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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Team-based recreational activities for adults that are fun even with large groups (1–10)
human disentanglement puzzle
The “Human Knot” is a game you can do anytime, anywhere without any equipment.
Have your team stand in a circle facing inward.
First, everyone uses their right hand to grab the hand of someone who is not immediately to their right.
Then do the same with the left hand—hold the hand of someone who is not immediately to your left.
At the start signal, the team works to untangle the knot of hands and people without letting go of anyone’s hands.
Someone may need to duck under an arm or step over joined hands—it’s surprisingly tricky and very exciting.
It’s a great recreation activity that really tests teamwork.
Perfect Match Game
Many of you may know it thanks to popular YouTubers who’ve featured it: the Perfect Match Game! The rules are simple.
Split into two teams and decide on a target number and the number of questions you’ll ask.
Then, ask the other team questions that can be answered with numbers.
The team whose total—summing all the numerical answers—comes closest to the predetermined target wins.
It’s fun to aim for the target straightforwardly, but to spice things up, ask things you don’t usually get to, like bank balance or number of past partners—guaranteed to liven things up!
Paper Tower Showdown
It’s a very simple game where you build a tower out of paper.
You can fold or roll the paper, but you can’t use scissors, glue, or other tools.
As a team, discuss strategies and complete your tower within the time limit.
If you finish within the limit and the tower stands on its own for 5 seconds without support, you succeed.
If you have a large group, you can split into teams and make it a competition—the team that builds the tallest tower wins—so it’s fun even with many participants.
Boccia
This is a team-based game you can play either sitting or standing.
Each team has a set number of colored balls.
Form a circle and place a sturdy target in the center, such as a water-filled plastic bottle that won’t tip over.
Teams take turns throwing their balls toward the target.
At the end, place a hula hoop centered on the target and count how many balls from each team are inside the hoop to determine the winner.
While getting close to the target is important, you can also aim to hit and knock the opposing team’s balls out as part of your strategy.
Speaking of ___
A game where the whole team tries to give matching answers to prompts like “When you hear XX, what do you think of?” Form teams with people from the same department or the same project group and see how well you’re in sync.
You can play with just one team, but it’s also fun to create multiple teams and compete to see which team can match answers the fastest! Prompts can be anything, like “What’s a kid-favorite anime?” or “Who is an artist that represents the Heisei era?” If your team spans multiple generations, some questions might be harder to match.
But when it comes to syncing up, you can’t blame it on the generation gap! Use the game to deepen your team’s bonds even more.
A game where everyone stands up on ‘Ready, go!’
It’s a simple game you can enjoy in a small space that tests trust in your partner’s strength and an understanding of balance.
Sit facing each other with your toes aligned, and join hands to form a ring.
At the cue of “Ready, go,” work together to stand up on the spot.
Some people find standing up in place difficult, so adjust the pulling force carefully to increase the upward force.
Once you succeed with a small group, gradually increase the number of participants—feeling the team’s growing unity is what makes it exciting.
Puzzle-solving game
How about trying a team-based puzzle-solving activity? Puzzle hunts are booming in many places, and aiming for the goal while cooperating as a team makes for a great recreation that also strengthens team cohesion.
You can enjoy the satisfaction of clearing a game where you plant codes and riddles around a room, solve them to find the answer, and then move on to the next puzzle.
Combining puzzle-solving with escape rooms or incorporating a treasure hunt will make it even more exciting.
It could also be fun to make it a time trial to see which team can solve the puzzles the fastest.
Slipper relay
The slipper relay is a game where you pass a slipper to the next person using only your feet.
It’s an easy, exciting team competition.
At the starting signal, the person at the front passes the slipper they’re wearing on their foot to the next person’s foot.
You must not use your hands.
If the slipper isn’t passed properly and falls to the floor, it has to go back to the starting point—the very first person—and you start over.
It’s a very simple and straightforward game, but when you try it as an adult, you’ll get hooked and find yourself getting really into it.
Team Competition Bingo
How about turning the classic bingo game into a team competition? As usual, you mark off numbers on your card, and you get bingo when you complete a line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally… but you don’t win just by being the first to finish.
For example, you can set a rule like “the round ends when three people at the table get bingo,” which removes the “it’s over as soon as I win” scenario and keeps everyone on the edge of their seat until the end.
Whether you snag a lavish prize comes down to luck—let’s all cheer and groan together with every number that’s called!
Who is eating something spicy?
A game where everything looks the same, but one item is extremely spicy, and you have to guess who ate it.
To confuse the opposing team, your team can cooperate with some double-bluff acting so it’s hard to tell who got the spicy one.
You can do this not only with spicy flavors but also with something sour, so prepare some snacks and include just one special item to try it out.
With some convincing acting, you’re bound to fool a few people—and by the next day, you might even earn the nickname “the actor” (lol).