It’s been nearly two decades since the first escape room popped up in Japan.
Hmm..that’s a fun fact!
However, with the rise of remote and hybrid work in the 2020s, the virtual escape room was born!
Available on Zoom, teams from all over can log on, get locked in, and work together to complete the challenge before time runs out.
At a high level, online escape rooms break players into groups who must collaborate to solve riddles and decipher clues in a virtual setting. With this in mind, we decided to put together our best team to evaluate and rank the best virtual escape rooms for team building.
Aside from being a fun experience, virtual escape room games are a great way to help players bond with each other and strengthen skills that support teamwork.
Here are our top picks for the best virtual escape room team-building games designed to revitalize connection, collaboration, and engagement within your teams.
Best Virtual Escape Rooms for Team Building
1 REC: Escape the ’80s VHS
🏋🏻♀️ '80s VHS
Longing to party like it’s 1985? Or perhaps you’re down to solve a mystery set in the Gordon Gecko era of abundance. Enter an 80s workout video and escape before time runs out in this VHS style escape game.
Simon Richards was last seen three decades ago on New Year’s Eve of 1989 — he vanished as the clock struck midnight. Here’s where it gets interesting — you have the only copy of his workout tape.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The story is as electrifying as the jazzercise craze of the 80s. With a live host and more than an hour of gameplay, you and your team will be led through this virtual escape room team building from the beginning all the way till you crack the case!
👉 Try this out: Learn more about this virtual escape roomand turn back the clock with Escape the ‘80s VHS!
2 Escape Alcatraz
🏃🏻♂️ Escape Alcatraz
Can you and your team escape from Alcatraz in just 75 minutes? In June 1962, you’re locked away on Alcatraz Island, the most inescapable prison ever built.
The question is, will you be the first jailbirds who can successfully make a jailbreak…or will you spend the rest of your lives on the island?
❤️ Why we love this for team building: When the clock begins to tick, take your new inmate uniform, be whisked away to your cell — virtually, that is — and wait to be greeted by the warden, who will guide your team through a swift icebreaker activity, give you the deets, and commence the Escape from Alcatraz! And if that weren’t already entertaining enough, your team will also receive hilarious awards at the end.
👉 Try this out: Competitive and collaborative, take your team off the coast of San Fransisco with the team building experts at Elevent!
3 Escape Room: Jewel Heist
A priceless collection of precious jewels has gone missing, and it’s up to your team to find the jewels before time runs out for good. The brain teaser games will require your team members to think on their feet and get creative with problem-solving.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The game helps enhance communication, problem-solving, and relationship-building.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique: Throw in a few rewards, in cash or kind, when teams reach specific milestones.
4 The Theft of the Mona Lisa
🖼️ Mona Lisa
The Louvre needs you. The future — and the past of France is now dependent on your sleuthing skill. Thousands of visitors are gazing at the Mona Lisa. Suddenly, as he’s making the rounds, the curator of the museum panics. It dawns on him that the Mona Lisa that currently hangs in the museum is a mere replica.
The heist that preceded that moment is the catalyst that will bring your team together for a quest to hunt down the real Mona Lisa painting!
❤️ Why we love this for team building: With trained facilitators, you and your team will be more than prepared to tackle the mental puzzle of this virtual team building escape room. Each riddle in the game requires a different way of thinking too — be it logical, mathematical, or observational — forcing your team to meld minds.
👉 Try this out: Hone in on your discerning eye as you seek out the real Mona Lisa! 👉 Request more information here.
5 The Haunt on the Hill
The Haunt on the Hill combines the best of an online escape room game with a virtual scavenger hunt. Aided by a mysterious “spirit,” you will work with your team members to solve intricate puzzles and decipher hidden clues to escape from a haunted house in under 90 minutes.
If you don’t make it, you’ll only have your soul trapped in the creepy, decrepit house forever!
❤️ Why we love this for team building: It’s an immersive experience where your chances of escaping the haunted house depend on how well you communicate, collaborate, and engage with your team members. Also, it’s more skill-oriented as opposed to knowledge-based.
👉 Try this out to make the game more unique: Sign up for Free with Confetti to learn more about details.
6 Count Dracula
🧛🏻♂️ Count Dracula
Lurk around the eerie world of Count Dracula in this thrilling virtual escape game. Participants are transported to a mysterious Transylvanian castle where they must solve puzzles, uncover hidden clues, and unravel the secrets of the ancient vampire before time runs out.
