Icebreakers

On this website, we publish only the best icebreaker games, ideas and group activities.

Here are more than 100 of our favorite ideas for icebreakers!

Our staff has playtested all of them all personally and we know you’ll love them.  Try ’em out and let us know how they work out for you! Also see: Icebreakers by group size and by category

Good Icebreakers in alphabetical order – Last updated: August 2021

Click on a game title to read the detailed step-by-step instruction guide!

1. Air Balloons – Keep your balloon in the air for longer than the other teams can!
2. Animal Sounds – A simple game of making various animal sounds and finding your pairs!
3. Art Effects – A collaborative drawing activity.
4. Bang Name Game – To avoid getting “shot,” learn and remember names of the people in a group!
5. Bango – A card game similar to Bingo.
6. The Bests – An icebreaker of silly competitions to discover who is the quickest, biggest, fastest!
7. Best Skills Showdown – Compete in small groups in several mini-games!
8. Beverage (Beer) Pong – A classic party game enjoyed by college students.
9. Bigger and Better – The classic teambuilding game of trading and upgrading – try to get the biggest and best item to win!
10. Botticelli – A guessing game similar to 20 Questions.
11. Blanket Game – A funny icebreaker that involves fast name recognition!
12. Candy Introductions – A fun game that uses multicolored candy to help people get to know each other.
13. Catch the Ball – A simple game to get people to start talking and sharing.
14. Categories (or Similarities) – Be the first group to find similarities!
15. Chariot Race – An action packed chariot race!
16. Collaborative Drawing – Draw parts of a picture without knowing what the last person drew before you!
17. Connecting Stories – Group members try to connect their individual stories, forming a long chain of stories!
18. Corporate Icebreakers for Zoom (Online) – Try these activities when you’re online on videoconference!
19. Crazy Job Interview – Players convince each other that they are the best for an imaginary job.
20. Defend the Egg – A teambuilding activity that asks teams to protect a fragile egg by building a protective structure out of simple supplies.
21. Did You Know? Bingo – An interactive game that helps people discover interesting facts about other people.
22. Drink Can Games – Try these fun games that involve beverage cans.
23. Electric Current Game – A game with two teams, holding hands: squeeze hands to send “electricity” down the line!
24. Energy Game – A drama class warm-up exercise that is great fun!
25. Extreme Rock, Paper, Scissors – A twist on the classic Rock, Paper, Scissors game.
26. Extremes: Where Do You Stand? – A game that asks people to stand along an imaginary line between two extreme viewpoints, depending on their opinions.
27. Fabulous Flags – Represent yourself by designing your own flag!
28. Fake Artist – Everyone draws a single line in a shared drawing — but who is the secret spy?
29. Fear in a Hat – A teambuilding activity that asks people to anonymously share their fears and to place them into a hat.
30. Four Corners – A get-to-know-you game involving the four corners of a room.
31. Frozen T-Shirt Race – A hilarious contest of being the first to unfold and wear a frozen shirt.
32. Ghost Game – A game that involves forming a word fragment without spelling a word!
33. Giants, Wizards, Elves – A game similar to paper, rock, scissors, but more hilarious!
34. Gone Fishin’ – A funny real-life version of the board game!
35. Great Wind Blows – A game like musical chairs that lets people get to know each other better.
36. Group Juggling – Say a person’s name and then pass them a ball.  This repeats as people learn each others’ names.
37. Hot Potato Camera – Like Russian Roulette, but as an embarrassing selfie photo!
38. Human Paper Rock Scissors – Like the classic game — except played in groups with your whole body!
39. Hot and Cold Game – A simple game of cheering or booing when a person gets closer or farther from a mystery action!
40. Icebreaker Questions – A list of simple questions that are very useful for breaking the ice.
41. Icebreaker Questions 2 – Even more icebreaker questions to help people get to know each other better.
42. Identity Circles – Share your most important values as you rotate around a circle.
43. Interview Game – People interview each other and introduce them to the rest of the group.
44. Intimate Cooperation Games – Try these 3 games that involve intimate cooperation.
45. ISpy Wedding Hunt – A photo scavenger hunt for wedding receptions.
46. King Elephant – A silly action game that involves hand motions and acting as animals.
