10 Virtual Happy Hour Games for Remote Work Gatherings

1. Why Virtual Happy Hour Games Can Be Fun to Play with Coworkers?

Virtual happy hour games improve teamwork and collaboration within a group by building an atmosphere of trust between the participants. Playing fun games like icebreakers, trivia contest or a scavenger hunt together, gives coworkers an opportunity to get to know one another better, setting them up for easier work-related communication going forward.

Virtual happy hour games for coworker gatherings are also a useful way to reduce stress, providing an outlet for everyone to let off some steam. Simultaneously, these fun, friendly environments promote employee engagement, as they create an association of enjoyment so everybody feels more at home in the company.

2. Top 10 Virtual Happy Hour Games to Have Fun

2.1. Hooray Teams

Hooray Teams is a fun hosted team-building platform with a wide range of fun activities that are led by experts. Some of these are games like trivia contests and murder mysteries, while others are festively themed cooking classes or craft lessons, such as Christmas cookie decorating or Halloween pumpkin carving. Whether your objective is to get people working together or to create a positive community environment, there’s an entertaining option to suit your goal. 

Each activity has a different price per person and event, which makes it easy to budget appropriately. Plus, the event can be as interactive as you like, with some of the choices including a kit that is sent out to participants before your virtual happy hour.

Best of all, everything is facilitated by a professional host, who will ensure everything runs smoothly. That means that nobody on your team has to act as the organizer, so that everyone can enjoy the evening to the fullest.

2.2. MTV Cribs: Fridge Edition

Remember the classic noughties TV show MTV Cribs, which gave us a peek into the outrageous homes of the rich and famous? Well, you can recreate that experience with a tongue-in-cheek version that makes your staff the stars.

Each member of the team gets a chance to strut their stuff in front of their coworkers, taking the rest of their colleagues through their kitchen setup, before ending up with the icing on the cake: a glimpse at the contents of the fridge. 

This game creates an opportunity for everyone to share a little about their lives and, through that, develop a better relationship with the rest of the team. Just make sure you give your employees a little heads up beforehand to avoid any embarrassment.

The key to making this game fun is to encourage all participants to get into the spirit of the evening. It might be a good idea to send out some YouTube clips of the show beforehand so that everyone gets a feel for the style. 

2.3. Sneak It In

A game that encourages communication and cleverness, Sneak It In has an incredibly simple premise. Here’s how it works: each individual is given a secret word before the event. Over the course of the virtual happy hour, they have to say that word as often as possible without anybody else deducing what it is. For every time they do mange to sneak it into conversation, they receive a point.

However, there’s a catch. At the end of the session, every participant gets a chance to guess what they think every other person’s secret word is. If even one person guesses correctly, all points are lost. The winner is the person who has managed to use their secret word the most times in conversation without being detected.

2.4. Virtual Happy Hour Trivia

Trivia is one of the best virtual happy hour games for large groups because you can subdivide everybody into as many squads as you like, setting up individual online breakout rooms where each bunch of people can discuss their answers. 

As well as the obvious teamwork aspect, quizzes are also a good way to stimulate discussions and problem solving, particularly if the questions are more open-ended, such as “How many football fields would it take to reach the moon?”

There are lots of different ways you can organize your trivia contest. For instance, it could be based around a particular theme like Christmas, Disney, Sports, or Movies. Alternatively, you can have a potpourri of different categories all mixed together, incorporating a broader range of knowledge.

2.5. Guess the Song

If you’re looking for a way to bring harmony to your team, Guess the Song is an entertaining way to build up better team bonds.

It’s also really easy to set up. Before the virtual happy hour, one person creates a playlist of tunes, preferably from a range of decades and genres, so that people with different musical interests can all contribute. During the event, divide the participants into teams and assign each te am a breakout room where they can discuss their answers as they go along.

Incorporating multimedia into your virtual happy hour helps keep employees engaged. Plus, music has been shown to positively affect brain chemistry, making it an ideal destressing activity.

