When large groups get together, it’s smart to have planned activities or games. Large group games can add fun and excitement to a team gathering. They also make events more entertaining and create healthy competition between teammates, which is great for bonding.
Which games are easy to execute for big groups - say, groups of 30 people or more? Browse our list of party games for large groups at work and choose a few to support team-building and positive workplace environment.
36 Large group games to play with 30+ people
1. Balloon stomp
For this game, you’ll need tons of balloons in two different colors. You need to be outside or in a large space, and divide your large group into two smaller groups and assign them each a color. Set a timer for one or two minutes, and the goal of the game is for each team to pop all the balloons of their own color - without accidentally hitting the other color. At the end of the game, the team who popped most of their own color balloons wins.
2. Rock-paper-scissors challenge
Who didn’t play this game as a kid? Give this energizing grown-up version a try. People should play against each other in pairs until the first win. For added fun, have the people who become eliminated in each round stand in a cheering section for their favorite in the next round. Repeat the process until there are only two players, each with a large fan base. Since this game will get loud, it’s best to play outside in a large, open space. It’s a favorite because it requires no supplies and very little preparation, and gets everyone excited right away.
3. Colleague feud
Like Family Feud, but with coworkers! You’ll need to do some prep for this game, as you’ll have to not only divide people into smaller teams of 4 or 5, but come up with categories. If you want to keep them work focused, try topics like “Things you find in your office breakroom”. Keep points for each correct answer given and then announce a winner at the end.
4. Photo scavenger hunt
You’ll find this one on a few of our list of team-building activities because it’s simple and a lot of fun. Create a photo scavenger hunt list of things that colleagues can take a picture of as part of a scavenger hunt. Everything from “someone having coffee” to “a Diet Coke can” is fair game. Have people take photos on their phone and the team with the most photos at the end wins.
5. “Steal the bacon”
A very competitive game, the goal of this activity is to steal an item from the middle of a group. How does it work? Divide a large group into two smaller ones, and assign everyone on Team A and Team B a number. For example, each person on both teams gets a number 1-10. Then have the teams stand opposite of each other with the object in the middle. Have a moderator announce a number randomly, and then that number from each team will attempt to grab the object and take it back to their side. This is a very physical game, so keep your team in mind when suggesting it.
6. Egg drop challenge
This might bring you back to eighth grade science class. Gather everyone outside and provide several supplies which can be used to create an “egg drop container”. The goal is to have a vessel that can safely hold the egg while it’s dropped from the top of a ladder. This requires some planning in advance since you’ll need a ladder, an open space, and creative supplies like boxes, cotton balls, string, etc.
7. Tug-of-war
A good old-fashioned tug of war is a great way to get everyone energized and have a lot of laughs, plus it’s a quick team-building activity. Provide a large rope and divide your group into two teams and hit it!
8. Stop/walk race
Have everyone stand in a line and moderate from several feet away. You’ll call out commands like “walk”, “race”, and “stop”. Do so randomly so that people never know what to expect. Keep going until someone reaches you and wins the race.
9. Name that tune (whistle edition)
You know how to play Name that Tune - but can you identify songs from someone whistling? Take turns having people whistle a song of their choice and everyone else will need to guess what the song is. Give everyone a pen and paper so they can keep track of their correct answers. The person with the most correct answers wins!
10. Capture the flag
In this fast-paced game, players try to steal flags from each other's territories. The game is helpful for strategic thinking and promotes togetherness. You’ll need two to four teams with between 4-8 players. Each team should spend a few minutes creating their flag, and then find an open space where the teams can each hide their flag and have everyone attempt to come steal their flag.
11. Jenga (especially extra large edition)
Grab a Jenga game (or a few) and let everyone go crazy! If you’ve ever seen the oversized Jenga games, those can be a lot of fun for outdoor fun too. This is a cheap investment that can add a lot of impact to your event.
12. Postcard drawing
Sometimes also called “doodling together”, this activity is a fun and creative one where the group works collaboratively together to draw using postcards started by others. Have everyone get a blank postcard and then the moderator should give some direction about what to draw. Then, they lay the postcard down and the next person adds their postcard, continuing whatever pattern or drawing was started by the previous person. The process keeps going until a large drawing is completed using the postcards. You’ll need to do this in a very large room or outdoors, and have plenty of postcard-size paper and markers or crayons available.
