9 party games to play on a video call (Zoom, Meet or Teams)

Most party games assume everyone is on the same sofa. Video calls need something different: one person shows the game, everyone else plays from wherever they are, and nobody has to install anything.

All the games below run in the browser. One person hosts and shares their screen, and everyone else joins on their own phone or laptop with a link or a short code. They're free to play, with one exception for work teams at the end.

Full disclosure: we made all of them. They're our own games, but we built them for exactly this kind of evening, so here is how to get the most out of each one on a call.

How it works on a call

The setup is the same for every game:

1. The host opens the game on a computer and starts a room.
2. The host shares their screen in the call, so everyone can see the board.
3. Everyone else joins on their phone. The game shows a QR code and a link. Scanning a QR code off a shared screen works, but it's easier to paste the join link into the call chat.
4. Play. Questions and results appear on the shared screen, and answers come from the phones.

A tip that makes a big difference: stay in the call on your laptop and play on your phone. That way you can see the shared screen and answer at the same time without switching windows.

How to share your screen with sound

Only one game on this list has sound (HitParade, the music quiz). For that one, the host needs to share their computer's audio as well as the screen. Otherwise nobody else hears the songs.

• Zoom: click Share Screen, pick the window or screen, and tick Share sound at the bottom of the share window before you press Share.
• Google Meet: click Present now and choose A tab. Pick the game's tab and make sure Also share tab audio is on. Sharing a tab is the most reliable way to send sound in Meet.
• Microsoft Teams: click Share and turn on Include sound. On a Mac, Teams may ask you to install an audio driver the first time.

Ask everyone else to mute their mics while a song is playing, or the music echoes back through their speakers.

The games

1. HitParade: the music quiz

Best for: any group, any age. Players: as many as you like. Sound: yes, share it.

Name the tune before your friends do. There are over 4,400 songs, from the 50s to today, split into collections like one-hit wonders, 90s rock, Scandinavian hits and children's songs. There are five ways to play. In Quick Draw you buzz in when you know the song. In Open Mic everyone types the artist, title and year. Timeline has you put songs in order across the decades, and there's also a music bingo.

On a call: music shared over a call reaches people with slightly different delays, so pure buzzer races can feel a little unfair. Open Mic and Timeline work best remotely, because everyone gets the whole clip to answer. Players join from the link shown under the QR code. More about HitParade

2. Real vs AI: spot the fake photo

Best for: groups who like to argue. Players: as many as you like.

Every round shows two pictures, one real photo and one made by AI. Everyone votes for the one they think is real, and fast correct answers score the most. At the end you find out what share of the group's votes the AI fooled.

On a call: the pictures only appear on the host's screen, and players vote A or B on their phones. Video calls compress the image a little, so share the game in full screen. Players join at the game's join page with a four-character code. Hosts can run three games without signing in, then need a free account. Want to practise first? Read how to spot an AI-generated image. More about Real vs AI

3. Anno: the timeline game

Best for: families and mixed groups. Players: 2 to 12.

Every card is a real moment from history with the year hidden, such as the telephone, the Moon landing or the first iPhone. You place it before or after the cards you already have, and as your line grows, the gaps get tighter. You don't need to know the exact year, just what came first.

On a call: the card shows on the shared screen and everyone places it from their phone. Joining is easy to say out loud, because room codes are short, pronounceable four-letter words. More about Anno

4. ISH: the quiz where you want the fewest points

Best for: quiz nights where nobody knows the answers. Players: as many as you like.

Every question has a number for an answer, like how tall, how far, how many. Everyone guesses with a slider and gets points for how far off they are, so the lowest total wins. Being roughly right is enough, which makes it fun even for people who hate quizzes.

On a call: the question and slider are on each player's phone, so ISH copes well even if the screen share is laggy. Join with the room code or link. More about ISH

5. Population: geography trivia

Best for: travellers and map nerds. Players: as many as you like.

Guess country populations, spot flags, pin countries on a map and rank them. The closer you are, the more points you get. There's also a daily set of eight questions, the same for everyone in the world.

On a call: share the room link in the chat and everyone plays live. More about Population

6. Let's Shop: guess the grocery prices

Best for: anyone who thinks they know what milk costs. Players: as many as you like.

Guess the price of real groceries from Norway, Sweden or the UK. Every wrong guess costs money, the lowest total wins, and the game ends with a printed-style receipt. A round takes just a few minutes.

On a call: join with the code or link. The join page also accepts a pasted link, so the call chat works fine. More about Let's Shop

7. Football Bingo: for football fans

Best for: a group chat that argues about football. Players: as many as you like.

Four football games in one. In Bingo, real players are drawn one by one and you place each where they fit on your board. There's also quick-fire trivia, a Tenable-style top-ten mode, and Famous 11s, where you name every player from a famous line-up. No luck involved, just football knowledge.

On a call: the host copies the invite link and drops it in the chat. More about Football Bingo

8. Stats Master: for hockey fans

Best for: NHL fans. Players: 2 to 8.

You see a real stat line and have to name the player before everyone else. The game covers over 46,000 real NHL seasons from 1917 onwards, with modes like Career, where a player's seasons are revealed one by one, and Higher / Lower.

On a call: the board is on the shared screen and phones are the buzzers. Players can type the six-character room code on the game's home page. More about Stats Master

9. Tombola: for work calls

Best for: standups, retros and all-hands. Players: your whole team.

Tombola turns "who goes first?" or "who wins the prize?" into a show. The host adds the team with photos, then lets a physics game decide: marble races, pachinko, sumo and more. There are also three live quizzes that players answer on their phones.

On a call: the physics games are for watching, so just share your screen. For the quizzes, players join with a link or code. Unlike the rest of this list, Tombola is a paid product for hosts. It has a 7-day free trial, and players never pay or need an account. Visit Tombola

Which one should you pick?

• Mixed group, first time: HitParade (Open Mic) or Anno.
• Short on time: Let's Shop (3 to 10 minutes) or Real vs AI (5 to 20).
• People who say they're bad at quizzes: ISH. Being close is enough.
• Sports fans: Football Bingo or Stats Master.
• Work meeting: Tombola for picking a winner, or Real vs AI as an icebreaker.

The easiest way to start is to pick one, open it before the call, and drop the link in the chat once everyone is there.