Trivia Tavern

Play Trivia Tavern online with friends

By Ahmed Moaz · Updated 10 October 2026

Trivia Tavern is a live quiz for two to eight players, run from one room code with everybody answering on their own phone. The bank holds nearly four thousand authored questions across 38 topics — football, capitals, flags, sitcoms, hip-hop, retro games, the ancient world and 31 more — and the host picks which subjects come up before the first question. It exists because most quiz nights fail the same way: one person knows everything about one subject and is bored for the rest of the evening. Choosing the topics in advance is what stops that.

Setting up

The host opens a room and chooses the topics, the number of rounds and how scoring works. Everybody else joins with the five-character code, on whatever device they have. Two to eight players, and about 14 minutes for the default three rounds. If the host picks nothing the whole catalogue comes in, which is the fastest way to start and the fairest round to open with, because nobody can prepare for it.

Taking a turn

A question appears with four answers and a clock. Everybody answers at once on their own screen, so there is no buzzing in and nobody waits their turn. There are no lifelines and no passing — you answer or you do not. Every right answer scores and a wrong one scores nothing; how the host set the table decides how much a right one is worth. An easy question carries 100 points, a medium one 200 and a hard one 300. By default a right answer gives up to a quarter of that back for using the whole clock, so a quick answer earns a little more and a slow one still keeps at least three quarters. In the race setting, right answers are paid in the order they arrive: full points for the first, then a shrinking share for each one after, with everybody who gets it right still scoring something. That changes the game: the default rewards knowing at all, and the race rewards knowing instantly.

How it ends

Scores carry across every round and the standings stay visible throughout, so nobody discovers they were losing only at the end. Highest total after the final round wins, and by default that final round counts double, so a player trailing after the opening rounds is still in it at the end; the host can switch the double off, and a one-round match has nothing to double. Running several rounds rather than a single sudden finish is deliberate — one unlucky question about a subject nobody at the table follows should not decide an evening.

How to win at Trivia Tavern

Most of the winning happens in the lobby, before a question is asked. Topic choice is the setting people skip and the one that decides the night: a table that shares no interests should take the whole catalogue, because nobody can prepare for it and every round stays live, while a table that all follow the same football will have a far better time narrowing down. Scoring mode is the other lever. The race, which pays right answers in the order they arrive, makes a sharper, noisier game and rewards knowing instantly; the default, where every right answer keeps most of its points, keeps slower players in it to the last round. Pick the default if the table is mixed and you want it to stay close. In play, know what the clock is actually worth. A wrong answer scores nothing, while on the default setting a right one keeps at least three quarters of its points even as the clock runs out — so a question you are unsure of is worth the extra seconds it takes to get right, and a fast guess is the expensive option. Commit quickly on the topics you know and spend your time on the ones you do not. In the race the arithmetic shifts, because the fourth right answer onwards is paid half. And read the standings between rounds: they stay visible for a reason, the final round counts double by default, and knowing you are a few hundred points back changes whether you should be guessing.

What the host can change

The host controls the topics, the number of rounds and how many questions each holds, the clock, the difficulty, the scoring mode, the double-points final round and the sudden-death tiebreak. Topic choice is the setting that matters most and the one people skip: a table of friends who share no interests should take the whole catalogue, while a table that all watch the same football will have a much better night narrowing it down.

Why Boardit plays it this way

Everyone answers the same question at once on their own phone, because a buzzer round turns a quiz into a reflex test and leaves the slower readers watching. For the same reason, by default a right answer keeps at least three quarters of its points however long it takes; the race mode, where the first right answer scores most, is there for a table that wants it. The host picks the topics because the usual way a quiz night fails is one person who knows everything about one subject. And the bank has no song lyrics at all: a lyric question cannot be written without printing the lyric, so the music questions ask about songs and never quote them.

Playing Trivia Tavern online

An online trivia game with friends works differently from a quiz night with a host reading questions aloud, and mostly better. Everybody answers at once on their own phone, so there is no buzzing in, no waiting your turn, and no quizmaster who has to sit out to run it. It is a browser game with no download and no account for guests — two to eight players join a table with a five-character code, whether they are on the same sofa or three time zones apart. Multiplayer scoring is what makes it a game rather than a worksheet: everybody who gets a question right scores, a quick answer scores a little more, and the standings stay visible so nobody discovers they were losing only at the end. The questions are already written, which is the real reason online quiz nights actually happen and offline ones often do not.

Common questions

What topics does Trivia Tavern cover?

38 of them, in nine categories: movies and TV, music, sports, geography, history, science and nature, food and drink, games and the internet, and books and myths. The host picks which ones come up before the first question, or leaves the whole catalogue in, which is the fairest round for a table that shares no interests.

Does everyone answer at the same time?

Yes. Every player answers the same question on their own phone at once, so there is no buzzing in and nobody waits their turn. There are no lifelines and no passing: you answer before the clock runs out, or you do not.

Is Trivia Tavern an online trivia quiz for friends?

Yes. It is a trivia quiz you play online with friends: everyone gets the same trivia questions on their own phone, each with four answers and a clock, and every right answer scores. It is free, runs in the browser and needs no download, so a group on a video call can start a quiz night in a minute.

How many players can play Trivia Tavern?

Two to eight. With two it becomes a straight head-to-head: the same question, the same clock and the same scoring as a full table, with only one other name on the scoreboard. It suits a couple or two friends on a call, each on their own phone.

How does the scoring work?

Every right answer scores and a wrong one scores nothing. An easy question is worth 100, a medium one 200 and a hard one 300; by default a right answer keeps at least three quarters of that however long it takes, and a quicker one keeps more. In the race setting, right answers are paid in the order they arrive, from full points for the first down to half. The last round counts double unless the host switches that off.

How many questions are there?

Nearly four thousand, across 38 topics. A default game of 3 rounds asks 30, so a group would have to play a great many evenings before repeats became noticeable.

Can you choose the subjects?

Yes — the host picks them in the lobby before the game starts. Leaving it open takes the whole catalogue, which is the fairest option for a table that does not share interests.

How long do you get to answer each question?

20 seconds by default, and the host can raise or lower it in the lobby before the game starts. The clock is the thing that makes it a game rather than a pub quiz — you commit to an answer while you are still fairly sure rather than talking yourself out of it.

Can you set how hard the questions are?

Yes — the host picks easy, medium, hard, or Mixed, which is the default. Mixed is usually the right answer for a mixed table: every round starts with questions nearly everyone knows and builds to a couple of hard ones, so nobody sits out a round and the last questions still separate the table.

What happens if two players finish level?

Sudden death, and the questions for it are already in hand — 5 spares are drawn when the match starts rather than fetched at the moment they are needed, so a tie cannot run into an empty pool. If the host turned the tiebreak off, or the spares run out, the player who was quicker on average to their right answers takes it, and only a dead heat on that too ends the match level.

If you like Trivia Tavern

• Play Who's the Spy online free — the other game the whole table plays at once — no questions, a spy bluffing, and it seats eight online.
• Play Property Rush online free — when the table wants a long game with something to fight over rather than a quiz.