Perfect for horror enthusiasts and puzzle solvers alike, this game combines the suspense of Dracula’s legend with the challenge of escape room mechanics, all within a virtual setting.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The Count Dracula game encourages communication and problem-solving among team members, essential skills for any workplace. Working together to solve the mysteries of the castle strengthens team bonds and provides a scintillating way to develop critical thinking skills under pressure.
👉 Try this out to make the game more unique: Step up your virtual escape game by encouraging participants to dress in vampire-themed costumes to really get into the spirit of the adventure.
Looking to send a chill up your entire team’s spines? 🧛🏻♂️ Book your online Transylvanian adventure here. 🧛🏻♂️
7 Escape Room: Mummy’s Curse
You and your team members have been transported to a dazzling pyramid in faraway Egypt. An indigenous mummy, angered by your uninvited presence, curses you to eternal damnation. The only way to lift the curse and escape the mummy’s clutches forever is to solve puzzles as a team before time runs out and your gateway closes forever. That sums up this exciting online game designed for teams.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The Mummy’s Curse is the ideal escape room challenge for engaging remote teams. Team members will enjoy the experience of bonding with each other over a collective goal while deploying critical thinking to solve puzzles.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique: Add terrifying mummy voice effects to heighten the sense of urgency!
Hot tip! A virtual escape room experience works just as well for breaking the ice in a new team environment. Use this game to disrupt an awkward group dynamic positively and boost productivity from the get-go!
8 The Mafia 360
🃏 Mafia 360
Step into the world of organized crime with The Mafia 360, a captivating virtual game that immerses you and your team in the gritty underworld of the mafia.
As members of a notorious crime family, players must strategize, negotiate, and sometimes betray one another to rise to the top of the family ranks. The game’s 360-degree interactive environment and complex scenarios give your team a deeply engaging experience that goes beyond typical team activities.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The team building experts at Elevent offer a unique opportunity for teams to explore complex decision-making and leadership dynamics in a high-stakes environment. It builds team cohesion and communication as players must work together to navigate the challenging and often unpredictable world of mafia politics.
👉 Try this out to make the game more unique: Introduce real-time challenges or unexpected twists during the game to keep participants on their toes and ensure no two games are the same.
9 Space Escape
🛰 Space Escape
Word has it that Elon Musk will land a spacecraft on Mars within the next three to four years. But why wait when you have the Space Escape online game right here on planet earth?
You’ll break into smaller teams and rooms in your purpose-built virtual spaceship to collect important clues and solve interlinked puzzles. The ultimate goal: be the first to land your ship safely on the Martian surface.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: If you want to strengthen problem-solving skills among teams (with no evident team size cap), this game could fit the bill. There are a variety of puzzles to challenge varying levels of mental acuity. So, this escape game is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
👉 Try this out to make the game more unique: Ask your team to decorate their favorite space gear or spruce up their background with space-themed accessories for added fun.
10 Race for the Lost Tomb
In this aquatic-themed game, you’ll race underwater across the globe to find the Lost City of Atlantis. Part scavenger hunt, part virtual escape room, this game’s a casual, puzzle-solving experience that doesn’t require team members to be knowledgeable on many different subjects.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: Getting teams together virtually or in real life via an escape room scenario with the clock ticking in the background will get the team-bonding adrenaline pumping like nothing else.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique: Share props with team members that they can wear while playing.
11 Holiday Escape Quest
The Holiday Escape Quest promises a fun, zany, and adventurous virtual escape room experience. You suddenly find yourself all alone on an island on New Year’s Eve, and it’s up to you to solve clues and find your way back home before time runs out.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: Holiday Escape Quest is a spirited game that sparks lots of laughs and boasts surprises that are sure to enhance the holiday mood and help teams engage better with one another.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique: Provide holiday-inspired names for each team, like reindeer names.
12 Murder on the Mystery Express
🚂 Mystery Express
A virtual whodunnit involving a train and ample clues to solve along the way, the Murder on the Mystery Express, provides an atmospheric and immersive gaming experience. Teams work together to unpack puzzles, solve riddles before time runs out, and identify the criminal mastermind behind the murder.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: We love how this game has been adapted for international audiences. It’s worth checking out if you want to strengthen teamwork between global teams.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique: Add inclusive clues and puzzles to accommodate international teams.
13 The Secret Society
The Secret Society could fit the bill if you’re looking for a more challenging game for your teams. It’s built around the premise that your best friend suddenly vanishes without a trace. The only way to solve the mystery and find your friend is to go behind the scenes of a clandestine organization.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: Who doesn’t love unraveling secrets? Teams will enjoy working out clues and participating in an exhilarating race to the finish line.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique: Surprise your team midway by showing up in a themed costume.