13. Target circle
In this energizing game, everyone stands in a circle. One person stands in the middle and their job is to find a “target” within the circle. They take turns looking around the circle and choosing one person to point to. Then, they’ll point to a person and they should try to jump out of the way or crouch in time to be “missed” by their pointing. If the leader does miss them, they stay in the game. If they’ve been “hit”, they leave the circle. This game is sure to lead to a lot of laughs. For more fast, minute-to-win-it games, check out our past post.
14. Question mix and mingle
For this game, every participant creates 3 thoughtful questions that will help them get to know the other people better. Write each question down on a separate post-it note. Have everyone start to mingle and ask and answer questions in pairs. After asking a question and hearing the answer, the person should hand over the question they just asked. This means that in each meeting, participants will swap one question each. This event is great for groups up to 50 or 60 people.
15. Group order
Start with everyone mingling in a large area, and instruct them to arrange themselves in order of something like height, number of pets, time with your company, etc. This way, everyone can learn something new about each other and the line organization is helpful for team-building. This is a quick game and you can get as creative as you want with it. Try some other get-to-know-you games from our list!
16. Living map
This is an enlightening game for companies with geographically scattered teams. If you have people working throughout the country (or world), and you have the opportunity to get everyone together, it can be fun to get a visual of where everyone is from. Buy or create a large paper that you can spread on the ground. Challenge everyone to place themselves on the paper according to their location on a map. This requires some creativity and also geographical knowledge. It’s extra fun to see everyone mill around trying to find their “spot”.
17. Snowball fight
This activity is pretty simple and straightforward. If you live in a climate where snow is on the ground, get outside and dig in! Organize your larger group into smaller teams and have an old-fashioned snowball fight outdoors. For maximum fun, you can set up barriers or partitions in advance for people to hide behind, or set out supplies for building a “fort” for protection.
18. Apple, orange, banana
Sometimes simple is best and with a larger group you likely want a fun activity without a lot of complexity. For a fast, active game, ask everyone in the group to stand in a circle with their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. Then have everyone jump forward when you say apple, jump backward when you say orange, and turn around when you say banana. Work your way up to combining multiple commands so that participants make several moves in one round. This game keeps everyone on their toes and generates lots of laughter too.
19. Growing sentence
In this game, everyone in the room contributes one word to a growing sentence. You can have everyone stand in a group or in a line, as long as everyone can hear each other properly. Pick one word to begin the sentence and have everyone add one more word to keep the sentence going. Have someone write it down on paper or a chalkboard so you can all get a laugh at the final result.
20. Coat of arms creation
This creative drawing exercise helps everyone get to know each other better. Have each participant draw their own “coat of arms” that is unique to them, representing the characteristics or important accomplishments that make them who they are. When everyone is finished drawing, they should share with the group. For very large groups, it’s more effective to break people into smaller teams for sharing. For added camaraderie, create a coat of arms gallery in your office where everyone can display their creations.
21. Marshmallow building
For this game, you’ll need tons of marshmallows! Give everyone a bag of marshmallows and toothpicks, and set a timer for 10 minutes. Have everyone develop their own creation using the items, and judge the entries, deciding on a winner at the end. You might base the winner on the highest structure, the most creative, etc. If you want to facilitate more team-building, then pair people off or create small teams (we especially suggest creating cross-functional teams or teams of people who don’t already know each other). This effort is a good one for collaboration, communication, and problem-solving.
22. Timeline creation
A collaborative creation is a great way to help teams to bond, and the bonus is that you get something to display and remind your employees of a fun day and group effort. Start by rolling out a large white scroll of paper in a big space or outdoors. Provide plenty of drawing materials and ask the team to work together to create a timeline of the company. In this way, employees will share important milestones that they know about the company - and newer staff will learn them. It’s a great facilitator of discussion around what makes your organization great.
23. Charades
An oldie but a goodie! Charades is always a classic and easy for groups to play. Simply break the larger group into two teams and have plenty of ideas ready for participants to draw out of a hat or bucket. Or, if you have a little extra time, hand out paper and pens and have everyone write down words or phrases they think would be fun or challenging to act out.
24. Dance party
Organize everyone into groups of 3 to 5, and instruct the group that when the music starts, one player in each group becomes the leader and begins dancing. Everyone else must follow the dance moves they do. As the music changes, another player must then start dancing and thereby lead the group. This is a good game for getting a large group moving and warmed up for sessions that will involve a lot of sitting still.
25. Human knot
Solving a puzzle is a great way to bring teams together, especially a bigger group. Organize people into groups of about 10 and have everyone stand in a circle where they are close enough to reach each others’ hands. Have everyone close their eyes and connect hands with two other people. Next, have everyone open their eyes and try to untangle the knot they’ve just created without actually breaking contact. This activity engages problem solving skills along with a lot of humor.
