Virtual happy hours are online social events over video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Like their non-virtual counterparts, they usually involve icebreakers, fun activities and games, and, of course, drinks. It’s an ideal opportunity to gather everyone together, celebrate, interact with new people, and enjoy each other’s company.
To help you host fun virtual happy hours, we’ve brought together our favorite tips and advice for planning, themes, and activities. Host a virtual happy hour your coworkers and employees will love with this list of the best virtual happy hour games.
Playing games is a wonderful way to liven up your virtual happy hour. It gives everyone something to focus on, which is perfect if they feel nervous or don’t know what to talk about.
Here are some of our favorite games to play at a virtual happy hour. Some of these are quick and easy icebreakers, while others give you lots of space to get creative and have fun.
If you’re looking for simple yet rewarding virtual happy hour games, bingo is always a great choice. Create a bingo card based on your party theme or choose one of these easy prompts to design a fun game:
Add in a few different ways to win — like straight lines, inside or outside boxes, and full house. Don’t forget to send a prize to the winners — an easy way to do this is to load prize money onto their Hoppier card.
Virtual pub trivia sessions give you the perfect combination of entertaining and unusual facts. For instance, did you know that Jerry Seinfeld decided to pull the plug on Seinfeld after nine seasons because the Beatles broke up after nine years? Who knew?
Stick to a short, general trivia game, or play your game in multiple rounds and make it the star of your happy hour. You can split your staff into teams or have an individual trivia challenge. Reward each correct answer with a point, add them up at the end, and give a prize to the winning party — like a Hoppier gift card.
Try to make the game balanced with multiple or general knowledge categories. Some trivia question categories might include:
You could also get your coworkers involved in setting up the quiz. Ask everyone to contribute a round of quiz questions based on their personal interests to craft the perfect yet trivial virtual happy hour game
Give an office party classic a virtual makeover by staging an at-home scavenger hunt. Instead of scouting aroundthe office or behind people’s desks, your home is your playground.
Your party guests will hunt for items around their home, so keep this in mind as you build your scavenger hunt list. Stick to easy to find items or ask them to find things based on a descriptor like a color, texture, size, or shape.
Regardless of their preferred genre, everyone loves music. Challenge your music-loving coworkers to see who's the best at recognizing a tune with a "guess the song" game. This virtual happy hour game classic is certain to delight, all while showcasing each person’s musical knowledge and tastes.
Set up a collaborative playlist on Spotify and ask everyone to add songs to it. When happy hour rolls around, hit play, and see who can guess the song the fastest. If your coworkers have a really varied taste in music, stick to a general theme to make it easier — like a certain decade or genre of music.
Bring an old classic back to life at your next virtual happy hour by playing “Never Have I Ever.” Take turns posing a question and see who has or hasn’t done it. Those that have, take a drink.
This can be a lot of fun at a virtual party — but remember to keep things light and avoid anything too troublesome. Use this as an opportunity to get to know everyone and find out what their passions and interests are, instead of focusing too much on the drinking game side.
Remember playing “I Spy” back in grade school? This traditional game can make a great icebreaker at any virtual event — including a virtual happy hour.
Gather everyone together and take turns to say “I spy…” and have others try and guess what it is you’re looking for. People’s remote office backgrounds can be a little ordinary, so encourage people to hide fun mementos or brightly colored objects ahead of the party. With a bit of creativity, this is one of the best virtual happy hour games.
What’s great about charades is that you don’t all need to be in the same room for it to be an enjoyable game. It works perfectly as a virtual happy hour game, provide you can all see each other.
Split into two teams and use a random word generator to find a word or phrase to act out. The rest of the team then has to try and guess what’s being acted out to score points. For extra fun, create themed rounds — like movies and TV, places, food, or well-known characters.
Working remotely has its perks, and with a really diverse workforce, you can get to know some exciting parts of the world. Games like Geoguessr can help you explore from the comfort of your home.
What makes this game ideal for a virtual happy hour is that it’s really quick and easy to play. You’ll land in a spot and navigate around a “street view” map, looking for clues that might explain where you are. Once you’ve used your problem-solving skills and intuition, pin a spot on the world map and see how close you are to being right.
This is another simply method to get acquainted with people around you. An ever-popular icebreaker question, “would you rather?” gives you plenty of ways to uncover fun truths, hidden passions, and curious interests simply by asking whether someone prefers option A or option B.
Ask your questions live, or use your video software’s built-in poll feature so people can answer while they drink and chat. Keep this as a lighthearted virtual happy hour game, or put the answers on a digital whiteboard so people can connect over their similarities.