14 Virtual Escape Rooms
Virtual Escape Rooms is perfect for virtual team building. These team-building experiences are real, in-store, live, virtual games that can be played from any location through Zoom. The best part is the 360-degree view of your escape room, elevating the sensory experience. All games include a host for instructions and a game guide who’ll be your eyes, ears, and feet to the finish line.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: This virtual game has a lot of unique experiences going for it. You can scan 360-degree views of each room. You also have your inventory, where you can house all the essential items you’ve found along the way.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique: Use the custom Zoom backgrounds provided with this game and stay back for the end-of-game team pictures.
15 Escape the Crate
In Escape the Crate, you’ll get a box packed with everything you need to play a complete adventure game. Each box has multiple chapters, so all the different storylines will keep your teams wholly engaged as they compete to win. Aside from an assortment of themed puzzles, you’ll also get props to crack codes that you need to get to the finish line.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: A complex assortment of puzzles and a selection of props make this a fun, immersive experience that helps foster team bonds.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique! Include a virtual component via Zoom with online puzzles that team members can work together to solve.
16 One Fright in Fiend-Land
One Fright in Fiendland combines the best of an online escape room and a virtual scavenger hunt experience. Your favorite Halloween carnival visit becomes a veritable nightmare as you discover the owner has mysteriously vanished. In this game, you’ll solve puzzles and riddles to find out what happened to him and escape before anything happens to you!
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The game helps solidify teamwork and collaboration in an immersive gaming experience.
👉 Try this out to make this game even more unique: Incorporate carnival sounds and spooky background noises to heighten the fear factor and sense of urgency.
On the hunt for more virtual event and game companies specializing in remote adventures for team building? Here are our top recommendations:
- Top 6 Scavenger Hunt Companies for Team Building
- Best 25 Team-Building Companies To Study for Inspiration
17 The Legend of Treasure Mountain
The Legend of Treasure Mountain, according to the escape game organizer, is a super-fun yet super-easy virtual team bonding activity. It’s ideal for group sizes of 5+/- each for unlimited players. Each team, with its designated team captain, will compete to be the first to find the mystical gold and escape Treasure Mountain in 1 hour or less.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: There are a lot of smaller puzzles, riddles, and “keys” to unlock, so your team members are sure to stay engaged throughout the virtual gameplay.
👉 Try this out to make this game more unique: Have your teams keep a close watch on the leaderboard so they’re constantly on their toes and super-motivated to win!
18 “Escape the Inbox” Challenge (DIY)
This Do-It-Yourself virtual escape game involves creating a series of emails with hidden clues. Create a fictional email chain or sequence in a shared email account and embed riddles and puzzles that must be solved to escape! Use a case scenario to create a goal for the teams to work toward. For example, your CEO lost his password on his mini-vacay, and each clue signifies a letter or number in the password.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: This mind-boggling game is a fantastic way to get teams together to strut their problem-solving skills and slay the competition.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique!: Get as creative as you can with the storyline for the Escape Your Inbox challenge. How about an evil corporation about to release a deadly virus? It’s up to your team to find the secret code that can terminate its release before it’s too late.
19 Mystery Audio Drama (DIY)
A plot twist to the traditional in-person escape room game, Mystery Audio Drama is a wholly audio-based experience. You pre-record segments of a story or drama or live narrate it in sections while providing puzzles that need to be solved. Puzzles can include things like identifying sounds and deciphering coded messages. Solve each puzzle to progress. The first team to solve the mystery wins!
❤️ Why we love this for team building: It’s creative, engaging, and interactive. Interactive experiences help boost team collaboration and connection.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique: Allow each team member the option to choose a character they want to play in the drama, complete with costumes and makeup.
Looking for more murder mystery game ideas? Try these for your next mystery game:
20 Cyber Survival Challenge (DIY)
For this game, you’ll use a simulated survival scenario: being stranded on a desert island, a prison break, a zombie apocalypse, or getting lost in space. Team members will be presented with different challenges and puzzles, and they have to use the available resources to make strategic decisions to escape the challenge first.
Use online collaboration tools like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Forms to facilitate live interactions, decision-making, and the collection of answers. The winning team gets to the escape first or has the most resources left when they get out.
❤️ Why we love this for team building: The Cyber Survival Challenge is a strategic escape room team-building activity. It’s not simply about getting out. It’s also about optimizing resources. Think of it as a team-building event that doubles as a skill-teaching aid.
