psychics share their visions and can gain new ones through crows. In the end, players will see if they have cracked the case or if the mansion will remain haunted! Mysterium blends communication, strategy, and deduction to create a fun team building game.
Learn more about Mysterium.
5. Mystery Countdown Theater
When looking for Microsoft Teams group games, consider adding mystery countdown theater to your list! Mystery countdown theater is a high-energy game that fosters quick thinking and friendly competition.
Here is how to play this game:
- Before the meeting, gather a set of timelapse videos of an item being created. For instance, videos could show an individual completing a puzzle or drawing.
- Have each player join a virtual buzzer website like BuzzIn.live.
- Play the timelapse videos.
- Players buzz in when they believe they know what the finished product will be.
- Players earn more points the earlier they make a correct guess.
- Whoever has the most points in the end wins!
This game puts critical-thinking skills to the test. Plus, colleagues will have a great time going head-to-head!
Check out these videos of Mystery Countdown Theater on Good Mythical Morning.
6. Debate Club
Debate club is a fun group activity that will have your entire team chatting. As part of this game, team members will debate everyday topics. Participants should then take a stance on the issue and present their arguments. We suggest encouraging players to present over-exaggerated and over-the-top arguments when possible.
Here are a few sample topics for your debate club activity:
- Are icebreakers necessary?
- Are team building exercises beneficial for teams?
- Which is better: working from home or working from an office?
- Which coffee is better for a long workday: Starbucks or Dunkin?
- What is your opinion on friendships at work?
The debate club activity is a fantastic opportunity for all team members to make their voices heard while practicing persuasion skills.
7. Visual Mapping
Visual mapping is a fun and interactive game that allows employees to bring their ideas to life. This activity is perfect for a Microsoft Teams meeting where employees discuss crucial work projects. Instead of talking through key updates, this activity encourages participants to use vision boarding and visual mapping to get their thoughts across to the team.
To begin the activity, designate one employee as the project lead. The project lead should share a blank slide on their screen. Throughout the meeting, the project lead will work with the remaining team members to populate the slide with images, text, and icons describing the project and delegating assignments and responsibilities. We suggest keeping your slide simple by sticking to imagery, icons, and light text.
Once you have finished your slide, encourage employees to refer back to the visual map if they need a refresher on the project. In addition, visual mapping is an ideal activity if you have any visual learners on your team.
8. Emoji Self-Portrait
One of the most creative virtual games to play on Microsoft Teams is emoji self-portrait. The objective of this game is to create a self-portrait of yourself using emojis only. To begin this activity, ask meeting participants to use the chat box to type a sentence using emojis that describe their personality. For example, one employee may type, “??♀️⚽️?⚾️” into the chat box to highlight their passion for sports.
After each team member has submitted their emoji self-portrait, have each attendee speak about their selection. Then, when team members have the spotlight, they should explain why they chose their emojis and how their sentence relates to their interests and personality. Emoji self-portrait is a fun and creative way to get to know your teammates.
9. Photo of Your Life
Photo of your life is an engaging game that will allow teammates to get to know coworkers on a personal level. For this challenge, ask employees to come to your meeting with a picture that sums up their life. For example, one employee may bring a photo from their family trip to Niagara Falls because family is the most important thing in their life. During your meeting, encourage each team member to share the significance and story behind their image.
Your teammates will surely enjoy taking time out of the meeting to get to know each other on a deeper level.
10. GIF Reaction
The GIF reaction activity is a fun way to give each team member the chance to speak without being interrupted. For this activity, give one team member the spotlight to share their priorities, updates, or current projects. As this employee speaks, other team members are not allowed to interrupt. After the employee finishes speaking, the remaining team members can send GIFS in the chat box to react to what their team members have shared. For example, if an employee shares that they published a new blog to the company’s website, then teammates can react with a celebratory GIF, noting their reaction to a job well done.
GIF reaction is an ideal way to allow employees to speak without interruption, and one of the most ideal Microsoft Teams games to play with coworkers. This activity also allows employees to send kudos to their teammates in a fun and visual way.
11. Guess Who
Guess who is a fun trivia game to play with your team. To conduct this activity, come up with a list of trivia questions about each team member.
For example, your list of trivia questions may include:
- Who won employee of the month last month?
- Who made the most sales last month?
- Which team member has traveled to ten countries?
- Who lives closest to the company headquarters?
- Which teammate speaks four languages?
Guess who is an innovative and challenging way to get employees to learn more about their teammates.
12. Fact or Fiction
Fact or fiction is a group guessing game where employees put their knowledge of coworkers to the test. To play this game, employees should share two statements about themselves. Then, teammates should guess which statement is a fact and which is fiction. For example, one employee might say, “I have never traveled outside of the country,” and “I speak two languages.” Teammates should guess that the first statement is fiction and the second statement is a fact.
