Good trivia always includes some classic pub quiz categories, like general knowledge, pop culture, science, and others. Quizzers always enjoy the main staples of the game. From our experience, though, what can truly set your trivia nights apart from the competition is a little creativity. Get a little funky with some fun trivia categories!
Stepping outside of the normal parameters of trivia can bring new interest to your events while keeping it fun for your core teams. These categories might not work for every week of your trivia season, but can add some flair whenever you need it.
Here is just a sampling of the outside-the-box pub trivia categories we’ve done at our own trivia nights:
Alliterative Answers
With a mystifying, mind-melding matchup, every terrific trivia tidbit turns on tantalizing, tightly-twinned terms. Not only does it give your players a way to narrow down answers, it’s also super fun to read!
Bad Reviews
Give some love to the stinkers. Gather a mixture of excerpts from awful reviews of movies, TV shows, books, etc, and your players guess who got panned. Sure to delight everyone, especially those who love a little snark.
Colorful Answers
Like a lot of our outside-the-box category suggestions, this narrows down possible answers as every answer contains the name of a color. Green light this category out of the blue and paint the town red.
Continue the Sequence
This is a pattern-based trivia category where players must determine what comes next in a sequence of numbers, words, or concepts by identifying the logic that connects them. It sounds dry but trust us, it can be a lot of fun, too!
Did Ya Notice?
This challenging trivia category quizzes players on subtle details, hidden clues, and easily missed moments from pop culture, history, and everyday life. Challenge any would-be detective to see how much they really pay attention!
Odd One Out
This classic quiz category asks players to analyze groups of items and determine which one doesn’t belong. You can make this as easy or as difficult as you want, but be careful to check for ambiguity! Clever quizzers will find other connections between your examples if there are any. Example: “House,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Castle”. Quizzers won’t hear that these are titles, so, while your answer may be “Castle” because the others are medical TV shows, a quizzer might answer “Grey’s Anatomy” (heard as “Gray’s Anatomy”) and say “that is a book and the other two are buildings.”
Single Letter Answers
We find this to be a high-engagement trivia category. When every correct answer is limited to a single letter, guessing is fun, fast, and surprisingly challenging. We tend to avoid repeating letters but that could also add a twist.
Which Captain? Real & Fictional
When done properly, this is a great mixed-bag trivia category with questions about famous captains from history, literature, movies, and pop culture—all sailing together in one challenging round.
Number in the Name
Another of our “limited answer” ideas is this targeted trivia category where every correct answer includes a number in its name. It challenges players to recall numbered titles, groups, places, and iconic pop-culture references.
One through Ten
We usually do this tightly focused trivia category multiple times a season, and always get an animated response. Even the players who grumble at first say how much fun it was to discuss with their teammates. When every answer is a unique number from one to ten, with no repeats, players are challenged to think fast and eliminate options as they go.
Use a new category each week for a steady shake-up or sprinkle in throughout the season, either way your quizzers will love the variety. We’ve done each of these categories (and many more) at our own personal trivia events and our players love the challenge. These are just a few of the curated categories our quizzers enjoyed the most.
Save yourself a lot of time (and maybe even a few “well, technicallys” from your crowd) and check out our special "Outside-the-Box" quiz collection below. Each quiz includes one of the above categories. These have all been vetted by our dedicated and detailed quiz teams and are sure to please.
Not sure where to start? Check out our 8-step guide.
Want to try before you buy? Get our free sample.
Curated "Outside-the-Box" Quizzes: