Virtual team building activities have a credibility problem that they’ve mostly earned. Too many of them are in-person formats force-fitted onto a video call — the result feels like a Zoom meeting with extra steps. Participants show up, go through the motions for 45 minutes, and return to their inbox unchanged.
The virtual team building activities that actually work are designed for the medium, not adapted from it. They account for the dynamics of video calls: shorter attention spans, the absence of physical proximity, the chat window as a parallel conversation, and the reality that someone is always dealing with a child, a dog, or a bad connection.
Here are 16 options that hold up in practice, organized by format and what they require to work.
What Makes Virtual Team Building Actually Work
The format constraints of video calls aren’t bugs to work around — they’re parameters to design for.
| Works Online | Struggles Online |
|---|---|
| Competitive formats with visible scoring | Long unstructured conversation |
| Activities with a physical component (kits shipped ahead) | Anything requiring physical proximity |
| Breakout rooms for small-group interaction | One large group trying to discuss simultaneously |
| Chat-driven parallel engagement | Silent observation |
| Short focused sessions (60–90 min) | Half-day workshops |
The best virtual team building activities use these parameters intentionally rather than fighting them.
Tasting-Based Virtual Activities
1. Virtual Blind Wine Tasting
Wine kits are shipped to participants’ homes ahead of the event — numbered bottles or pouches, wrapped so labels are hidden. A host facilitates the tasting live: participants smell, taste, and record guesses on a scorecard, then compare at the reveal.
The format translates online better than most in-person activities. Reactions to the reveal happen on camera in real time. The chat becomes its own entertainment channel as people argue about Wine #3. The competitive scoring keeps engagement tight for the full session.
For a fully facilitated version, The Wine Voyage’s virtual blind tasting ships kits directly to participants and includes a professional host managing the experience end-to-end.
Best for: 10–100 participants. Requires 1–2 weeks lead time for kit shipping.
2. Virtual Spirits Tasting
Same format as the wine tasting, built around whiskey, tequila, or mezcal flights. Works particularly well for teams where not everyone drinks wine — the spirits category feels less intimidating to many participants, and the educational component (understanding the difference between a blanco and a reposado) is inherently engaging. The Wine Voyage’s Tequila & Mezcal experience runs virtually as well as in-person, so teams can choose the format that fits.
Best for: 10–80 participants. Good alternative for wine-reluctant groups.
3. Virtual Cocktail Making Class
A bartender hosts a live session walking participants through building 2–3 cocktails. Ingredient kits are shipped in advance. Works well as a Friday afternoon activity or a kickoff for a virtual all-hands. The hands-on element keeps engagement high; people are doing something, not just watching.
Best for: 20–100 participants. Requires advance logistics for kit distribution.
4. Virtual Cooking Class
A chef guides participants through making the same dish simultaneously from their own kitchens. Ingredients are ordered in advance (a shopping list goes out a week before). The chaos of different kitchen setups and skill levels becomes part of the entertainment rather than a problem.
Best for: 10–40 participants. Works best in smaller cohorts where everyone can be seen.
Game and Competition Formats
5. Virtual Trivia
The most reliable virtual team building activity in terms of consistent execution. Key variables: hire a live host (don’t run this internally — the host is 80% of what makes it work), use breakout rooms for team strategy between questions, and choose categories that reward general knowledge over specialist expertise.
Platforms: Kahoot, Mentimeter, or a custom Airtable scoring sheet managed by the host.
Best for: 20–200 participants. Scales well. Strong option for large all-hands events.
6. Virtual Escape Room
Browser-based puzzle experiences designed for remote teams. Participants work in breakout rooms to solve interconnected clues. Quality varies significantly by platform — test thoroughly before committing a large group. The better platforms (Teamflow, Weve) are meaningfully different from cheap alternatives.
Best for: 8–50 participants in groups of 4–8.
7. Online Murder Mystery
Participants play characters in an unfolding story, gathering clues across breakout rooms and reconvening to share findings. Works well for groups that enjoy roleplay or narrative. Engagement depends on whether participants commit to the premise — culture-dependent.
Best for: 10–40 participants. Better suited to tight-knit teams than large company events.
8. Virtual Bingo
Custom bingo cards built around team culture, the company, or a shared topic (industry jargon, project milestones, personality types). Lower-energy format that works well as a warm-up for a longer session or as a standalone 30-minute activity.
Best for: 20–200 participants. Very low cost and logistics overhead.
