PubTriviaHow to run a quiz night
Everything involved in running a pub quiz, from whether to start one to writing your own rounds: formats, scoring, prizes, promotion, and rounds that die.
Before you start
Whether to run one at all, which night to put it on, and how to get the first teams through the door. Most quiz nights that fail were decided here rather than on the night.
- Starting a quiz night at your pubWhether a quiz night is worth running: which night to pick, what it costs, how many weeks before it builds, and the numbers that tell you it is working or not.
- How to promote a quiz nightGetting the first teams through the door and keeping them: posters that work, the local Facebook group, and why the first six weeks decide whether it sticks.
- What you need to run a quiz nightThe kit list: what you actually need, what you can skip, what a screen adds, and an honest comparison of phones against pens and paper.
Running the night
The practical half: the running order, the hour before, and the part of the job that is standing in front of a room rather than writing questions for it.
- How to host a pub quizThe complete guide to running a quiz night: the week before, the hour before, the running order, what to do when a round dies, and how to finish well.
- How to be a good quizmasterPacing, reading a room, ruling on a disputed answer, and what to do when a round dies in front of you. The half of a quiz night that is not the questions.
- How to structure a pub quizThe standard six-round format with real timings, plus three alternatives for a shorter night, a louder room and a one-off. Where to put the hard round.
- How many rounds should a pub quiz have?Six rounds of ten is the standard answer and it is wrong about a third of the time. How to pick the number for your room, your night and your crowd.
The quiz itself
What you actually ask, how it is marked, and how to stop a night turning into the same three tables winning every week.
- Pub quiz round ideasThirty round formats beyond general knowledge, with how each is run, how long it takes and the room it suits. The ones worth stealing and the ones that die.
- How to write quiz questionsDifficulty curves, unambiguous wording, plausible wrong answers, and fact-checking. How to write a round that is hard without being unfair or unanswerable.
- Pub quiz scoring systemsFlat points, speed bonuses, jokers, doubling rounds and tie-breaks: what each one does to the shape of a night, which to use, and which to leave alone.
Keeping people coming back
A quiz night is a habit rather than an event, and habits are built by what happens at the end of one.
- Pub quiz prize ideasPrize structures that bring teams back without costing much: bar tabs, rollovers, the wooden spoon, and why a cash jackpot is usually a mistake.
- Pub quiz team namesOver two hundred team names by category, from clever and punny to musical and rude, and what actually makes one land when it is read out to a room.
Other kinds of quiz
The two formats that are not a weekly pub quiz and do not work like one.
- How to run a charity quiz nightRunning a fundraiser: ticket prices, raffles between rounds, what to tell donors, and the preparation that matters when there is no second attempt.
- How to run a virtual quiz nightRemote and hybrid quizzes: what breaks on a video call, whether breakout rooms are worth it, how to handle cheating, and why it must run under an hour.
Or just run one
Reading about quiz nights only gets you so far. The first session is free and needs no card, and an hour of doing it teaches more than any of this.
Start free, no card neededKeep reading
- FeaturesEvery PubTrivia feature: QR code joining with no app, a live leaderboard, team and individual scoring, five question packs, timers and a big-screen display.
- Solutions by VenueA quiz night in a taproom is not a quiz night in a hotel. How PubTrivia is used in pubs, bars, restaurants, breweries, student unions and charity nights.
- FAQAnswers to the questions venues ask before a first quiz night: how players join, what happens on bad WiFi, how scoring works and what a session costs.