26. Blind square
Working through a common challenge is an excellent way to engage large teams. This is an outdoor-friendly activity that you begin by telling the team that their job is to make a single length of rope into a perfect square. Sounds easy enough, but the catch is that they must do so blind-folded. Before being blindfolded, give everyone about 15 minutes to make a plan. Then, blindfolds go on and the teams get to work! First team to achieve a perfect square is the winner. Remember to bring enough blindfolds for everyone.
27. Web navigation
This is another outdoor-appropriate game that many people enjoy - especially during beautiful weather. You’ll need two ropes, some strong poles or trees, and a supervisor for each team participating. Begin by tying ropes from one pole or tree to another to form a rectangle. Use the other rope to connect the rectangle from the top to the bottom, to form holes in a variety of shapes and sizes. Once the “web” is formed, have everyone take turns trying to make it through the ropes without touching it. The game is a success when all members of the team make it through - with their teammates help!
28. River crossing
This game involves solving a hypothetical challenge. For this game, two teams work together to collect planks and get everyone in their group across a river. The trick is that the planks are magic and sink when not in contact with a person. This is a good way to facilitate critical thinking and work together as a team.
29. Penguins and flamingos
This activity captures the magic of youth and gives everyone a chance to stretch their legs. One player acts as a flamingo and then everyone else is a penguin. Their goal is to “peck” one person on the head and make them a flamingo. The last person to remain a penguin wins!
30. Air balloons
Keep balloons in the air using only your own breath! You’ll need basic rubber balloons (blown up), a timer or stopwatch for each team, and a few small fans (these are optional). Either as one big team or several smaller ones, toss one of the blown-up balloons into the air and have everyone blow air on it to keep it up in the air. If you’re doing it as a competition between teams, then the team who keeps the balloon in the air longest wins. If you’re doing the activity as one large group, set a timer and play a few rounds trying to achieve a record time.
31. Categories (similarities)
The goal of this game is to have everyone find a certain amount of things they all have in common. You can make this into a competitive icebreaker game between smaller teams or a larger group. For groups of more than 20 or so, you’ll need to break people up into smaller teams. You don’t need any supplies to set up the game, simply use a piece of paper and a writing utensil for each team to record their similarities on. Each group should talk about things they have in common and try to come up with at least 6 similarities. Things could be as simple as hair color or favorite food, or dive deeper like holding certifications or having visited a country. The first team to get to 6 commonalities wins.
32. Near and far
Get everyone outside and then have them choose one person to stay away from and one person to stay close to. Have everyone start moving according to the choices they picked, and you’ll see interesting dynamics develop. See who is the first person to figure out the near and far choices.
33. Feedback mingle
If you’re looking for an energetic way to wrap up a larger group activity, sharing feedback can be a great option. Pass out post-it notes and have everyone write one or two bullet points on them. The bullet points should pertain to the event and activities themselves, either things they really liked or things that might be improved. Then have everyone find one other person to exchange their post-its with. As a pair, the two individuals should give each other the post-it they created and have a dialogue about their notes.
34. Letter to myself
This is another great activity for ending a large group event. Instruct everyone to write a letter to themselves that involves what you just did. For example, if part of the event was creating new goals, ask them to write how they’ll accomplish that. Then, depending on the size of the group, have people either pair off to share their letter or read their letter aloud. Opening up this way is a nice step toward getting everyone to bond and collaborate.
35. Faux job interviews
This is a fun game for anyone who considers themselves a smooth talker. Within your group, pair everyone off into groups of two. Have one person come up with a job, and the other person should share reasons why they are the perfect candidate in a fake interview. The sillier the job title, the more fun the responses. For example, a job might be “ice cream taster” or “dollhouse interior decorator”. Which traits does the other person have that would make them ideal for that role? This is also a fun way to learn more about your coworkers special talents and characteristics.
36. Tabletop games
If you just don’t have time to plan and execute creative activities, or you don’t have a big space, why not set out a bunch of tables and regular games like Scattergories, Sorry, or card games? Or, browse our list of other indoor team-building activities.
Add some fun and collaboration to your next teambuilding event
Games are a powerful way to add some fun and collaboration to team events. In fact, one or two of these games would be the perfect addition to a team-building retreat.
However, we know that large team retreat events are hard to plan and difficult to manage. Let Surf Office help to organize a fun, streamlined event with no stress.
