This post was last updated on, July 30th, 2022
It’s Monday and you’re already dreading the office – or well the table you turned into a desk in a corner of your house. And you can’t wait for Friday to come so you can have your weekly virtual happy hour reunion with all of the team members.
That, you won’t miss, of course, especially since you’ve started to play some virtual happy hour games. Yes, online happy hour games are a thing!
If you don’t know what we’re talking about, keep on reading, because these ideas will make your virtual team never miss another happy hour again!
Table of Contents
- Virtual Bingo
- Majority and Minority
- Wikipedia search race
- Virtual Excel Battleship
- ‘Never Have I Ever’
- Virtual trivia
- Virtual Escape Room
- Murder mystery party
- Scattergories
- Virtual Crossword
- Name that tune
- Charades
- Virtual Pictionary
- Can you find that place?
- Guess what you’re eating!
- Virtual scavenger hunt
- Dance that line
- The virtual jukebox
- Talent show
The Basics of Virtual Happy Hour Games
How do you make a virtual happy hour more fun?
One of the simple ways to take your virtual happy hour to the next level is to encourage people to participate in happy hour games.
Not only will it make virtual meetings less boring, but also add something fresh and new for people to look forward to.
What is a virtual happy hour game?
Playing virtual games during a work meeting or a Virtual Happy Hour is a great way to break the dullness of day-to-day meetings. And everyone enjoys this kind of fun competition with co-workers!
It’s also an excellent way to get people more engaged in the conversation and have them participate in what’s going on around them.
How are virtual happy hour games played?
From guessing games to scavenger hunts to trivia, a virtual happy hour brings people together in one room regardless of where they are and encourages them to get acquainted with each other. But for that, you’ll need a good internet connection, a video conferencing platform – such as organizing your event through a Zoom call, and if you feel like it, a drink – because it’s happy hour after all!
Some virtual meeting platforms also have online happy hour games built right into their platform.
What are the benefits of happy hour games?
Not only do virtual happy hour games foster a sense of camaraderie among virtual teams and allow people to get to know each other, they’re also are an excellent way to ease the stress of the week as a team.
What games can you play during a virtual happy hour?
There are limitless virtual happy hours you can play. We recommend you try games like Virtual Bingo, Name That Tune, Virtual Trivia, or a Virtual Scavenger Hunt in Italy! More ideas to come in this blog post so keep on scrolling!
With those, you’ll find yourself looking forward to virtual meetings each week and it will make everyone’s virtual happy hour even better.
Virtual Happy Hour Games for Your Remote Team
To get you started, let’s check out easy and fun games where you can try your luck!
1. Virtual Bingo
Virtual bingo is inspired by the classic Bingo luck game.
Each player is assigned one or several bingo cards of 25 different squares that can contain numbers but can also contain words, icons or anything else depending if you want to pick a theme for this game.
A moderator will call out randomly, one by one the words or numbers and players cross off squares that are being called off their cards if they have them. The objective is to be the first one to cross an entire row or a full card.
You can also play a version in which people have to cross some common virtual meeting phrases as the video call goes such as “Can you hear me now?” or “I’m gonna share my screen”.
More than a happy hour game, this version can also be integrated into any virtual team building or virtual meeting!
Know more about Virtual Bingo on our dedicated blog post.
2. Majority and Minority
Majority and Minority game is a virtual happy hour game in which groups of people are asked fun and easy questions. It can be from “would you rather get a beach house or a lake house?” to “would you rather eat tacos or pizza?”
Depending on the answers, you’ll know if you’re part of the majority or minority!
This is a great game to get to know your coworkers better, and can be turned into a drinking game. If you’re a part of the minority – you drink!
3. Wikipedia search race
This virtual happy hour game will get your remote team to flex their creative muscles.
Start by choosing a topic that people might have heard of in the news recently or something very random – your pick. Now choose a second topic totally unrelated.
Within a few clicks, challenge your team to go from the first topic Wikipedia page to the second topic, only via accessing the links present on the pages.
May the fastest win!
4. Virtual Excel Battleship
The virtual Excel Battleship game will allow you to test your luck and logic skills all at the same time.
Each player will fill a private Excel sheet with 5 boats of different cell sizes on it. Do not give it away, you don’t want your coworkers getting an easy win, right?
Then, in a separate common Excel sheet, one person will attack a cell and try to hit one of your ships. The competitor will call a random cell part of the area of the game, such as “D5”. If it’s a hit, you can change the cell background in red. If it’s a miss, you can color it in grey.
The next person takes a turn then and will try to guess where the ships of her/his adversary are hidden. The game goes on until one of the fleets is KO.
5. ‘Never Have I Ever‘
Probably one of the most famous and classic drinking games here that you could play during your virtual event: Never Have I Ever.
In this game, everyone takes turns and starts a statement by “Never Have I Ever…”. If someone has done it before, they have to drink!
For this work-friendly version, you can think about an office-theme with statements such as “Never have I ever dated someone in the office” or “Never have I ever deleted an email without even opening it”.
Happy Hour Games With a Sprinkle of Thinking
6. Virtual trivia
Test your coworkers knowledge with a virtual trivia game!
Select or ask for a volunteer to act as the moderator who will host the game. This person will have to define general culture questions or themed trivia questions with a specific theme in mind.
Ask about famous companies, geography, movies, or sports.
Virtual trivia can be played as an individual competition, each player for their own, or as a team building activity with players competing in teams.
This last option is a great idea to make it more interesting and participative!
7. Virtual Escape Room
The virtual Escape Room game is a great idea to spice up your virtual team building or happy hour for all of the aspiring detectives out there!
Best fitted for small-sized teams, engage a crazy brainstorm with your coworkers in order to solve clues and challenges, in a defined time limit.