👉 Try this out to make the game even more unique: Include trade-off scenarios to increase the difficulty level. For instance, should teams exchange medical supplies for food or tools?
Benefits of Hosting a Virtual Escape Room for Team Building
Virtual escape room games can bring together remote workers and promote skills that ultimately lead to stronger teams.
✅ Fosters communication
Teams must adapt their listening and communication skills to collaborate on puzzles and solve clues.
✅ Develops problem-solving skills
Virtual escape rooms help players see how working together and pooling their combined skill sets can help solve problems faster and more efficiently than working alone.
✅ Boosts creativity
When taken out of their usual environments, team members must think outside the box to make sense of puzzles and reach a solution.
✅ Promotes engagement
Compelling storylines, short timelines, and breakout rooms help build engagement and momentum.
✅ Builds relationships
Virtual escape room games inspire healthy competition and the ability to build off of each other’s strengths.
Tips for Hosting a Successful Online Escape Room Activity
👍 Install a game guide
Have a host or game guide provide instructions at the beginning of the game and guide players through to the game’s conclusion. It can help prevent the ambiguity of not having a clear idea of what they need to do to win the game.
👍 Make it as immersive as possible
Encourage costume, makeup, and themed Zoom backgrounds. Add sounds and background effects.
👍 Create open and private spaces
Aside from private huddle room areas, ensure open spaces for all-team and all-hands meetings and updates.
👍 Include leaderboards
Leaderboards can create a sense of urgency and boost healthy competition as teams vie with each other to reach the top spot.
👍 Do a run-through before the event day
This will help you get a sense of what to expect as the game progresses and steer teams in the right direction if things don’t go according to plan.
Mistakes To Avoid With Virtual Escape Room Activities for Team Building
❌ Mistake 1
Make sure your game is challenging enough to engage players. At the same time, it shouldn’t be so complex that team members struggle to solve clues or finish the game before time out.
❌ Mistake 2
Mix teams up so players with different skill sets are on the same team. Each team should have a range of skills they can draw from.
❌ Mistake 3
Not having an event facilitator. While it’s possible to self-host, it’s better to have an experienced insider to provide instructions and ensure the game progresses optimally.
❌ Mistake 4
Not pre-testing for tech. Ensure all your remote workers have all the tools they need to access the game. Do a test run for audio/visual checks.
❌ Mistake 5
Not following up. Check back in with participants to obtain feedback. What did they like? What didn’t they like? This will help you organize more virtual events in the future that your teams are sure to enjoy.
People Also Ask These Questions About Virtual Escape Rooms for Team Building
Q: How do virtual escape room games improve team communication and collaboration?
- A: Virtual escape room games strengthen specific skills that have been proven to build strong teams. For example, to escape the different challenges, team members have to exchange ideas, make decisions as a whole, and come to an agreement on task division. They also have to quickly identify individual strengths and leverage these to win the race against the other teams and the clock! Virtual team-building games like these help solidify communication, collaboration, and coordination. At the same time, they’re enjoyable, as teams find a new way to relate to each other outside of mundane office tasks.
Q: What is needed to organize a virtual escape room team-building event?
- A: You only need a desire to bring the best out of your teams! Review our virtual escape room game recommendations from the above list, check out the storylines, and choose the one that excites you the most. Remember to match team sizes, availability of your preferred mode (online or hybrid), ideal schedules, difficulty level where available, and your budget before shortlisting choices. Contact the virtual event organizer, and they will do the rest.
Q: Can large teams participate in online escape room games, and how are they managed?
- A: Large teams are perfect for online escape room games. You can even use these games as icebreakers or virtual celebratory events for your large teams. Whether the game is virtual or on-site, the key is organization. Our top recommendations generally split large groups into smaller teams that work together to solve puzzles and overcome challenges. Typically, there’s a game master or event host who will provide a game guide at the start, so teams know what to do and how much time they have. They will also guide the progress of the game and announce the winners. Alternatively, you can even opt to steer the game yourself!
Q: How long do virtual escape room events typically last?
- A: That depends on the game. The recommendations we’ve provided can vary from about an hour to an hour and a half. It’s not too long before it starts to get weary. At the same time, the games are not so simplistic that they can be finished quickly. There are enough challenges to keep the team on their toes for an optimal amount of time. But, typically, the games are timed, and the fastest to reach the goalpost wins.
Q: How customizable are virtual escape room games for corporate teams?
- A: There’s a large variety of games that you can choose from in our list of recommendations. But if you want something more specific, reach out to the organizer with your requirements and see if they can do a custom quote for you.
