You found our list of the best virtual escape rooms for team building.
Virtual escape rooms are online activities conducted via Zoom and other platforms. During these events, teams solve riddles and complete puzzles in a fixed amount of time, with a goal of “escaping the room.” The purpose of these experiences is to encourage collaboration, teamwork and team building. These experiences are sometimes called “online escape rooms” or “virtual escape games” and the singular is “virtual escape room.”
These rooms are a subset of virtual team building activities and online team building games, and are the parent category for virtual escape rooms in Canada and virtual escape rooms in Australia.
Our list includes:
- free virtual escape rooms
- the best online escape rooms for large groups
- virtual escape rooms for groups
- digital escape rooms for adults
- Zoom escape rooms
- virtual escape room corporate team building
- virtual escape room reviews
Here is the list!
List of virtual escape rooms
Online escape rooms range from guide-led immersive experiences to simple self-guided text-based puzzles. This list offers a range of games covering various subjects and difficulty levels, including reviews of several free online escape rooms!
1. Alice Escapes Wonderland
Alice Escapes Wonderland is sure to delight literature lovers and puzzle lovers alike. This 90-minute virtual adventure takes teams into a VR hub to re-enact the classic fairytale, with a twist. Players wander through an immersive 3-D landscape rife with puzzles and riddles to solve the mystery of which character stole Alice’s magical mirror. Participants shrink and hunt for clues while tiny, stroll through an enchanted forest, and play guest at a mad tea party to retrieve the stolen object and help Alice find her way home. Hosts usher players through this fantastical world and whisk teams through each challenge.
Learn more about Alice Escapes Wonderland.
2. Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion
Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion blends the thrills of escape rooms and haunted house tours. This virtual escape room explores The Winchester Mansion, a real-life haunted attraction known as one of the spookiest spots in the US. Over 90-minutes, players become paranormal investigators. Participants must work together to hunt for clues, decipher codes, and solve puzzles to avoid becoming trapped forever as a ghost in the twisted halls of the mansion. A host guides players through the chilling adventure and gives hints when necessary. This experience includes nuggets of real-life history and a jump scare or two!
Learn more about Ghost Hunt in the Haunted Mansion.
3. The Grimm Escape
The Grimm Escape from Puzzle Break is one of the most popular virtual escape rooms for groups. Puzzle Break was one of the pioneers of physical escape rooms, and an early adopter of the virtual medium when businesses mass-pivoted to remote work. This story-themed adventure takes place live over Zoom and accommodates many players. A game-master leads groups through challenging time-sensitive riddles for an hour of fairy-tale fun. Prices start at $25 per person.
Learn more: The Grimm Escape
4. Wildly Different Escape Rooms
Participants play Wildly Different’s escape rooms through an app. One of the perks to this digital escape room experience is that the company that designs the adventures can custom build a challenge just for your crew. Gamemakers can tailor questions and clues to fit your industry or your brand to create a relevant training, video conference games, and team bonding experience all-in-one.
Learn more: Wildly Different Escape Rooms
5. Mystery Escape Room
The super sleuths on your team will enjoy these mystery-themed Zoom escape rooms modeled after the likes of Nancy Drew and Sherlock Holmes. Groups play the games via virtual meeting platforms, collaborating to complete challenges and progress through the mystery. An escape room guide is available through the duration of each game. These rooms are suitable for four to eight players and book through a flat rate of $75-$85 per game, averaging out to around $10 per person for an eight-player game.
Learn more: Mystery Escape Room
6. Cofundrum Escape Rooms
3-D graphics set Confundrum’s rooms apart from other digital escape rooms. Teams participate in a virtual walkthrough that lends the experience a video-game feel. Each booking offers a guide to facilitate the game. Virtual rooms vary in difficulty and are suitable for up to eight participants. Themes include Blackbeard’s Brig, Twisted Woods, and Cypherspace. Confundrum offers options for corporate group bookings in addition to package deals.
Learn more: Confundrum Escape Room
7. Trapped in the Web
You can play Trapped in the Web’s virtual adventures from anywhere in the world, anytime. These are text-based adventures that incorporate video and picture elements and force the group to navigate the world wide web for clues. The company offers a series of adventures with names like Cabin Fever and A Night at the Theatre. Each room takes one or two hours to complete. Group booking rates are available.