Do not forget to test your logical skills with virtual brain teasers as well!
For this particular game, we recommend you choose a built-in Virtual Escape game solution as this can be hard to host and build yourself.
8. Murder mystery party
The murder mystery party virtual happy hour activity is one of the weirdest and most original team building games that people will love.
Prior to the event, attribute a role of a murder story to everyone in the team. Give them clues on their personality, instructions, past actions and important role – or not – in the murder.
During the virtual happy hour, each participant shall wear a name tag and forget about who they are to fully embody their character.
At the beginning of the zoom happy hour, the moderator will share the plot of the murder and get the group started on the investigation.
During an hour or so, everyone can ask questions to uncover the truth. As for the murderer, they shall remain a secret as long possible!
For an even more fun way to play, invite your team to dress up according to their character and to change their zoom background for a full ambiance.
9. Scattergories
Scattegories is one of those simple team-building activities that will test your speed, knowledge, and competitive mindset!
Define 5 different and easy categories such as animals, fruits, jobs, capitals, and proper names. At the beginning of each round, choose a letter randomly, and then hurry to type on your keyboard the answers!
All players have to think about a word for each category, starting with the letter defined for the round. Whenever the time is up or someone finishes first, the round immediately stops and everyone sends in their answers via the group chat of the video call.
10. Virtual Crossword
Gather your team for a fun virtual crossword puzzle challenge! This game can be played with any size group, and is a great way to test your team’s knowledge.
First, create a crossword puzzle with clues related to your company, products, or industry. If you’re strapped for time use a free online crossword puzzle tool instead.
Then choose a volunteer to be the host. When everyone’s ready, divide into two or more teams.
Don’t forget to establish an honor system wherein no one uses the internet (as that would be cheating!)
Set a timer and let the teams compete. The first team to complete their puzzle before the time is up wins! And if nobody returns by then the winner will be the team with the most completed correct answers.
Guessing Games for Your Virtual Happy Hour
11. Name that tune
As soon as everyone is ready, start your virtual music player randomizer. Listen or watch the music clip that comes, and the goal of this virtual happy hour challenge is to guess the name and/or singer of the song coming up.
You can either make it a speed contest or ask everyone to take turns if it becomes too wild for your team! 😉
12. Charades
Who is the best at charades? The host will have to prepare some charades ideas prior to the event. Once everyone is connected, send the charades on the chat or say them out loud. The first one to guess it correctly wins the game!
Be creative! Charades can be made of pictures, gifs, words or even emojis.
13. Virtual Pictionary
When it comes to game night, everyone’s classic and favorite Pictionary game is a no-brainer.
It’s one of the best virtual happy hour games that people love playing together!
To sum it up, you can use this activity as either story telling or as a drawing to exercise your brain and have fun at the same time!
If you choose the drawing version, then simply ask the participants to open Paint and to share their screen as they draw the word or expression randomly picked.
14. Can you find that place?
For this game, you will need the use of Google Maps. Ask everyone to pick a destination on the map, and to activate street view.
One by one, everyone takes a turn to share their screen while the others have to guess where the street view is located on the map.
Is it in your State? Is it a place everyone knows? Is it even in the United States or in a small little town in Asia?
Take your guess!
15. Guess what you’re eating!
Another idea for your Happy Hour can be to organize a tasting and guessing game. This is a great way to combine the act of enjoying a drink with food while connecting with your colleagues.
For this activity, spice things up with food and drink coming from other parts of the world. Have your coworkers send a package of delicacies from other countries such as Cheese and Wine from France!
With Woyago, you can organize this fun and enjoyable zoom happy hour where everyone takes turns guessing what they’re currently trying, animated by a Parisian foodie co-host.
What is this cheese made of? How old is this wine? What flavor is this marmalade?
Your remote team will surely thank you and want more of those virtual events!
A Virtual Happy Hour That Will Gets You Moving Off Your Chair!
16. Virtual scavenger hunt
To make the virtual happy hour a little more versatile, you can spice up your team building with a virtual scavenger hunt.
This activity is all about quick thinking and multitasking!
Ask your team to try to find answers or objects by following the clues of a list the host would have provided prior to the zoom happy hour.
Define a time limit to complete all challenges or to bring all articles to the computer. Let’s see who in the group can get this party moving the quickest!
More on how to organize a scavenger hunt on the blog.
17. Dance that line
Have each participant share their video. Play a song and ask the first person to stand up, perform a dance move and then pick the next dancer.
The newly designated person will have to repeat the first move and perform an even more daring one before calling on yet another teammate to follow suit.
It goes on and on until players get eliminated if they miss any sequence in their moves, or if they forget what comes next!
18. The virtual jukebox
In this virtual happy hour game, you’ll have to team up with other players to form small groups.
Choose a famous artist at the beginning of each round. Once an artist has been selected every group should take turns and sing a song – or at least a few lines – of this artist.
If you can’t sing another song, you will be eliminated! Will you be the last one?
19. Talent show
In virtual Happy Hours, forget about your shy neighbor! It’s the right time to unleash your singer or dancer side and show it off!
Organizing a talent show is one of the funniest happy hour activities. It can be a useless talent show where everyone makes a demonstration of random talent they have like touching their nose with their tongue; or you can put on a real show with a dedicated host, cocktails, songs, performances etc!
Looking for more? Check out our virtual happy hour ideas for 2022 post.
As you can see, virtual happy hour games are a great way for remote workers to interact with each other.
It can really bring virtual teams together, improve their cohesion, and is a great chance to have some virtual fun!
This list of virtual happy hour games is not exhaustive, feel free to add any other game suggestions by commenting on this post or contact us directly! We would love to make this list bigger and maybe even offer virtual happy hours hosting as a service for companies or groups that wish to spend some time together.
Thanks for reading and until next time!
