Trivia board games are a popular option for game night. Knowledge-hungry people who suck up every fact known to man love them, while people who get by on book smarts and a few niche, hobby topics kind of hate them. If you haven’t checked out modern trivia games that sort of turn the game on its head, you’re missing out!
Some games, like Trivial Pursuit, focus solely on who knows the most. And naturally, special editions of Trivial Pursuit will test specific knowledge bases, but many trivia games now rely on more than just memory. You can employ strategy, fast thinking, and wits in many modern trivia games, like The Game of Wolf or Wit’s End. Whichever style of trivia board game you’re after, we’ve rounded up some of the best ones you can buy right now.
A Classic, but Better: Trivial Pursuit Master Edition
Ah, Trivial Pursuit. This is probably the trivia game that people are most familiar with, and Trivial Pursuit Master Edition is the result of years of perfecting the game and collecting the best questions.
You’ll find 494 cards inside, with a total of 2,950 questions. Each player or team has a game token with space for six wedges—one of each color. Each colored wedge corresponds to a specific question category on the game cards: Geography, Entertainment, History, Art & Literature, Science & Nature, and Sports & Leisure.
To win, you have to collect a wedge of each color. This means correctly answering a question in each of the six trivia categories. In a traditional game, you have to land on a colored wedge space, answer a question correctly, and collect that color wedge. Or, you can play a faster game and collect a wedge any time you answer a question correctly, not just on wedge spaces.
To play Trivial Pursuit Master Edition, you’ll need at least two players, ages 16 and up. Total playtime depends on which version of the rules you’re following. When using the traditional rules, the game generally takes about an hour to finish.
A Classic, But Better
Trivial Pursuit Master Edition
This is the trivia game to end all trivia games—or at least, one version of it. Trivial Pursuit is the trivia game most of us probably grew up with, and you’ll find questions about everything on its 494 cards inside.
Trivia for Every Generation: All of Us
If you’re looking for a trivia game that the whole family can play, try out All of Us, made by the creators of WHAT DO YOU MEME? There are 576 total trivia cards, split up into four main generations of trivia: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z.
Each trivia card has five questions, ranging across topics like movies, TV, pop culture, sports, and music. When it’s your team’s turn to play, one player chooses which generation’s trivia questions they want to answer. If the player answers at least three out of the five questions correctly in the allotted 60 seconds, the team moves forward one space. There are also eight wild cards that could have trivia questions from any generation.
The first team to earn a total of 10 points and reach the finish line at the end of the scoreboard is the winner! Anyone ages 12 and up can play, and although two teams of two is optimal for play, you can play with more players. Depending on how smart everyone is, a game can take between 30 and 90 minutes to finish.
Trivia For All the Generations
All of Us
If you’re looking for a game adults and kids can play within a huge family, All of Us is the perfect choice. You can answer trivia questions from four different generations: Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z. All of Us sort of evens the trivia playing field.
For History Enthusiasts: Timeline
Timeline is a quick 15-minute game that tests your knowledge of when important events took place in history. To start, someone draws a random card and puts it in the middle of the table. Players take turns placing cards from their hand on the table wherever they think the card properly fits into the timeline.
After a card is placed, the player flips it over. If they’ve placed the card in the correct spot on the timeline, the card stays in place; if they’re wrong, the card is removed from play, and the player takes another card from the deck. The number of cards each player starts with depends on the total number of players in the game. For example, two players would start with six cards each.
The first player to get rid of all the cards in their hand wins the game. There are 55 total cards in the game, and two to six people can play at a time (ages eight and up).
For History Enthusiasts
Timeline
Timeline lets you test out your history knowledge by placing events in the proper spot on the timeline. Even if you don’t know the exact dates for historical events, it’s easy to make a general guess in Timeline and still be correct!
Cooperative Trivia: The Game of Wolf
Sometimes, trivia games aren’t fun because you don’t have ton of trivial information stored in your brain. With The Game of Wolf, you can selectively choose another player who you think might be able to help you the most. Before the timer starts, you will learn the subject all your questions will be about, and you can strategically choose the best player to help you. Then, the pressure of answering questions isn’t all on you!
To set up The Game of Wolf, you place the 250 question cards, two answer boards, and two dry-erase markers within reach of everyone. One person is assigned as the scorekeeper and takes a scoreboard and dry-erase marker for themselves. The scorekeeper can still play the game.
The Game of Wolf can be competitive or collaborative, depending on how you play when it’s your turn as The Wolf. The first person who gets to be The Wolf is the player whose birthday is coming up next. Then, the player to the left of The Wolf grabs a card and reads only the subject, which indicates what the five trivia questions will be about on that card. A few subjects include Classic Board Games, Harry Potter, Who’s the Boss?, and City Landmarks.
After hearing the subject, The Wolf has a choice to make: choose a player who’s knowledgeable on that subject to be part of their “pack” or answer the questions alone as a lone wolf. In both situations, you’re competing against everyone that’s not part of your team. If you choose another player to help you out, and your team answers the most questions correctly, you both earn one point. If you play as the lone wolf and you answer the most questions correctly, you can earn two points, while everyone else earns none.
Once the points have been totaled, the person who read the subject of the trivia card becomes The Wolf. A round is over once everyone has been The Wolf, and the game is over after three rounds. The points scale up in every round, so the stakes get higher.
In the first round, a lone wolf win earns two points, a pack win earns one point, and a lone wolf loss earns a negative one. Respectively, the second round offers up four points, two points, and negative two; in the third round, you can earn eight points, four points, or negative four. To win, you need to have the most points at the end of three full rounds.