Not every staff member has a competitive nature — even if it’s friendly competition. However, tthat doesn’t mean that you have to wave goodbye to all the great virtual team-building activities out there. Take a look through the following fun, engaging virtual happy hour activities to see which would fit perfectly into your plans.
Surprisingly, virtual happy hour games are often rooted in events tied to childhood, and show and tell is no different. Bring this typical classroom exercise online for a fun way to learn about someone’s interests, passions, and life.
To kick off the session, ask team members to show an item and talk about it. Here are a few prompts you can use as a topic for your next virtual show and tell:
Some people struggle to come up with ideas on the spot, so you might want to inform your party guests ahead of time that you’re planning a show-and-tell icebreaker.
Most of us have that weird, fun skill that doesn't have any practical application but is nonetheless pretty impressive — like being able to raise your brow like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson or to write backward super fast.
Let your team members share these unique talents with the group. This is a great little icebreaker, and your confident coworkers will love the chance to demonstrate their skills. If your group is less confident, swap this for a mini-challenge where you all attempt a weird skill together instead.
Invite your coworkers to join you on an adventure through a fantasy world or help you solve a murder mystery with a board game night.
Choose something simple like Codenames or Pictionary to start things off, or opt for a more intense game like Lords of Waterdeep or Pandemic if your group is more experienced.
Some of your guests might find it challenging to play a physical board game remotely. Most board games have online versions you can play together instead. For example, Colonist is a free online alternative to the popular Catan.
If you find this virtual happy hour really popular, you could transition it into a regular weekly virtual game night after work.
Take the drinking part of happy hour one step further and invite your guests along to a live virtual mixology class.
Invite an expert mixologist to teach your team how to make different cocktails and mocktails. Stick to classics like margaritas and mojitos, or ask them to come up with a signature drink for your brand.
Share an ingredients list with your party guests the week before, and give them a virtual Hoppier card so they can order what they need.
This is a virtual happy hour activity that the creative people on your team will love. We’ve all seen those shows where people are under pressure to cook or bake. This is similar except you don’t have to do the hard part and it’s way more fun.
Send your team members a care package in the mail that contains cookies, cakes, donuts, or another baked good that’s easy to decorate. Include icing, toppings, and other decorations that they can use to jazz up their cakes. See who can create the best designs — and give the winner a Hoppier virtual card loaded with a sweet gift balance.
If these virtual happy hour games and activity ideas weren’t enough, we’ve got even more ideas for you to try. Here are some of our most loved themes and virtual happy hour ideas to take your event to the next level:
Your virtual party doesn’t have to have a theme, but if there’s a holiday coming up or you feel like planning something extraordinary then it can be one of the best ways to make it feel special.
There are endless themes you could choose, but here are some of our favorite virtual holiday party ideas:
Make your theme and use it throughout your whole party, including party decor, your playlist, and food and drink ideas. You could even set a challenge for the best costume or best-decorated space, and hand out a prize to the winners.
Want to really take things to the next level? Transform your virtual happy hour from a “drink and chat” event to a “drink and dance” event with a virtual dance party.
What’s great about this idea is you can tailor it to your own interests or those of your team members. Host a hip-hop-inspired get-together or a dance and singalong featuring only the best Disney or musical hits.
Cosplay isn’t just for conventions and real-life parties — it works well for virtual get-togethers too.
Choose a party theme where everyone dresses as their favorite character, or plan a theme based on a movie, TV show, anime, or trend. Here are some fun costume party theme ideas:
Not everyone has a costume in their closet, so give your guests plenty of notice — and offer some ideas in the form of a lookbook.
While this extends your happy hour a little beyond an hour, it’s a great way to get people together and unite over an amazing (or terrible!) film or TV show.
Setting up a viewing party on Netflix, Hulu, Disney, or HBO is easy with Teleparty. This free Chrome extension lets you sync up video and watch together like in a breakout room — with a chat feature so you can talk plot points or react to bad jokes in real time. Add in a drinking game, and you have a chill, non-traditional happy hour.
If you have an active book club at your company, transform your usual meetings into a virtual happy hour. Choose your books based on the main themes, locations, or times covered. Add in a trivia game to test everyone’s knowledge, mix up some themed drinks, and have a virtual happy hour that’s fun, engaging, and refreshing.
We love the idea of hosting a virtual escape room party, followed by a happy hour afterward so everyone can chill out and talk about their super fun experience later. This also works great for any kind of immersive virtual experience, like a virtual murder mystery or horror event.
Instead of saying goodbye and heading back to reality, gather for some drinks and snacks of your choice from the comfort of home. Talk over what just happened, share your strategies, and laugh at any funny moments. It’s the perfect follow-up to one of the top-rated virtual happy hour games.
