You found our guide to virtual trivia games.
Virtual trivia is a form of game or challenge played via online platforms like Zoom. Typically, a host will prepare and read questions that can takes formats like multiple choice, fill in the bank, or name that tune. The purpose of virtual trivia is to promote team building, fun, and engagement with remote teams. This game is also known as “Zoom trivia games” and “virtual happy hour trivia.”
These games are perfect for trivia night or as trivia ideas for adults, and are a type of virtual happy hour game, online team game, and online team building game.
This article includes:
- free online trivia games for Zoom
- the best online trivia platforms
- online trivia for groups
- how to do virtual trivia night events
- virtual trivia for team building
- virtual trivia apps
Let’s get to it!
List of online trivia games
Prefer to have some additional guidance for your session of virtual trivia? Here is our list of the best online trivia games
1. Live Virtual Trivia (Fully Hosted)
We run a fun virtual trivia game for teams. Your event includes a fun and engaging host, and everything you need for a successful round of trivia.
This event is 60 minutes, and you can choose from themes like Rock & Roll, International or Holidays.
Learn more about Virtual Team Trivia.
2. TriviaMaker
TriviaMaker lets you either create a new trivia game or choose from hundreds of available premade games. Specially designed for video conferences, TriviaMaker helps spice up your virtual meetings, and can be tailored to your team’s expertise.
Play TriviaMaker.
3. Crowdpurr
Crowdpurr lets you create your own customized virtual trivia game. With its live ranking feature, players can see in real time who has the most points at any given time, which amps up the competitive nature of the game. Crowdpurr is also intuitive to use with players answering questions through their phone.
Try out Crowdpurr.
4. Sporcle Party
Sporcle Party is a trivia game you can play on mobile. To play, one person hosts a game and everyone else joins in. For each round, players wager 1 to 10 points based on how confident they are in the answer. There app includes dozens of topics and thousands of questions, so Sporcle Party is a good choice for your next trivia night.
Join the Party on iOS and Android.
5. Trivia Crack
Trivia Crack is another mobile trivia game with an interesting twist. To play, participants spin a wheel with six question categories. The objective is to answer at least one question per category correctly, winning cute characters each time. Players can challenge each other for characters. The first participant who wins all six characters wins.
Discover Trivia Crack.
6. Brain Test: Tricky Puzzles
Brain Test is not your average mobile trivia game. The app asks players to complete a series of brand-bending tasks. Using a combination of common sense and out-of-the-box thinking, you and your friends can have fun solving Brain Test’s addicting puzzles.
Take a look at Brain Test’s Android and iOS versions.
7. League of Quiz
League of Quiz is a mobile trivia board game, where participants can play with friends or others around the world. Super adaptable, League of Quiz also has other modes of play, such as a quick duel mode and a competitive league with a leadership board.
Explore League of Quiz.
8. Popcorn Trivia
For the movie lovers in your life, Popcorn Trivia is a virtual trivia game that focuses solely on movie trivia. With options that let you play with others or by yourself and new questions added weekly, Popcorn Trivia is a fun way to test your knowledge of film.
Try your hand at Popcorn Trivia.
9. Heads Up!
Heads Up! is a mobile game that combines trivia with charades. One player holds the device to their head, while the other participants shout out clues to help the first player guess what the word on the device is. With a variety of topics to choose from, including celebrities, movies, and accents, Heads Up! is sure to get your team hyped at the next game night.
Play Heads Up!’s Android and iOS versions.
10. Psych! Outwit Your Friends
Similar to Fibbage XL, Psych! is a virtual trivia game where a player guesses the correct answer to a trivia question among answers made up by the other participants. Best yet, the game is compatible with Zoom, so you can easily play with your team if you meet over the video conferencing service.
Outwit your friends with Psych!’s Android and iOS versions.
11. DK Quiz
DK Quiz is a virtual trivia game, where you can play solo or against your friends through thousands of free questions. Test your knowledge on a variety of subjects, such as music, history, and food, and compare your score through a leaderboard.
Challenge yourself with DK Quiz’s Android and iOS versions.
12. Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
Based on the famous TV show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is the free online trivia game, where participants answer a series of 15 questions that get progressively more difficult as each question is worth more prize money. Even if players do not reach the 15th question on their first try, the game will reward you, and your team is sure to have fun trying to become millionaires.
Find out Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and check out our full list of virtual game show ideas.
13. Fibbage XL
A Jackbox game, Fibbage XL is a trivia game, where players fill in the blank with the most convincing answer they can think of. The idea is to fool others into thinking their response is the truth. Because of the added layer of deception, Fibbage XL puts a fun spin on the trivia game.