Fact or fiction is a fun way to get to know teammates while engaging in a competitive game.
13. Elevator Pitch
Elevator pitch is a fun activity for sales employees to play during their Microsoft Teams meeting. To begin this activity, give participants five minutes to look for any object in their home. Objects can include common household items or office supplies, such as a pillow, notebook, or frying pan. We suggest providing as little context as possible when instructing players to choose an item.
Once employees have returned to their desks, instruct players to devise a two-minute elevator pitch for their chosen object. You can encourage employees to pitch the item as if they were selling it to their coworkers. At the end of the game, ask all team members to rank each pitch on a scale of one to ten. The player with the highest ranking wins.
Elevator pitch is a fun way to improve your selling, pitching, and persuasion skills. Your teammates will surely get a good laugh at their coworkers’ over-the-top pitches for everyday household items.
14. Charades
Charades is a classic game to play on Microsoft Teams. To play this game, use a random word generator to assign words and topics to players. Once you have assigned words to each player, go one by one and act out the word as best as possible. The catch is that actors should not speak or mouth any words to teammates. Instead, team members must guess the word based on their teammates’ silent actions.
We recommend choosing themes for each round to make the guessing portion simple. For example, if your theme for the round is office supplies, then you can assign words like paper clip, pencil, and stapler. Charades is a classic and popular game to get your team to interact with coworkers.
15. Water Cooler
If you are looking for an activity to bring your team closer together, we recommend playing water cooler. To begin this activity, you should pair your employees up in groups of two to three. Then, send your groups to different breakout rooms for at least 20 minutes. Be sure to equip your employees with a deck full of activities and thought starters to keep them busy in their breakout rooms.
Here are a few initiatives to include in your preparation deck for the water cooler activity:
- Icebreaker questions
- Puzzles and riddles
- Team building exercises
- Competitive games
- Conversation starter topics
Water cooler is a great way to encourage teammates to get to know each other by spending time together.
16. Photo Booth
If you are looking for fun things to do on Microsoft Teams, then we recommend creating a makeshift photo booth. Be sure to encourage employees to bring fun props and costumes to the virtual meeting. To conduct the photo booth activity, ask your team to pose for a group picture. We suggest choosing different photo themes and tones, such as serious, silly, and happy. If your team is meeting around the holidays, then you can incorporate decorations and costumes into your photo as well.
Be sure to designate one team member to act as the photographer. This employee should select the camera button near the bottom of the chat window to take a screenshot of the meeting room. You can edit your photos and add different filters directly in the Microsoft Teams app.
17. Polly Polls
Polly is an engagement app that helps companies instantly poll employees on platforms like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. With the Polly integration, you can run live polls, surveys, and quizzes right in your virtual meeting. We recommend using this tool to share fun questions about your team members.
Poll questions for this activity may include:
- Who is most likely to win employee of the month two months in a row?
- Who is most likely to accidentally reply-all to an email?
- Who is most likely to join the Microsoft Teams call off-camera?
- Who is most likely to have their pet interrupt the team call?
- Who is most likely to tell a joke that makes the whole team laugh?
Creating an internal poll is a great way to engage employees at your next team meeting.
Learn more about Polly.
18. Solitaire
Solitaire is one of the most classic free Microsoft Teams games available through the Games for Work app integration. As part of this activity, players can go head-to-head in a game of Solitaire. As players battle it out, remaining team members can observe and speculate, following along with the current game. In addition, this feature allows team members to share hints and tips with players throughout the game.
Playing Solitaire on Microsoft Teams is a great way to get your entire team to participate in a friendly competition and team bonding experience.
19. Never Have I Ever
If you are looking for classic icebreaker games for your meeting, then we recommend playing never have I ever. To play this game, have each employee share a statement beginning with the words, “Never have I ever.” Any employee who has completed the action should put one finger down. The last player standing is the winner of the game.
Here are a few never have I ever statements to help you begin your game:
- Kept snacks on my desk
- Hoarded office supplies
- Forgotten to eat lunch during the workday
- Forgotten a coworker’s birthday
- Missed a meeting on purpose
- Won employee of the month
- Fell asleep during a meeting
- Drank more than three cups of coffee in one day
- Forgotten a coworker’s name
- Worn pajamas to a Microsoft Teams meeting
Never have I ever is a fun way to add laughter to your meeting while encouraging team members to share their funny experiences.
Conclusion
These games are interactive and engaging activities for employees to play together on the Microsoft Teams video conferencing platform. For example, teams can play Bingo, Solitaire, and Pictionary on Microsoft Teams. These games aim to promote team building and employee engagement in a remote work environment. If you need additional game options, we recommend looking at the various app integrations and games available directly in the Microsoft Teams app.
Next, check out our lists of free online team building activities and online coffee break ideas. We also have a guide on how to make virtual meetings fun.
