The definitive ranked list of the best trivia board games. Trivia as a mechanic for board games is one of the earliest things to be associated with it. This is a game that is driven by questions on a variety of topics are answered and players can in turn answer those questions. Some are very serious while others are more about getting the party startered. There is something for every intesity level. These are our top 10 best trivia board games.
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#10 | Stay Cool
Stay Cool makes the list of the best triva board games because it is a test of trivia but with an interesting mechanical twist. You need to spell simple trivia answers while answering different questions as time ticks down. This will take the already party game up a few notches if that is what you are looking for.
The game takes place over three rounds that change slightly but the gist is you are answering questions from your left neighbor by talking and writing answers to questions from your neighbor on the right at the same time. You are on the clock and your score is determined by multiplying those two total scores together each turn to get your total. For 3 – 7 players, games run 10 – 30 minutes.
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#09 | Blockbuster
Blockbuster makes the list of the best trivia board games because it is absolutely a top-notch experience in the field and broad enough to satisfy anyone. The scope is more nostalgic than hard trivia, but you might want easy questions to have a good time versus the exhausting questions from a harder one.
In the opening buzzer battle, both teams are given a topic, such as “Movies with dogs”. You start the 15-second timer, yell out a relevant movie, then whack the buzzer to reset the time. The other team is now in the hot seat and has to do the same. Whoever runs out of time hands the advantage to the other team, which takes control of the next “performance” round that involves guessing based on it being acted it, used in one word, or quoted. For 4 – 6 players, games last 30 – 60 minutes.
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#08 | iKnow
iKnow makes the list of the best trivia board games because it is an exciting game in the space. There is a ton of great content and it is built with a very smart high stakes game on trivia. There is plenty going on, with a betting decision and deciding who will take on what, but at its heart, it is a really good title that will give any trivia fan a good time.
You get to test what other players know while trying to score for yourself. The game includes 1,600 questions in four categories, and each question comes with three hints at three levels of difficulty that reveal the answer piece by piece. You need to decide if you should take a question or let it go. there is also a betting element that gives you a chance to win no matter how much you know. For
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#07 | Bezzerwizzer
Bezzerwizzer makes the list of the best trivia games because of the innovative scoring system that makes for some wonderful gameplay and surprises. The questions and scope they cover are very solid for a broad range of players and the quick and easy gameplay make for an experience that doesn’t drag like some others in the category may.
This a quiz game from Denmark where its name means they named it after the German word for “know-it-all”. The English version contains 3000 questions from 20 categories. On your turn players draw the category tiles from a bag and sort them on their player board based on confidence level to answer. If you know the answer to the category questions that you thought you’re worst at, you get one point. For your best category question you receive 4 points.
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#06 | Timeline Series
Timeline makes the list of the best trivia games because it tests that same knowledge but has you delivering it in a unique way that will force you to access other parts of your brain. Instead of having to come up with a specific answer, you need to know where an answer of yours fits in the grander scheme of things.
Each of the 220 included cards depicts a historical event, invention or discovery on both sides, with the year in which that event occurred, invention or discovery was made on only one side. You have a hand of cards and you need to get rid of them. You do this by placing them in the correct order of the growing timeline. If you are right you get rid of your card, if you are wrong you draw. The first person out of cards wins. For 2 – 8 players, games run about 15 minutes each.
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#05 | Smash Party!
Smash Party makes the list of the best trivia board games because it does a job of creating a game in the space that is a satisfying mashup of classics Trivial Pursuit and Outburst. The questions are solid and it is at a medium to high intensity but always big on fun.
A game where players are all simultaneously trying to name all the items from a list (e.g. “10 US states with most shoreline”). On the flip side, anyone who misses an item acquires penalty points (forward movement on the game board). When a player reaches the end of the track, the person who advanced the least is the winner. For 3 – 8 players, games go 45 – 60 minutes.
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#04 | Outburst
Outburst makes the list of the best trivia games because it has been an iconic leader in the topic based trivia titles since 1986. The trivia here is solid and it is divided in a way (listing many things about a subtopic) that will certainly engage a certain group of people and it does it as well as if not better anyone else out there.
Tons of included cards have topics on them and corresponding questions. Two teams take turns trying to guess as many of the 10 answers to a topic on the cards. Bonus points can be earned by guessing a Target Answer determined by a die roll. The first team to 60 points wins. For 4 – 20 players, games run about 1 hour.
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#03 | Cranium
Cranium makes the list of the best trivia board game because it tries and succeeds to be a title that touches the “whole”. The point is to test your knowledge but in different ways to show how smart you really are. It is a relatively new game that has elements similar to those of Pictionary, Charades, Trivial Pursuit, Celebrities, Huggermugger, Claymania, and more.
The game is a series of smaller games designed to test your trivia knowledge in a host of different ways. In “creative cat” players give clues to their partner by drawing or sculpting it. In “word worm” players unscramble words, spell and guess definitions. In “star performer”, you guessed it, you perform. The final category that brings them all together is “data head” which is the straight trivia question section. For 4 – 16 players, games run about 1 hour.
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#02 | Trivial Pursuit
Trivial Pursuit makes the list of the best triva board games because what can you say, its Trivial Puruit. It is a greatly loved and hated classic that hits the nail on the head. If you want Triva, you are going to get it here, in a tried and true format that you are used to.
Each player has a circular playing piece with six pie-shaped holes. The goal of the game is to collect a pie in each color. The colors correspond to different question categories. Players roll a die and move along the track in any direction they like. When a player stops on a color they get a question of the appropriate category. Correct answers keep you rolling and if you are right when you are on a wedge space, you get that wedge for your pie. For 2 – 24 players, games last 90 minutes or more.
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#01 | Wits and Wagers
Wits and Wagers takes the top spot on the list of the best trivia board games because it is a great choice and it is something for everyone. So many games in the space are not accessible to those who are not great at trivia. This game adds the whole layer of a betting system based on who you think will get things right or wrong. This makes for a vibrant time for any group.
Players write a guess to a question such as “How many feet wide is an NFL football field?” and places it face-up on the betting mat. These will always be an amount based so there are high/low options. After answers are down you can bet on your own answer or someone else’s. The closest answer — without going over — pays out according to the odds on the betting mat. Strike it big and you’ll be cheering like you just hit the jackpot! For 3 – 7 players, games run about 25 minutes.
