Icebreaker games: 20 games for work, with rules
Twenty icebreaker games with real rules and a winner. Each one says how to play, how many people, how long and where it works.
Icebreaker games are short games with simple rules and a winner that get a group laughing and talking in 5 to 15 minutes, before a meeting, a training or a party. The 20 below are sorted into guessing games, games that get people moving, games for Zoom and Teams calls and games for big groups. Every one lists how to play, how a round is won, group size, time and setup, and none asks anyone to share something personal.
Which icebreaker game to play
Find your situation and start with this game. The rest of the list is sorted by type.
| Situation | Play this | Time |
|---|---|---|
| A small team around one table | Up Jenkins | 15 min |
| A weekly video meeting | Acronym remix | 5 to 10 min |
| Strangers on their first day together | Emoji resume | 10 min |
| A team that knows each other well | Mystery teammate | 10 min |
| An offsite or training day | Barnyard teams | 5 min |
| An office party | What did it cost? | 10 min |
| An all-hands of 100 or more | Lowest unique number | 5 min |
| A call where cameras stay off | Longest word | 5 min |
Guessing games
Someone knows the answer and everyone else tries to work it out. These run anywhere and need almost no setup.
1. Spot the leader
One guesser steps out of the room or turns their camera off. The group quietly picks a leader who starts a motion, like tapping a knee, and everyone copies each change. The guesser comes back and watches.
To win: The guesser wins by naming the leader in three tries; the leader wins by lasting.
10 min · 8 to 25 people · in person or on video · setup: none
2. Mystery teammate
The host privately picks one person in the room. Everyone else asks yes-or-no questions about work only (Have they been here longer than two years? Do they use a standing desk?) until someone names them.
To win: The group wins if it gets there in ten questions or fewer.
10 min · 6 to 20 people who already work together · in person or on video · setup: none
3. What did it cost?
Show five ordinary things the office bought this year, from a box of pens to the big coffee machine. Everyone writes down a price for each before the host reveals the real one.
To win: Closest without going over scores a point; most points after five items wins.
10 min · 4 to 40 people · in person or on video · setup: five photos and their real prices, from whoever orders supplies
4. Emoji resume
Everyone posts their career path in five emoji or fewer, one emoji per past job, in order. The group guesses the jobs, and the poster fills in the real ones.
To win: A point for every job guessed right; the trickiest resume gets a bonus vote.
10 min · 4 to 20 people · in person or on video · setup: chat, or a whiteboard in a room
5. Pet lineup
The day before, collect a photo of each person's pet, or of the pet they wish they had. Show them as a numbered grid and race to match every animal to its human.
To win: The most correct matches in three minutes wins.
10 min · 5 to 30 people · in person or on video · setup: photos collected a day ahead, one shared slide
In-person games that get people moving
For a room, an offsite or a training day after lunch, when people have been sitting too long.
6. Barnyard teams
Hand out folded slips, each with one of four animals. With eyes closed, everyone makes their animal's sound and shuffles toward the matching noises until every herd has found itself.
To win: The first complete herd picks the next game. The herds become your teams for the rest of the session.
5 min · 16 to 80 people · in person · setup: slips of paper, a clear floor
7. Keep it up
A team keeps a balloon off the floor. Every time someone taps it, they have to name something in the category the host called out, like cities, snacks or apps on your phone.
To win: A drop, a repeat or a blank ends the round. Most taps in a round wins.
10 min · teams of 4 to 8 · in person · setup: one balloon per team
8. Melting iceberg
Each team of five stands on an open sheet of newspaper, its iceberg. The host reads quick trivia questions, and every wrong answer folds that team's sheet in half. One foot each on the paper is enough.
To win: The last team still standing on its iceberg wins.
15 min · 10 to 40 people · in person · setup: a newspaper sheet per team, 15 trivia questions
9. Up Jenkins
Two teams sit on opposite sides of a table. One team passes a coin from hand to hand under the table, then all slap their hands flat on top. The other team's captain lifts hands one at a time to find the coin.
To win: The hiding team scores when the coin is under the last hand lifted. Swap sides each round.
15 min · 6 to 16 people · in person · setup: a coin and a long table
10. Feel-and-guess bag
Put ten small office objects in a cloth bag. On each turn, one player reaches in without looking and describes what they feel, never naming it, while their team shouts guesses.
To win: A point for each object guessed within 20 seconds.
10 min · 6 to 30 people in teams · in person · setup: a bag and ten objects, like a binder clip, a tea bag and a USB stick
Icebreaker games for Zoom and Teams calls
Built on the chat box and the gallery view, so they work on any video platform. Most work with cameras off too.
11. Chat typing sprint
The host shares a silly sentence on screen. Everyone retypes it in the chat as fast as they can, and each round's sentence gets a little longer and harder.
To win: The first exact copy wins the round. Typos don't count.