Switch the alcoholic drinks to mocktails, ramp up the party games and challenges, and encourage people to seek sponsors to rally behind them in the hopes of winning different activities. Use your social night as an opportunity to raise money and awareness, have fun, and create a feel-good moment for everyone involved.
Remote happy hour events and games can promote camaraderie, teamwork, skills, and bonding, but only with proper planning. Shame to say the impromptu element of an office or post-work happy hour is absent when you’re preparing one for the home office. You also want to ensure that all your planning isn’t for naught or that the party goes unattended.
If you want a successful post-workday happy hour coupled with exciting virtual happy hour games, use these tips to grab the attention of your attendees and throw a successful bash.
Before jumping into the fun stuff like theming and party games, have your event planning bases covered:
Don't forget about your invites! Skip the boring email and go for something that stands out. Add fun graphics, bright colors, and a clear call to action.
The best virtual happy hour games aren’t the same without a convenient, reliable video platform. Zoom, Google Hangouts, and Skype are all good options for your virtual team get-together. But if you already have a favorite software for virtual meetings, schedule your happy hour using that. As long as the platform lets you gather, see people’s faces, and add interactive elements like screen sharing or video.
Generally, these simple video call platforms are perfect for hosting a Zoom happy hour or a meetup on Microsoft Teams. Other times, you’ll want something a little more unique — like a virtual environment. Take a look at our guide to the best virtual event platforms to help you find the right tool.
Your virtual happy hour doesn’t have to have a theme, but it's a fun way to bring people together. A theme differentiates between business meetings and social team bonding time, making people most likely to enjoy the party without thinking about work.
An easy way to zero in on a great theme is to consider the reason behind the happy hour. If it’s someone’s birthday, honor that with an event themed around their favorite color, hobby, or video game. If you’re celebrating a new client win, you could host a Hollywood-style bash and get dressed up.
Most of your go-to office party themes translate into virtual happy hours too. Throw an 80s-inspired virtual happy hour with retro accessories and a hit playlist, or ask everyone to join you in character for a Clue-inspired happy hour.
Party games and activities are hit-and-miss. Not everyone wants to play charades, take part in drinking games, or scrounge around for a virtual scavenger hunt. Be sure to choose activities based on the people you’re celebrating with.
Send out a quick survey with some of your ideas beforehand. You can get people excited about being there, discover amazing ideas you hadn’t thought of, and tweak your plans as necessary.
If you want to keep it simple, that’s fine too. Don’t feel pressured to schedule every moment of your virtual happy hour. If your guests just want to get together to chat over drinks or casual online games, let them.
The most effective way to keep party guests engaged in the happy hour and the games themselves is to make them feel welcome. Apply these tips to provide a sense of allure and excitement.
You know your team best, so consider their schedules, responsibilities, and work style when you plan the date and time of your get-together. If your remote team is distributed across multiple time zones, schedule accordingly. What looks like a 4 p.m. happy hour for some of your guests is mid-morning for others, so make it both cocktail- and coffee-friendly.
Alternatively, ask your guests the best time. Send out a quick poll to see everyone’s availability and schedule your virtual happy hour for the most popular time. This still might not work for everyone, but that’s OK. Choose a different day and time the next time you host so everyone will have a chance to attend at least one event.
You might be celebrating a work-related milestone, but keep the chat at your virtual happy hour light and as work-free as possible.
Kick off the event with a short intro about the project or what a successful week it’s been, but then keep work talk strictly off the table. Stick to simple talking points like current events, movies and TV, and hobbies, and let the conversation flow naturally.
Depending on your guests, you might need to confirm that this doesn’t mean being unprofessional — it’s all about finding the right balance.
Virtual happy hours aren’t the same without the drinks. In person, you could pick up a few bottles and lay out some snacks in person, but a virtual happy hour is a little different. Luckily, there’s an easy way to cover the budget for your team's happy hour drinks.
Use Hoppier to set up and send out virtual credit cards for your team members. This lets you give back to your coworkers and employees, allowing them to treat themselves to their favorite beer and burger — or order coffee and a slice of cake.
Virtual happy hours are one of the best ways to bring people together, build friendships, and reward your coworkers with some fun. They’re a great way to help people relax and feel like they’re part of a community.
Perfect your planning basics, choose a theme, and create a schedule using these activity ideas. Help your event run smoothly by using Hoppier to send your coworkers a stipend to buy drinks, cocktail kits, and food. You'll have all the ingredients for an engaging virtual happy hour.
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
Ready to 2x your global engagement at your next event, with Ox stress?
Make Hoppier your unfair advantage today, schedule a demo
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