8 virtual game show team building ideas — deal, or no deal?

Have you ever dreamed about spinning that wheel? Have you always thought that Pyramid is just a little too easy? Have you ever answered every question on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? 

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Then you’re going to absolutely love these ideas for the virtual game show team building we have prepared for you today! That’s right — not only do you get to be the star of the show with us, but you can also do it without even leaving home!

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How virtual game show team building works 

Remember, game shows stand out because of the overall experience they provide to both the participants and the audience. That’s why, for your virtual game-show team building to be successful, you need to be able to provide all the allure, suspense, grandiosity, and amusement Bob Barker would. 

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To make sure your grand game show team building extravaganza goes perfectly, ask yourself:

• Will the event, even though virtual, require a physical space to hold the props?
• Are you going to award the winners some real-life prizes? 
• How grand does your budget allow you to be? 
• Will the participants require any additional props of their own?
• Which virtual event platform is best for hosting your game show? 
• Will everyone feel included throughout the entire event?

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With all those out of the way, you’re ready to select the theme of the night. 

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Read also: 

• 18 team building activities for any workplace
• Team building activities to promote leadership
• 10 virtual team building activities

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Hosted team building game shows

Sometimes you don’t need to go out of your way to organize a charming game show team building for your colleagues. All it takes is finding the game you all will enjoy and trusting professionals with the rest. 

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Here are the top 3 hosted virtual game show team building experiences for you to choose from.

1. The game show experience

Duration: 60 min

Pricing: $925-$2,500 + paid add-ons available

Max players: 200 + up to 1,000 additional participants 

Similar to: Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Jeopardy

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As a good trivia does, this virtual game show team building experience features a live host, questions ranging from your pop culture knowledge to history and geography, and numerous opportunities to exercise your competitiveness in a healthy manner. 

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How it works:

• Players connect through the mobile app
• A host asks the question, and the room provides options for the answers
• Each player has 20 seconds to lock in their answer on their phone
• Points are assigned based on the right answers 

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2. Virtual trivia time machine

Duration: 30-120 min

Pricing: Custom

Max players: Custom

Similar to: Name That Tune, Pub Quiz games

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This virtual game show trivia is based on 4 different questions categories, designed particularly with work team building in mind. The host will guide you through the different types of questions (some may involve dancing!) and leave some space for breakroom mixers for you to share your impressions with the team.  

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How it works:

• Players log in to the platform
• They scan a QR code to access the buzzer app
• The host divides players into teams
• The host announces the category and asks the question
• The first person to buzz in and give the right answer gets the point for their team

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3. Virtual game show extravaganza 

Duration: 60-90 min

Pricing: Custom

Max players: 4-10 per team, 10-600 total

Similar to: Family Feud, Minute to Win It

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This online game show experience has been created specifically for remote team building, helping the participants to connect and unwind. As such, the questions are designed with teamwork in mind, where to win, the players need to work together to get the best result. 

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How it works: 

1. Players are split into teams
2. The team logs into the Breakout Room using Zoom
3. The host asks the question or provides the team with a task
4. The players have some time to come up with the solution together as a group
5. The teams reveal their answers to the host via virtual whiteboards

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Free game show team building activities

If you don’t feel like paying for hosted game show team building, you can always organize an exciting experience on your own. All it takes is a little dedication and creativity. Here are your step-by-step tips on successfully organizing 5 all-time-favorite game shows online.

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Read also: Free virtual team building activities 

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4. Jeopardy!

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Additional props: Jeopardy board (you can use this free template), the list of questions, prizes & rewards

Skills you’ll be practicing: General knowledge, reaction, thinking outside of the box

Similar to: Trivia team building games

Playthrough:

1. Split players into teams
2. Lay out 6 categories with 5 hidden questions, each worth a different amount of points (dollars)
3. The team chooses a category and blindly picks a question from that category based on the number of points assigned to it
4. The host reads out the answer
5. The team has 30 seconds to think of the question that matches the answer
6. The first player to buzz has to give a response in the form of a question 
7. If answered correctly, the team earns the number of points equal to the question's worth.
   If answered incorrectly, you lose the same number of points. 
8. The team with the most points wins and celebrates 

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Tip: If your team is fond of problem-solving activities, why not incorporate virtual quizzes or puzzle solving games into your team building routine?

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5. The price is right

Additional props: The list of relevant items and the average price for them online (you can also use the ready-made kits)

Skills you’ll be practicing: Attention to detail, logical reasoning, memory

Playthrough:

1. Select the first 4 to 6 participants to compete in the “One Bid” round
2. Present an item to the players
3. The players will bid in a specific order, trying to guess the item's price without going over
4. Whoever has the closest bid gets proceeds to the second pricing round (if all the players overbid, repeat the round with a different item, if in 3 turns there is still no winner, no one from the group proceeds to the pricing game) 
5. If the player guesses the exact value of the item (including cents), they are awarded a small prize
6. Repeat until everybody had a chance to move on to the next round
7. Announce the Pricing game you’ll be playing tonight (you can invent your own or use this list from the official game show)
8. The winner of this round gets the big prize 

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6. Wheel of fortune

Additional props: The game board (design or code your own, or use this free Wheel of Fortune template), an online wheel for random answers generator

Skills you’ll be practicing: Teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving

Playthrough:

1. Prepare the wheel: enter the prizes the players could win (keep in mind that here each value could be doubled or tripled). 
2. Prepare the game board: select phrases for each team to guess. Your board could include the nouns or be completely blank, depending on the difficulty level you’re after. 
3. A player has to spin the virtual wheel and guess one of the letters from the phrase.
4. Reveal where the letter appears in the phrase if it does at all. The prize from the wheel must be multiplied by the number of times the letter appears in the phrase. 
5. If the letter is correct, the player claims the prize, and another player from their team starts their turn. 

If the letter is incorrect, the turn passes on to another team with their own game board. 

6. Whichever team guesses their phrase first is the winner of the game. 

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7. Pyramid

Additional props: The list of words and categories for the players to guess 

Skills you’ll be practicing: communication

Playthrough:

1. Divide the players into an even number of pairs and split the participants within each team into clue givers and clue receivers. Each pair will have a chance to compete at their turn
2. Send a private message with a list of words to the clue givers
3. Once the round starts, the clue givers will have 30 seconds to explain as many words as possible to the clue receivers. They can only use the associations with the word but cannot use the word itself. 
4. The players can skip the words they are struggling to guess or explain and return to them later.
5. Each correct answer is worth a point.
6. The team to earn the most points wins. 

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8. Name that tune

Additional props: The list of songs and high-quality audio (you can also cut the songs into specific short bits for more convenience or use a ready-made platform) 

Skills you’ll be practicing: Communication

Playthrough:

1. All the players should log in at the same time
2. Play the short piece of a popular song, jingle, or melody 
3. The person to buzz in first and guess the name of the tune gets a point
4. The player with the most points wins

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Wanna spice your team building game shows up?

Searching for that extra pizzazz to make a really special event? We’ve got you!

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• Choose the categories for games based on the specific interests of the participants (e.g., your office space, remote teams’ must-have equipment, etc.) 
• Make the questions related to your company and/or industry (how many members does your board have, when was your business founded, what are your Q3 goals, etc.)
• Assign prizes every full-time employee will enjoy (e.g., an extra day off, lunch voucher for a week, cash bonus, etc.) 
• Design the ultimate virtual game show team building by creating a single event that will feature some elements from each game
• Use online and mobile apps dedicated to team building for the players’ maximum convenience