Team-based recreational activities for adults that are fun even with large groups
When you’re organizing company events like parties, in-house sports days, or welcome gatherings for new employees, it’s common to include some kind of recreation, right?
If it’s something you can do in teams, it builds a stronger sense of unity and makes it more fun for everyone.
Plus, offering prizes to the winning team can really liven things up, and at welcome parties it can be a great way to break the ice with people you’re meeting for the first time.
In this article, we’ll introduce a variety of team-based recreational activities that adults can enjoy!
They vary in how long they take, and some require very little preparation.
Choose the ones that best fit your event’s situation.
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Adult-oriented team competition recreation activities (11–20) that are fun even for large groups
One letter per person game
Haven’t you seen this on quiz shows and the like? A question is asked, and you answer it one letter at a time, with each person providing one letter in order from the start.
If everyone answers correctly, the full correct answer naturally appears.
You do need to adjust the length of the answer depending on the number of people, but how about trying it as a team game or taking turns answering for fun? Have each person hold a sketchbook and a pen, write one letter of the answer, and then reveal your letters all together on the count of three!
Illustration Telephone Game
It’s a game that tests members’ ability to communicate and understand each other—both the willingness to convey your message and the skill to grasp what others want to express.
Players depict a given prompt through a drawing; the next person interprets the prompt from that drawing and then passes it along with their own drawing to the next participant, and so on.
The final person states, in words, what they believe the original prompt was, and everyone enjoys seeing whether they got it right.
If the group reaches the correct answer, you can feel a strong sense of unity; even if they don’t, it’s fun to analyze how the meaning shifted along the way.
The ability to capture distinctive features and one’s drawing skills are also part of what makes this game enjoyable.
English Telephone Game
Are you all good at English? This game turns the classic recreation activity, the telephone game, into an English version.
We pass along short everyday conversations—the kind you learn in junior high—and see if they make it accurately to the last person.
Even “simple” daily conversations can be hard to catch and pronounce, so the chances of conveying them correctly seem low… (lol).
And the last person has to translate what they heard back into Japanese and present it, which leads to more misunderstandings.
After it’s over, we go back through the order and figure out where things went wrong—time to find the culprit (lol).
Portrait-guessing quiz
Is everyone good at drawing? If you are, then a drawing game won’t be a problem, but for those who aren’t, this recreation activity might be tough: the “Portrait Guessing Quiz.” You draw a portrait of someone on your team or on the opposing team, and everyone tries to guess who it is.
You could also make the rule to draw famous people and guess them—that would be exciting too.
It’s an easy game to organize even with a large group, since you can split into teams.
Team-based fast-response quiz
Haven’t you often seen this on TV variety shows? It’s a fast-answer quiz where you buzz in and respond even before the question is finished being read.
You’ll need to prepare buzzers, but these days there are dedicated ones for sale.
Just having them really sets the mood and guarantees excitement.
If you can’t get enough for everyone, you can make it a team competition with a team-versus-team fast-answer quiz.
For wrong answers, prepare a one-turn timeout or a penalty game!
How many people can fit? game
A game to see how many people can get onto a prepared platform.
If you just keep hopping on without thinking, the platform will quickly fill up.
So before getting on, do a rehearsal, discuss the details, and devise strategies—try smart and efficient ways of getting on.
If you have enough space, run it with several teams at once, and play with the rule that the team that manages to get the most people onto the platform within the time limit wins.
Team-Based Recreational Activities for Adults That Large Groups Can Enjoy (21–30)
Rock-Paper-Scissors Relay
Here’s an idea for a cooperative indoor game that adults can genuinely get excited about: “Rock-Paper-Scissors Relay.” Divide into two teams and use a ring made from newspaper as the baton.
Each round starts with the first and second person in each team playing rock-paper-scissors.
The winner passes the baton to the next teammate, and the next match begins.
The fun twist is that if you lose, you can keep challenging until you win.
The team whose baton makes a full round trip first, ahead of the other team, wins.
All you need is newspaper, and the rules are simple, yet the game gets really intense.
It’s perfect for company socials, neighborhood gatherings, and any event where you want to build camaraderie.