9. Virtual Scavenger Hunt
Participants complete a list of challenges from their home environments — find something blue, show your desk setup, bring something that represents a hobby. Photo or video submissions scored in real time. Apps like Scavify handle the logistics. Surprisingly effective at surfacing personalities and generating conversation.
Best for: 10–80 participants. Works well for onboarding new hires to an existing remote team.
Creative and Skill-Based Activities
10. Virtual Improv Workshop
A facilitator runs improv exercises over video — “yes, and…” games, listening exercises, quick-fire scenarios. The medium works better than expected because the camera creates a natural performance frame that participants are already used to. Best pitched as a communication and collaboration workshop, not a comedy class.
Best for: 10–50 participants. Highly dependent on facilitator quality.
11. Virtual Art or Painting Class
An instructor guides participants through creating the same painting. Supplies are ordered in advance from a provided list. Works particularly well for teams where competitive activities fall flat — creative formats give introverts more space to engage. End-of-session gallery walk (everyone holds up their painting) is reliably entertaining.
Best for: 10–40 participants. Works well for smaller teams or department-level events.
12. Virtual Pottery or Clay Session
Air-dry clay is inexpensive and ships easily. A ceramics instructor guides participants through a simple project on camera. The tactile element differentiates this from screen-only activities and keeps attention anchored.
Best for: 10–30 participants. Niche but memorable.
Connection and Conversation Formats
13. Virtual Coffee Roulette
Pairs or small groups are randomly matched each week for an unstructured 20-minute call. No agenda, no work topics required. Platforms like Donut (Slack integration) automate the matching. Not a single event — a recurring ritual. The compounding effect over months is significant for distributed teams.
Best for: Any size distributed team. Near-zero cost and logistics overhead.
14. Show and Tell
Each participant brings one object from their home and has 60–90 seconds to explain its significance. No preparation beyond finding the object. Surfaces more genuine personality and background than most structured icebreakers in a fraction of the time. Works as a standalone session or as an opener for a longer event.
Best for: 5–20 participants. Better for small teams; scales poorly to large groups.
15. Virtual Book or Podcast Club
A recurring monthly session where a small group discusses a shared book, podcast episode, or article. Works best when participation is voluntary rather than mandatory and when the format has a real moderator — not just “let’s discuss.”
Best for: 5–20 participants. Long-term engagement format, not a one-off event.
16. Virtual Awards and Recognition Ceremony
A structured recognition event where team members nominate colleagues for specific contributions. The key: personalization (real, specific achievements rather than generic categories) and a tight runtime (60 minutes maximum). Add a trivia round or a short game to keep energy from dipping between awards.
Best for: 10–200 participants. Works for quarterly or annual recognition events.
Choosing the Right Virtual Team Building Activity
Match the format to the occasion and the team:
| Occasion | Best Options |
|---|---|
| Regular monthly touchpoint | Coffee Roulette, trivia, virtual tasting |
| Onboarding new remote hires | Scavenger hunt, show and tell, virtual escape room |
| Large all-hands (50+) | Trivia, virtual tasting, bingo |
| Department team event | Cooking class, painting, improv |
| End-of-year celebration | Wine or spirits tasting, cocktail making, virtual awards |
| Weekly low-effort connection | Coffee roulette, bingo warm-up |
Logistics That Make or Break Virtual Events
Kit lead time: Any activity requiring physical materials needs 2–3 weeks minimum to ship domestically, longer for international teams. Factor this into your planning.
Time zones: For global teams, avoid the trap of scheduling at “reasonable” hours for headquarters while requiring 7am or 10pm participation from other regions. Rotate timing or run multiple sessions.
Tech check: Run a platform test 48 hours before. Breakout room settings, screen sharing permissions, and audio quality issues are fixable if caught in advance and catastrophic if discovered mid-event.
Facilitator vs. internal host: For events over 30 people, a professional facilitator consistently outperforms an internal host. The cost is usually recouped in engagement quality.
For a guided virtual wine or spirits tasting, The Wine Voyage facilitates remote blind tastings, spirits experiences, and wine blending competitions with kits shipped to participants worldwide. Related reading: team building activities for work for a full list across in-person and virtual formats, fun team building activities for lighter-touch options, and team building for remote teams for a deeper look at distributed team dynamics.
Further Reading
Research and frameworks for managing remote teams: Harvard Business Review on Virtual Teams and SHRM on Remote Work.