Check out Fibbage XL.
List of virtual trivia questions
Here is a list of questions you can use for your next game of virtual trivia.
- Which country consumes the most ice cream per capita? A: New Zealand
- What does the company name IBM stand for? A: International Business Machines
- Which animal has ten hearts? A: The earthworm
- Name five professional major US sports teams that use lions, tigers, or bears in their team names. A: Boston Bruins, Chicago Bears, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Bengals, Detroit Lions, Detroit Tigers, Memphis Grizzlies
- This actress, the daughter of famous Hitchcock film actress Tippi Hedren, grew up with pet lions. A: Melanie Griffith
- A teaspoon of a neutron star would weigh approximately how much? A: Six billion tons
- The forget-me-not is the official flower of which US State? A: Alaska
- Finish the quote. “The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is______” – Mark Twain. A: Laughter
- A dodecahedron has how many sides? A: Twelve.
- The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer contains how many completed stories? A: 24
- What is the national animal of Scotland? A: The unicorn.
- Which of the “Big Five” film production studios is still located in Los Angeles? A: Paramount Pictures.
- What is the first movie to win all five major Oscars? A: It Happened One Night (1934).
- What country has the largest Muslim population? A: Indonesia.
- What is the ninth-largest country of the world? A: Kazakhstan.
- Which artist painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? A: Michelangelo.
- How many keys does a classic piano have? A: 88 keys.
- Prior to 1923, what was the Turkish city of Istanbul called? A: Constantinople.
- What year did the Roman empire fall? A: 476 CE.
- What is the highest grossing movie of all time? A: Gone With the Wind (1939).
- What film started the Marvel Cinematic Universe? A: Iron Man (2008).
- In what country was paper invented? A: China.
- What is the largest arts festival in the world? A: The Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
- Who was the first African-American player in American major league baseball? A: Moses Fleetwood “Fleet” Walker.
- When did women in the U.S. receive the right to vote? A: 1920.
You can download a PDF of these questions too, and here is a list with more trivia questions for work.
We also have a list of fun Trivial Pursuit style questions.
How To Do Virtual Trivia Night
Leading a virtual team trivia night is as simple as running through the five steps below!
- Pick your software
- Choose your theme and categories
- Divide the group into teams
- Quiz participants and keep score
- Name and award the winners
1. Pick your software
While traditional trivia usually happens in pubs, virtual trivia takes place online. Just as you might select a bar based on beer specials, hot wing flavors, and floor stickiness, you should take care to choose the right web venue for your trivia group. Consider the size of your group and which existing programs your team is already familiar with.
Web-based video conferencing platforms:
- Zoom
- WebEx
- Skype
- GoToMeeting
- RingCentral
- GoogleMeet
The above list contains just a few video meeting options. Social media applications, such as Facebook Messenger, also offer video calling capabilities and serve as another alternative. Keep in mind that many of the best virtual meeting platforms, like Zoom, cap meetings to 40 minutes on the free plan, so you will want to either use the paid version or utilize another platform. Nobody wants to get booted off the call mid-round!
Once you pick a virtual meeting space, you can send out your invitations and start preparing the game.
2. Choose your theme and categories
The best part of trivia is that the game offers customized virtual team building opportunities. As the game-master, you can personalize the quiz to suit your group, whether to make the questions more accessible or more challenging. You can tailor trivia to fit your industry, or you can deviate from work topics entirely and opt for entertainment.
Some fun themes and categories for virtual trivia events:
- Popular TV Shows like Friends or The Office
- Movie Genres, like horror, action, or romantic comedy
- Holidays and special occasions
- Drunk History: wild tales that history textbooks omitted
- We Are the Champions: sports trials and triumphs
- State facts, such as official bird, flag, flower, quarter, as well as wacky news stories from each state
- Weird animals
The internet is an endless source of random information, limiting trivia categories only to your imagination. Digital trivia offers a prime opportunity to highlight shier and more withdrawn teammates. By choosing these team members’ areas of expertise as trivia topics, you give these teammates a chance to shine and contribute meaningfully to the team’s success.
3. Divide the group into teams
My friends and I once built an unbeatable trivia team. One friend was a sports whiz, another a math and science buff, one member was a pop culture guru, and I rounded out the group with my cultural chops. The best trivia teams, like the best work teams, are diverse and well-balanced in terms of knowledge and skill. Thus, divvying up teams for trivia is great team building skill development for managers.
