What are the most popular games for remote teams?

Remote team games are excellent activities that can be conducted without needing a physical presence at the office. Employers can conduct these team game activities to help their team bond and blow some steam in between from all of the work. There are several games out there that can be played by remote employees. Each of them serves as an excellent way for the entire team to blow some stress off and bond over after a long day.

The primary goal is to play these games through remote technologies such as video conferencing tools and other remote virtual software solutions. Plenty of companies have realized that instilling a sense of belonging and cohesion among remote employees is vital. Employers must motivate and inspire their employees to achieve the business goals. That is why you need to set up some virtual team games among your remote employees.

These games can be almost anything that is set online and fun to do with the team. They should offer the remote employees a chance to socialize with one another even while working in a remote working environment. These remote games can be competitions, quizzes, teamwork-related, and so forth. The idea here is that they are fun and ensure the team is happy from these activities.

For this article, we are going to go over some of the most popular games you can play with your remote team.

Remote virtual Bingo

Bingo is an old classic that can easily be played virtually online among remote teams. All you need is a bingo template, create a bingo card, and schedule a quick game between breaks for you and your team. The game can be personalized to fit your company and team.  

Ask your remote team to submit some ideas for BIngo spaces to ensure it remains a collaborative process. Consider offering a prize to the winner of the game, such as an online gift card. Bingo is a game that’s easy enough to set up and build between your daily online meetings.

To ensure your game of Bingo manages work remotely, choose one of your remote employees to act as the moderator. They will call out a random phrase and wait a few seconds for everyone to search their card for that phrase. If the player has the word on their card, they proceed to mark the space.

Once The players have finished marking up enough spaces in a row, one of them should announce “Bingo!” in the video call and wait for the moderator to look over their answers. If the row is horizontal, vertical, or diagonal and matches the spaces, that team member wins!

Scavenger Hunt

Coming up with a scavenger hunt that your team can do where they are can be tons of fun. To set this up, make a list of common items or actions for them to find or perform. There are all sorts of ways you could set this up for everyone to enjoy. Variations of this game include virtual team-ups with a few people working together to complete the list, or you could merely leave it as a solo venture.

Setting them up in teams would be preferable if you have a large remote team at your disposal since it's more manageable for you and serves as an excellent way to have people bond with one another. If possible, offer up a prize or reward to those who have completed the most in the shortest amount of time.

Never Have I Ever

Never Have I Ever is another classic that can be played among remote teams. It is an excellent way for everyone to relieve some stress and helps everyone get to know each other much better. Here is how this works, a team member says something they have never done before, but if those participating have done it, they lower one of their fingers. The person who has the most fingers left up wins the game.

Typing Speed Race

A really popular online game among remote workers is Typing Speed Race. Since everyone on the team is working on their laptops, it’s interesting to see who among them is the fastest typer in the group. This game is also an excellent way to stir up some friendly competitions among your remote team. To set this up, you can use free tools like typingtest.com and have each of your remote employees do a one-minute challenge. Afterward, each person posts their test results on your chatting platform or email.

It is also possible to set this up as a team collaboration experience by doing Typing Speed Relay. Here how this version of the game works. You have everyone form into a team and have everyone do the challenge. Once that is done, you gather up the number of each member into a cumulative team number.

Charades

Charades is one of those games almost everyone has grown up playing with their friends or family members. To play charades with your remote team members, you should set up a set of links that go to Google image pages or use an online random image generator like RandomWordGenerator.com that allow you to collect topics to distribute.

During each player's turn, have them act out on what they see in the image, and the player’s teammates need to guess each one to earn points. To spice things up a bit, try themed lists, such as office-related terminologies, or well-known companies based on their logos, even delve into the more traditional stuff like pop culture references. Keep it up until everyone is exhausted from playing it.

Where In The World?

If your remote team is spread out geographically, consider trying out “Where In The World”? To play this game, have them find an image of a landmark or something the region they live in is known for. Zoom in on the image and crop a close-up of the location. Once done, post the photo for your team to see and figure out. Whoever manages to guess what it is and where it is from is the winner.

Once their image has been figured out, the person who lives where the photo was taken can offer a piece of fascinating information about the place and culture. A game like this gives your team the chance to speak about the culture and city they live in, making it one of the more popular games among remote workers.

Draw it!

Draw it is a fast-paced game that pushes your remote team's artistic skills to the highest level. A team member draws a word, and everyone on the team needs to guess what the word is. The faster someone manages to guess the word correctly, the more points they earn. There are all sorts of ways you can spin this game as well. The words that need to be drawn and figured out could all be related to a variety of topics, from pop culture references to work-related ones.

Picture Sharing

Ever wonder what your fellow teammates are like outside of work? Or maybe you are curious about what their surroundings look like?

Picture sharing is another popular game among remote workers. It offers them a chance to share pictures among them related to all sorts of fascinating topics.  To kick this off, suggest a theme such as work setup, kitchen items, pets, or something more abstract such as something inspiring or colorful.

The team will need to go out and take a picture for the specified them with their smartphone and share it throughout the week on a particular channel on your communication platform of choice. Sharing pictures is not only a fun game to play but offers everyone the chance to get to know each other better. It offers everyone a chance to get a glimpse into the life of their coworkers.

Team Collage

Another fun game that involves your team taking snapshots with their smartphones, the pictures they snap can be pretty much anything from where they work, what they see throughout the day, and so on. Use these images to make a weekly collage. Each week have your team send in different photos, and each week there will be a different college built by everyone's efforts.

If you are using a communication tool like Slack, you can have a channel dedicated to the college and the discussion that comes from people talking about each other's photos.

Two Truths and a Lie

Two Truths and a Lie is an excellent game that can be played through video calls. Each team member tells two truths while another one tells a lie about themselves. The rest of the team needs to guess which one is lying, and the person that manages to guess correctly the most wins. If you have a leaderboard set up on your communication channels, you can place the winners' names there.

Card Games

Games like Gin Rummy and Hearts are always a fun time for everyone involved. Card games can be easily played online among remote team members. You only need to connect through a video conferencing tool like Zoom and start up the game for everyone on your team.

Brightful has several card games that can be played by your remote teams. If you have too many players consider breaking them up into small groups and have them play a round of each. You can rotate each week to ensure everyone plays with one another.

Conclusion

Games are an excellent way for team members to bond with each other and destress after a long working period. Every one of these games is fun and exciting, so make sure to try them out among your remote team.