Learn more: Trapped in the Web
8. YouEscape
YouEscape offers digital escape rooms through the Patreon platform. The game-makers offer several different web-based escape room options with themes like musical, constellations, bomb-diffusing, and murder mystery. Each game lasts between one and one and a half hours. To play with a team you can pay a one-time fee or enlist in a monthly subscription; options start at $30. The subscription plan is a great choice for teams that love escape rooms and would like to complete a new adventure every month. Sizable organizations could also invest in a subscription and allow a new team or department to utilize the challenge each month.
Learn more: YouEscape
9. Brain Chase
Brain Chase’s escape rooms take an educational approach to puzzle games by centering on subjects such as engineering, coding, photography, and reading. Each week brings a new escape room challenge with a new worldly or historical theme. The site even offers a $100 prize to the first user who solves the puzzle of the month. These virtual escape rooms are great for students or workers nostalgic for good old school computer lab days.
Learn more: Brain Chase Escape Rooms
10. 60 Out
60 Out escape rooms offer the ability to work with strangers on puzzles, a plus for smaller groups or teams that want to brush up on soft skills. These escape rooms provide real challenges that require critical thinking. Multiple difficulty levels are available, with themes ranging from spooky ships to sinister killers to time travel.
Learn more: 60 Out Escape Rooms
11. Escape Experience
Escape Experience pairs users with an on-site physical guide for a hybrid experience that is as close to a real escape room as possible. The adrenaline enthusiasts in your crew can enjoy adventures such as a race to stop a nuclear bomb, a getaway from a runaway train, or a daring prison break. Most games last approximately one hour.
Learn more: Escape Experience
12. Paruzal Games
Paruzal Games takes a more whimsical approach to the virtual escape room, trading in action movie concepts like heists and espionage for themes like pizza and rock and roll. Games take place through Zoom, and the site offers an easy booking process. These puzzles are appropriate for all skill and comfort levels, and could be a fun entertainment option for events like virtual retirement parties.
Learn more: Paruzal Games
List of free virtual escape rooms
Here is a list of totally free virtual escape rooms you can try too.
Note: Because many free digital escape rooms take less time than the paid counterparts, we included a bonus fun tip as an extra activity for each entry.
13. Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
Anyone still awaiting an owl-delivered invitation to wizard school will delight in this online adventure. Created by librarians, like many of the free digital escape rooms on this list,this escape room recreates the experience of arriving at Hogwarts for your first year of instruction. The game draws on a mix of Harry Potter references and logic puzzles to create fun challenges. Your crew may not actually get to cast spells, but your teams will bond, and that is just as magical.
Bonus fun tip: Ask teammates to identify as Hogwarts houses. You can take the online sorting quiz on the Wizarding World website together, or you can allow attendees to choose a house. You can change your names on Zoom to show your Hufflepuff or Slytherin pride.
Learn more: Hogwarts Digital Escape Room
14. Minecraft Escape Room
Minecraft may seem like an unusual pick for online escape room ideas, but fans of the games and the Minecraft-clueless alike can enjoy this free digital escape room. Players flex problem-solving skills to solve simple challenges. The many colorful pictures make this room one of the more visually appealing free options.
Bonus fun tip: Playing the actual game of Minecraft may be too time-consuming for a virtual team building activity, but you and your team can customize players and use avatars for team interactions.
Learn more: Minecraft Escape Room
15. Oscar’s Stolen Oscar
The National Aquarium created this online adventure centered around oscar fish. Teams will use resources like the aquarium’s virtual tour and educational video to answer questions while learning fishy facts. Other underwater favorites like eels and sea turtles also make cameos.
Bonus fun tip: Make a group donation to the aquarium to support conservation efforts, or relax with more aquatic fun by watching a tropical reef livestream from another great aquarium.
Learn more: Oscar’s Stolen Oscar Escape Room
16. Dr. Who Escape Room
This elaborate online escape room will appeal to hardcore Whovians and puzzle fans alike. The adventure presents a series of logic puzzles that will challenge your team’s critical thinking skills. This room contains longer narrative passages than several other online escape rooms, meaning the experience is sure to please the story lovers on your crew as well.
