Microsoft Teams games work best when they are simple to join, clearly hosted and short enough to keep energy high. For UK companies with remote or hybrid teams, they can give colleagues a shared moment without asking everyone to travel for every social activity.
This guide gives you 15 practical games to play on Teams, plus advice on choosing the right format, using Teams features well and deciding when a hosted activity will give your team a better experience.
Can you play games on Microsoft Teams?
If you are looking for games to play on Teams, the best choices are short, easy to explain and built around features your team already uses: chat, reactions, polls, screen sharing, breakout rooms and Whiteboard.
Microsoft Teams can work well for light social sessions, energisers between meetings and structured remote team building. The difference is in the planning. A five-minute icebreaker needs a different pace from a 60-minute hosted challenge, and a hybrid group needs more direction than a fully remote team.
For HR teams and team leaders, the aim is not to fill time with novelty. It is to give colleagues a shared task, a reason to speak to people outside their usual circle and a clear finish point. NewWave Events supports remote team building activities for UK workplaces that want that structure without asking internal teams to host everything themselves.
Turn a Teams call into a planned team session
If your team needs more than a quick warm-up, NewWave Events can shape a remote activity around your group size, timings and workplace culture.
15 games to play on Teams
These Microsoft Teams game ideas are designed for workplace groups. They avoid awkward personal questions, need little equipment and can be adapted for small teams, larger departments or mixed hybrid groups.
- Quick-fire quiz: Run three or four short rounds using screen share for questions and chat for answers. Keep each round to five questions so the pace stays sharp. Use themes that suit the team, such as music intros, UK landmarks, company-safe general knowledge or picture rounds with no sensitive internal content.
- Two truths and a work-safe lie: Ask each person to submit two true statements and one false statement before the call. The host reads them out and the group votes in chat or by reaction. Keep the prompt light, such as hobbies, travel, food or harmless office habits.
- Teams bingo: Create bingo cards with common remote working moments, such as someone joining on mute, a pet appearing or a colleague using a reaction. This works best as a gentle background game during a social meeting, not during a serious briefing.
- Emoji film titles: Share a list of film titles written only in emojis and ask teams to guess them in chat. For larger groups, split people into breakout rooms for five minutes, then bring everyone back to reveal the answers.
- Guess the desk object: Ask each participant to hold up or describe one nearby object without naming it. The group guesses in chat. It is quick, low-pressure and works well when some people have cameras off.
- Poll wars: Use Teams Polls to present quick either-or choices, such as tea or coffee, city break or beach, early start or late finish. Reveal the result and invite one or two comments after each vote. This is useful for warming up a quieter group.
- Remote scavenger hunt: Give players a short list of items to find at home or in the office, such as something blue, something older than five years or something that tells a story. Allow one minute per round and ask people to show the item on camera if they are comfortable.
- Virtual Pictionary: Use Microsoft Whiteboard or screen annotation for simple drawing prompts. Keep the prompts broad and recognisable, such as animals, objects, jobs or famous places. Rotate the drawer quickly so more people take part.
- Who said it?: Collect short, anonymous answers to a prompt before the session, such as a favourite lunch, first concert or best piece of work advice. Read one answer at a time and ask the team to guess the colleague.
- Picture round relay: Put teams into breakout rooms and give each room the same image-based challenge, such as identifying close-up objects or blurred landmarks. Bring everyone back after a fixed time and score the answers together.
- Mini murder mystery: Give the group a light fictional scenario, a list of suspects and a set of clues revealed over several rounds. This needs more preparation than a quiz, but it creates discussion rather than simple answering.
- Team playlist challenge: Ask teams to build a playlist for a fictional brief, such as songs for a product launch, Monday motivation or a summer away day. They must explain three choices when they return to the main meeting.
- Guess the sound: Play short, clear sound clips through screen share and ask people to identify them. Test the audio before the session, as this game depends on everyone being able to hear properly.
- Breakout room pitch: Give small groups a playful invention or problem to solve, such as a new office snack, a bad weather team day or a robot assistant for meetings. Each room has five minutes to prepare a one-minute pitch.
- Remote escape clues: Share a sequence of riddles, codes or visual clues and let teams solve them in breakout rooms. Keep the difficulty moderate, assign a host to watch time and give hints before frustration sets in.
How to choose the right Teams game
Start with the outcome, not the game. A team that has never met needs fast, friendly introductions. A group that already works together may prefer a competitive challenge. A senior leadership team may want a short energiser that does not feel too forced.
