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10 Ice Breaker Questions for Bingo

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Have you ever played Ice Breaker Bingo?

Nothing brings people together as quickly as a well-planned ice breaker. Whether it’s for an all-hands meeting, a big company party, a deliberate team-building event, or a small team training, ice breakers can get everyone on the same page and feeling more comfortable. 

One of our favorite games for work is Ice Breaker Bingo. 

What is Ice Breaker Bingo?

Like traditional bingo, Ice Breaker Bingo involves marking boxes in a 5 X 5 grid, where filling rows, columns, or diagonals determines a winner. However, this version doesn’t use numbers, it uses facts or information about you and your co-workers. This icebreaker game is sometimes called “people bingo” or “human bingo,” and there are a few ways to play.

How do you play Ice Breaker Bingo?

All bingo ice breaker games start with a set of 24 questions (the center box in the bingo card is traditionally a free space). 

In one version of ice breaker bingo described WikiHow, each player seeks the initials of another person in the group who matches with one of the questions in the BINGO card. The same person can only be used for one square and cannot be used twice. When your card is full, you have a BINGO and you’ve also likely spoken to every person in the room.

This ice breaker game tends to work best for in-person meetings. It can also work with smaller groups, or in online breakout rooms, pitting teams against teams instead of individuals against each other.

Another option that works well for large groups, and can work well for virtual groups as well as in-person events, is to ask the ice breaker bingo questions out loud and invite your team to mark the appropriate answers on their own boards until a bingo is achieved.

However you choose to play, the goals of ice breaker bingo are the same: get your team laughing, get your team talking, and help them to get to know one another.

Ice breaker bingo questions

To build your bingo sheet for this ice breaker game, you will need 24 unique questions. You will want some that will apply to many people, but you will also want some that will be more obscure. It can also be fun to include questions that you know will only apply to one or two specific team members, so you can make sure that the team is really talking.

Because part of the fun of making a work ice breaker bingo game is coming up with the questions, we’ll give you 10 great ideas to get you going. Feel free to include these in your game card, and fill the rest of the grid with questions of your own.

Here are 10 ice breaker questions for bingo:

  1. Who currently lives more than 500 miles from where they went to high school?

  2. Who has no houseplants?

  3. Who has never seen snow in person?

  4. Who owns a VR headset?

  5. Who likes pineapple on pizza?

  6. Who can hula hoop for over 30 seconds?

  7. Whose birthday is on a holiday?

  8. Who has met a celebrity?

  9. Who is wearing funny socks at this moment?

  10. Who has been sky-diving?

When writing ice breaker bingo questions for work, it's important to keep a few tips in mind to ensure that the questions are appropriate and effective. First, focus on questions that will help team members get to know each other better, such as questions about hobbies or interests. Second, avoid questions that could be sensitive or divisive, such as political or religious beliefs. Third, consider incorporating work-related questions to help team members learn more about each other's professional backgrounds and skills. Finally, keep the questions fun and engaging, as the goal is to break the ice and create a positive, welcoming atmosphere for team members to connect and build relationships. By following these tips, you can create effective ice breaker bingo questions that will help your team members bond and collaborate more effectively.

How to organize Ice Breaker Bingo

Ice breaker bingo is a fun way to get to know your coworkers. Here's how to play ice breaker bingo:

  1. Create a Bingo Board

  2. Fill Board with Ice Breaker Bingo Questions

  3. Set the Rules

  4. Play Until Someone Wins BINGO

Create a Bingo Board

The first step is to create a Bingo board. You can either create one yourself using paper and markers, or you can find templates online. A traditional Bingo board has five rows and five columns, but you can make it larger or smaller depending on the number of people playing.

Fill Board with Ice Breaker Bingo Questions

Once you have your Bingo board, it's time to fill it with ice breaker questions. These questions can be anything from "What's your favorite food?" to "What's your most embarrassing moment?" or "What's your favorite travel destination?" The questions should be fun and easy to answer, but also provide a glimpse into each player's personality.

Set the Rules

Before you start playing, it's important to set the rules. Decide on the prize for the winner, whether it's a small gift or bragging rights. Determine how long the game will last, and make sure everyone knows the rules of Bingo.

Play Until Someone Wins BINGO!

The game starts with the first player picking a question from the Bingo board and answering it. If another player has the same question on their board, they can mark it off. The game continues until someone gets a row of five marked off in a horizontal, vertical, or diagonal pattern and shouts "BINGO!"

Ice Breaker Bingo is a great way to break the ice and get to know new people. It's also a fun way to learn more about your friends and coworkers. So why not give it a try at your next gathering? You might be surprised at what you learn!

Get to know your team with Bar None Games

Bar None Games would love to help you plan your next team-building event!  Book a live-hosted virtual trivia game