Bonus fun tip: Inspired by the fact that Weeping Angel villains can only attack when you look away, challenge your teams to a staring contest.
Learn more: Dr. Who Escape Room
17. Golden Girls Escape Room
Over thirty years after the show first aired, Golden Girls still has audience appeal. Chances are, if you start singing “Thank you for being a friend,” then a few of your team members will chime in with,”traveled down the road and back again.” This Golden Girls Escape room is all trivia instead of puzzles, but is still a fun challenge for your group. The game goes quickly, making this escape room a great option for a warm up or wind down virtual team building exercises.
Bonus fun tip: If the group completes the quiz without Googling more than one answer, then celebrate with cheesecake.
Learn more: Golden Girls Escape Room
18. Pikachu’s Rescue
Pokemon may be the ultimate example of teamwork. Creatures and trainers cooperate to win battles, and the bonds between teams help pave the way to victory. If you want to add a tinge of 90’s nostalgia to your next virtual event, then Pikachu’s Rescue is the way to go. Combining Pokemon trivia with observation and basic math, this virtual escape room provides a fun collaborative adventure for teams.
Bonus fun tip: Challenge your teams to recite the PokeRap.
Learn more: Pikachu’s Rescue Escape Room
19. The Minotaur’s Labyrinth Escape Room
This free remote escape room draws on Greek mythology to form a challenging and educational experience. Your teams will crack codes and solve other riddles while learning about ancient myths. The Minotaur’s Labyrinth Escape Room activates your group’s collective brain power and brings out your teammates’ inner hero.
Learn more: Minotaur’s Labyrinth Escape Room
20. Escape: The Midnight Express
This mini-virtual escape room is sure to appeal to fans of stories like “Murder on the Orient Express.” The self-guided online adventure leads participants through a story of a mystery that unfolds on a midnight train. Escape: The Midnight Express includes visual and audio components, and offers multiple hints along with the solution for each clue.
Bonus fun tip: Ask Zoom attendees to dress up in costume to add to the atmosphere.
Learn more: Escape: The Midnight Express Escape Room
21. Ultra Mega Super Death Escape Room
Though many web-based escape room options are family-friendly and geared towards all ages, Ultra Mega Super Death Escape room is exclusively a digital escape room for adults. This free online escape room presents complex problems with a tongue in cheek tone. The result is a stimulating and amusing self-guided adventure. The creators recommend that you play in groups and use the timer on your phone or computer. The game offers one single hint, but also provides a solution guide if you are super stumped.
Learn more: Ultra Mega Super Death Escape Room
22. Mr. X
This experience deviates from the standard online escape room model of following a form by leading challengers through an interactive online treasure hunt. Groups will use online resources such as YouTube and Google Maps to hunt for clues and track down the sinister Mr. X’s location. Team members simultaneously complete a fun challenge and brush up on internet skills: a win-win for remote teams.
Learn more: Mr.X Escape Room
23. Romeo & Juliet
All the word-nerds and Shakespeare diehards in your crew will enjoy taking a crack at solving the feud between the Montague and Capulet families. The math and logically-brained members of your team will not sit on the sidelines either, as many of the puzzles require critical thinking, not just literature knowledge. Together, you and your team can try to reach a happier ending.
Bonus fun tip: Imagine how cell phones might have changed the plot of the play, and imagine what texts the characters might send each other.
Learn more: Romeo & Juliet Escape Room
24. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln combines the challenge of an online escape room with the fun of a choose your own adventure story. You could choose one of two scenarios to craft your own experience. Because the path differs, you and the crew can play several times. This free virtual escape room draws inspiration from history, yet entertains with a modern sense of humor by using screenshots of text messages and other anachronistic visual aids.
Learn more: The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln
Conclusion
Though virtual escape rooms are less tactile experiences than real life rooms, these experiences allow remote teams to bond, communicate, and solve problems together. There are many ways to build skills and relationships on remote teams while engaging virtual workers.
For reviews of similar virtual games, check out our articles on virtual murder mystery games, online crime scene investigation puzzles, and how to do a virtual scavenger hunt.
Next, check out our list of tips for solving escape rooms.
Angela Robinson