When you play with six or more players, The Wolf can choose up to two pack members to help them out. The game box says you can play with 4 to 12 players, but the logistics get a little strange once you get above six players—unless you split up into more than two total teams after The Wolf picks pack members. Anyone over age 14 can play, and games take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete.
Cooperative Trivia
The Game of Wolf
The Game of Wolf puts a unique, collaborative spin on trivia board games. You can answer questions by yourself as the Lone Wolf (and earn more points!) or select someone from the group to be part of your pack and help you!
Fun for Large Groups: Linkee
Linkee has been a popular trivia game in the UK for years, but it recently made its way to the US because Nick Jonas loves the game. That’s why you’ll see his face on the game box! He helped choose his favorite questions from the UK version, along with a few new ones, to make the Linkee version that’s sold in the US.
Inside, there are 260 question cards, each with four little questions for players or teams to answer. Once you answer the four simple questions, you’re supposed to look at the four answers and figure out what links them together. For example, the four answers on one card might be “cheese,” “waffle,” “french,” and “curly.” The big link between these answers is “fries.”
Once you find the link, you shout “LINKEE” and the question master tells you if you’re right. If you’re right, you win the card and flip it face down on the table. Every card has an L, I, N, K, or E on the back, and you have to spell “LINKEE” to win. You can guess the big link before answering all the questions, but if you’re wrong, your team is out until the next card.
Linkee is great for parties because it only takes about 30 minutes to play, and can be played with two to 20 players. The time can vary based on each player’s skill level and luck, but for the most part, 30 minutes is a good estimate. Anyone aged 12 and up can play.
Fun For Large Groups
Linkee
With Linkee, you work in groups—which is much less intimidating—to answer four simple questions every round, and then find the link between those four answers. Whoever finds the right link gets a letter card, and the first team to spell out LINKEE is the winner!
Fast-Paced Trivia: Smart Ass
Smart Ass is less about who’s the smartest, and more about who can think the fastest. There’s not a lot of niche trivia questions that require extensive knowledge of history, sports, or pop culture. Among the 411 question cards, some are more difficult, but others are incredibly simple. Each question has eight clues that are read out one at a time, and the first player to shout the answer wins the round and moves their player token one spot closer to the finish line.
The oldest player is the first Reader, meaning they can’t participate in answering the question. After the end of each round, the player to the left of the first Reader becomes the new Reader. As a Reader, you roll the Jumbo Category Die to determine the first question’s category: blue is What Am I?, green is Where Am I?, and orange is Who Am I? Then, they start reading the clues.
Players can yell out the answer at any time, but each player only gets one try at answering each card. If you answer incorrectly, you’re out of that round and can’t try to answer again. When someone answers the question correctly, they roll the Jumbo Movement Die and move their player token forward the number of spaces rolled. If no one can answer the question, the Reader gets to roll the die and move their player token forward.
When you roll the Jumbo Movement Die, there’s a chance you could land on a Dumb Ass space or a Hard Ass space. The former is a penalty space that silences the player from answering or asking the next question—basically forcing them to sit out the next round. The latter is a bonus question space that allows the player to answer a bonus question for a chance at another roll of the Jumbo Movement Die. You can also land on Kick Ass spaces, which knocks your player token back three spaces.
The game board is fairly small, so a typical game only takes about 30 minutes from start to finish. Anyone aged 12 and up can play, and although two to six people can play, the sweet spot is four to six. There are some separate rules for a two-player game of Smart Ass.
Fast-Paced Trivia
Smart Ass
If you’re quippy and your brain works quickly, Smart Ass just might be the perfect game for you. You don’t have to wait around until it’s your turn to guess the answer and move your player token towards the winning space. If you know the answer, shout it out!
Combine Trivia with Riddles: Wit’s End
In Wit’s End, you get to show off if you know a little bit about everything. It’s not necessary to know historical facts about people, places, or things because all the questions or puzzles on cards in Wit’s End are pretty surface-level. Plus, the trivia cards don’t match those of a traditional trivia game, which makes the game feel less intimidating for players who don’t feel like trivia is their strong suit.
The question cards are divided into four categories: Teaser, Odd-1-Out, Sequence, and Wild Card. Teaser cards contain rhyming riddles to solve, Odd-1-Out cards give you four terms and make you choose which one doesn’t belong, and Sequence cards have you place things in order by size, release date, year published, and so on.
If you pick a Wild Card, there are multiple subcategories you might come across: Brain Trivia, True or False, 2 Out of 3, Quotations, Word Whiz, Matching Pairs, and Clock Is Ticking. In all categories, you’ll find questions and riddles on history, current affairs, pop culture, geography, science, arts, and more.
The game board is square, and players work their way from the outside to the center by rolling the die, moving their player token, and answering questions. You have to land on certain spaces to move forward when you answer a question correctly. But if you answer a question incorrectly, you can be bumped back toward the outside of the board. The first person to reach the center square is the winner.
You can play with two to six players or teams, and anyone aged 16 and up can take part in the fun. There’s no official playtime, but a good estimate is 60 minutes. Depending on the number of people and how witty everyone is, the game could go by quickly or it could last all evening.
Combine Trivia With Riddles
Wit’s End
Solve riddles, ponder brain teasers, and answer trivia questions until you’ve reached your Wit’s End. This game is perfect for people who aren’t fond of traditional trivia games because questions are asked multiple different ways, making it easier to potentially guess the answer.
