25 Trivia Round Ideas for Pub Quizzes, Parties and Work

Six straight rounds of spoken questions can feel long by round four. Changing the format, not just the subject, is what keeps a room awake. Here are 25 round ideas, arranged by the kind of night you are running, with a note on how to run each one. Several appear in more than one setting, because the best rounds travel.

For a pub or bar quiz

Loud rooms reward short, punchy rounds that people can write down quickly.

1. General knowledge. The classic opener. Use general knowledge trivia.
2. Music intros. Play the first five seconds of a song; teams name the artist and title, two points per song.
3. Picture round. Hand out a sheet of 10 to 20 images at the start: famous faces, logos, landmarks or zoomed-in objects. Teams work on it all night and hand it in at the break.
4. Sports. Stick to rules and history so answers don’t go out of date: sports trivia.
5. Closest number. Every answer is a number, and the closest team gets the point. Good as a final round.
6. Put in order. Four events or inventions, ordered by date. Full marks for the exact order only.
7. Connections. Ten questions whose answers share a hidden link; a bonus point for the team that names the link.

For a family gathering

Mixed ages call for rounds where everyone can contribute something.

8. Movies and TV. Famous lines and Oscar history: movie trivia.
9. Food and drink. Where dishes come from: food trivia.
10. Odd one out. Four items; teams pick the one that doesn’t belong and say why.
11. First letter. Every answer in the round starts with the same letter.
12. Anagrams. Scrambled names of countries, films or bands. Hand out on paper.
13. Missing word. Read a famous line, title or quote with a word left out.
14. Science and nature. Space, animals and the human body: science trivia.

For work

Fast and low-pressure, with answers that start conversations.

15. True or false. Fast and easy to mark. Use our fun facts for true statements and the myths in common trivia myths for false ones.
16. Local trivia. Your town, your office, your school. Nobody else’s quiz can have this round.
17. This day in history. Questions about events that happened on the date of your quiz.
18. Closest number, from above, also works well here: it needs no special knowledge.

For church groups, clubs and senior centers

19. Bible. With verse references: Bible trivia.
20. Decades. All questions from one decade, such as the 1960s. Our trivia for seniors has a good 1950s–70s set.
21. History. US presidents, wars and famous firsts: history trivia.

For holiday parties

22. Christmas. Songs, films and traditions: Christmas trivia.
23. Thanksgiving. The 1621 feast and the holiday’s history: Thanksgiving trivia.
24. Halloween. Horror classics and customs: Halloween trivia.
25. Costume round. At a Halloween party, each team describes a famous character in three clues; the others guess.

Putting a night together

A balanced six-round night alternates subject rounds with format rounds, and puts a seasonal round near the end:

For timing, scoring and the rules to read out, see how to host a trivia night and trivia night rules and scoring.