There are many ways you can make teams for online trivia. Of course, selecting at random is always an option. You can also group participants by department or project teams, or go the opposite route and pair up team members who rarely interact. If you want to optimize the exercise, then you can intentionally group coworkers based on traits like seniority, expertise, and interpersonal skills, to ensure an even mix within every team. Another option is to let employees choose the teams.
Whichever way you decide, groups should consist of approximately four to five team members. This number guarantees a mix of knowledge, but also ensures that groups are not so large that more dominant teammates sideline quieter members.
During your virtual trivia event, teammates can also change the display names on video squares to team names. During the game, you can use the breakout rooms feature in Zoom or similar programs to allow your teams privacy to discuss answers.
4. Quiz participants and keep score
Once you situate all teammates on the call, the game can begin. As the leader, you will play host and read off the trivia questions. Players can submit answers through the private chat feature, or you can also utilize the polling option to collect responses. Spreadsheets make great score-keeping tools. You can also use programs like Google Slides or PowerPoint to organize and display questions. Also, consider incorporating audio and video components for an additional layer to your online trivia night. Features such as screen-sharing make it easy to play video clips as part of a question.
Feel free to get creative with trivia to keep teams engaged. Besides the standard question and answer format, you can also issue challenges and integrate other activities. For instance, you can ask teams to draw on the whiteboard application, or you can instruct team members to act out answers charades-style.
5. Name and award the winners
While learning and team bonding make everyone winners at online trivia, one team will dominate the scoreboard and will expect well-earned bragging rights. At the end of the game, tally up the points and name a winner. Decide the prize for the victorious team, whether it be points towards a larger team competition, a virtual gift card, or a perk like leaving early for the day.
Trivia is a team building competition, but a friendly one. Be sure the rivalry does not get out of hand. A little boasting and teasing is reasonable and part of the fun, but you should ensure that all talk remains professional. Remember that, though remote trivia may be a team building game, no competition should come at the expense of ruining a relationship with other coworkers.
Virtual Trivia Ideas & Tips
Your first time hosting a virtual pub quiz does not have to be a stressful experience. Here are some tips for pulling off your first Virtual Team Trivia without a hitch.
1. Reimburse your team’s drinks
To create a more pub-like atmosphere, let your team bill a drink to the company. Not only will this action let your group enjoy a refreshment together, but it will also make joining the experience more affordable and carefree.
2. Don’t be afraid to joke around
If you invite the whole company to participate in virtual team trivia, then people may have a hard time feeling comfortable around people they do not directly work with. To help mitigate this issue, include some team building jokes to break the ice and get people talking.
3. Test your tech
If you have worked with technology for any amount of time, then you may have realized the old adage that whatever will go wrong will go wrong. To help avoid the hassle of technical difficulties, test out the video conferencing app you plan on using prior to the game.
4. Decide how you will split up your team
Prior to starting, decide on a method to split up your team to prevent any awkwardness during the game. Use a random team generator to split your employees into teams, or consider pairing up team members who usually do not interact.
5. Determine the prize in advance
Make winning feel even more satisfying by including a special prize for the winner. Do not forget to come up with a prize for the winning team ahead of time. Choose prizes that will be appreciated by the whole team, even if they come from different walks of life.
6. Have a backup host
If you must leave after a certain time, then pass on your hosting controls to another so your team can continue hanging out. To ensure a smooth transition, pick out a backup host ahead of time by checking schedules with others, and selecting someone who has free time.
7. Keep team building top of mind
While trivia is a fun activity by its own merits, the game also has an amazing capability to bring teams together. Thus, use trivia as an opportunity to develop team building skills, such as cooperation, problem solving, and communication. You will be grateful when these skills transfer seamlessly to the workplace.
Trivia is a fun way to put those random facts stored in your brain to use. Virtual Team Trivia lets you play with your colleagues, as you work together to beat the other team. With this guide, you can effortlessly host your own games and have some great times with your coworkers.
Final Thoughts
Virtual trivia, also known as online trivia, video trivia, remote trivia, or virtual team trivia, is a great game to play to engage remote teams. Because the game is customizable, this team building activity is a great fit for diverse groups.
In case designing an online trivia quiz seems beyond your wheelhouse, we also offer a hosted virtual team trivia experience, so that you can enjoy the festivities without Googling a million facts. 🙂
Next, check out this list of the best games you can play on Zoom, this one with virtual drinking games, and these virtual team building activities.
We also have a list of fun quiz games for work and a list of topics for trivia games.
Angela Robinson