2.6. I’ll Drink to That

Drinking games and happy hours are traditional companions, so it’s no surprise that there are a lot of different ones out there, from Never Have I Ever to Truth or Drink.

I’ll Drink to That is less confessional than either of those two virtual happy hour games. Instead, staff drink whenever anybody says one of several nominated phrases. These can be whatever you like but should at least be things that come up regularly in conversation. For a virtual happy hour, for example, “You’re breaking up” or “Say that again” are probably safe bets.

While there isn’t much strategy or subtlety to I’ll Drink to That, it is a good icebreaker to loosen everyone up.

2.7. Speed Crossword Puzzle

For something a little more intellectually stimulating than a drinking game, why not introduce a competitive element into the leisurely crossword puzzle? There are several websites and apps that provide teams with a platform where they can work collaboratively to solve crossword clues, like Planet Crossword, which can be accessed in a browser or through Zoom.

Depending on the size of your invite list, you can either have everyone play together or divide people up into squads and see which one can complete their crossword first. You can even promise a prize to the fastest group to up the ante of the contest.

2.8. Photo Sharing Game

This is one of the best activities to do if you want a more direct means of helping staff to get to know one another better. Before your virtual happy hour, ask each attendee to arrange for three photographs. These could be family selfies, holiday snaps, or even a photo they’ve taken that represents a hobby, such as gardening or stamp collecting. 

During the team gathering, each person then shares their three images with the rest of the group, explaining the context of each one. Primarily, this activity is about sharing some unique personal details with colleagues to build greater rapport, but it’s also a great way to improving confidence with regards to speaking and presenting in front of coworkers.

2.9. The Statement Game

The Statement Game starts with one person saying a phrase. This could be anything they like, for example, “I went shopping today” or “I’ve never seen a green cow.” The next person then continues the story with their own statement, which must logically follow on from the last statement. This goes on until somebody fails to think of a suitable next sentence. Participants are steadily knocked out until one person remains. 

While this game is fairly simple to play, it requires a bit of mental dexterity to play well. It’s also a very relaxed way to add a bit of structure to your team’s virtual meetup. 

For added amusement, you can kick each round off with a previously prepared, humorous statement that the team then has to run with.

2.10. Would You Rather

One of the most popular virtual happy hour games with friends, Would You Rather is also a fun activity to play with colleagues, particularly if the objective of your team gathering is to help everyone unwind and get social.

Essentially, all participants are offered a choice between two things and must then defend their position. For instance, “Would you rather be too hot or too cold?” or “Would you rather get hiccoughs at a wedding or a funeral?”

It’s a good idea to have a few prompts ready to get the ball rolling, and you can find loads of suggestions online. However, once your team gets into it, you might want to allow people to come up with their own questions for an added demonstration of mental ingenuity.

3. FAQs

3.1. What can you do in a virtual happy hour?

There are a ton of different activities you can use as the foundation of your virtual happy hour, from collaborative crossword puzzles to group cocktail classes. It’s often useful to have some form of activity arranged, in order to promote conversation and alleviate any awkward silences.

3.2. How do I set up a Zoom happy hour?

Once you’ve agreed a time with your colleagues, simply schedule a Zoom meeting and send all participants the link. As well as running your own games within the platform, there are also a number of Zoom happy hour games that you can purchase from the marketplace that are designed to work natively with the interface. 

3.3. How do you play virtual game night?

The most important thing you need is a shared piece of conferencing software. Whether you want to play virtual happy hour games on Microsoft Teams, Zoom, or any other service, it’s easy to set up a shared screen, as long as you inform everybody beforehand so they can make sure they have all the necessary software downloaded and ready to go ahead of time.

3.4. How do you plan a team happy hour?

It’s a good idea to have some form of activity that acts as a jumping-off point for your virtual happy hour. Particularly in groups that may not know each other very well or have many opportunities to socialize outside of work, it creates a shared goal from which you can then allow conversations to naturally develop.