5 min · 4 to 100 people · on video · setup: five sentences ready to share
12. Acronym remix
The host posts an acronym your company really uses, like QBR or OKR. Everyone gets 60 seconds to invent a new meaning for it in the chat.
To win: The group votes with reactions; the most votes takes the round.
5 to 10 min · 4 to 60 people · on video · setup: three or four of your own acronyms
14. Freeze-frame poses
The host sends one player a private word, such as surfer, traffic cop or weightlifter. That player strikes a pose and holds it for five seconds while the others type guesses.
To win: The first right guess scores a point for the guesser and the poser.
10 min · 4 to 25 people · on video · setup: a list of 15 words
15. Longest word
The host reveals nine random letters. Everyone has 30 seconds to type the longest real word they can build from them, using each letter once.
To win: The longest real word scores. Ties go to whoever typed it first.
5 min · 3 to 100 people · in person or on video · setup: five sets of nine letters, each with a few vowels
Icebreaker games for big groups
For all-hands, conferences and parties of 30 to 300, where taking turns would take all day. Everyone plays at once.
16. Lowest unique number
Everyone secretly picks a whole number from 1 to 100 and sends it in, by chat, a form or a slip in a bowl. The host reads out the results from the bottom up.
To win: The lowest number nobody else picked wins. Play three rounds; people get sneakier every time.
5 min · 10 to 300 people · in person or on video · setup: chat, a quick form or paper slips
17. Birthday twins
Every table races to find two people who share a birthday, month and day. With just 23 people the odds of a match are about even, so a big room nearly always has several pairs.
To win: The first table to find a pair wins; then count how many pairs the whole room has.
5 min · 30 to 300 people at tables · in person · setup: none
18. Human tic-tac-toe
Set nine chairs in a three-by-three grid at the front. Two teams take turns answering quick questions, and a right answer lets the team send a player to sit in any empty chair.
To win: Three teammates in a row wins the game. Everyone else cheers from their seats.
15 min · 12 to 150 people, 2 teams · in person · setup: nine chairs, 20 easy questions
19. Paper chain race
Each table gets paper strips and tape. Every link needs one thing two people at the table share, written on it, before it can join the chain.
To win: After five minutes, the longest chain wins, and its strangest link gets read to the room.
10 min · 20 to 200 people at tables · in person · setup: paper strips, tape, a pen per table
20. Whisper relay
The host whispers the same tongue-twisting sentence to the first person in each row, and it travels back one ear at a time. The last person in every row stands and says it out loud.
To win: The row closest to the original sentence wins.
5 min · 20 to 300 people in rows · in person · setup: one sentence written down
How to run an icebreaker game people enjoy
The game matters less than how you start and stop it.
- Play a practice round first. Give the rules in a sentence, then let people learn by playing, not by listening.
- Keep the score where people can see it. A whiteboard in the room, a shared slide or the chat on a call.
- End on a high. Ten to fifteen minutes is plenty before a meeting. Set a timer and quit while it is still fun.
- Split up the usual neighbors. Put people who sit together on different teams so the game does the introductions.
- Give everyone a way in. Anyone who'd rather not play can keep score, run the timer or judge ties.
- Make the prize small. First pick of the snacks or a silly trophy that moves desk to desk.
Only have a couple of minutes? A single round from our icebreaker questions or a classic like two truths and a lie fits where a full game won’t.
When you want someone else to run the games
Icebreakers are easy to run for ten minutes. A whole hour of games is a job, and it's hard to play while you host.
KraftyLab books live-hosted virtual team games, game shows and trivia: a host runs about an hour of rounds on your call, Zoom by default or Teams, Google Meet or Webex on request, and keeps score. Three that start the way a good icebreaker does, with today’s prices:
Creative Fun & GamesStarting at $39 USD / person
Your Favorite Game Shows!Starting at $39 USD / person
Trivia with a Twist!Starting at $39 USD / person
All together in one office? Hosts run Feud Night, Music Bingo and live trivia at your office in 17 US cities; see in-person events. Book about 2 weeks ahead, or send your date and headcount and get a free quote within 24 hours.
Other icebreaker guides
When you need questions, a printable or a two-minute opener instead of a game.
- Ice breakers for work: 40 icebreakers sorted by the room you're in.
- Icebreaker questions: when you want one question per person, not a game.
- Funny icebreaker questions: for a team that likes to laugh.
- Large group icebreakers: more ideas for rooms of 50 or more.
- Icebreaker bingo: a free bingo card maker for mixers.
- Icebreaker ball: questions to write on a ball and toss around.
- Get to know you games: for new hires and new teams.
- Two truths and a lie: the classic, with 100 ideas to borrow.
- 5-minute team building activities: when you only have the start of a meeting.
- Team meeting games: 35 games sorted by how long you have.
- Office desk games: small games to play without leaving your seat.
