Home/Activities/Superlatives

Challenge · A great activity for everyone

Superlatives

Split into teams, call out a category — height, birthday month, shoe size — and each team scrambles into the correct order, fastest team seated first. It works because the categories can go as shallow or as deep as the room's ready for.

15–30 min15–54 peopleEasyNo materialsIn-person onlyClassroom ✓
By Jon Zajac · Founder & Chief Icebreaker · Last updated February 19, 2024

What is Superlatives?

Superlatives splits a room into teams and gives them one job at a time: line up in order, fastest team seated wins the point. The facilitator calls a category — height, birthday month, shoe size, number of siblings — and each team of 5–9 scrambles into place, then the facilitator checks every line before handing out the point.

It works because the categories set the depth. Height and shoe size get a team moving without a word exchanged; birthday month and number of siblings force real conversation before anyone can even start arranging themselves in order.

Skip it for a small group — you need at least three teams of 5–9 to get real competition, which means at least 15 people in the room. And because it's built entirely around physical movement, save it for a space everyone can actually move through; there's no remote version here.

The rules

  1. Split into at least three teams, ideally 5–9 players each.
  2. The facilitator calls a category from a list prepared in advance — height, birthday month, shoe size, number of siblings.
  3. Each team scrambles to arrange itself in ascending order for that category.
  4. The first team correctly ordered and seated earns the point; a wrong order earns zero.
  5. The facilitator checks every team's line before awarding the point.
  6. Repeat until every category on the list has been called.

Before you start

  • Group size: 15–54 players, in teams of 5–9. At least three teams keeps the race close. More teams, more chaos — that's the point.
  • Space: indoors or outdoors. Any room or yard with enough floor for each team to shuffle into a line and sit down together.
  • Materials: none required. The only thing to bring is a category list — height, birthday month, shoe size, number of siblings — written out ahead of time.
  • Decide on a variation upfront. If you want to run a round as "no talking allowed" or "head and feet only," say so before the first category — both trade speech for body language.

How to run it

  1. Prepare the category list beforehand

    Write out the categories you'll call — height, birthday month, shoe size, number of siblings — mixing surface-level ones with deeper ones depending on the group.

  2. Split into teams 2–3 min

    Divide the room into at least three teams of 5–9, and explain the objective clearly before the first category gets called.

  3. Call a category 1–2 min

    Read the category out loud. Each team scrambles to arrange itself in ascending order, then sits down together to signal they're done.

  4. Check and award the point 30 sec

    Verify the first team seated. Award the point if their order is correct, zero if it isn't, then move to the next category.

  5. Repeat, or add a twist 10–20 min

    Work through the rest of the list. To raise the difficulty, run a round with no talking allowed, or head and feet only — no arms, hands, or words.

← the scramble is the whole game.

Facilitator tips

Call categories they can't fakeHeight and shoe size sort themselves out in seconds; birthday month and number of siblings force actual conversation before a team can even start arranging itself. Mix both in.
Keep teams at 5 to 9Below five, there's no real scramble. Above nine, half the team just stands around waiting for someone else to sort it out.
Run one round without talkingThe "no talking allowed" variation strips out a team's fastest coordination tool — body language and hand gestures fill the gap fast.
Check every team, every roundAward zero for a wrong order, even to the first team seated. A false win undercuts the score and the trust in the game.
Choose categories everyone can answerSkip anything tied to money or appearance. Alphabetical by hobby or birthplace gets the same scramble without singling anyone out.

Variations

No talking allowed

Players rely entirely on body language and hand gestures to find their spot in line — no verbal coordination allowed.

Head and feet only

Players can only use their head and feet to signal where to go — no talking, no hands, no arms.

Why it works

Everyone's forced to talk, fastSorting a team of 5–9 by shoe size or birthday month means comparing details out loud under a countdown — there's no way to win without asking.
Deeper categories change the game without changing the rulesSwap height for number of siblings and the same lineup mechanic turns into an actual conversation — no new instructions needed.
Non-verbal rounds add a real skillThe "no talking allowed" and "head and feet only" variations strip out speech entirely, so teams have to coordinate through gesture alone — a different kind of teamwork than the standard round.
HELLO, MY NAME ISJon

"This is the one I reach for with a big room that doesn't know each other yet. There's no setup beyond a list of categories, and it scales from a small team huddle to a full room without changing a single rule."

Jon Zajac · Founder & Chief Icebreaker

Reflection questions

For teams and classrooms that want the debrief — these turn the scramble into an actual conversation about how the room worked together.

  1. What was your favorite category, and why?Tells you which categories to reach for again next time.
  2. How did it feel to communicate without talking, if you ran that variation?Surfaces how the team leaned on body language once talking was off the table.
  3. Did you learn anything surprising about a teammate?Small surprises like these are usually what people remember longest.
  4. How did it feel when your team got an order wrong?A read on how the group handles a fumble in the middle of a competition.
  5. What strategy got your team seated first?Names the coordination tricks worth reusing in the next round.
  6. How comfortable were you sharing personal details through the categories?Useful for gauging how deep to go with categories next time.
  7. Did this game make you feel more connected to your team?The real test of whether the categories landed.

If this fits, so will these

Activity

Trivia

A run of general-knowledge questions, easy ones first, scored round by round until someone takes the win.

Activity

Giants Wizards and Elves

Two teams secretly choose to be giants, wizards, or elves, then act out the choice together — the winning character captures players from the other side, who switch teams on the spot.

Activity

Who Am I

A famous name goes on your back or forehead, in full view of everyone but you, and yes-or-no questions are the only tool you get to find it.

Activity

Icebreaker Questions

A running bank of open-ended prompts that gets a room talking one honest answer at a time, with no game, props, or winner to manage.

Activity

Charades

One performer mimes a word or phrase with talking taken off the table entirely, while their team races to guess it before time runs out.

Activity

Celebrity

Players write celebrity names on slips, split into two teams, and race the same slips through three rounds — first in words, then in silence, then down to one word each. Guessing gets easier as the rules get stricter, because by the final round the room already half-knows every name.

Activity

Celebrity ID

Every guest wears a name they can't see and spends the room's time hunting it down with nothing but yes-or-no questions.

Activity

Who's My Match

Every guest gets a name-tag with half of a famous pair and has to find the stranger wearing the other half using nothing but yes-or-no questions.

Activity

Dice Role

A commander calls out a number, and the room races to be first through the matching action — whatever the group assigned it. The only skill it actually tests is who remembers which number means what.

Jon Zajac

Founder & Chief Icebreaker

I started IcebreakerSpot because I believe strong connections are the foundation of successful teams. This site exists to make it easy to find and share the icebreakers and team-building activities that build trust, spark collaboration, and help groups do great things together.

XLinkedIn