Group size matters. For fewer than 12 people, choose games where everyone can speak in the main meeting. For 12 to 40 people, use chat, polls and occasional breakout rooms. For larger groups, a hosted quiz, mystery or escape-style challenge usually works better because the host can control timing, scoring and transitions.
Think about confidence levels too. Camera-based games can exclude people who are travelling, working in shared spaces or dealing with poor connectivity. Always offer a chat-based route into the activity. This small decision often changes whether quieter colleagues feel able to join in.
If you are comparing online options with wider event formats, NewWave Events has a separate guide to virtual team building activities that may help you match the format to your team.
How to run the session without awkward pauses
A good Teams game needs a named host, a clear running order and a time limit. Do not rely on the group to self-organise once the call starts. People join from different places, with different kit and different levels of confidence, so the host has to make the activity feel easy from the first minute.
Use Teams features deliberately. Polls are useful for quick votes and preference rounds. Breakout rooms help small groups talk without being talked over. Whiteboard works for drawing and visual tasks. Chat keeps camera-off participants involved. Reactions can be used for instant voting, but explain which reaction means what before the game begins.
For timed team games, brief the rules before opening breakout rooms. Teams allows organisers to set room time limits, make announcements to rooms and bring participants back to the main meeting. Those functions are useful, but they do not replace clear instructions. Give people the task, the scoring method and the return time before they leave the main room.
Build in a short tech check if the session matters. Ask participants to update Teams, test audio and join from a suitable device where possible. For large groups or client-facing events, run a rehearsal with the host, slides, music, videos and any co-hosts.
Keep the energy steady from start to finish
A hosted facilitator can manage pace, scoring and breakout rooms, so your managers can take part rather than run the whole session.
Making Teams games work for hybrid teams
Hybrid Teams games need extra care because people in the room can easily dominate the conversation. Treat the online group as equal participants, not an audience looking into the office.
Give each physical room one laptop or room system for shared audio, then avoid several open microphones in the same space. Nominate someone in the room to watch chat, repeat in-room comments and make sure remote colleagues are invited in by name. If the group is split into teams, mix office-based and remote colleagues where the format allows.
Breakout rooms can help hybrid groups if each room has a clear task. They work less well when people are sent away with a vague instruction to discuss. Give each room a question, clue pack, score sheet or decision to make, then bring everyone back for a short share-out.
For more planning support, NewWave Events has guidance on icebreakers for virtual and hybrid meetings, including ways to make online participation feel less exposed.
When a hosted Teams game is worth it
Some Teams games are simple enough for a manager to run at the end of a meeting. Others are better with an external facilitator, especially when the audience is large, the event has senior stakeholders or the session forms part of a wider engagement plan.
Consider support if you need custom content, smooth scoring, professional hosting, themed visuals, breakout room management or a format that keeps 50, 100 or more people active at once. The internal host can then join in rather than watching the clock, sorting chat messages and fixing small problems while everyone else plays.
NewWave Events designs and delivers team building activities and corporate events across the UK, including remote and hybrid formats. If your Teams session is part of an away day, conference, company update or staff engagement programme, it is worth planning the online activity as carefully as any in-person element.
A simple planning process for Teams games
Teams games feel better when the host has done the thinking before the invite goes out. Use this five-step process to keep the session focused and easy to join.
Set the purpose
Decide whether the session is for introductions, social connection, celebration, problem solving or a short energy lift. That decision should guide the format.
Map the audience
Check numbers, seniority, confidence levels and whether people will join remotely, from one office, or across several sites.
Match the Teams tools
Choose games that work through chat, polls, screen share, breakout rooms or Whiteboard. Avoid anything that depends on everyone having the same home setup.
Prepare the run sheet
Write the rules, timings and scoring before the call. Prepare any slides, clues, polls or images, then test audio and screen sharing.
Host and close well
Use a host or facilitator to keep the activity moving. Finish with a clear result, a short thank-you and the next action for the team.
Plan a Teams game your colleagues will actually join
Planning a remote or hybrid team activity should not fall on one busy manager with a quiz deck and a stopwatch. NewWave Events can help you choose the right format, plan the timings and deliver a Teams-friendly experience that suits your people.
Tell us about your group size, aims and preferred date, and we will help shape a session that feels organised, inclusive and easy to join.