47. Korean Rhythm Game (Assa) – A game involving hand motions.
48. Late Arrivals Game – A funny game that involves introducing fictitious people at a formal ball.
49. Line Up Game – Work together as a team to quickly form a line based on a non-obvious quality.
50. Lost on a Deserted Island – If you were stranded on a island, what items would you take with you?  A get-to-know-you game.
51. Magic Word – A simple party game involving a magic word to earn party favors.
52. Marshmallow Toss – Toss marshmallows and catch as many as possible.
53. Memorable Catchy Names – A very simple icebreaker involving adjectives and new names.
54. Name Aerobics – A simple game that combines aerobics and learning names!
55. Never Have I Ever – A game to see who has and hasn’t had various experiences!
56. Newspaper Towers – A teambuilding activity involving newspaper building skills and teamwork!
57. Paper Airplanes/Name Planes – A simple introductions game involving questions on paper planes.
58. Paper Snowball Fight – A paper-based snowball fight!
59. Pedometer Games – Try these games that involve pedometers!
60. Personal Artifact Game – Students show a meaningful object and why it has significance to them.
61. Personal Trivia Baseball – A fun trivia game that combines baseball with a way to learn interesting facts about people.
62. Photo Scavenger Hunt – An active teambuilding game that sends teams off to take photos of interesting things in a scavenger hunt!
63. Physical Party Games – Three silly party games.
64. Picture Whispers – Simultaneous drawing game where Pictionary meets the Telephone Game
65. Priest of the Parish – A call and response game.
66. Psychiatrist Game – Everyone has a strange mental condition.  The psychiatrist must guess the pattern that everyone else is following!
67. React and Act Game – A fast-paced game of improv acting!
68. Rubber Chicken Game – A race involving stealing a rubber chicken.
69. Sardines – The classic game of reverse hide-and-go-seek.
70. Screaming Viking – A silly game involving crazy motions.
71. Secret Santa – A gift exchange game perfect for the holidays.
72. Sequence  – A teambuilding game of communication and ordering pictures.
73. Shoe Pile Mingle – The (slightly smelly) game of meeting new people.
74. Song Sync – A game of determining what songs others have already listened to.
75. Sorts and Mingle – A fun way to see the similarities and differences people have.
76. Spoons Game – Spoons is a game of speed, silliness, and having a sharp eye.
77. Sticker Ninja – Stealthily stick your stickers on others at a party!
78. Story Starters – A simple activity to help people share some of their most interesting stories.
79. Strange Disease Diagnosis Game – A funny improvisation guessing game with doctor and patient(s).
80. String Game – An icebreaker that makes use of string or yarn to help people introduce themselves.
81. Superlative Game – The fun game of superlatives!
82. Tall Tales Story Game – A fun storytelling game.
83. Team Architect – Use creativity to build something with random materials!
84. Telephone Charades – A hilarious twist on the classic game of telephone, involving charades and acting down the line!
85. Telephone Pictionary – The Telephone Game meets Pictionary, leading to hilarious results!
86. Tilt A Cup – Balance a swinging tower of cups and balls.
87. 1000 Blank White Cards – Create rules on blank white cards – a game of creativity!
88. Time Hop – A get-to-know-you game from different points of time.
89. Trust Course Game – A teambuilding game that involves coordination and trust.
90. Trust Walk Teambuilding Activity – The classic teambuilding activity that requires trust and reliance on teammates.
91. Truth or Dare – The classic party game that leads to memorable results.
92. Two Truths and a Lie – As people introduce themselves, figure out which statement is true and which one is a lie!
93. Ultimate Ninja – A game of quick reflexes and trying to slap hands — may the best ninja survive!
94. Unique and Shared – An icebreaker that helps people see their commonalities and unique characteristics compared with others.
95. What I Would Have Done – A get-to-know-you icebreaker involving interesting, hypothetical questions.
96. Who Am I? – A simple mingling game in which you try to identify the name on your back.
97. Who Done It? – A game in which you try to identity who did it!
98. Who’s My Match? – Figure out each other’s hidden identities, and find your match!
99. Word Associations – A simple game of making connections between words.
100. Word Chains – A simple memory game involving word connections!
101. Zip Zap Boing – A simple rhythm game involving funny noises.